Road Food

My teenage daughters and I are going on a trip in a few weeks to the LA Religious Education Congress.  I've gone for at least ten years and this conference is one of the highlights of my year.  During the conference, I often find myself inspired to take a leap into something that has been nagging at me.  It was at LA Congress several years ago that I decided to write a book.  It was at LA Congress two years ago that I sketched out our food growing plans.

This will be the first year for my teenage daughters and they are excited for the road trip.  We are starting to get food ready now — today it is jerky.  Our hamburger has almost run out, so we ground some chuck roast.  It was the first time we've ground meat and was easier than I expected.  After running the meat and fat through two times it was smooth and even.

After mixing in the spices and curing salt, my husband put them in strips in the dehydrator.  They spent all day drying.  The last step is dabbing off the oil before putting them away.

The hardest part of this lifestyle is remembering things in the evening.  Yesterday evening we had to pull out the jerky out and not forget it all night.  I also had some cream cheese draining in the pantry and some butter to put away.  I've started writing notes on our white board to remind myself, but that only works if I look at the board.

Sustainable Living

We are halfway through Christina's dry period.  It's been a month without the morning and evening milkings that kept me grounded in the day, a month of making the milk last, a month without learning the next thing to make good cheese.  I'm trying to focus on the benefits of this rest time, but I'm not very good at living without what I want.

Christina and beefy have eaten the east pasture down and we moved them back. It's been four weeks and the west pasture looks decent. Christina knew just what was going on and headed right over; beefy needed a little more encouragement, but they immediately began feasting on the new fresh grass.  It makes me laugh to see cows with heads down, rocking back as they plow through grass.  They are celebrating eating too.

The book says that cows won't eat an entire pasture and don't expect them to.  But our cows do.  Today when we moved them off the east pasture it looked like it had been mowed clean.  The last few days I've seen them out there working even the little blades.  I worry that they're starving, so we check the hay feeder but they have enough.  I think they just love fresh grass and they'll take a little bit as a snack, even while living of the dried stuff.

With them moved, it means that we have to scoop the cow pies to clean out the east pasture.  Ack!  When will we work that in?  My husband's working on building a little harrower that will break up the cow pies and then we won't have to scoop as much.  I wish he'd hurry.

With the fading sun, hanging the laundry requires a new kind of organization.  The trees to the south, that provide such wonderful shade in the heat of the summer, now shade a much larger area, including the clothesline.  With cooler temperatures and shorter days, it takes all day long to dry a load of laundry instead of just a few hours.  We are limited to two loads a day and they must go up early in the morning.  What I miss the most is the smell of sun-dried cloth.

Jerky has become everybody's favorite snack.  My husband is trying to do jerky with some sliced meat, rather than hamburger.  After making twenty or thirty thin slices, he says that hamburger is the better way to go.  This meat will marinade for a day and then go into the dehydrator.

This sustainable living that we are doing sure does take a lot of work, but it feels like such relevant work and it is grounded in relationship.  Thank you God for meaningful work.

Jerky and Sabbath Rest

My  husband made jerky yesterday for the first time.  Last month we bought a full beef from a fellow here in the valley.  It's not the same as homegrown meat, but buying directly from a local producer is the next best thing.  We've gotten meat from him before and were impressed at how good it was.  I asked him about the breed.   It's Jersey steer!  He said that Jersey is one of the best meats, but because they don't bulk up as much as the meat breeds, they usually aren't raised for meat.  Music to my ears!!  Our little calf, beefy, is a Jersey steer and we'll raise all of Christina's boy calves as Jersey steers.  Praise God!

Making the jerky was pretty easy.  He mixed up hamburger, spices, and cure salts, then loaded them into a "jerky maker," a thing like a caulk gun.  They pressed out into even strips.  You could probably form them into strips without the gun, but the gun made it fast and easy.  We filled our dehydrator and ten hours later pulled out rich jerky.  For each two-pounds of hamburger, we got about a pound of jerky.  My 15-year-old daughter ate several strips before we got them away from her and put away.

Yesterday was a full day of American mom life for me.  Our nine-year-old twins volunteered at Museum Comes to Life with their girl scout troop.  They helped with the children's games and had a good time with their troop.  I've always enjoy the period costumes, activities, and machines, but after four hours on my feet and counting heads a hundred times, I was tired.  I wasn't the only one.  Our weeks are full and by Saturday evening we are ready for Sabbath rest.  We naturally fall into the Jewish tradition of Sabbath beginning at Saturday sundown.

Sabbath rest has taken on new meaning for us.  Most mornings begin with me filling the white board with our to-do list, and then we spend the day methodically erasing items as they get done.  On Sundays, the board is empty.  I still look at it habitually, and remember each time that it is Sabbath.  We still do things, but only as they strike us, not because we *have* to.  This morning my 13-year-old is making crepes for breakfast, something she never has time to do and always enjoys.  We will eat with leisure.  We will read, play, maybe watch a movie, and rest.  Even dinner is left-overs.  How wonderful that God designed our lives to follow this pattern, to value rest as much as we value work.  My Monday morning has new energy after a full day of no "shoulds."