Family Traditions I : Butcher Day

After a conversation last week with my husband, I realized my family has some pretty long standing traditions. We have had homemade vegetable soup for 104 straight butcher days (AT LEAST!!!). Two per year for at least as long as my mother has been alive. CRAZY! Then I realized I had better get vegetable soup tutoring soon before it is too late since my grandma is the ONLY one who knows how it is made!!

So I thought it'd be fun blogging about family traditions.

Between Friday and Saturday my family butchered 4 pigs. We do pigs once a year and cows once a year and it is enough to feed our three families. I don't mean to offend any vegans or vegetarians out there, but it is what we do and have done for generations. Stems back to our rural roots and it is a capital F Family Tradition! As crazy as this sounds, we still use the same butchering table that my great-great grandpa used in the late 1800's.

It kind of works like this. Men work in the garage, cutting, sawing, and complaining about their wives. Women work in the basement packaging, complaining about the cut of meats, and complaining about their husbands. Me and sis travel from workplace to workplace, informing one side what the other side has said. Love it.

Let me show you me and sis's fav part of pigs: sausage stuffing.

Step 1: Trim fat and grind pieces in grinder (no pic sorry). That grinder has prob been in the family at least 70 yrs. It is old!!

Step 2: Lindsay mixes in the salt, pepper, and fennel.

Step 3: Use antique sausage stuffer to stuff sausage into casings. Lindsay is a PRO! Grandma aids in putting it on the tray and I turn the handle slow and steady.

Step 4: Package sausage into bags for freezer!! We did 150 lbs yesteday!!! Enough yummy sausage for a year.

There you have it. Bacon and hams cure for awhile and dad cleans up with the powerwasher!

Tell me about some of YOUR family traditions! The weirder the better.

P.S. I promise "Family Traditions II" will be less gross!