in my kitchen, around the farm

Raised beds full of herbs, summer squash, peas that have been replaced with turnips and cabbages, carrots which will be replaced with fall cabbages, a ton of cukes, some rabbit feed (chard/kale), tomatoes, okra, etc.. In the background: heartnut tree, fruit orchard full of apples/cherries, and berries of all sorts.

This week was the harvest of the first of three steers for this year. Two steers will be butchered and frozen and the third will be pressure canned, dried, freeze dried, and made into charcuterie.

Speaking of charcuterie, our favourite of all is bresaola. Have you had it? If it’s on a charcuterie plate, I’m on it, but it rarely is and that’s a shame. It’s made by drying a very lean cut of meat, in our case beef round. This suits us just fine. I simply cannot eat any of the rounds as a roast or a steak. They are far too lean for us. Instead, we use them for bresaola, for jerky and biltong, and then in whatever creation I feel like trying out. I’m willing to get creative, whatever it takes to keep a round roast off my plate.

The harvest went very well. We have always separated the animal that was being harvested from the herd. We’d give them some alfalfa on pasture and then shoot them in the head while they ate. Instant. Over the last couple years, after speaking