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Enjoy your fall Sunday!

Oh Yes We Are!

A couple of months ago for our Tastebuds dinner club as part of a deep south theme and did braised pork belly.  We had about half of the meat leftover and were trying to decide what to do with it.  When you have six pounds of pork belly, well what else can you do?  We decided to roll up our sleeves and dabble in home curing.  We are making pancetta!  Oh yes we are!

 It is a multi-step process and we began with removing the skin, and packing the meat completely in a salt mixture. Once it was thoroughly coated, we rubbed in a spice mix.

Once we finished this we wrapped it in plastic wrap and pressed it between two weighted cookie sheets on the bottom shelf of the fridge.  We will have to flip it daily for a week.

As with many things we try, this process has been surprisingly easy.  Once the week is up we will rinse it off completely, then roll it very tightly in cheese cloth and hang it in the root cellar to finish curing.  That process will take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months depending on what flavors we are seeking out.  Just another Saturday around the farm!

**As an interesting aside:  this cut of meat would be called a flap.  The same cut that we have been discussing in our Blog Camp Goes to MIT class. 

Random 5 Friday

1.  Harvesting Now:  We picked the first of our drying beans earlier this week.  This peck basket yielded 5 Cups of dried beans.  If canned, these will produce roughly 5 quarts of beans!  These are our lazy housewife green beans left to dry.  They are duel purpose and make the most wonderful drying beans.  Best yet... this was only 1/3 of one of our two rows of these beans, and the part that was a bit more stunted because it was partially shaded!

2.  Compass:  Thanks to Uma who posted the Native American Code of Ethics on her blog earlier this week.  Truly words and actions to live by, that calmed my spirit.

3.  Eating:  This week began October #Unprocessed, a great exercise, and not to late to join in!

4.  Light:  The fall light completes me.

5.  Soul:    So does ^^ this guy.

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October #Unprocessed

We are getting back into the groove of fall after our big spurt of late summer activity.  This week began October #Unprocessed from the Eating Rules website.  I stumbled across this a little over a month ago, and jumped on board with it.  Part of growing so much of our own food has involved becoming increasingly aware of what we are purchasing.  I began more intently reading labels and trying to make good choices in staples that we did not grow, and those things that we treat ourselves to.  We slowly began to eliminate highly processed and edible food-like items.  Like many things on this journey of ours, it is not all or nothing, we are gradually finding balance and peace with our food choices.

We have been moving in this direction for quite a while and much of what we eat we try to make from scratch with simple and flavorful ingredients.  When we purchase we look for organic, grass fed, hormone free, non-GMO items.   My focus for this month, aside from being even more conscious of our meals, is to begin to experiment and transition to more pure forms of sugar and wheat.  So far I have made a few items using only honey, pure maple syrup, and/or molasses as sweeteners, and they have worked quite successfully.  I am also playing around some with turbinado.  In my baking I am using primarily 100% whole wheat flour and learning how to manage recipes with it. 

The October #Unprocessed philosophy is not militant or unattainable.  It simply asks that you eliminate things that you could not create on your own at home with the ingredients listed on the package.  For example, I purchased soba noodles yesterday.  The ingredients listed were:  100% buckwheat flour & water.  Something I could easily make on my own, in my kitchen, if I had time.  You would be surprised at the number of things that you could make on your own based on the ingredient list on the side of a box (another good one I found was triscuits :) You may also be surprised at the length of ingredient lists on boxes full of words that you cannot pronounce or blanket words like 'natural flavor'.  It is all in the marketing.  Just do not fall prey to it.  Because it says it is 'natural' does not mean that is so, check the label, you might be very surprised!  A group of us on facebook have created a page where we are sharing not only the days recipes, but any challenges that we may be facing as we move through the month.   It also is about improvement, and learning.  So even if you can not commit to being 'all in', maybe you can focus on one thing.  For example try eliminating high fructose corn syrup this month.   Care to join in?  It is not too late!  Click on the link above and check it out!!

If I Were.....

If I were a month..... I would be October

If I were a day..... I would be Friday

If I were a time of day.....I would be dawn 

If I were a font.....I would be Ariel

If I were a sea animal.....I would be a jellyfish

If I were a direction.....I would be West

If I were a piece of furniture.....I would be a porch swing

If I were a liquid.....I would be a chilled Viognior

If I were a gemstone.....I would be an Australian opal

If I were a tree.....I would be an oak

If I were a tool.....I would be a pencil

If I were a flower.....I would be goldenrod

If I were an element of weather.....I would be the wind

If I were a musical instrument.....I would be acoustic guitar

If I were a color.....I would be blue

If I were an emotion.....I would be content

If I were a fruit.....I would be a mango

If I were a sound.....I would be a windchime

If I were an element.....I would be oxygen

If I were a car.....I would be fuel efficient

If I were a food.....I would be slow and homecooked

If I were a place.....I would be home

If I were a material.....I would be 600 thread count cotton

If I were a taste.....I would be sweet

If I were a scent.....I would be Aveda Chakra #6

If I were a body part.....I would be eyes

If I were a song.....I would be sung loudly

If I were a bird.....I would be an owl

If I were a gift.....I would be made by hand

 If I were a city.....I would be London

If I were a door.....I would be antique wood

If I were a pair of shoes.....I would be sandles

If I were a poem.....I would be The Road Less Traveled ~ Frost

I am playing along with Julochka today, won't you join me??  Please leave a message in my comments so I can follow along.