Holler Update

The beautiful colored leaves of autumn are gone now and the woods are now bleak with their bare trees. Heavy frosts blanket the holler pretty well every morning now as we slide deeper into the clutches of winter. As in the summer during gardening season I continue to rise early to see the sun rise by nothing else but habit probably. Sunday's sunrise above was a gorgeous one as it set the morning sky on fire with it's red, yellows and oranges.  

Many have emailed and left messages concerned by my silence and all I can say is bless your hearts! Not long after I published the post with the recipe from my ex mother in law the other day for the muffins than she passed away. Grandmother to 4 of my 5 children she was truly a remarkable woman in her eighties, surviving two bouts with cancer and inspiring generations with her devotion to her God, family and her husband of 60 years. My oldest daughter "Fred" took her grandmothers death extremely hard. I babysat her young children while she prepared for a drive across country with the two boys to go and pay her respects to her grandmother one final time. 

Once back from the funeral we then picked up my oldest son from the airport who stayed 5 days and visited, hunted a little and enjoyed his time on the farm. He managed to get back on the plane with an ice chest full of venison and duck meat frozen and will enjoy the fruits of his visit for many months to come. While he was here we celebrated our Thanksgiving early with a huge family dinner. So there was lots of baking and cooking going on too. 

We enjoyed ham, au gratin potatoes, green bean casserole, homemade rolls and chocolate pecan, chocolate cream, lemon cream, pumpkin and apple pies. 

Last week was also a very difficult week for me because I celebrated a milestone. Last week was 5 years ago that I was in remission for my cancer. I so remember the doctor sitting there telling me that after 5 years they considered me cured. I can't help but remember all the wonderful people that I met along the way in the hospitals and doctors offices that did not win their own battles. Those that did not last that 5 years. I guess I have a touch of survivors guilt but I will not dwell on it too long. I will simply be thankful and move on. 

Deer season is also open and we are processing venison right now. 

In going through my storage onions I found some with soft spots and had to go through the entire lot and pick out any with bad spots. I simply chopped them up and threw them in the dehydrator. We continue to eat storage apples in pies and muffins and last night had baked sweet potatoes from not this year but the year before. Simply wrapped in newspapers and stored in a cardboard box on the floor of my cool pantry under the shelves in the dark they have lasted an entire year. With a crop failure this year I am thankful that I kept that many in storage and canned as many as I did. 

Trapping season is also open right now and O Wise One is running his trap lines as usual. A few years ago he was the only one around that trapped. This year when he went to purchase his licence the lady told him she had sold more trapping licences this year than she ever had.  I guess in a bad economy people are making money where they can. It remains to be seen how that will affect the prices of the pelts.  

So you see life has been very busy here and I am exhausted. Now that we have had our big family meal we look forward to a quiet Thanksgiving Day with just Baby O, O Wise One and I.  

What's going on in your neck of the woods?

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

   

Canning Meat ( Chicken, Rabbit And Turtle )

Life the last week or so has been very busy trying to get our small animal butchering done before the heavy winter weather sets in. Thus far we have butchered 18 chickens, 3 remaining rabbits and 4 snapping turtles. We have 10 bourbon red turkeys yet to butcher and deer season opens up this weekend.  My oldest son is also flying in this weekend and we will be celebrating an early Thanksgiving family style dinner while he is here. So life is indeed busy on the homestead. I did want to finish my information on turtle though as it is a meat that you rarely see canned. 

In the picture above you will see starting from the left the first three jars are canned chicken in broth, the next two jars are canned rabbit in broth and the last jar in the picture is canned turtle in broth. Notice the difference in the colors of the meat and broths. All are canned in their own broth, off the bone and processed for the same amount of time. These meats and broths will become healthy and nourishing, soups and stews for my family throughout the winter.     

To continue with yesterdays instructions on turtle I left off with our meat soaking overnight in salt water. The next day the meat is taken and washed under cold water and trimmed of any fat or membrane.   

Once your turtle meat is cleaned it goes into a large pot and covered with cool clean water. To that water add 2 tablespoons of baking soda and allow to cook on medium heat. After about a half hour you will see a foam start to gather on the top of your pot. Continue cooking for about another half hour. Once a thick foam has formed turn your pot off and pour your meat into a colander to completely drain and rinse both your meat and pot well.  Return the meat to the pot and cover with water again and now you are ready to cook your meat. Cook your turtle until it is cooked tender and can be deboned easily.  

If you do not want to can your meat it can be frozen. I like to put my turtle in a freezer proof container and cover with water and freeze. I recycle cardboard half gallon milk cartons for this. Simply freeze standing then close, tape and label, these also work great for fish. It can also be vacuum bagged.  My husband is particularly fond of turtle necks. This is the white meat on a turtle. These are a treat about once a year. He coats them in milk and egg and then flour and fries them. Then puts them in a crock pot on a rack or on top of several inverted jar rings and cooks on low for several hours until tender.  O Wise One says "it will make you take back stuff you never stole".

If you are like me and both freezers are busting at the seams then cook your meat and can it.  

Once the meat is cooked drain the meat reserving the broth. Strain the broth through a colander or cheesecloth to remove any small bones. Remove meat from bones carefully watching for any small bones. Just like deboning cooked chicken.  Notice in the picture above that it is not a white meat like chicken at all but a darker richer meat with a consistency closer to veal in my opinion.  

I then take my turtle meat and place it in a small pot and cover it with some broth and place it on the back of my stove on real low to keep it warm. 

I then return my strained broth to the stove, cover and heat it up to boiling. While your broth is warming put your lids on to warm and heat your jars and pressure cooker.  

Once everything is hot I fill my quart jars about 2/3 full of meat and pour broth over meat and fill jar leaving one inch head space. I add 1/2 teaspoon canning salt to each jar (optional) and remove air bubbles and clean rim of jar with clean rag. Place hot lid and ring on hot jar and finger tighten only. Any leftover broth I add to hot quart jars and process in the same pressure canner with my meat. 

I pressure can at 10 pounds pressure for 90 minutes.

Remove from pressure canner and allow to cool and seal. 

This is how I can my chicken, turkey and rabbit meat also. The broth can be drained off and the meat used just as you would use frozen cooked meat or a can of chicken you would purchase at the supermarket for casseroles, noodles or pot pies. These bone broths are extremely healthy for you. 

Not bad for a weeks work  with 4 quarts turtle meat in broth, 2 quarts turtle broth, 4 quarts rabbit meat in broth, 9 quarts chicken in broth and 4 quarts chicken broth. 

Down to just the turkeys left to butcher and just in time for Thanksgiving. 

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter 

Skinning A Turtle

Both my husband and I having grown up in the country have eaten many kinds of meat other than the traditional beef/pork/chicken purchased at your local corner grocer. My own grandfather trapped to supplement his income and O Wise One's grandfather trapped also. Many of the ways of trapping and skinning were passed down to O Wise One from his grandfather. As for myself having grown up literally on the banks of a river in southeast Louisiana much of our meat came from the rivers, bayous and swamps surrounding us. Crabs, shrimp, crayfish, frogs, turtles, fish and rabbits were just part of the local fare. 

Recently after mentioning in a post about butchering turtles several of you expressed interest so I decided to do some posts on turtles including butchering, preparing the meat and canning and then a post on cooking it.  To start this string of posts I am going to post how to kill and butcher them. For those of you that are squeamish DO NOT READ this post past this point!  

First problem is finding your turtles. We butcher snapping turtles. Not sliders or stink pots but snappers. Back home in Louisiana some call them "cooter" turtles. Be careful handling these babies because they don't call them snappers for nothing! Snappers are usually found near water and many times neighbors will bring us one that was caught on their hook while fishing the local farm ponds and rivers. In the spring many times you can find them crossing the back roads during mating season. Safest way to pick them up is by the tail!! Common snapping turtles are not endangered however their cousin the alligator snapper is rare but are not found this far north.  

Always check with your local wildlife conservation department for laws on harvesting turtles in your area. In Missouri you must have a valid fishing license to possess turtles. A daily limit is 5 and possession limit is 5. 

We are picky about where our turtles come from. You do not want a turtle out of someone's sewage lagoon. Most of our turtles come from farm ponds or rivers.  

Once we have a turtle they go into an old watering tank set out under a shade tree by the garden. We want to keep them in there for about 6 to 8 weeks. We do this to flush the mud and impurities out of them that can collect in their shells and constantly add clean water as it evaporates and we even change the water regularly so that they always are in really clean water. During this time we also feed them. My husband saves fat, skin, gizzards, hearts and such from butchering chickens, fish and rabbits. This can be frozen for future turtle food. When fed regularly this helps to fatten them up for butchering also. When you skin those summer fish the entrails and such feed the turtles. By the end of summer they are ready to butcher. 

You will need the following tools. Long handles pliers(water pump pliers), large nails, fish skinning pliers, fillet knife and a heavy hunting type knife. This particular one is a military knife and it needs to be heavy duty. A hammer and a board about 2 to 3 foot long. Water is also helpful to wash away blood.

 To kill the turtle you are going to tap the front of the shell and get your turtle to open it's mouth. Grab the top lip with your pliers and pull the head to extend it and quickly cut the head off with your heavy knife. Make sure your knives are sharp before you begin. Now let your turtle bleed out. Sometimes it helps to hang the turtle upside down so that the blood drains quicker. 

Your turtles muscles will still continue to move so this requires some wrestling but grab those feet and extend them and you want to cut them off at the first knuckle right behind the claw. It is nothing but gristle right there and you should be able to cut it with a good fillet knife.  

Now take that good sharp fillet knife and run it between the top and bottom shell between the two legs. There is a little groove right there on the side. Your knife should go right in that groove. 

Now run that sharp fillet knife around the shell cutting the skin away from the top shell. 

Once cut away from the shell you will have to take your heavy military knife and tap it with a hammer through the bony neck to release the top portion of the shell. It will still be connected at the tail. 

Lift that top shell at the neck.

Hold the bottom and twist the top shell separating it at the tail. 

Now you want to clean off all entrails leaving nothing but meat and tendons. When you clean the entrails out the neck will come out also. Save this because this piece is the best piece of meat according to my husband. This is one of the few white portions of meat on the turtle other than the back strap.  

Now take one of your large nails and nail it through the middle of your turtle through the bottom plate of the shell or skid plate to your board to hold it down.

Run your filet knife just under the leg skin of all 4 legs and split the skin.

With your fillet knife skinning out that front leg meat by simply running your knife between the meat and the skin all the way around leg. You cut it loose in one place where it attaches to the shell. 

Then remove the entire leg bone and all. 

Your front leg meat should look like this. 

Now repeat the process on the rear legs. The rear legs will come out attached as one piece. Simply take your heavy knife and tapping it between the two legs to break them apart where the tail once was. This separates each leg. 

This will give you 4 legs and a neck piece. 

You are almost finished. Now for that back strap which is probably the best piece of the turtle. Take the upper shell And place your heavy knife right beside the backbone and tap with hammer breaking through ribs. Now go to the other side of the rib and repeat. 

Now run your fillet knife underneath this strip and lift. You should get a strip of pure meat. Remove the strip on the other side of the backbone the same way.  

Now trim the small rib pieces off your back strap and you are done. 

We then soak our meat overnight in salt water to clean and help draw out the blood.  An average turtle will yield about  2 pounds of meat. Twenty years ago my husband used to sell turtle meat around the New Orleans area. It averaged then about $16 a pound. Turtle meat does not taste like chicken and is a darker and richer meat almost similar to a veal. 

From there your meat can be canned or frozen for future use. Next I will post how to can the meat. 

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

Hickery Holler 6 Week Bran Muffins

Sometime around the late eighties my then mother in law shared a muffin recipe with me called 6 week muffins. You can find many variations of this recipe all over the internet. The greatest thing about this recipe was that it was said that the batter would last for 6 weeks in the refrigerator.  Now to be honest I have no idea as to if it will last that long or not. In the late eighties I had 4 growing children in my household and this muffin recipe was a staple for many breakfasts for my children. No muffin batter was going to last for 6 weeks in my house unless there was something seriously wrong with it. It's been probably 30 years now and I am still making this muffin.  And it still doesn't last 6 weeks : )

This recipe makes a huge amount of batter but it does keep well and I think the batter gets better after about a week in the fridge. The original recipe is as follows. 

6 Week Muffins

1 (15 ounce) box Raisin Bran cereal
3 cups sugar
5 cups flour
5 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons salt
4 beaten eggs
1 cup melted margarine
1 quart buttermilk



Mix raisin bran, sugar, flour, soda,cinnamon and salt in large bowl.
Stir in beaten eggs, margarine, and buttermilk.

Mix well.

Store, covered, in refrigerater.

To use, bake at 400* for 15-20 minutes.

Will keep in fridge for 6 weeks.

Now over the years I have experimented with many additions. From the main bowl I simply remove 2 1/2 cups of the mixed batter. I added 1/2 cup apple sauce and 1 small chopped apple and about 1/2 cup of walnuts then mixed well and baked as directed. They were wonderful sweet and moist. 2 1/2 cups of batter will make about 12 muffins with additions. 1 1/4 cups batter with half the additions will make 6 breakfast muffins which is what I bake in the mornings. 

  

These muffins are great with that same 2 1/2 cups of original batter and a cup of grated carrot, or try some of my canned pineapple zucchini or even just plain zucchini. Or maybe a cup of sweet potatoes grated or a cup of pureed pumpkin. 

A great way to start off the morning or a convenient after school snack with the batter handy in the refrigerator. Even if you don't have a house full of kids bet these won't last 6 weeks at your house either. 

This recipe should make from 4 to 5 dozen regular size muffins . 

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

Autumn

A rainy spell has settled into hickery holler. A cold rain has fallen off and on for the last week including today. In between rains, when the sun does come out, the hills and hollers seem to be on fire with color. The show is here for only a short time until the rain knocks the leaves to the ground and then it will be over until next autumn so we enjoy it while we can. This is one of my favorite times of the year here on the farmstead and I wonder how I survived the South without ever experiencing a true fall show of the colors. Every location I have ever lived in has it's own unique beauty and here is no exception. The sunrises and sunsets on these colors are simply breathtaking.  

And as the leaves fall in the yard we rake and fill the compost piles with as many as possible to add to that supply of compost for next year. A rake that pulls behind the lawn tractor makes a really easy job of getting all those leaves up. 

Our neighbor across the road called and offered us some walnuts as it seems his trees made this year. Mine did not. They are much younger and the late spring snow seems to have pretty well done in the  walnut crop for this year. His bloom at a different time. So O wise One and I went and picked up walnuts and they are now in the gravel driveway to e ran over by the tractor and cars to break off the shells.  

We also picked up our first small bowl of pecans last week.  

We have butchered 18 chickens so far and still have turkeys, rabbits and turtles left to butcher. Lots of good healthy meat and broth is going in the freezer and pantry.  

I also wanted to give a heads up to those of you new to maintaining a pantry. Now is a great time for cutting those baking supply coupons. Things like flour, salt, sugar, condensed and evaporated milk, creamed soups, chocolate chips and yeasts always go on sale this time of year with everyone baking for the holidays. It's a great time to take advantage of those coupons in the Sunday paper and those Holiday sales and stock up for the year.  I bought sugar, flour and some canned milk and chocolate chips to store while it was cheaper and I had coupons. Found some great deals! This is the time of the year to buy sugar especially. 

Also I wanted to give you a heads up that NOW is a great time to order seeds. Many of the seeds companies run clearance sales in the late fall. Some will even put them on ebay for clearance. I bought some small pea seeds at a deep discount and some lettuce seeds. Stored in a cool and dark place they will be ready to plant come March when I need them and at some great prices too. This is a great way to build up that stock of seeds at a savings. Many seeds if stored properly last for years! 

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter