Thread: Getting back to living off the land.....

Good post thanks Flyblown.

Do the pigs in your area spend a lot of time in bracken?

Broad beans are one of our favourites to have emerging from the ground this time of the year. The greens are excellent in salads. Tatsoi grows pretty quickly and might be good to try. Right now we've got a whole lot of freckles lettuce and rocket that have come up all over the place. Another feral green that shows up reliably from now on during the cooler months is Miners lettuce.

@Coote, yes the pigs will spend time in bracken for sure, it’s a dominant plant species in areas of abandoned farmland adjacent to the native blocks, and I frequently see pigs in there. But do they eat bracken? Haven’t a clue. I guess that might affect their flavour.

Of concern to me is the amount of dead animal they get to eat - pig hunters’ livestock dumps which get a steady resupply of sheep, cattle and horses, all the goats we flatten from long range, the deer we cull to waste as well. It’s a veritable smorgasbord of dead ungulates, and they sure don’t last long, a day or two tops for a yearling Angus steer when the pigs are around, for example... It is quite something to watch them demolish a red deer in 6-7 hours. And they like it rotten as...

Kinda puts me off wild pork to be honest.

Whereas the pigs I used to shoot off North Waikato farmland came straight out of the native and onto pasture, they were excellent eating.

I have heard that bracken will affect pork quality. The roots can be starchy and I've certainly seen pig rooting in bracken patches. The content of some of the stomachs of pigs I've gutted looked like it could have included bracken roots/rhizomes whatever they are called.

I seldom eat pig's liver nowadays. I believe that is where any toxins are likely to be in their highest concentration. And I figure that some pigs may have eaten poisoned possums... or even directly consumed a sub-lethal dose of poisoned bait. I don't eat possum livers for the same reason.

Greetings All,
In line with my low input block maintenance regime grass maintenance in the open and treed areas has been delegated to an itinerant landscape specialists. They operate from late winter to early summer and have provided excellent service to date. Early last summer, after negotiations, I extended their contract to include some of the areas closer to the house. Below is a photo of the team enjoying their smoko break. A more permanent arrangement will be organised before they return in a few months.
Regards Grandpamac.

Salad is what food eats..

Originally Posted by Flyblown

This lockdown period has been extremely fulfilling in the culinary sense, as we have been able to prepare a square evening meal for four every night, exclusively with food produced directly from our small block, or hunted by me elsewhere. We made it an objective at the beginning of the lockdown to eat well with what we had, and rely only on bought food for breakfast and a light lunch.

Despite the horrendous drought here the vegetable crop has been outstanding, all the more surprising that we were away for six weeks during December and January and only got the garden watered once, with according to the Met service only two brief showers in addition to that. This has really made us wonder whether we have historically overwatered our vege gardens, considering that many of the vegetables we grow are essentially Mediterranean in origin.

All the beef is homegrown and killed on the block, supplemented by venison, pig and goat. The kids get to eat oxtail, tongue, heart and sweetbreads and generally don’t complain, I like testing them to guide them away from fussiness. We eat a lot of venison mince that we blend with beef mince in a roughly 50-50 mix. We don’t keep chickens unfortunately due to their attractiveness to Staffordshire bull terriers and a very bad stoat and ferret problem which we’ve now pretty much got on top of. The lack of chickens is going to have to change though, and I am thinking about how we can constrain chickens and stop them becoming feathered snacks. Our dogs have a very high prey drive and cannot resist free ranging chickens, as I found out to the dismay of my one mate at his home this past February...

The fruit & vegetables we grow are two varieties of butternuts, gem squash, potatoes, tomatoes, capsicum, chillies, cucumbers (which are “fast” pickled), various beans and beetroots. Relishes are made from sub-standard fruit and the one variety of butternut, lots of vege soups, tomato sauces made and frozen for use as a base in spag bol etc. All the herbs are homegrown.

Highlights are always the venison backstraps and goat curry. Lowlights are generally wild pig - don’t know why but the pigs I have access to are often too “gamey” even for me. Have been wondering how much this is pig diet related. In the past the Kaimai pigs were excellent, but these Ruapehu pigs are a bit iffy. So if there’s one thing we’ve decided to process as dog meat, it’s the current pork stock.

We bake our own bread, cakes and biscuits. We had a fantastic supply of fresh milk from one of our neighbours as their house cow was producing far too much for just them, so we made butter and various milk based dishes like paneer (Indian) and melk-kos (Afrikaans).

Unfortunately we’re heading into winter without as much stored vegetables as I would like, as we’ve never been very good at growing winter veg. But the veg gardens are all freshly cleaned up and tilled, fertilised with cow pats and compost, ready to go. I’ve got my wife to thank for the green fingers, she’s a wonder at getting things going and set up for a long production period, tying the plants up, making wind breaks, keeping everything strong. I’m more of an operations bloke, spade work, weeding, occasional watering. The simple stuff.

Next up is homebrew. It’s something I’ve never done and the info on here in the homebrew thread has got me excited. If I succeed in brewing a palatable pale ale, I’m gonna award myself a medal.

i used to brew beer then i found distilling much more fun. outlay is higher but an 1125ml bottle of rum for $4 makes up for it.

Originally Posted by gonetropo

i used to brew beer then i found distilling much more fun. outlay is higher but an 1125ml bottle of rum for $4 makes up for it.

I'd never have the restraint required at 4 bucks a bottle.

Originally Posted by outlander

I'd never have the restraint required at 4 bucks a bottle.

well whisky works out about $7 so maybe go for that instead

Good post Gonetropo. I'm interested in the comment re feral pork. Ive had some amazing "gifted" wild pork and like you some that the dogs had to be persuaded to even nose. I'm thinking that diet is everything. I love my goat currys - they only eat green stuff. Pigs will scavenge anything so I'm guessing there will be times of the year when the meat will be great perhaps when greens and roots are bountiful and times when it reflects whatever else they get into, like carrion maybe. More research required...

Last night was my first night at home since busting my ankle. Today I felt like baking so went into full Nigella mode. Flicked my hair around, puffed out my chest and tried to look seductive. That was an epic failure so just baked a loaf of sultana bread and my first bacon and egg pie in about 25-years. I bought the pastry; turns out I wasn't in 100% Nigella mode after all......





Oh; and the reason why I won't be doing some hunting for another few months.....

Nice looking texture in that loaf. Do you include any sort of oil in your dough mix? Any lecithin or any other additive?

Nope. It's a no knead loaf. You just 3 cups of high grade flour, 1 tsp dried yeast, 1 tsp salt, 1/3-1/2 cup sultanas 1 3/4 cups water (1 1/2 if no sultanas because they absorb some water). Folded over itself a few times every 20-30mins (3 separate foldings). Left overnight in a bowl with a damp towel overnight. Next morning turn out onto a floured board. fold it half a dozen times, shape it and put it on some baking paper for half an hour or so. Pre-heat the oven at around 220C with a lidded casserole dish/Dutch or camp oven. when hot, take the oven out and put the dough in on the paper. Put the lid on the cooking vessel and bake for 30-mins. Then take the vessel out, remove the lid, take out the paper and put the loaf in for another 10-20mins (no lid) to finish. It's practically fullproof! Having the lid on emulates a bakers steam oven and makes a primo crust

Thanks for that Bumblefoot. I think I'd better try it. Maybe when the grandkids are over for a meal. Much appreciated.

Greetings Bumblefoot,
That looks like a pretty sturdy repair. Take the time needed for your recovery,
Regards Grandpamac.

@grandpamac Thank you; I am. It is healing very well though. But I'm being careful; even though it is damn frustrating! Was in a cast for 6 weeks and then a moon boot for just under 2. They thought it may take 6-weeks but it's making good progress.