Start Cooking With Lard!
Dear Lard Friends,
I am writing to you today to let you know that our 2017 fat back and leaf lard have all been made into our beautifully white, odorless lard. As has been the case for many years, the price for a quart is still $20/quart.
This is how we produce our lard. When the pigs come back from slaughter we have large frozen slabs of fat back and also bags of leaf lard. The fat back is found on the animal’s back and has the fat still connected to the skin. The leaf lard is the fat that is found around the organs and is wrapped in the fascia that reminds me of cellophane. The leaf lard is easy enough to cut into squares. The fat back is a little more difficult. We strip it into 3” wide strips and then peel off the skin with a very sharp knife. Then we chunk it into 1 inch square chunks.
Next we fill a five gallon pot full of the chunks and fat and put a lid on it and set it on the wood cookstove to slowly cook. Lard has to be carefully tended as it will easily burn and then become dicolored and have a smoky taste. We find just the right spot on the stove to bring it to a mild simmer, and stir it regularly with a long metal spoon. After several hours the cracklings all rise to the top of the pan and the liquid gold stays below. We strain off the cracklings (which we freeze for the cats and dogs for winter fare) and cool the lard until it is room temperature and safe to put into clear plastic quarts. We store it in the freezer until you are ready to buy it.
But let’s go back another step to the pigs. We buy our piglets from our friends at Misty Brook Farm who used to live next door but were able to buy a farm in Albion, ME. These very healthy Tamworth hogs are completely certified organic and plump and beautiful. Once they arrive here they move into their mobile home on the edge of the woods. Their pasture consists of a little field frontage and a lot of woods behind where they can run and root to their hearts’ content. For supplemental feeding we give them Nature’s Best hog grain soaked in certified organic whey from Robinson Farm in Hardwick.
If you would like to read more about why lard should be your number 1 choice for fats, here is a great article discussing 10 reasons why you should eat lard – https://empoweredsustenance.com/lard-is-healthy/
You can buy lard at any time from the farm or order it online and pay with paypal – scroll down on this page of the website – https://mhof.net/organic-meat/ Julie