Daisy, Daisy!

Daisy was a good pig. She came with the farm when we bought it and it wasn't long before she had her first litter. She was always a brilliant mother and gave us 30 piglets in all. The sound of her contented grunts is sadly missed.

But she was in danger of turning into a pet rather than livestock. If we carried on like this, we would pour an awful lot of food into her and then, one day, we would find several hundred pounds worth of pig passed away, leaving us with a big problem to deal with.

But our options for Daisy were limited. Our small butchers would not be able to deal with turning such a large sow into sausages. The best they would be able to manage would be to turn her into an awful lot of mince. And the butchers attached to either of the abattoirs I have used, so I'm told, just out all their sausage pigs in together. If I out Daisy in, I wanted Daisy back, not somebody else's meat reared goodness knows how.

So when the Cambridgeshire Self Sufficiency Group were planning their sausage making demonstration and Paul the friendly butcher suggested using Daisy, it seemed like a perfect solution for the old girl.
We would be able to make her into all sorts of sausages, plus a few other well chosen cuts of meat - an old sow like this is no longer suitable for the most tender cuts - and everybody, not least us, could learn how to make sausages thanks to Daisy.

I've already written about the adventures of getting Daisy into the trailer and off to the abattoir. Well straight after lunch last Thursday I headed off to pick up Daisy's carcass. (Sorry to be so matter of fact about it, but that is the best way to deal with these things. I have no problem looking after animals, even naming them, then eating them. In fact, I have a problem with people who are not willing to face the fact that they are actually eating what was a living animal.)

It was, however, pretty disconcerting to be given Daisy's head first. It did still look like Daisy, but if you've ever seen a dead body you'll know that there is something missing from it, the spirit is gone. When the heart stops beating, the essence of a being leaves it. Nevertheless I determined to make sure that Sue didn't have to see this.
We then loaded Daisy into the back of the car. She really was quite a size. The carcass had a lot of fat on it. Usually, if this were a weaner, I would be ashamed at such poor rearing, but I guess this was a sign that Daisy had become more of a pampered pet.

I met Paul at 2:30 and we proceeded to get the room ready to start the mammoth task of turning Daisy into meat. As Paul says, "livestock is deadstock". This is a good thought for all smallholders to hold on to.
Our task was not helped by the malfunction of Paul's mincer - he had lent it out and it seemed the smallest piece had broken off rendering the whole machine useless. Emergency phone calls were made and a couple of non-commercial mincers duly arrived.
From nowhere, too, reinforcements arrived to help with the task.
I'm sure we slowed Paul down considerably, but he is a very patient man and was keen to teach us as much as he could.
The sausage making was actually quite straightforward, though there were a few techniques to be mastered. I had purchased ready made mixes of spices, herbs and rusk. These were mixed with a little water, then about 20lb of meat was minced and the whole lot was mixed, kneaded and pummelled by hand until we had sausage meat. This was loaded into one end of the sausage making machine and by turning a handle the meat was forced out of the other end into the waiting casings. We used natural hog casings, which we had washed and loaded onto the nozzle at the end of the machine.
The person stationed here had the job of trying to make sure the sausages remained the same thickness and the skins did not split. Obviously there were a few misshapen souls, but on the whole we ended up with some decent sausages. Paul showed us how to twist and tie them and voila!
You'll have to imagine the finished product, as this is when my phone ran out of battery, so no more pics.



When I say that we ended up with some decent sausages, we actually got about 160lb of sausages in the end! In fact I was so busy mincing, mixing and trying to bag everything up and label it that I never actually got a go at the business end of the sausage making machine.

We also made a boiling sausage, made from leaner mince mixed with red wine and garlic, ideal in cassoulets or to use for meatballs. In addition to the sausage, Paul cut the back legs (the front ones are actually referred to as hands and not legs) into quite a few lovely gammon joints and a few roasting joints for us. We got spare ribs too, a couple of strips of loin, plus a whole load of mince and diced pork.

In the evening the rest of the Self Sufficiency Group turned up for the demonstration and a barbecue. They were all amazed by the shear quantity of meat which had come from one pig. Some chose to have a go at the various sausage making activities, others were content just to observe. Everybody enjoyed the barbecue and the Daisy sausages went down very well indeed, as did the bunny burgers supplied by Mick.

The only pity was that we were kept so busy turning Daisy into sausages that I didn't really get to socialise or enjoy the barbecue. But it seemed more useful to get Daisy processed (sorry that sounds harsh) while we had the help and the machinery at hand.

Overall, I felt this was a fitting end for Daisy. I was immensely proud of Sue, too, for coming along and helping out. She hadn't been sure if she would be able to bring herself to, but in the end I think it helped her.

I was determined not to waste anything. This would have been disrespectful to Daisy. As well as all that meat, I had six bags of fat and bones in the car. Making the best use of this would be my Friday task.

Meanwhile, if anybody wants to buy any Daisy sausages, please email me. You will know that they come from a pig who was treated well and had a good, long life. You will know too that they contain no dodgy ingredients, no factory sweepings, no eyelids etc. You will know that they were hand crafted by expert sausage makers!

We have available, at £3.80/lb:

Lincolnshire (sausages and sausage meat)
The Great British Banger
Cumberland
Chilli and Coriander
Old Dubliner (peppery, sausage meat)
Romany (herby)
Hickory Smoked

 

Thank you Daisy.

Goodbye.

Changes Afoot

The last ten days have just been a whirlwind, hence the lack of posts on here. So for now I'll give a quick resume, then I'll come back to some of this in future posts.

Most importantly, Daisy has gone.

She went on Sunday morning. She almost cost me a bird too! For those who don't know me, I'm an obsessive twitcher. Seeing new birds in Britain takes precedence over almost everything else in my life. This completely obsessive, irrational behaviour helps me put the rest of my life into perspective.


Twitch on!

Last seen out there somewhere

Fortunately I took "Eagle-Eyed" Mick with me.

Anyway, I eventually saw the Short-toed Eagle.
Sue went off on her cheese-making course which I too was supposed to be attending, and we left Daisy at the abattoir.
It seems strange going down to feed the chickens and not hearing a welcome grunt or snort from the pig pen.


Yesterday I picked Daisy up - more on this later - and spent the day with Paul, the butcher from the Cambridgeshire Self-Sufficiency Group, turning her into gammon joints, eight varieties of sausage, diced and minced pork, kebabs... In the evening the rest of the group turned up for a sausage making demonstration and a barbecue. Daisy went down very well! As did the bunny burgers provided by Mick.

I'm spending today getting everything into the freezers, rendering down some of the fat and making stock from the skin and bones.

Changes for the other animals too.
The nine lambs have moved into the long grass and started the gargantuan task of grazing it short. I'm hoping to get four more soon to help them out.
Both sets of geese have failed to hatch a single egg. Yesterday I finally turfed them off their nests and destroyed the eggs. If you want to know what a foul smell is like, crack open a rotten goose egg. It was enough to actually make me sick!

Goliath, the lone goose who we hatched in the incubator,  follows us around everywhere but he's grown even bigger. Still doubling in size every week. The other geese are back together, grey and white united, but they continue to take an unhealthy interest in Golly and he sticks close by when they're near.


Exciting news on the bee front. Sue has taken our first ever significant honey harvest. One super from each of the healthy hives, so about 40lb of honey, but there's more waiting to be collected.
The third hive, which is a newly created colony as the old one failed to come through the winter, have made themselves a queen. Sue saw her emerging from her queen cell the other day, so hopefully she will get mated and start laying soon.

And finally, we have three new inhabitants on the farm, a new species for us. For on Monday evening we picked up three turkey chicks. We intend to grow them on slowly so they'll probably make it past Christmas, but they'll end up on the plate at some time. Meanwhile they are very welcome to stay on our farm.

Daisy. One Stubborn Pig!

We spent Bank Holiday Monday in the pleasant company of a larger than life figure and his wife down in the southern fens. The reason for our excursion off the farm was to discuss sausages and bacon products.

If you follow this blog you'll know that we only have one pig at the moment, Daisy, our breeding sow who has become too close to being a pet since we decided to stop breeding her.
The Cambridgeshire Self Sufficiency Group are holding a sausage making and barbecue evening in the near future and the subject of our art is to be Daisy! This seems like a fitting end for the old girl.

We have ordered half a dozen different packs of sausage flavouring and are researching the chemistry of bacon curing.

But Daisy has other ideas!!

We started trailer training her over a week ago. For Daisy cannot be manhandled. Daisy goes where Daisy wants to go.

I had two major concerns. Getting her in the trailer and getting her out the other end. I figured that I needed to get her used to eating and sleeping in the trailer and coming back out in the morning. If we could get to this stage then I would move the trailer onto drier ground and repeat the process there, leading her up from her pen every evening. The next stage would be to take her for a little drive so that she got used to coming out of the trailer after a journey.


Now all this sounds like a good plan and Trailer Training Stage 1 went reasonably smoothly, although it took 3 days to get her into the trailer the first time. I had to move it so the ramp didn't slope quite so much. But we eventually got to the point where she went straight in every evening for three nights.

Then I had to use the trailer to fetch the lambs. I decided this would be a good time to park it on higher ground. Well, that was four days ago. It took FOUR hours of coaxing to get Daisy up into the trailer on the first evening - it was gone midnight before I got back into the farmhouse. Part of the problem is that Daisy is so long that I need her to go right into the trailer before I can shut the gate on her. I lost count of how many times she backed out just as the last couple of inches of bum were still sticking out!

For some reason, Daisy wasn't happy when I closed the gate that time and she has steadfastly refused to go in the trailer for the last three nights. She takes the titbits I throw to try to tempt her, but most unusually for a pig her stubbornness is overcoming her hunger.


To be quite honest, I have been getting very frustrated by the whole situation. However, something always happens to lighten a situation and this time it has been a family of wrens which provided the entertainment. For they have nested in the top corner of the garage porch, in an old swallow nest. While I have been waiting for Daisy to go into the trailer, there have been constant high-pitched begging calls coming from the nest. Then, on the third day, four young wrens appeared on the scene.









One of them found a very novel perch!

















Despite this, there was no budging by Daisy on the trailer issue. So yesterday I took the decision to move the trailer back down to her pig pen. This is now a major worry as we have had constant rain for two days and I really am not confident that I will be able to pull it back out again... if Daisy goes in that is. I have decided that she will only be fed right inside the trailer. She could do with losing a little bit of fat before she goes off anyway.

House Refurbishments...for Daisy

What a beautiful day it was today! A bit nippy, but you'd expect that on a clear November day.

 

But earlier this year when the weather was slightly more inclement, the winds whipped the roofing felt off the top of Daisy's shelter. It wasn't a major issue, just another job on the list. A job which I never quite got round to. Daisy does have a more conventional ark too, but between her and the multitude of other pigs which have passed through, they have managed to almost totally destroy it. Mind you, it was half rotten when we inherited it. She still uses it sometimes, but more in the summer for shade. It is certainly not weather proof.

 

But when I saw Daisy attempting to make alterations herself, I started to feel a twang of guilt for not getting round to the job.

 

So today I dug out some old roofing felt and wheeled it down to Daisy's pen, along with a tub full of roofing tacks, some wood, a saw and a hammer. Daisy was, as ever, all too keen to help. Her gentle nudges almost sent me flying! She then affectionately shook her muddy head, splattering my face with speckles of mud.

 



 

 

The new felt going on









Daisy approves

 

This time, I learned from the past and screwed a couple of old planks of wood over the join in the felt. I then painted this with some bituminous paint - like spreading thick, gooey treacle. Hopefully it will keep Daisy dry for a good few winters yet - or whichever animal replaces her when she goes.



Piglets growing fast

The piglets have got through that vulnerable stage where they are either suckling or huddled together in a shivering ball.

Now they are inquisitive, mobile and playful.




Monday 12th November 2012

 

I often spend time just watching them and being with them. They do that thing that pigs do when they all play statues for a few seconds and then continue as if nothing had happened. Then there's the little bursts of energy, a sudden skip of the heels and twizzling round in circles. Games of piggyback too, and chasing.
Potatoes are fun to nuzzle around, but too big to nibble yet. And look! I can snout around in the straw just like mum.

I'll shut up and just let you oooooh and aaaaah at the pictures!