Local Dinner
October 25th, 2015 · No Comments · Posted in eating local
Were would we be without chest freezers?
We bought half a pig from our friend Mike and brought it home frozen from the butchers in two big boxes. It must weight 100 pounds. Fortunately, we had the good sense to purchase another chest freezer because our original freezer is packed with Freedom Ranger chickens and bags and bags of tomatoes my wife harvested from our new raised bed garden.
We’re still working on the lamb we slaughtered in September. I guess it’s time to get serious about eating the protein this farm produces because we still have plenty more lambs and kids in the field and so far none of our regular customers have purchased any. Although one of the Pakistani guys who delivered our new chest freezer inquired about buying a goat. He said he’d prefer to come to the farm and slaughter it himself.
Last night I opened one of the boxes of Mike’s pork and pulled out a pack of three chops. This pig is obviously bigger than the last one we dealt with. You can tell immediately just from the size of the cuts.
The chops had plenty of fat on them. I seared them hard in an iron skillet, then into the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit to finish. I was shooting for an internal temperature of 130 before pulling them from the heat and letting them coast a few more degrees–135 would be ideal.
We like to serve these with our own green tomato and apple chutney. But it’s been a while since we had any: we now have pounds and pounds of green tomatoes from the raised beds waiting to be processed. Otherwise, I like a lingonberry jam with my pork chops, or maybe a hot pepper jelly.
The pork was so flavorful, even the fat. Mike is doing a great job raising his pigs. We’re wondering which breed this is, exactly. Next to the chop is our own butternut squash salad, with lots of toasted pecans, scallions, grated ginger and a dressing of maple syrup, orange juice and balsamic vinegar.
That makes this an all-local dinner. There will be many more.
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