Opa's place -Where an old rooster visits with friends

[EweSheep]

I love catfish and thanks for telling us about the cookout! I would have been there on time too! I can not STAND being late....hubby don't like people telling him to hurry up and he get to be SLOW as molasses at time when driving to places. He likes to "grand stand", when you come in late, everyone notices you. Not me!

Oh I love bacon! Its a wonder how bacon can be so purposeful in every meal! Darn, I can not believe the prices of pork and beef..........pout!

 

[Opa]

Every time I go grocery shopping it seems that everything has gone up in price. I've told Hope and Granny that if it continues at its current rate we may have to give up eating.

Beef prices have caused us to rarely eat beef so when my oldest son told me to pick out which young bull I wanted him to castrate for me I was very grateful. The animal I chose is a Hereford Holstein cross that currently weights about 600 pounds. It will continue to graze until fall when he will start finishing it with grain.

In January I will return to southwest Missouri to butcher the animal. Since Joe has access to a neighbor's butcher shed that has a walk in cooler, stainless steel tables, band saw, and large grinder, processing it will be a reasonable task for this old man. Joe will slaughter, skin, halve, and hang the animal a week before I arrive so it should be some prime beef.

If time allows we will also slaughter a hog and process it. I'll then bring the hams home to do in my smoker. When I mentioned paying him for the animals he remarked that if I paid him for the meat he'd feel obligated to pay me for all the meals he ate growing up.

 

[lularat]

I don't know anything about the processing of beef. How much beef (pounds) do you expect to get from a bull? With the price continuing to go up, I am sure it won't be on our menu as often. I'm not a big beef eater, but my husband loves it. I do like a good steak once in a while and love hamburgers. I have been to a "pig killing" (that's what we call it in NC) and have helped process it.

 

[Opa]

A beef with a 100-# live weight will have a hanging weight of about 600# and a table ready weight of about 350#

 

[preciouskitty]

If time allows we will also slaughter a hog and process it. I'll then bring the hams home to do in my smoker. When I mentioned paying him for the animals he remarked that if I paid him for the meat he'd feel obligated to pay me for all the meals he ate growing up.

AND, then you can get some THICK, THICK cut bacon!!!!!
I LOVE bacon; when I cook up a pound, it doesn't last the day; yep, I alone eat the whole pound.

One of my favorites is from a meat market near me; Mango-Habanero thick cut; in fact, I need to call them & have them make me a few pounds (I have some of the Mango-Hab brats that I grilled up for lunch today

)

I honestly have not purchased beef in almost 5 years, so, while having read about the price increases, haven't "noticed" it. We only eat venison for our red meat...

 

[tntchix]

mmmmmmmmmmmmbacon...my food weakness

 

[preciouskitty]

I'm getting hungry....

 

[EweSheep]

I love beef and bacon! More than chicken. I am raising rabbits for meat consumption and hopefully it will make up for the fat content when I wrap it in bacon!

I helped process a deer last year, it was a lot of work! I stocked my freezer for five deer and all ground up. By the time a year has passed, it got old after awhile when you are just stuck on it. Just struggling to survive when hubby lost his job by corporate lay offs.

Now if we had some wild pigs out here, we would have been hunting! I heard they are more numberous in Texas and Louisiana.

 

[preciouskitty]

I helped process a deer last year, it was a lot of work! I stocked my freezer for five deer and all ground up. By the time a year has passed, it got old after awhile when you are just stuck on it. Just struggling to survive when hubby lost his job by corporate lay offs.

I helped process several deer for someone ...once..that was I learned JUST how well spent my $75 per deer is at my local processor!

Yes, I can see how one would get a tad tired of it after 12 months...especially all ground. For the $75 I get steaks, tenderloins, venison hams, ground, stew meat. Obviously I pay more if I go for some of the more exotic stuff like jerkey, hunter sticks, summer sausage, etc.
AND, have a ton of recipes; well, really anything that using beef works!

Ok. All this food talk has me STARVING; about ready to rip into my lunch...

And, I now am gonna be forced to cook up some bacon tonight...

 

[IttyBiddyRedHen]

Now why can't a deer have a slab of bacon attached to it