Filling the Freezer (Vegetarians, please skip this one...)

It's been a big few weekends for Lucian and his side charcuterie business. Last weekend I knitted quietly on the couch while the kitchen churned out chops and ribs and parts to go for smoking and finally, the sausage stuffing commenced at the end. But this weekend, we all went to a friend's house and helped with their pigs. In other years, Bea has been too little to be left to her own devices so I've always read books or set her up with projects but didn't have to get involved myself. This year though? Bea can entertain herself. I was thinking I was going to have to really try to make myself useful.


Now the boy, he has no trouble making himself useful. He's been helping Lucian plus he's been tagging along with one of his friends to other places where the fall farm business has been going on. So he just jumps right in and knows what to do.

Yours truly, not so much. As it turned out, though, there was enough help that I didn't need to insert my amateur self much. I carried roasts and bacon sides to the brine bucket outside (those things go into a brine first and then get smoked.) And I did a lot of dishes. And cut my finger on a knife. Not using it for anything, no, just missed it in the soapy water and then, well, I found it. I was good in the dish sink -- I'm well-versed in dish doing.

Yesterday I made up thirty pounds of sausage: half Italian and half chorizo. The Italian has fennel seeds, garlic, salt and pepper, a little nutmeg, and cayenne. The chorizo has chili powder, salt, oregano, cumin, cinnamon, and vinegar. I put them in little one and two pound packages and into the freezer. I have to say I was giddy putting those delicious things away for eating over the winter. The long. cold. very long. winter.


There's something incredibly satisfying and comforting in filling up the freezer. Now it is full of sausage, roasts, and when it is all nicely smoked, there will be bacon. Not long ago the chickens went in there, too. Big roasting chickens and bags of thighs and other parts and bags full of bones and other items to make stock with. Plus the tomato sauce I froze, the basil and olive oil frozen hockey puck type things to throw into stews and soups. And the blueberries, don't forget the blueberries. It's good. Very, very good.

*In other good news: yesterday it was SEVENTY DEGREES here!! Above!! Fantastic. *