The Gnomestead Diary

The wife knocked out 18 pounds of ground deer this morning, with 15% beef fat. The added fat makes for a pretty dang good burger over the fire-bowl!

We freeze some early on so we can share and have fresh on hand. As the season progresses we will switch to almost exclusively canning the ground.

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The wife found a kinda small Lions Mane, but it was dense enough that we got to make "crab cakes". Mushrooms are the only thing I'll use as a meat "substitute". Lions Mane crab cakes are pretty awesome!

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Last Sunday we had the first part of a goat cleaning class.

It went well. We had squirrel and dumplings and smoked deer backstrap for lunch. Didn't get many pics but had a couple sent to me.

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Today some of the students came back to spend the morning with the wife in the kitchen processing and packaging the goat meat (after it drained for 6 days) into whatever form they wanted to take home with them.

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I had the firebowl going in the rain, but we wussed out and used the Blackstone to cook the kabobs for lunch with pork from a pig we killed over the winter.


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When it's raining I like to use the "Mongolian salad" method with the firebowl and have wood drying out all the way round while the fire is going.


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After a nice little Trijicon box arrived via FedEx I finally got my psycho homestead .22 outfitted the way I want it and got her zeroed in. Squirrel-gedon shall commence shortly. Along with all the other things I use a suppressed .22 for on The Gnomestead that I'm not gonna post about! šŸ˜‡

Eyesight changing my big ole butt! šŸ¤£

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thrillhill said:
After a nice little Trijicon box arrived via FedEx I finally got my psycho homestead .22 outfitted the way I want it and got her zeroed in. Squirrel-gedon shall commence shortly. Along with all the other things I use a suppressed .22 for on The Gnomestead that I'm not gonna post about! šŸ˜‡

Eyesight changing my big ole butt! šŸ¤£

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Sexc
 
thrillhill said:
After a nice little Trijicon box arrived via FedEx I finally got my psycho homestead .22 outfitted the way I want it and got her zeroed in. Squirrel-gedon shall commence shortly. Along with all the other things I use a suppressed .22 for on The Gnomestead that I'm not gonna post about! šŸ˜‡

Eyesight changing my big ole butt! šŸ¤£

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Damn! I use a bolt gun and defend/hold off invasions pretty easy ā€¦ that full semi-auto suppressed sniper rifle (not adding in ā€œassaultā€ because of the mag size) must mean you got waaaaaay more invaders cominā€™. Whatā€™s next night vision for when they change tactics?
 
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Today the Gnomestead allowed me to collaborate on a project.

Venison summer sausage featuring some wild boar.

It was smoked for about 11 hours on my Pit Boss. Turned out great! Iā€™ll have more pictures of finished product tomorrow. Too busy eating the end result to take pics this evening.

If someone wanted to learn how to make it, I bet the experts at the Gnomestead would be happy to show you the way.

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While I was over there dropping off the smoked sausage I had a few roasted oysters.

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Studentofthegun said:
It was smoked for about 11 hours on my Pit Boss. Turned out great! Iā€™ll have more pictures of finished product tomorrow. Too busy eating the end result to take pics this evening.

If someone wanted to learn how to make it, I bet the experts at the Gnomestead would be happy to show you the way.
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That looks really good. I have done a bit of reading on making things like summer sausage (which IS smoked) and other cured sausages. A lot of them call for curing or fermenting at certain temperatures that sound like they may be hard to achieve in our climate, and then the descriptions also all for tenting it and keeping a humidifier under it to maintain the moisture.

I would really like some reliable information on what works, when and where, in our climate and would like to try some of the cured meats / sausages.
 
noway2 said:
I would really like some reliable information on what works, when and where, in our climate and would like to try some of the cured meats / sausages.
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Last year my wife gave me some special plastic bags for aging meats in the fridge, they allow water vapor to escape at the proper rate. The company makes products for making cured meats. I forget the name, but maybe knowing it exists will help with the search.
 
Try this place. They actually sent me a large catalog with recipes and all kinds of useful info. I was actually gon take it over to the Knomestead and just forgot.

Walton's | Everything but the Meat! | Meat Processing Supplies

Everything but the Meat! ā€“ Sausage Making Supplies ā€“ Seasonings and Spices ā€“ BBQing and Grilling ā€“ Meat Processing Supplies for Home and Commercial Processors
waltons.com waltons.com
 
noway2 said:
@Studentofthegun did you just make sausage and smoke it, or did you add any curing agents (salt #1 or #2) and give it time? The topic is of interest and study, which is why Iā€™m asking.

Looks good regardless.
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Have to ask @thrillhill cause all I did was smoke it.
 
GymB said:
Here is where my bags came from.
umaidry.com

Shop UMAi Dry Aging Steak Bags, Sausage Casings & Charcuterie Kits

Dry age steak, charcuterie, sausage, salumi and meats at home using UMAi Dry meat-crafting kits. UMAi Dry aging bags are safe and easy to use.
umaidry.com umaidry.com
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Scroll down to the bottom and there are some links on how to make various things. The one called salumi looks like it makes salami.

Itā€™s interesting that the meat doesnā€™t get cooked in the traditional sense, just fermented and cured.
 
noway2 said:
@Studentofthegun did you just make sausage and smoke it, or did you add any curing agents (salt #1 or #2) and give it time? The topic is of interest and study, which is why Iā€™m asking.
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Sorry. Getting my butt kicked sideways this year (meat season). And it's awesome!

I need to update Gnomestead stuff pretty bad. Got tons of pics.

But anyway, salt #1 but only 4 days time.
 
Shroomin the past couple of months. Too dry for quite a while. But here lately we've ended up getting and abnormaly high amount of Shrimp and Lion's Mane, while at the same time the Oysters have been slow for this time of year compared to the past few.

Oftentimes it takes us a minute or two to ferret it out, but in general any unusal or "adverse" environmental condition that makes it "bad" for your target foraging/gardening/farming benefits something else that you can also use to your advantage.

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Of course the pursuit and processing of meat is taking up a lot of our time.

I think Becky has put up around 120 pounds of deer burger so far. If you need beef fat Chatham Meat Company in Siler City is the place to go! Right now they have plenty and it's $1 per pound frozen and vacum packed (in various weights)! We bought another 51 pounds just this morning. Not alwys easy to come by some years.

And I'm stuck at 47 squirrels, but we still have a ways to go.

Killed a doe on opening day of gun season. Had to try out a very nice custom knife that a dear friend had made for me.

Coached a friend through working on a skull mount as well.


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And then there was the Durin's Day festival at The Gnomestead towards the end of October. Instead of driving to the Ren Faire in the fall we've started doing our own thing.

It was a blast!
Plenty of ale, mead, cider, and wine to usher in the fall! Not to mention homemade breads, stews, and 33 pounds of shrimp, goat and deer along with 20 pounds of fruits and veggies just for the kabobs!

There are several forum folks in these pics, but I won't"out" anybody! šŸ˜†
They can if they so choose!

At one point, after dark, I believe we had 40+ people in costume.
Colored flames for the kids and, well, me.

And I said I wouldn't out anybody, but I believe @Pineapple will be responsible for distributing the glow sticks every year from now on!


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I think we had over 60 folks all told drop by for the occasion.

We started a little after noon and carried on into the wee hours. Several folks camped out. Had a dang good time!

Think we're gonna try to hire some bagpipe players next year.
 
Yeah, we picked a bad spot in the sun for that early group pic. Folks wanted to get behind the concrete gnome instead of staying in the shadows. I acquiesed and it did not work out well. But Dobby's facial expression, priceless!
 
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