A while back, I answered an ad on social media offering some coloured ewe lambs. They were Romney Merino cross with Merino fleece. Then her husband changed his mind and wanted to keep them.
Recently, she got in touch with me again, to see if I was still keen for two now hogget ewes. The brown one, she said, had Merino fleece but she thought the motley one had Romney fleece.
I went and had a look at them. The brown one is only brown on the outside. Once you got past the tips, her fleece was black. Right down to the skin. It was glorious. Then I looked at the other ewe. She's kind of off-white with brown legs. She also has Merino fleece. I took them both.
Then she contacted me last week. Did I want her ram? He's the father of the two I've got, but since I have another ram, that's manageable. They are having to move unexpectedly and rather quickly. The price was extremely reasonable, so I said yes.
Then a few days later, she contacted me again. Did I want a ewe with her two lambs for free?
We were planning to reduce our numbers after having so many feed issues last year. Well, there are a few more that we could probably cull out and if it means improving the wool I'm getting, then it's worth it.
They were going to be shorn and drenched over the weekend, ready for me to pick them up the following weekend. Did I also want the fleece?
We've not long had our sheep shorn, I've got three full fadges of fleece waiting for me to wash, spin and process. How much more could I deal with? Hubby was rolling his eyes at me and pointing out how much space I've gained recently by having a clean out and how much I would be losing by taking this.
I asked how many sheep we were talking about. Eight. Eight I can do. Eight is easy. If we're being totally honest, I was given some Merino to spin recently and immediately fell in love with it. It's been hard going back to my Texel fleece, it feels so coarse. I was dying to get some more. Yes please I'll take it.
After the weekend, I got another message. The ram broke out of the enclosure before the shearer got to him and they couldn't get him back in. The shearer is coming back to get him shorn before we pick him up. Oh and by the way, there are ten ewes, not eight, don't ask how they got miscounted, did I want another two for free?
So, for about what you'd pay for a lamb, I'm getting 3 ewes, 2 lambs, a ram and a heap of good fleeces.
Thursday, 5 December 2019
Thursday, 15 August 2019
Sheep and stupidity
Many times, people have said to me that sheep are stupid. Many times, I've disagreed.
I have watched sheep solve problems and get what they want. I've seen them learn. They observe other sheep and follow what works.
A neighbour told me a story about sheep and a cattle stop that I won't forget.
A lot of people use cattle stops where a gate is inconvenient or impractical. Further down our road, there is a road that runs through a paddock often with sheep grazing in it. You can't put a gate across a public road, so there are cattle stops at each end.
For those who are unfamiliar with cattle stops, they're a patch of road that contains a series of steel rails set parallel to each other with a gap between them. Animals can't see exactly where they are placing their hind feet and don't like the way it feels to step on a narrow rail.
This neighbours children didn't like walking over the cattle stop either, so he placed a narrow board over it at one side so the kids could get across.
After about a week, he looked out to find the sheep in his garden. They had watched the kids and were going carefully across the board in single file.
So with the exception of the sheep who can't find the open gate because they are trying to follow their friends down the other side of a fence, I've usually said sheep are smarter than you'd think.
Not anymore. I have one hogget ewe who carries wool that is probably smarter than she is.
Today I untangled her from blackberry for the fifth time in about a month.
Because of feed and parasite issues, I've let them loose in the gully. We don't normally graze the gully as it's a mess of gorse, blackberry and honeysuckle. It's on the list to tidy up, and it gets a bit of work now and then, but it's not a priority until the grazing areas are sorted completely. When we do graze it, it's usually cattle because they do a lot of the work for us.
So this daft ewe has tangled herself up a few times. The first two times weren't too bad. Getting fairly close to her was enough to make her panic and free herself. The next two times were kind of one time twice. I cut the blackberry that was wrapped all around her, pulled the majority of it out of her fleece and she ran headfirst into another big tangle, twisted herself around and I had to do it all over again.
On Monday, I went for a walk to check on my sheep. A combination of lousy weather and a visit from my granddaughter had meant I didn't get a chance over the weekend.
I was one short. I was missing the daft brown hogget ewe. I checked all her usual spots to tangle herself up in and couldn't see any sign of her. I chose not to worry too much, she might come out of the gully when I'm not looking.
Yesterday I put Coco the lamb out with the other sheep during the day. I also put out a feed of sheep nuts which usually brings them running. Still no sign of her.
Today I went for a walk again, and I found her. At first glance, I thought she had finally managed to kill herself, but a closer look showed she was still breathing.
I spent probably half an hour cutting her out of this lot before she wobbled off unsteadily.
I'm putting the pictures out of order because the one that would come up as a thumbnail would probably upset folks who hadn't read it.
Here is the epitome of a stupid sheep.
I have watched sheep solve problems and get what they want. I've seen them learn. They observe other sheep and follow what works.
A neighbour told me a story about sheep and a cattle stop that I won't forget.
A lot of people use cattle stops where a gate is inconvenient or impractical. Further down our road, there is a road that runs through a paddock often with sheep grazing in it. You can't put a gate across a public road, so there are cattle stops at each end.
For those who are unfamiliar with cattle stops, they're a patch of road that contains a series of steel rails set parallel to each other with a gap between them. Animals can't see exactly where they are placing their hind feet and don't like the way it feels to step on a narrow rail.
This neighbours children didn't like walking over the cattle stop either, so he placed a narrow board over it at one side so the kids could get across.
After about a week, he looked out to find the sheep in his garden. They had watched the kids and were going carefully across the board in single file.
So with the exception of the sheep who can't find the open gate because they are trying to follow their friends down the other side of a fence, I've usually said sheep are smarter than you'd think.
Not anymore. I have one hogget ewe who carries wool that is probably smarter than she is.
Today I untangled her from blackberry for the fifth time in about a month.
Because of feed and parasite issues, I've let them loose in the gully. We don't normally graze the gully as it's a mess of gorse, blackberry and honeysuckle. It's on the list to tidy up, and it gets a bit of work now and then, but it's not a priority until the grazing areas are sorted completely. When we do graze it, it's usually cattle because they do a lot of the work for us.
So this daft ewe has tangled herself up a few times. The first two times weren't too bad. Getting fairly close to her was enough to make her panic and free herself. The next two times were kind of one time twice. I cut the blackberry that was wrapped all around her, pulled the majority of it out of her fleece and she ran headfirst into another big tangle, twisted herself around and I had to do it all over again.
On Monday, I went for a walk to check on my sheep. A combination of lousy weather and a visit from my granddaughter had meant I didn't get a chance over the weekend.
I was one short. I was missing the daft brown hogget ewe. I checked all her usual spots to tangle herself up in and couldn't see any sign of her. I chose not to worry too much, she might come out of the gully when I'm not looking.
Yesterday I put Coco the lamb out with the other sheep during the day. I also put out a feed of sheep nuts which usually brings them running. Still no sign of her.
Today I went for a walk again, and I found her. At first glance, I thought she had finally managed to kill herself, but a closer look showed she was still breathing.
I spent probably half an hour cutting her out of this lot before she wobbled off unsteadily.
I'm putting the pictures out of order because the one that would come up as a thumbnail would probably upset folks who hadn't read it.
Here is the epitome of a stupid sheep.
 |
| After untangling |
 |
| This is her as I found her |
Thursday, 11 July 2019
Another Mild Winter So Far, Sheep and Parasites
Here we are, approaching the middle of Winter and it's lovely out. We've had maybe a handful of frosts so far, instead of the usual two months of nearly every day. The grass almost seems to be starting it's Spring Flush.
As a Summer lover, I should be happy about this. I much prefer the heat to the cold. But I'm not happy. This has caused me issues and worries me about the next month or so.
Many plants that I like to grow need a good freeze every year.
The volumes of parasites and vermin are usually lowered when we've had a proper cold Winter.
Last week, half my sheep went down scouring. I had to physically pick them up off the ground where they'd become cast, my old ram took four or five attempts before he could take more than one step and collapse again. Several had become quite skinny, with spines and hips showing through their thick Winter fleece.
My Wonderful Neighbour recommended opening up the gully for them, as there was plenty of good grass in there and if they've got good grass in the open, they should be less likely to get stuck in the blackberry. Give them some hay right now, it will bind them up a bit. He also recommended drenching with a double dose for the scouring ones.
I went out with a bale of hay and split it between my two flocks. That's when I found Lenny. I thought he was dead. He was down, scouring and the magpies had been pecking at his eye. I got him at least on his belly, instead of his side and surrounded him with hay.
I went to our farm supplies store and had a lovely long chat with the lady there. She recommended pouring pineapple juice into Lenny. They love the taste and it's filled with sugar. That should give him some energy to be getting up and about. Give them sheep nuts too. And this drench is good, it also contains a dose of minerals, don't double dose any of them. Leave Lenny until tomorrow.
The general consensus is parasite numbers have gotten very bad as a result of our third mild Winter in a row. Usually a few decent frosts will kill off 95% of the worm eggs and larvae in the grass. The lady at the farm supplies store also said there seems to be a new worm around. Bigger farms than mine with far more experienced farmers have been having issues with their sheep suddenly going down. Enough for them to call vets in.
I also got Cider Vinegar to go in their water troughs. I have used it for years without any problems, mostly because until a year ago, I didn't have yards to contain and drench my animals. The vinegar kills most parasites and the parasites don't become resistant to it. I hadn't dosed the water troughs in months though, partly because I'd run out and forgotten that I'd run out and partly because I'd just spent six weeks not allowed to lift a finger for myself (recovering from surgery) and so most of the little things I would normally see and do had started to slip. Hubby did a wonderful job milking the cow and feeding the chickens, but he doesn't have the habit of looking out into the paddocks as he's doing the chores and he doesn't stop and do a head count of the sheep when he can see them.
I poured pineapple juice down Lenny, I gave him sheep nuts. I went back to check on him frequently and eventually got him up and moving. It was slow and painful, but I was able to get him under cover on a bed of hay and with a handful of sheep nuts to munch on.
The next day I went out to drench them. I found one of my wethers down and scouring. I drenched him while I was picking him up. He bounced back rather quickly. I worked my way through the rest of my animals, although I couldn't get one of my ewes into the yards. She wouldn't follow the rest of her flock, she ran into the old turkey shed in the next paddock (we were running them through this one to get to the yards) instead. Since the shed has a narrow doorway, Hubby went into the shed to try to catch her and I blocked the doorway. She ran full force, grumpy, stroppy force, into my kneecap. I still have a nasty bruise. I managed to pin her against the side and drench her there though. I had to pick a couple of the hoggets up, but they kept going once they were up.
Lenny was up and about. He seemed to spend the day going from the water trough to the bin of sheep nuts and back again.
I spent a couple of hours reading up on parasites and learning about their life cycles, which animals are more prone to them and under what conditions. There's a wonderful resource available as a pdf that you can find here. It gives you more information than you probably ever wanted to know, but much of it is very useful to someone like me.
The next morning, Lenny was down again and not able to get up. I tried picking him up, but he couldn't quite get his feet under him. The wounded eye was weeping. He'd stopped scouring and seemed a little bloated. I poured more pineapple juice down him. He seemed quite keen for it, although his tummy was making some alarming noises after he'd finished.
After I'd finished the pineapple juice, I went back every few hours to give him some electrolytes. I thought they'd give him the nutrition he needed while allowing whatever was bothering his stomachs to pass. The last time I went out, late in the day, he'd gone.
I've become pretty good at not taking livestock deaths personally, but I cried. I'd just fought for three days to keep him alive and I failed. I'd only had Lenny for a few months, he came to us as a fat pet hogget and we lost him.
I've had a few conversations with people who know more about sheep than I do (nearly everyone who has sheep) and there have been a few suggestions floated. One is that my sheep are mostly immune to whatever bugs we have here and he wasn't. It affected him the most because he'd come in from elsewhere. Another is that he brought the new bug with him. Another is shit happens, if you have live stock, you have dead stock and you can't win them all.
Sigh. I just hope that we have his offspring brewing in the girls he'd been running with.
Now. I'm going to take you back in time by a week. Yes, I know this is out of order, but bear with me.
The week before, I was out trying my hand at doing my animal chores with help and supervision (mostly in the form of "don't lift that") from Hubby. I glanced out over our paddocks as is my habit and asked, "Is that a dead sheep?"
We went for a walk and found Molly, one of my older ewes. She was alive, but on her side and the hawks had been attacking her face. She showed no signs of scouring. I tried to get her on her feet. I failed. I turned her around at least so her head was uphill. Her gums were white which isn't a good sign. She was skinny but not scouring. I tried to tempt her with handfuls of fresh grass and electrolytes, but we lost her. It's been suggested that she might have had a heart condition or something - the lack of scouring removes many diseases from the probable cause of death list.
I moved the other sheep from her paddock, and in doing so found an abandoned lamb. Two of my ewes showed signs of having lambed, Nibbles had a healthy fat white lamb running around her and Peg had blood down her back legs and tail. Nibbles' lamb looked to be a couple of days old and this one was brand new, bright fresh navel string and all. I picked it up and took it over to the sheep, it bounced around crying and tried to feed off most of them. They all either ran away or beat him up.
I took him up to the house and made up a bottle. I thought maybe give him a good feed and then take him back and see if Mum will take him then. I was fairly sure he was Peg's, but she had hardly any udder and was looking a little rough too. Each time I took him near the sheep, they'd run away or knock him over. And then he'd follow me around head-butting my legs and tripping me up. I gained a pet lamb.
My darling granddaughter Miss Two named him Coco and he's still doing fine. He outgrew the box in the lounge rather quickly and had to move out to the pen in the milking shed - hastily cleaned up to remove the last of the pig poo and a bed of hay laid down. So to cheer up a hard post to make, here are some pictures of Coco. This is why he came at the end.
As a Summer lover, I should be happy about this. I much prefer the heat to the cold. But I'm not happy. This has caused me issues and worries me about the next month or so.
Many plants that I like to grow need a good freeze every year.
The volumes of parasites and vermin are usually lowered when we've had a proper cold Winter.
Last week, half my sheep went down scouring. I had to physically pick them up off the ground where they'd become cast, my old ram took four or five attempts before he could take more than one step and collapse again. Several had become quite skinny, with spines and hips showing through their thick Winter fleece.
My Wonderful Neighbour recommended opening up the gully for them, as there was plenty of good grass in there and if they've got good grass in the open, they should be less likely to get stuck in the blackberry. Give them some hay right now, it will bind them up a bit. He also recommended drenching with a double dose for the scouring ones.
I went out with a bale of hay and split it between my two flocks. That's when I found Lenny. I thought he was dead. He was down, scouring and the magpies had been pecking at his eye. I got him at least on his belly, instead of his side and surrounded him with hay.
I went to our farm supplies store and had a lovely long chat with the lady there. She recommended pouring pineapple juice into Lenny. They love the taste and it's filled with sugar. That should give him some energy to be getting up and about. Give them sheep nuts too. And this drench is good, it also contains a dose of minerals, don't double dose any of them. Leave Lenny until tomorrow.
The general consensus is parasite numbers have gotten very bad as a result of our third mild Winter in a row. Usually a few decent frosts will kill off 95% of the worm eggs and larvae in the grass. The lady at the farm supplies store also said there seems to be a new worm around. Bigger farms than mine with far more experienced farmers have been having issues with their sheep suddenly going down. Enough for them to call vets in.
I also got Cider Vinegar to go in their water troughs. I have used it for years without any problems, mostly because until a year ago, I didn't have yards to contain and drench my animals. The vinegar kills most parasites and the parasites don't become resistant to it. I hadn't dosed the water troughs in months though, partly because I'd run out and forgotten that I'd run out and partly because I'd just spent six weeks not allowed to lift a finger for myself (recovering from surgery) and so most of the little things I would normally see and do had started to slip. Hubby did a wonderful job milking the cow and feeding the chickens, but he doesn't have the habit of looking out into the paddocks as he's doing the chores and he doesn't stop and do a head count of the sheep when he can see them.
I poured pineapple juice down Lenny, I gave him sheep nuts. I went back to check on him frequently and eventually got him up and moving. It was slow and painful, but I was able to get him under cover on a bed of hay and with a handful of sheep nuts to munch on.
The next day I went out to drench them. I found one of my wethers down and scouring. I drenched him while I was picking him up. He bounced back rather quickly. I worked my way through the rest of my animals, although I couldn't get one of my ewes into the yards. She wouldn't follow the rest of her flock, she ran into the old turkey shed in the next paddock (we were running them through this one to get to the yards) instead. Since the shed has a narrow doorway, Hubby went into the shed to try to catch her and I blocked the doorway. She ran full force, grumpy, stroppy force, into my kneecap. I still have a nasty bruise. I managed to pin her against the side and drench her there though. I had to pick a couple of the hoggets up, but they kept going once they were up.
Lenny was up and about. He seemed to spend the day going from the water trough to the bin of sheep nuts and back again.
I spent a couple of hours reading up on parasites and learning about their life cycles, which animals are more prone to them and under what conditions. There's a wonderful resource available as a pdf that you can find here. It gives you more information than you probably ever wanted to know, but much of it is very useful to someone like me.
The next morning, Lenny was down again and not able to get up. I tried picking him up, but he couldn't quite get his feet under him. The wounded eye was weeping. He'd stopped scouring and seemed a little bloated. I poured more pineapple juice down him. He seemed quite keen for it, although his tummy was making some alarming noises after he'd finished.
After I'd finished the pineapple juice, I went back every few hours to give him some electrolytes. I thought they'd give him the nutrition he needed while allowing whatever was bothering his stomachs to pass. The last time I went out, late in the day, he'd gone.
I've become pretty good at not taking livestock deaths personally, but I cried. I'd just fought for three days to keep him alive and I failed. I'd only had Lenny for a few months, he came to us as a fat pet hogget and we lost him.
I've had a few conversations with people who know more about sheep than I do (nearly everyone who has sheep) and there have been a few suggestions floated. One is that my sheep are mostly immune to whatever bugs we have here and he wasn't. It affected him the most because he'd come in from elsewhere. Another is that he brought the new bug with him. Another is shit happens, if you have live stock, you have dead stock and you can't win them all.
Sigh. I just hope that we have his offspring brewing in the girls he'd been running with.
Now. I'm going to take you back in time by a week. Yes, I know this is out of order, but bear with me.
The week before, I was out trying my hand at doing my animal chores with help and supervision (mostly in the form of "don't lift that") from Hubby. I glanced out over our paddocks as is my habit and asked, "Is that a dead sheep?"
We went for a walk and found Molly, one of my older ewes. She was alive, but on her side and the hawks had been attacking her face. She showed no signs of scouring. I tried to get her on her feet. I failed. I turned her around at least so her head was uphill. Her gums were white which isn't a good sign. She was skinny but not scouring. I tried to tempt her with handfuls of fresh grass and electrolytes, but we lost her. It's been suggested that she might have had a heart condition or something - the lack of scouring removes many diseases from the probable cause of death list.
I moved the other sheep from her paddock, and in doing so found an abandoned lamb. Two of my ewes showed signs of having lambed, Nibbles had a healthy fat white lamb running around her and Peg had blood down her back legs and tail. Nibbles' lamb looked to be a couple of days old and this one was brand new, bright fresh navel string and all. I picked it up and took it over to the sheep, it bounced around crying and tried to feed off most of them. They all either ran away or beat him up.
I took him up to the house and made up a bottle. I thought maybe give him a good feed and then take him back and see if Mum will take him then. I was fairly sure he was Peg's, but she had hardly any udder and was looking a little rough too. Each time I took him near the sheep, they'd run away or knock him over. And then he'd follow me around head-butting my legs and tripping me up. I gained a pet lamb.
My darling granddaughter Miss Two named him Coco and he's still doing fine. He outgrew the box in the lounge rather quickly and had to move out to the pen in the milking shed - hastily cleaned up to remove the last of the pig poo and a bed of hay laid down. So to cheer up a hard post to make, here are some pictures of Coco. This is why he came at the end.
 |
| Two days old, exploring the lawn and garden. |
 |
| At about a week old, in the shed. |
Wednesday, 29 May 2019
Meet Lenny
 |
| Lenny |
For the past year, I have been thinking about the situation with my sheep. Ramuel Jackson is now the sire of half of my ewes. Opinions differ on whether inbreeding fathers over daughters is okay. It seems to be a standard practice in some areas, or ignored until lambs start showing deficiencies.
I have issues with this. I personally find such inbreeding distasteful and try to avoid it. I know that the sheep probably don't care, it's my issue.
The first and obvious solution is to get a new ram.
But what to do with Ramuel Jackson? I could try to sell him, but I can't give many details at all about him. I don't know his age. I don't know his breed for certain, the best I can do is go by my shearer's guess that he's a Romney. And not that many people are interested in a coloured ram. I'm too much of a soft touch to have him slaughtered for dog food.
It had occurred to me to split my flock. Ramuel could continue to service my older ewes. They're all white and not related to him. While his daughters could run with a new ram. This would mean the new ram's flock would continue to grow every year but I would have to find another solution for the new ram's daughters as they'd be Ramuel's granddaughters.
I have dithered, undecided for far too long.
Then recently I saw a post on facebook offering two young rams for sale. They're two out of a set of triplets, purebred Suffolk and fine looking boys. I did some quick research about the Suffolk breed. Good hardy sheep, mostly meat producers and their wool is approximately mid-range for fineness, rating better than Romney. I enquired, we chatted and a week later, Lenny arrived.
Lenny is friendly and has been almost a pet. His previous owner was a little sad to see him go, although she accepted that she couldn't keep him. Both he and his brother Benny had been showing interest in their ewes, all of which they were related to.
I think she felt a little hurt at how he ran to the fence, calling to the ewes in another paddock and wouldn't come back to say goodbye, but at the same time I think she was relieved to see him so happy to meet some new sheep.
We hadn't split our flock before his arrival. So while we kept Lenny in the paddock he arrived in, we ran the others through our new yards. We also separated last years wethers from the others to make it easier when we call the homekill man in.
 |
| Lenny and his girls |
We're looking forward to seeing what kind of offspring we get this year from Lenny.
 |
| Lenny and Beyonce |
Friday, 29 March 2019
Sweet Chilli Sauce
Hubby loves sweet chilli sauce. Last year he asked me why I don't make it for him. Well, um, I guess it's because we don't grow chillies?
So we bought some chilli plants in spring and Hubby planted them among the capsicums and tomatoes. He thought he'd kept hold of the labels telling us what type of chillies and peppers we'd bought, but it would seem not. Or if he did, we have no idea where they've gotten to. We seem to have a mix of banana peppers, bell peppers, long red chillies and some that look like a small bell pepper - a little smaller than a golf ball.
Since the chillies have started ripening, I looked for recipes for Sweet Chilli Sauce. I found one embedded in a blog that seemed great on the surface, but as I got deeper, it used Sambal Oelek, a pickled chilli jam, that I don't have, instead of chillis which I do have and want to use. Using them was kind of the point of the exercise. So I carried on looking.
I found one on Taste.com.au, it seemed simple enough so I thought I'd try it.
The only problem was the proportions. My seven chillies weighed a grand total of 40g, the recipe called for 500g. That was quite a bit different. So I added approximately 60g of capsicum to make it up to 100g, much easier to convert the recipe then.
It cooked up quite quickly, I didn't simmer it for the full 30 minutes in the recipe and ended up with about a cup of hard chilli jam. A very hard chilli jam that was almost inedible. The tiniest bit on the edge of a teaspoon was enough to set your mouth on fire.
So I left it overnight while I considered my options. Today, I blitzed up two whole bell peppers and made it up with the full amount of white vinegar and sugar in the recipe, as the sugar dissolved, I added my hard fiery chilli jam from yesterday and stirred it around until it dissolved too.
After a taste test, I added more sugar.
We've tested it tonight and it's sweet and it's spicy. It's got a nice bite of heat to it without being overpowering.
So now I'm watching my chilli plants so I can make more.
Sweet Chilli Sauce
50g hot chilli peppers
2 whole red bell peppers
3 large cloves garlic
750 ml white vinegar
3 1/2 cups white sugar
Halve and deseed the chillis and peppers. Put into food processor with garlic and a little vinegar. Blitz until almost pureed. Put into a saucepan with the remaining vinegar and sugar.
Heat slowly, stirring constantly until the sugar has all dissolved.
Bring to the boil, then turn down heat and simmer until it starts to thicken. Taste test and add sugar if needed.
Be careful not to allow it to thicken too much - the sauce should still run freely when cold.
So we bought some chilli plants in spring and Hubby planted them among the capsicums and tomatoes. He thought he'd kept hold of the labels telling us what type of chillies and peppers we'd bought, but it would seem not. Or if he did, we have no idea where they've gotten to. We seem to have a mix of banana peppers, bell peppers, long red chillies and some that look like a small bell pepper - a little smaller than a golf ball.
Since the chillies have started ripening, I looked for recipes for Sweet Chilli Sauce. I found one embedded in a blog that seemed great on the surface, but as I got deeper, it used Sambal Oelek, a pickled chilli jam, that I don't have, instead of chillis which I do have and want to use. Using them was kind of the point of the exercise. So I carried on looking.
I found one on Taste.com.au, it seemed simple enough so I thought I'd try it.
The only problem was the proportions. My seven chillies weighed a grand total of 40g, the recipe called for 500g. That was quite a bit different. So I added approximately 60g of capsicum to make it up to 100g, much easier to convert the recipe then.
It cooked up quite quickly, I didn't simmer it for the full 30 minutes in the recipe and ended up with about a cup of hard chilli jam. A very hard chilli jam that was almost inedible. The tiniest bit on the edge of a teaspoon was enough to set your mouth on fire.
So I left it overnight while I considered my options. Today, I blitzed up two whole bell peppers and made it up with the full amount of white vinegar and sugar in the recipe, as the sugar dissolved, I added my hard fiery chilli jam from yesterday and stirred it around until it dissolved too.
After a taste test, I added more sugar.
We've tested it tonight and it's sweet and it's spicy. It's got a nice bite of heat to it without being overpowering.
So now I'm watching my chilli plants so I can make more.
Sweet Chilli Sauce
50g hot chilli peppers
2 whole red bell peppers
3 large cloves garlic
750 ml white vinegar
3 1/2 cups white sugar
Halve and deseed the chillis and peppers. Put into food processor with garlic and a little vinegar. Blitz until almost pureed. Put into a saucepan with the remaining vinegar and sugar.
Heat slowly, stirring constantly until the sugar has all dissolved.
Bring to the boil, then turn down heat and simmer until it starts to thicken. Taste test and add sugar if needed.
Be careful not to allow it to thicken too much - the sauce should still run freely when cold.
Tuesday, 19 March 2019
Doing Things With Peaches!
A workmate and good friend of Hubby's has a very prolific black boy peach tree. Every year we're given peaches and when we have pigs, buckets of bruised and windfall peaches. Have you ever seen a pig eating these? It looks like they've been taking big chunks out of each other, dark purple-red peach flesh dripping down their jaws. It's really quite disturbing.
Hubby got these on Friday, the same day as his motorbike came back from the shop. Our plan was for him to bring the motorbike home and as I was going into Christchurch for the weekend, I'd drop him back at work Friday night to bring his car home.
With the Mosque shootings on Friday afternoon, all those plans changed. We didn't go back for the car (with a bag of peaches sitting in it) until late Sunday afternoon. Probably half of the bag has gone to the chickens and they look just as dreadful eating them as the pigs did.
So today I started to do things with peaches.
Previously, I have bottled them in a light syrup. I think I still have a few jars in the depths of my pantry, we don't eat fruit this way very often. A few years ago, I cut them up and froze them. They're still there in the freezer too. I have to move them now and then searching for other things.
I wanted something I was sure I would use.
Out came the recipe books and searches through their dessert chapters. The old books, which are usually my go-to for anything like this, yielded nothing that excited me. I considered the peach souffle, but as I've never made a souffle of any sort in my life before, I chose to try it another time with a simpler version. Peach Flummery sounded interesting, but I didn't have enough cream or gelatine on hand.
Into the bigger, flasher and newer cookbooks I dove. One had peach muffins. The next had a peach crumble. We like crumbles, they're simple and easy and adaptable. I can freeze them.
The original recipe and inspiration came from River Cottage Gluten Free. I'm a little wary of this book these days. I made a cake from it about six months ago that had a lot of 'mix x, y and z together in a small bowl, then put aside'. Six different bowls and a saucepan were required for this cake! The cake was okay, but not anything overly special. So I read through the recipe carefully, looking for sneaky over the top dish usage.
I didn't have all of the ingredients, but crumbles are fairly adaptable. Below is my interpretation.
Peach Crumble
Peach Filling
Approx 800g peaches, stoned and cut into chunks.
Brown sugar to taste (depending on how sweet the peaches are)
30g butter
Crumble Topping
150g hazelnut meal
75g brown sugar
30g sorgham flour or psyllium husk
30g potato starch
1 tsp ground cinnamon
60g butter
Preheat the oven to 180 deg Celsius.
Put the filling ingredients into a saucepan. Heat gently until the peaches have softened and the butter and sugar have formed a thick sauce.
Put the dry crumble ingredients into a food processor and blitz to mix. Add butter and process until butter is fully rubbed in.
Pour or spoon filling into dish and spread crumble over top. I like to get handfuls of the crumble and sprinkle it around and around until the fruit is completely covered.
Bake for 40 minutes. Best served warm.
Hubby got these on Friday, the same day as his motorbike came back from the shop. Our plan was for him to bring the motorbike home and as I was going into Christchurch for the weekend, I'd drop him back at work Friday night to bring his car home.
With the Mosque shootings on Friday afternoon, all those plans changed. We didn't go back for the car (with a bag of peaches sitting in it) until late Sunday afternoon. Probably half of the bag has gone to the chickens and they look just as dreadful eating them as the pigs did.
So today I started to do things with peaches.
I wanted something I was sure I would use.
Out came the recipe books and searches through their dessert chapters. The old books, which are usually my go-to for anything like this, yielded nothing that excited me. I considered the peach souffle, but as I've never made a souffle of any sort in my life before, I chose to try it another time with a simpler version. Peach Flummery sounded interesting, but I didn't have enough cream or gelatine on hand.
Into the bigger, flasher and newer cookbooks I dove. One had peach muffins. The next had a peach crumble. We like crumbles, they're simple and easy and adaptable. I can freeze them.
The original recipe and inspiration came from River Cottage Gluten Free. I'm a little wary of this book these days. I made a cake from it about six months ago that had a lot of 'mix x, y and z together in a small bowl, then put aside'. Six different bowls and a saucepan were required for this cake! The cake was okay, but not anything overly special. So I read through the recipe carefully, looking for sneaky over the top dish usage.
I didn't have all of the ingredients, but crumbles are fairly adaptable. Below is my interpretation.
Peach Crumble
Peach Filling
Approx 800g peaches, stoned and cut into chunks.
Brown sugar to taste (depending on how sweet the peaches are)
30g butter
Crumble Topping
150g hazelnut meal
75g brown sugar
30g sorgham flour or psyllium husk
30g potato starch
1 tsp ground cinnamon
60g butter
Preheat the oven to 180 deg Celsius.
Put the filling ingredients into a saucepan. Heat gently until the peaches have softened and the butter and sugar have formed a thick sauce.
Put the dry crumble ingredients into a food processor and blitz to mix. Add butter and process until butter is fully rubbed in.
Pour or spoon filling into dish and spread crumble over top. I like to get handfuls of the crumble and sprinkle it around and around until the fruit is completely covered.
Bake for 40 minutes. Best served warm.
Thursday, 14 March 2019
Birds and Fruit
Our Summer has been pretty dry and harsh this year. I don't think we quite managed drought status and our humidity has been much higher than is normal. Our temperatures have certainly been up there and I think officially it was the third hottest on record.
This year though, the birds seem to be struggling. Their numbers appear the same, (despite having outdoor cats) but their preferred diet seems to have changed.
We will have no grapes this year. We had masses of bunches as they were growing. They are only just ripening now, there's the faintest hint of purple starting to show and there are maybe 5 bunches left. When you go anywhere near the grapevines, at least 10 blackbirds and thrushes fly out from it.
We didn't get any nectarines. They weren't ripe yet either. I think it took the birds about a week to clean an entire tree out.
My little apple tree was doing well. The apples were ripening and I'd been picking a few as they reddened. I was giving the small ones or partially eaten ones to the horse next door. He'd wait for me by the fence every day on my feeding rounds, patiently eyeballing me and pointedly looking at the apple tree. There were about 20 left, mostly looking about ready to pick, so I decided that was tomorrow's job. Only the next day there were 4. I could only see 3 cores and remains on the grass beneath the tree.
If it wasn't for all the birds visibly attacking my bigger apple tree, I would have believed that someone had come and stolen them. My bigger apple tree was losing at least 15 whole apples a day.
We missed out on the plums. Strong winds took care of them. The late winds also took the first apricots we've ever had off our young tree.
I've never seen anything quite like it. Well, I've seen the grapes go to the birds before, but not the other fruit and certainly not the way they're cleaning them up completely. I haven't decided how much I begrudge the birds my fruit. I, at least, have the option to go and get it from other sources.
This year though, the birds seem to be struggling. Their numbers appear the same, (despite having outdoor cats) but their preferred diet seems to have changed.
We will have no grapes this year. We had masses of bunches as they were growing. They are only just ripening now, there's the faintest hint of purple starting to show and there are maybe 5 bunches left. When you go anywhere near the grapevines, at least 10 blackbirds and thrushes fly out from it.
We didn't get any nectarines. They weren't ripe yet either. I think it took the birds about a week to clean an entire tree out.
My little apple tree was doing well. The apples were ripening and I'd been picking a few as they reddened. I was giving the small ones or partially eaten ones to the horse next door. He'd wait for me by the fence every day on my feeding rounds, patiently eyeballing me and pointedly looking at the apple tree. There were about 20 left, mostly looking about ready to pick, so I decided that was tomorrow's job. Only the next day there were 4. I could only see 3 cores and remains on the grass beneath the tree.
If it wasn't for all the birds visibly attacking my bigger apple tree, I would have believed that someone had come and stolen them. My bigger apple tree was losing at least 15 whole apples a day.
We missed out on the plums. Strong winds took care of them. The late winds also took the first apricots we've ever had off our young tree.
Thursday, 7 March 2019
Easy Cheesy
There are a few simple and quick cheeses that anyone can make. Here I've given recipes for my favourite three.
These cheeses don't require culture or specialised equipment, most ingredients are things that can easily be found in the average kitchen.
Be aware that your finished cheese will be about 10% of the milk you start with. If you start with 2 litres of milk, you can expect approximately 200g of cheese.
Queso Blanco
Queso Blanco is very much like ricotta, in the process and in the finished product.
Bring milk to the boil, stirring to avoid scorching as much as possible. Very slowly pour in white vinegar, while stirring, until milk curdles and separates. Make sure that it has separated completely into white fluffy curds and green whey. If it's just like grainy thick milk, add more vinegar and keep stirring.
Let sit for about two minutes then pour through a cloth lined colander. Strain until there is no more liquid to come out.
Add salt, garlic and/or olive oil to taste and use like ricotta.
This doesn't keep very well, I'd recommend using it within a week.
Cumin Paneer
I make this one often for my Hindi friends. I'm told it can be frozen, but I haven't tried freezing it myself.
The recipe I started with said to strain it through a cloth lined colander, twist the cloth around and weight it down. This made the finished cheese a rounded ball. My Hindi friends are used to buying it in a square shape, and say this makes it easier to cut into cubes and use. My solution was to use a cloth to line a feta basket and make cube paneers.
The addition of salt and cumin not only gives this rather bland cheese some flavour, it extends it's keeping time. This should stay good for about 2 weeks.
My original recipe used lemon juice. I found myself out of lemons at one point, but my lime tree was so prolific, they were falling all over the ground underneath the tree. So I tried lime juice and it has worked just as well.
For every 2l of milk, add a tsp of non-iodised salt and a tbsp of cumin seeds. Bring to the boil gently, stirring constantly to minimise scorching. Let it boil for 3 minutes before adding lemon or lime juice. Pour citrus juice in slowly until milk curdles clearly into white fluffy curds and green whey.
Ladle into a cloth lined colander (or cloth lined feta basket). It may take some time for it all to settle, so be prepared to come back every so often to add more, but try and get it all in while it's still hot.
Fold cloth over and turn upside down in the basket. If you can find something square to weigh it down, this makes a better, firmer cheese.
Mozzarella
True Mozzarella is made with buffalo milk. This recipe uses ordinary cows milk. This recipe also requires liquid rennet. There are several varieties available in more places than you'd think. I often buy mine from Bin Inn (various cheese cultures and equipment can also be bought there) but there are plenty of websites that sell rennet fairly cheaply. Make sure that you are buying either calf rennet or vegetarian rennet and not junket rennet. Junket rennet is often sweetened although most modern recipes for junket seem to use normal rennet.
I found that mozzarella doesn't keep very well, so I grate it and freeze it in zip lock bags. This makes it easy to use on pizza and the like.
For every 2l of milk, you will need 1/2 tsp of citric acid.
Dissolve citric acid in 1/4 cup of lukewarm water and stir into milk. Heat milk to 31 deg C, stirring gently to prevent scorching.
Dilute 1/4 tsp of liquid rennet in 1/4 cup of cool water, add to milk and stir in gently.
Cover and let set for 30 mins.
Check for a clean break. This means run your knife through the centre of your curd and then either lift the split or pull to one side. If a clean break has been achieved, the two sides should part easily and hold their shape. The curd won't be firm, but will hold. If the curd seems a bit soft or not set, let it sit for another 15 mins.
Using a long bladed knife, cut the curd into half-inch cubes. I cut front to back and side to side, then turn my knife onto a fairly steep angle and cut the horizontal lines on an angle. I go back and forth with the knife about half an inch deeper down the side each pass. It doesn't make true cubes, but cuts them into roughly the right size. I turn the pot and do this four times to be sure I've got them all. Let stand for 5 mins.
Place pot over low heat and slowly bring the curds up to 41 deg C, making sure it takes 20 mins to get there. The curd will have cooled slightly from it's original temperature, but you're looking at approximately 1 degree raised every two minutes. Don't let it warm up too quickly. Stir constantly while heating. Turn off the heat and stir for another 20 mins. Let stand for 5 mins.
In another pot, bring fresh water to the boil. At least 2 litres but 4 often works better. Add non-iodised salt at a rate of 1 1/2 tbsp per litre and stir until dissolved.
Drain whey from curd through a cloth lined colander. Let the curds drain for 15 mins.
Place curds onto a clean chopping board and cut into 1 inch strips. Place into a large bowl and pour hot salted water over.
Wearing heat resistant gloves, or using a wooden spoon, work the strips under the water until they become soft and pliable. Knead, pull, stretch and fold it back on itself. Keep working until the cheese becomes long and stretchy, it will also become shiny and smooth. Work all the strips into a single large ball or into small bocconcini sized pieces.
I found another recipe that recommends microwaving the curds in 30 second bursts until an internal temperature of 72 deg C has been reached. I have used this method and it works, but can be messy and frustrating.
Place the cheese into a bowl of ice water for 5 mins. Drain on a paper towel.
Enjoy simple cheese making!
These cheeses don't require culture or specialised equipment, most ingredients are things that can easily be found in the average kitchen.
Be aware that your finished cheese will be about 10% of the milk you start with. If you start with 2 litres of milk, you can expect approximately 200g of cheese.
 |
| In the first two recipes, the curdled milk should look like this. |
Queso Blanco
Queso Blanco is very much like ricotta, in the process and in the finished product.
Bring milk to the boil, stirring to avoid scorching as much as possible. Very slowly pour in white vinegar, while stirring, until milk curdles and separates. Make sure that it has separated completely into white fluffy curds and green whey. If it's just like grainy thick milk, add more vinegar and keep stirring.
Let sit for about two minutes then pour through a cloth lined colander. Strain until there is no more liquid to come out.
Add salt, garlic and/or olive oil to taste and use like ricotta.
This doesn't keep very well, I'd recommend using it within a week.
Cumin Paneer
I make this one often for my Hindi friends. I'm told it can be frozen, but I haven't tried freezing it myself.
The recipe I started with said to strain it through a cloth lined colander, twist the cloth around and weight it down. This made the finished cheese a rounded ball. My Hindi friends are used to buying it in a square shape, and say this makes it easier to cut into cubes and use. My solution was to use a cloth to line a feta basket and make cube paneers.
The addition of salt and cumin not only gives this rather bland cheese some flavour, it extends it's keeping time. This should stay good for about 2 weeks.
My original recipe used lemon juice. I found myself out of lemons at one point, but my lime tree was so prolific, they were falling all over the ground underneath the tree. So I tried lime juice and it has worked just as well.
For every 2l of milk, add a tsp of non-iodised salt and a tbsp of cumin seeds. Bring to the boil gently, stirring constantly to minimise scorching. Let it boil for 3 minutes before adding lemon or lime juice. Pour citrus juice in slowly until milk curdles clearly into white fluffy curds and green whey.
Ladle into a cloth lined colander (or cloth lined feta basket). It may take some time for it all to settle, so be prepared to come back every so often to add more, but try and get it all in while it's still hot.
Fold cloth over and turn upside down in the basket. If you can find something square to weigh it down, this makes a better, firmer cheese.
Mozzarella
True Mozzarella is made with buffalo milk. This recipe uses ordinary cows milk. This recipe also requires liquid rennet. There are several varieties available in more places than you'd think. I often buy mine from Bin Inn (various cheese cultures and equipment can also be bought there) but there are plenty of websites that sell rennet fairly cheaply. Make sure that you are buying either calf rennet or vegetarian rennet and not junket rennet. Junket rennet is often sweetened although most modern recipes for junket seem to use normal rennet.
I found that mozzarella doesn't keep very well, so I grate it and freeze it in zip lock bags. This makes it easy to use on pizza and the like.
For every 2l of milk, you will need 1/2 tsp of citric acid.
Dissolve citric acid in 1/4 cup of lukewarm water and stir into milk. Heat milk to 31 deg C, stirring gently to prevent scorching.
Dilute 1/4 tsp of liquid rennet in 1/4 cup of cool water, add to milk and stir in gently.
Cover and let set for 30 mins.
Check for a clean break. This means run your knife through the centre of your curd and then either lift the split or pull to one side. If a clean break has been achieved, the two sides should part easily and hold their shape. The curd won't be firm, but will hold. If the curd seems a bit soft or not set, let it sit for another 15 mins.
Using a long bladed knife, cut the curd into half-inch cubes. I cut front to back and side to side, then turn my knife onto a fairly steep angle and cut the horizontal lines on an angle. I go back and forth with the knife about half an inch deeper down the side each pass. It doesn't make true cubes, but cuts them into roughly the right size. I turn the pot and do this four times to be sure I've got them all. Let stand for 5 mins.
Place pot over low heat and slowly bring the curds up to 41 deg C, making sure it takes 20 mins to get there. The curd will have cooled slightly from it's original temperature, but you're looking at approximately 1 degree raised every two minutes. Don't let it warm up too quickly. Stir constantly while heating. Turn off the heat and stir for another 20 mins. Let stand for 5 mins.
In another pot, bring fresh water to the boil. At least 2 litres but 4 often works better. Add non-iodised salt at a rate of 1 1/2 tbsp per litre and stir until dissolved.
Drain whey from curd through a cloth lined colander. Let the curds drain for 15 mins.
Place curds onto a clean chopping board and cut into 1 inch strips. Place into a large bowl and pour hot salted water over.
Wearing heat resistant gloves, or using a wooden spoon, work the strips under the water until they become soft and pliable. Knead, pull, stretch and fold it back on itself. Keep working until the cheese becomes long and stretchy, it will also become shiny and smooth. Work all the strips into a single large ball or into small bocconcini sized pieces.
I found another recipe that recommends microwaving the curds in 30 second bursts until an internal temperature of 72 deg C has been reached. I have used this method and it works, but can be messy and frustrating.
Place the cheese into a bowl of ice water for 5 mins. Drain on a paper towel.
Enjoy simple cheese making!
Thursday, 21 February 2019
Pork Sausages
With the butchering of four pigs, came plenty of meat that was only good for sausages. Offcuts, trimmings and thick, tough neck meat. Most of the trimmed fat (except for the fat around the shield) had gone into the sausage bucket too.
I have previously written about some of my trials making sausages, this time I was hoping to do things a little better and also hoping that I've learned a few things since then.
I had to buy some more sausage casings. No idea what happened to the previous leftovers, they'd probably gotten old and been thrown out. My awful dry sausages (some that no amount of gravy or sauce could make pleasant eating) had put me off sausage making.
While I was waiting for the casings to arrive, the sausage meat was bagged and frozen. This was actually quite beneficial to the process. If the meat and fat is partially frozen it tends not to render when it's being minced.
Dad had gone through his pantry and cupboards since Mum went into care. If he comes across something he thinks I might find useful but he doesn't use, he brings it over. Included in this was a mincer attachment that fits the old cake mixer he'd previously given me. He thinks the mincer was Grandma's as he doesn't remember ever having or using it, and it has a piece of the foot broken off, so it's clearly had some use.
I am in love with this mincer. It doesn't clog up when you're mincing meat. It just keeps going and clears itself out. I can put 2kg of meat through it in a very short amount of time and it does a great job. There only seems to be one blade for it though, so everything is coarse or goes through the mincer several times.
The sausage stuffing attachment (a kind of large plastic funnel) from my old cheap mincer didn't fit this one, so Hubby and Dad decided to trim it down a little to see if they could make it fit.
No. The outside edge of the funnel shape was too wide for the ring. Now they've trimmed the edges down on it, it doesn't stay on the old cheap mincer either, so I have to stuff sausages by hand. It's a little frustrating but I can cope.
So these days, I take about an hour to make 5kg of sausages from start to finish. The sausages are much better than they were previously, although, I find that I don't really like the texture of the skin if it hasn't dried up completely in cooking. It's a little thing though.
I wondered if I'm not drying them properly before I freeze them. A later batch (since I first wrote this piece) was hung to dry in my pantry overnight. They were far better and the pantry smelled amazing.
I've also learned that it pays to put the casings onto the sausage stuffing attachment approximately a metre at a time. If you put too much on, it can dry out before you've finished. The casings tend to break then and you waste a lot of them.
One last comment to make before I hit the recipes - I have learned to read the recipes completely several times before I make the sausages. Some give the spice mix first in specific quantities, but it's easy to overlook that you are only using a small amount of your made up spice mix to x volume of meat. My first batch of English Bangers are not for the faint hearted, the spice mix is mostly white pepper and there is at least three times the amount there should be.
English Bangers
Spice Mix
5 tsp ground white pepper
2 1/2 tsp mace
2 1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp rubbed sage
1/2 tsp nutmeg
Sausage
1 kg lean pork shoulder
1/2 kg fresh pork fat
1 1/2 C dry bread crumbs
1 1/4 C chicken broth (I make up a stock cube)
3 1/2 tsp Banger Spice Mix
Grind pork and fat together.
Add Spice Mix and other ingredients and mix well.
Grind again.
Stuff the mixture into casings and tie in 4-5 inch lengths.
Chorizo
I've found lots of variations in recipes for chorizo. Rick Stein always talks about the paprika in it, but half the recipes don't seem to contain any. The notes on sausages that I got somewhere (I never noted down the source) speak of the differences between Mexican and Spanish chorizo and also say that the casing should be removed and the sausage crumbled before cooking. I can't speak to the authenticity of such a statement. It doesn't fit most of the times I have seen chorizo cooked.
This recipe might not be authentic, but it's my blend of several and works for us.
1 kg lean pork trimmings
1/2 kg fresh pork fat
vinegar
2 medium onions, quartered
8 cloves garlic, pressed
1/2 C cider vinegar
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground oregano
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
Rinse the inside of the casings with vinegar before using.
Grind the meat and fat.
Grind the onions and garlic and mix with other ingredients to taste. Mix into meat.
Grind all again together.
Stuff the casings and lay them out on a cookie sheet covered with baking paper and refrigerate. Allow flavours to develop for at least 8 hours before using.
Pork and Thyme Sausage
1 kg lean pork trimmings
1/2 kg fresh pork fat
2 medium onions
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp dried thyme
Grind meat and fat together.
Grind onions and add to meat mix with other flavours. Mix well.
Grind again.
Stuff into casings.
This recipe works as a lovely breakfast sausage.
I have previously written about some of my trials making sausages, this time I was hoping to do things a little better and also hoping that I've learned a few things since then.
I had to buy some more sausage casings. No idea what happened to the previous leftovers, they'd probably gotten old and been thrown out. My awful dry sausages (some that no amount of gravy or sauce could make pleasant eating) had put me off sausage making.
While I was waiting for the casings to arrive, the sausage meat was bagged and frozen. This was actually quite beneficial to the process. If the meat and fat is partially frozen it tends not to render when it's being minced.
Dad had gone through his pantry and cupboards since Mum went into care. If he comes across something he thinks I might find useful but he doesn't use, he brings it over. Included in this was a mincer attachment that fits the old cake mixer he'd previously given me. He thinks the mincer was Grandma's as he doesn't remember ever having or using it, and it has a piece of the foot broken off, so it's clearly had some use.
I am in love with this mincer. It doesn't clog up when you're mincing meat. It just keeps going and clears itself out. I can put 2kg of meat through it in a very short amount of time and it does a great job. There only seems to be one blade for it though, so everything is coarse or goes through the mincer several times.
The sausage stuffing attachment (a kind of large plastic funnel) from my old cheap mincer didn't fit this one, so Hubby and Dad decided to trim it down a little to see if they could make it fit.
No. The outside edge of the funnel shape was too wide for the ring. Now they've trimmed the edges down on it, it doesn't stay on the old cheap mincer either, so I have to stuff sausages by hand. It's a little frustrating but I can cope.
So these days, I take about an hour to make 5kg of sausages from start to finish. The sausages are much better than they were previously, although, I find that I don't really like the texture of the skin if it hasn't dried up completely in cooking. It's a little thing though.
I wondered if I'm not drying them properly before I freeze them. A later batch (since I first wrote this piece) was hung to dry in my pantry overnight. They were far better and the pantry smelled amazing.
I've also learned that it pays to put the casings onto the sausage stuffing attachment approximately a metre at a time. If you put too much on, it can dry out before you've finished. The casings tend to break then and you waste a lot of them.
One last comment to make before I hit the recipes - I have learned to read the recipes completely several times before I make the sausages. Some give the spice mix first in specific quantities, but it's easy to overlook that you are only using a small amount of your made up spice mix to x volume of meat. My first batch of English Bangers are not for the faint hearted, the spice mix is mostly white pepper and there is at least three times the amount there should be.
English Bangers
Spice Mix
5 tsp ground white pepper
2 1/2 tsp mace
2 1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp rubbed sage
1/2 tsp nutmeg
Sausage
1 kg lean pork shoulder
1/2 kg fresh pork fat
1 1/2 C dry bread crumbs
1 1/4 C chicken broth (I make up a stock cube)
3 1/2 tsp Banger Spice Mix
Grind pork and fat together.
Add Spice Mix and other ingredients and mix well.
Grind again.
Stuff the mixture into casings and tie in 4-5 inch lengths.
Chorizo
I've found lots of variations in recipes for chorizo. Rick Stein always talks about the paprika in it, but half the recipes don't seem to contain any. The notes on sausages that I got somewhere (I never noted down the source) speak of the differences between Mexican and Spanish chorizo and also say that the casing should be removed and the sausage crumbled before cooking. I can't speak to the authenticity of such a statement. It doesn't fit most of the times I have seen chorizo cooked.
This recipe might not be authentic, but it's my blend of several and works for us.
1 kg lean pork trimmings
1/2 kg fresh pork fat
vinegar
2 medium onions, quartered
8 cloves garlic, pressed
1/2 C cider vinegar
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground oregano
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
Rinse the inside of the casings with vinegar before using.
Grind the meat and fat.
Grind the onions and garlic and mix with other ingredients to taste. Mix into meat.
Grind all again together.
Stuff the casings and lay them out on a cookie sheet covered with baking paper and refrigerate. Allow flavours to develop for at least 8 hours before using.
Pork and Thyme Sausage
1 kg lean pork trimmings
1/2 kg fresh pork fat
2 medium onions
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp dried thyme
Grind meat and fat together.
Grind onions and add to meat mix with other flavours. Mix well.
Grind again.
Stuff into casings.
This recipe works as a lovely breakfast sausage.
Pork, Ham, Bacon and Salami
All four pigs were living quite happily in their pig run plus extensions for a couple of months. The extensions were areas that butted up against the pig run, they had grass reaching too high and nothing else of value in there. Hubby and Dad would make a new fence out of timber and corrugated iron and extend the range of the pigs.
After the first few escapes, we added a hot wire to the top as well. It's incredible how much damage four pigs can do to a lawn in a very short space of time.
Determined pigs also learned to dig out stakes and if they push hard enough in the right spot, they can tear the nails right through the corrugated iron. And there went 15 tiny Hazelnut trees that had survived all our usual neglect for the past year.
During the last escape, Sour Cream nipped at me as I was trying to coax them back in. You couldn't call it a bite, it didn't hurt, it didn't do any damage, he barely made contact with me. But he scared me. A lot.
It was time for them to become dinner anyway. They were already a month or two older than I'd planned on letting them get to and this was the push I needed.
The Homekill man was booked. I planned to butcher them myself because sending them away for processing is expensive. Last time I checked, it was $5/kg plus extra for bacon, ham and sausages. I was fully aware of my limitations. We would get two done now and the other two maybe a month later. Four pigs in a day would have just about killed me.
Hubby, Dad and I discussed the processing. I had said months earlier that I'd like a smoke house or the ability to smoke some cuts from these pigs. Plenty of research was underway. Did we want cold smoking or hot smoking? Were we planning to smoke for flavour or to preserve the meat? Hubby came home just before Christmas with a smoking gun bought with his FlyBuys points. Dad started reading hunting magazines that contained instructions on how to build your own smoker and the best options for different types. A workmate of Hubby's had a fridge that no longer worked, so that came home with the intention of turning it into a smoker.
As there is always plenty to do on our little farm, nothing had really progressed towards the smoker when the first two pigs were slaughtered.
I have had a number of issues over the past few years with my back and shoulder. I have learned not to overdo things as that will leave me almost crippled for the next few days. I am usually pretty good at recognising when I've done enough for now and taking a break. That break might only be 20 minutes, but it leaves me fine to carry on.
With this in mind and with warnings from friends about overdoing it, I set out to butcher these pigs. I think I took too many unnecessary breaks out of fear and the end result was that it dragged out my day to the point of complete exhaustion at 11pm when I finally finished and the clumsiness that always comes as a result. Only one nastyish cut though.
It was also dragged out by problems with the reciprocating saw I'd planned to use to cut down the spine. The blade was in correctly, but kept popping out and flying across the shed when in use. The handsaw I replaced it with had some damage to the handle that meant by the time I was halfway through the first pig, the fleshy part of my hand, between thumb and first finger, was bruised and swollen. I gave up and boned each section as it was hanging. This became awkward and painful and more time consuming.
Dad looked at the reciprocating saw later, the locating pin had worked itself partway out, so it wasn't doing its job of holding the blade in place. It was a tool issue and not an operator issue.
I still had ham and bacon cures from when I'd previously had pigs and I dug out the salami kit I'd bought back then but never used.
My book on preserving had quite a variety of curing methods but most also required hanging each cut in a temperature controlled curing chamber for several weeks to several months. This was something I did not have, nor did we have the time or resources to build one.
I was quite curious to see how the bacon especially would turn out. My last lot of bacon was made with kunekune pork and was rather unpleasant on the whole. I wasn't sure if it was the process or because the pigs had been a few years old and were rather gamy as a result of their diet.
Two legs, which I had boned, went into the brine for ham. It was a week before Christmas and I hoped that this gave us long enough for the cure to work its way through. The calculations on the recipe suggested it should be enough, but I'm never entirely confident until I've cut the finished product.
I boned the shoulders and put them into a brine for bacon. My 15l bucket wouldn't hold all of it, so a couple of pieces went into the freezer for another time.
I decided to try making the salami. The recipe called for beef as well as pork, so I hauled beef stewing cuts out of the freezer and used some of the pork I'd put aside for sausages.
The salami casings were a lot bigger than I'd thought. They were at least 50cm long and about 4cm in diameter when stuffed. Each weighed approximately a kg.
The recipe called for them to be smoked for at least an hour. The smoking gun came out. I followed the directions for covering the salamis in a large bowl with cling film, with the end of the smoking gun tucked in and sealed around. I used the hickory chips that came with the gun. We very quickly spotted the fine holes and places where it wasn't sealed very well, so they were fixed up.
Within 20 minutes, the smoke had all dissipated in the bowl. So we filled it with smoke again. And again after another 20 minutes.
The recipe then called for the salamis to be poached in water. That water was to be kept below 85 degrees Celsius for one and a quarter hours, to allow the internal temperature to reach 70 deg C.
My biggest stainless steel bowl was not wide enough for the entire salami to fit under the water. I heated them (on a double boiler type system) for several hours longer than the recipe said. I wasn't able to check the internal temperature as that would have put a big hole in the casing. I hoped for the best.
The salamis had broken and bent in the middle. All the fat now coated the outside of each salami inside the casing. They looked okay inside, but I should probably have minced them with a finer blade and stuffed the casings more firmly. They tended to crumble a little when cut.
Just to be safe, I fried slices to eat them. Delicious. A month or so later, I decided to try some without frying. Still delicious, if even more crumbly. It's almost spreadable on crackers. It's been a month now and I haven't gotten sick from them so we're quite happy with the way they turned out.
Dad worried that they hadn't smoked properly, so he turned up one day with a charcoal grill and smoker as an early birthday present.
The ham was delicious on Christmas day. The rest was sliced up and frozen ready to be pulled out for lunches. There were a few patches in the middle that hadn't cured.
The bacon was very nice. Bacon is quite hard to slice so our slices were probably 8mm thick. They're more like bacon steaks than bacon rashers so you only need one with your breakfast.
We decided it was time to try out the new smoker and smoke two of the pieces of bacon. They need to sit out at room temperature for 12 hours to form a pellicle. So that was overnight. The next morning, I put the smoker together. That was simple enough.
Everything I'd read said to be careful of what fuel you use as this may taint the meat. Dad had gotten some charcoal briquettes with the smoker, made of coconut shell and therefore safe for smoking, but getting them started was not the simple task it should have been. Methylated spirits poured over wasn't enough, no amount of carefully chosen cardboard or kindling worked. Dad spent a patient half hour with a blow torch to get the charcoals started in the end.
To begin with, we put the damp wood chips in an aluminium foil dish on top of the coals. They kind of blackened but didn't really smoke, so after a while, we just dumped them directly onto the coals.
We left it for most of the day. The bacon didn't seem cooked as such, but its texture had changed. And this lot tasted amazing.
Ham (wet brine method)
3/4 C salt (non iodised)
1 C Brown Sugar
1/4 C Molasses
1/4 tsp ground cloves
3 tsp Prague powder #1
Mix in warm water. The salination of the brine is right if a fresh eggs floats when placed in it. If not, mix equal parts of brown sugar and salt and add until the egg floats.
Place ham in brine and ensure that it is fully submerged. Place in fridge for 1 day per kg (or 7 days per 4cm thickness).
Check the cure has gone right through the meat.
Rinse ham and let soak in clean water. Check for saltiness by cutting off a thin slice, fry and taste test. Ensure you check pieces from the bottom of your vessel - the ham at the top might have rinsed well, but the rest might not.
Cook at 150 deg C until internal temperature of 68 deg C has been reached.
NOTES: This mixture is sufficient to cure about 10 kg of ham.
Be careful to add the water slowly. If you add too much water, you might need to add more cure. I use a 15l food grade bucket with lid to do this - the volume of water required is less than you might think and much of it spills out when you add the ham and weight it down.
I use a small bowl to hold the ham under the surface of the liquid.
I've found the time period listed in the recipe (1 day per kg) isn't quite enough. I always seem to end up with small patches of plain pork in the centre of my hams. I found another recipe that gave time based on the thickness of the ham and that is what I now go by.
Meat cured with Prague powder #1 must be heated before it is eaten. For small goods that are not going to be heated, use Prague powder #2 and a different process.
I didn't have Molasses, so I added an equivalent volume of dark brown sugar.
If you have a different quantity to cure, a calculator can be found here.
Bacon (wet brine method)
1 part Bacon cure
1 part Salt (non iodised)
1/2 part Brown sugar
Mix and dissolve in warm water. The salination of the brine is right if a fresh eggs floats when placed in it. Let cool.
Place meat for curing in brine. Ensure that it is fully submerged. Keep in the fridge for 7 days per 4cm of meat thickness.
Check the cure has gone right through the meat, rinse in clean cold water and check for saltiness as above.
NOTE:
I buy my bacon cure from Oskarbutcher. This link gives its ingredients.
I smoke bacon after curing. When I am sure it has rinsed sufficiently (and be sure to check the pieces at the bottom), I let it sit out overnight and then smoke it the next day.
Smoked bacon is easier to slice.
This same recipe can be used for a dry cure.
Rub the mix into the pork, making sure the whole surface is covered and make sure to work it into any holes. Place the meat into a zip lock bag and leave in the fridge for 2-3 days. After this time, rub the meat with the curing mix again and leave for a further 2-3 days.
Check that the cure has penetrated all the way through the meat, rinse and check as for wet cure.
Salami
1.7 kg Beef or venison
0.8 kg Pork
0.5 kg Pork fat (back fat is the best)
300ml water
40g Oat or wheat fibre (optional)
180g salami mix
Mince the meat through a coarse plate. Mix in water, fibre and seasoning. Mince again through fine plate.
Stuff into casings.
Hang in smoker and dry for 20 mins, then smoke for 1 hour.
Heat in water (not to be over 85 deg C) for about 1 1/4 hour or until internal temperature is 70 deg C.
Cool in cold water for 2 hours.
Keep in fridge overnight.
NOTES:
I added Cayenne pepper and whole black peppercorns to this recipe.
I bought the Salami mix from Oskarbutcher, it contains a number of salts, minerals and sodium nitrite.
Overall, we were quite happy with the end products. So I've been doing it all again with the second two pigs.
This batch of ham spent twice as long in the cure and we still ended up with a small spot that didn't cure. At least this is a small spot compared with last time.
Smoking the bacon was a bit different too. Hubby poured the charcoals in for me. I said to him that I thought he'd put far too much in, but he was sure I needed that much. This meant that it got too hot and the bacon cooked as it was smoking. I also bought some fire lighters and they started the charcoals very easily.
It was still very good bacon.
After the first few escapes, we added a hot wire to the top as well. It's incredible how much damage four pigs can do to a lawn in a very short space of time.
Determined pigs also learned to dig out stakes and if they push hard enough in the right spot, they can tear the nails right through the corrugated iron. And there went 15 tiny Hazelnut trees that had survived all our usual neglect for the past year.
During the last escape, Sour Cream nipped at me as I was trying to coax them back in. You couldn't call it a bite, it didn't hurt, it didn't do any damage, he barely made contact with me. But he scared me. A lot.
It was time for them to become dinner anyway. They were already a month or two older than I'd planned on letting them get to and this was the push I needed.
The Homekill man was booked. I planned to butcher them myself because sending them away for processing is expensive. Last time I checked, it was $5/kg plus extra for bacon, ham and sausages. I was fully aware of my limitations. We would get two done now and the other two maybe a month later. Four pigs in a day would have just about killed me.
Hubby, Dad and I discussed the processing. I had said months earlier that I'd like a smoke house or the ability to smoke some cuts from these pigs. Plenty of research was underway. Did we want cold smoking or hot smoking? Were we planning to smoke for flavour or to preserve the meat? Hubby came home just before Christmas with a smoking gun bought with his FlyBuys points. Dad started reading hunting magazines that contained instructions on how to build your own smoker and the best options for different types. A workmate of Hubby's had a fridge that no longer worked, so that came home with the intention of turning it into a smoker.
As there is always plenty to do on our little farm, nothing had really progressed towards the smoker when the first two pigs were slaughtered.
I have had a number of issues over the past few years with my back and shoulder. I have learned not to overdo things as that will leave me almost crippled for the next few days. I am usually pretty good at recognising when I've done enough for now and taking a break. That break might only be 20 minutes, but it leaves me fine to carry on.
With this in mind and with warnings from friends about overdoing it, I set out to butcher these pigs. I think I took too many unnecessary breaks out of fear and the end result was that it dragged out my day to the point of complete exhaustion at 11pm when I finally finished and the clumsiness that always comes as a result. Only one nastyish cut though.
It was also dragged out by problems with the reciprocating saw I'd planned to use to cut down the spine. The blade was in correctly, but kept popping out and flying across the shed when in use. The handsaw I replaced it with had some damage to the handle that meant by the time I was halfway through the first pig, the fleshy part of my hand, between thumb and first finger, was bruised and swollen. I gave up and boned each section as it was hanging. This became awkward and painful and more time consuming.
Dad looked at the reciprocating saw later, the locating pin had worked itself partway out, so it wasn't doing its job of holding the blade in place. It was a tool issue and not an operator issue.
I still had ham and bacon cures from when I'd previously had pigs and I dug out the salami kit I'd bought back then but never used.
My book on preserving had quite a variety of curing methods but most also required hanging each cut in a temperature controlled curing chamber for several weeks to several months. This was something I did not have, nor did we have the time or resources to build one.
I was quite curious to see how the bacon especially would turn out. My last lot of bacon was made with kunekune pork and was rather unpleasant on the whole. I wasn't sure if it was the process or because the pigs had been a few years old and were rather gamy as a result of their diet.
Two legs, which I had boned, went into the brine for ham. It was a week before Christmas and I hoped that this gave us long enough for the cure to work its way through. The calculations on the recipe suggested it should be enough, but I'm never entirely confident until I've cut the finished product.
I boned the shoulders and put them into a brine for bacon. My 15l bucket wouldn't hold all of it, so a couple of pieces went into the freezer for another time.
I decided to try making the salami. The recipe called for beef as well as pork, so I hauled beef stewing cuts out of the freezer and used some of the pork I'd put aside for sausages.
The salami casings were a lot bigger than I'd thought. They were at least 50cm long and about 4cm in diameter when stuffed. Each weighed approximately a kg.
The recipe called for them to be smoked for at least an hour. The smoking gun came out. I followed the directions for covering the salamis in a large bowl with cling film, with the end of the smoking gun tucked in and sealed around. I used the hickory chips that came with the gun. We very quickly spotted the fine holes and places where it wasn't sealed very well, so they were fixed up.
Within 20 minutes, the smoke had all dissipated in the bowl. So we filled it with smoke again. And again after another 20 minutes.
The recipe then called for the salamis to be poached in water. That water was to be kept below 85 degrees Celsius for one and a quarter hours, to allow the internal temperature to reach 70 deg C.
My biggest stainless steel bowl was not wide enough for the entire salami to fit under the water. I heated them (on a double boiler type system) for several hours longer than the recipe said. I wasn't able to check the internal temperature as that would have put a big hole in the casing. I hoped for the best.
The salamis had broken and bent in the middle. All the fat now coated the outside of each salami inside the casing. They looked okay inside, but I should probably have minced them with a finer blade and stuffed the casings more firmly. They tended to crumble a little when cut.
Just to be safe, I fried slices to eat them. Delicious. A month or so later, I decided to try some without frying. Still delicious, if even more crumbly. It's almost spreadable on crackers. It's been a month now and I haven't gotten sick from them so we're quite happy with the way they turned out.
Dad worried that they hadn't smoked properly, so he turned up one day with a charcoal grill and smoker as an early birthday present.
The ham was delicious on Christmas day. The rest was sliced up and frozen ready to be pulled out for lunches. There were a few patches in the middle that hadn't cured.
The bacon was very nice. Bacon is quite hard to slice so our slices were probably 8mm thick. They're more like bacon steaks than bacon rashers so you only need one with your breakfast.
We decided it was time to try out the new smoker and smoke two of the pieces of bacon. They need to sit out at room temperature for 12 hours to form a pellicle. So that was overnight. The next morning, I put the smoker together. That was simple enough.
Everything I'd read said to be careful of what fuel you use as this may taint the meat. Dad had gotten some charcoal briquettes with the smoker, made of coconut shell and therefore safe for smoking, but getting them started was not the simple task it should have been. Methylated spirits poured over wasn't enough, no amount of carefully chosen cardboard or kindling worked. Dad spent a patient half hour with a blow torch to get the charcoals started in the end.
To begin with, we put the damp wood chips in an aluminium foil dish on top of the coals. They kind of blackened but didn't really smoke, so after a while, we just dumped them directly onto the coals.
We left it for most of the day. The bacon didn't seem cooked as such, but its texture had changed. And this lot tasted amazing.
Ham (wet brine method)
3/4 C salt (non iodised)
1 C Brown Sugar
1/4 C Molasses
1/4 tsp ground cloves
3 tsp Prague powder #1
Mix in warm water. The salination of the brine is right if a fresh eggs floats when placed in it. If not, mix equal parts of brown sugar and salt and add until the egg floats.
Place ham in brine and ensure that it is fully submerged. Place in fridge for 1 day per kg (or 7 days per 4cm thickness).
Check the cure has gone right through the meat.
Rinse ham and let soak in clean water. Check for saltiness by cutting off a thin slice, fry and taste test. Ensure you check pieces from the bottom of your vessel - the ham at the top might have rinsed well, but the rest might not.
Cook at 150 deg C until internal temperature of 68 deg C has been reached.
NOTES: This mixture is sufficient to cure about 10 kg of ham.
Be careful to add the water slowly. If you add too much water, you might need to add more cure. I use a 15l food grade bucket with lid to do this - the volume of water required is less than you might think and much of it spills out when you add the ham and weight it down.
I use a small bowl to hold the ham under the surface of the liquid.
I've found the time period listed in the recipe (1 day per kg) isn't quite enough. I always seem to end up with small patches of plain pork in the centre of my hams. I found another recipe that gave time based on the thickness of the ham and that is what I now go by.
Meat cured with Prague powder #1 must be heated before it is eaten. For small goods that are not going to be heated, use Prague powder #2 and a different process.
I didn't have Molasses, so I added an equivalent volume of dark brown sugar.
If you have a different quantity to cure, a calculator can be found here.
Bacon (wet brine method)
1 part Bacon cure
1 part Salt (non iodised)
1/2 part Brown sugar
Mix and dissolve in warm water. The salination of the brine is right if a fresh eggs floats when placed in it. Let cool.
Place meat for curing in brine. Ensure that it is fully submerged. Keep in the fridge for 7 days per 4cm of meat thickness.
Check the cure has gone right through the meat, rinse in clean cold water and check for saltiness as above.
NOTE:
I buy my bacon cure from Oskarbutcher. This link gives its ingredients.
I smoke bacon after curing. When I am sure it has rinsed sufficiently (and be sure to check the pieces at the bottom), I let it sit out overnight and then smoke it the next day.
Smoked bacon is easier to slice.
This same recipe can be used for a dry cure.
Rub the mix into the pork, making sure the whole surface is covered and make sure to work it into any holes. Place the meat into a zip lock bag and leave in the fridge for 2-3 days. After this time, rub the meat with the curing mix again and leave for a further 2-3 days.
Check that the cure has penetrated all the way through the meat, rinse and check as for wet cure.
Salami
1.7 kg Beef or venison
0.8 kg Pork
0.5 kg Pork fat (back fat is the best)
300ml water
40g Oat or wheat fibre (optional)
180g salami mix
Mince the meat through a coarse plate. Mix in water, fibre and seasoning. Mince again through fine plate.
Stuff into casings.
Hang in smoker and dry for 20 mins, then smoke for 1 hour.
Heat in water (not to be over 85 deg C) for about 1 1/4 hour or until internal temperature is 70 deg C.
Cool in cold water for 2 hours.
Keep in fridge overnight.
NOTES:
I added Cayenne pepper and whole black peppercorns to this recipe.
I bought the Salami mix from Oskarbutcher, it contains a number of salts, minerals and sodium nitrite.
Overall, we were quite happy with the end products. So I've been doing it all again with the second two pigs.
This batch of ham spent twice as long in the cure and we still ended up with a small spot that didn't cure. At least this is a small spot compared with last time.
 |
| That pale spot is where the cure didn't reach. |
It was still very good bacon.
 |
| Lighting charcoals |
 |
| With soaked wood chips |
 |
| First layer of bacon in |
 |
| Second layer of bacon in |
 |
| Smoking away quite merrily |
Friday, 15 February 2019
Homespun Blankets
My sheep have mostly come from Texel stock. Texel wool is not as fine and soft as most wool breeds, in fact, Texels are mostly considered a meat breed and their wool is not valued.
I refuse to let this mean that a large portion of the wool from my sheep is no good for anything. I'm stubborn like that. I had made socks from my homespun wool, they were stiff and a little scratchy, so I wasn't going to even think about knitting a jersey from it. Although, I have learned that using bigger needles makes them less stiff and I have knitted jerseys from some of the softer, finer wool. I started thinking about what I could make with all of this wool that wouldn't necessarily be next to the skin.
I found tutorials online for Corner to Corner (often abbreviated to C2C) crochet. They sit nice and flat, much better than a Granny Square blanket. The edges stay straight and even, much better than any other type of crochet I've ever tried. They work up easily and can safely be stopped and put aside in the middle of a row as they don't require any/much counting.
I noticed, rewatching the tutorial that I've linked to, I do them slightly differently. I use trebles rather than doubles, but I start with the same chain of six and use the same chain of three when I start a new cluster.
I made a blanket or bedspread for my bed. We have a King Size bed. I tried to work it out as approximately 3m sq to allow for the blanket to hang over the sides and foot, but this has come out somewhat bigger than that.
It's a great blanket on our bed in winter. It's heavy and warm. It's now the only blanket we add to our bed for the changing season.
Very quickly, my children wanted one each too. I vowed and declared that I would NOT be doing another one all in one piece, so I made one in squares that I joined with separate stripes.
Making this one, I learned just how much I really hate sewing pieces together and trying to match up the patterns between them.
So for the one I made for my son and daughter-in-law, I chose to compromise. This was made in four full length panels.
This allowed for some fun reversing of direction up the middle, which they both loved.
I have also made a smaller blanket out of acrylic yarns for my Granddaughter, but I can't seem to find a good photo of it - I'll provide one when I can.
Next on the list is one for my oldest daughter and son-in-law and then another for the grandchild on the way.
Each one takes months to make. They weigh at least 5 kg and use approximately two whole fleeces each.
We love them.
I refuse to let this mean that a large portion of the wool from my sheep is no good for anything. I'm stubborn like that. I had made socks from my homespun wool, they were stiff and a little scratchy, so I wasn't going to even think about knitting a jersey from it. Although, I have learned that using bigger needles makes them less stiff and I have knitted jerseys from some of the softer, finer wool. I started thinking about what I could make with all of this wool that wouldn't necessarily be next to the skin.
I found tutorials online for Corner to Corner (often abbreviated to C2C) crochet. They sit nice and flat, much better than a Granny Square blanket. The edges stay straight and even, much better than any other type of crochet I've ever tried. They work up easily and can safely be stopped and put aside in the middle of a row as they don't require any/much counting.
I noticed, rewatching the tutorial that I've linked to, I do them slightly differently. I use trebles rather than doubles, but I start with the same chain of six and use the same chain of three when I start a new cluster.
I made a blanket or bedspread for my bed. We have a King Size bed. I tried to work it out as approximately 3m sq to allow for the blanket to hang over the sides and foot, but this has come out somewhat bigger than that.
It was a wonderful thing to work on over winter. Especially once I reached a point that it could cover my feet. The down side was it was huge and heavy and turning it over to do the next row required standing up and juggling several balls of wool and often, shifting the cats who loved it too.
 |
| Those are my feet underneath - I had the foot rest up on the lazyboy. |
Very quickly, my children wanted one each too. I vowed and declared that I would NOT be doing another one all in one piece, so I made one in squares that I joined with separate stripes.
 |
| Queen sized bed. |
Making this one, I learned just how much I really hate sewing pieces together and trying to match up the patterns between them.
So for the one I made for my son and daughter-in-law, I chose to compromise. This was made in four full length panels.
This allowed for some fun reversing of direction up the middle, which they both loved.
I have also made a smaller blanket out of acrylic yarns for my Granddaughter, but I can't seem to find a good photo of it - I'll provide one when I can.
Next on the list is one for my oldest daughter and son-in-law and then another for the grandchild on the way.
Each one takes months to make. They weigh at least 5 kg and use approximately two whole fleeces each.
We love them.
Activism and Contempt
One of my friends is an Animal Rights Activist. She's vegetarian but doesn't judge everyone else's diets. She has a kind heart and beautiful soul. She has volunteered for various organisations that fight for animal rights. Recently she shared a post by SAFE.
So I followed the link and read the information on SAFE's website. I am still horrified by what I read. Not because it highlighted cruelty. Not even remotely. Because it was packed full of lies, half-truths and easily discredited opinion.
I freely admit that I have issues with SAFE. I have had conversations with their volunteers, conversations where I found their propoganda was filled with errors and lies. At the time, I was working at an egg farm. Part of my job included studying the animal welfare codes and legislation, dealing with MPI audits and ensuring that our farm was up to the standards and codes of practice required by law.
SAFE were campaigning against colony cages. Out of curiosity, I went to see what they were saying. The volunteer told me that it was all a con. Colony cages were bigger, but there would be more birds in them so they ended up with less individual space than battery cages. I knew this to be false. Battery cages required birds to have 0.5 sqm per bird, colony cages required birds to have 0.75 sqm per bird. This is monitored by MPI in two separate audits each year (if you have a high standard of compliance, more often if you don't), one of these audits is booked in advance and one is unannounced. There is no opportunity to rearrange the birds or hide what you might have been doing. Even if you could, where would you hide the thousands of birds you'd need to be shifting?
He talked about how the birds were pumped full of growth hormone. I asked if he was sure, he said, "Oh, I mean meat birds, they're the ones full of growth hormones." I told him that growth hormones had been illegal in poultry in NZ for over 30 years. He looked stunned and didn't know what to say. I couldn't decide if he was shocked that I knew enough to refute his propoganda or if he was shocked to learn that he'd been given false information.
We live in an age where information; correct, factual information is easily accessible. Right from your comfy chair in your living room, you have access to the details of political campaign promises from two and six years ago. You have access to the documents submitted to the Government by the independent organisations who oversee animal welfare. This includes their recommendations and reasoning. You have access to the reports and recommendations from national Veterinary associations. Less than five minutes searching on Google and you can have all of those documents right in front of you.
So why aren't we fact-checking?
These documents are not written in difficult to understand jargon. It's not as though they're beyond the reading comprehension of the average person. They're in plain English. They're accessible.
We have people getting up in arms and angry about the abuses they're reading about. Which is understandable. People are getting wound up about the broken promises and ignored recommendations from Vets and welfare bodies. That's also understandable and commendable even.
But when all that anger is directed at lies, what should happen then?
How does an organisation like SAFE get away with lying to everyone? How much contempt must they have for their own volunteers and the general public to assume (albeit correctly it would seem) that they're just going to believe whatever they're told if there's enough outrage attached.
Below is the story according to SAFE:
Now let's break that down shall we.
Mother pigs are confined for over three months each year. They are confined in mating stalls for up to seven days during early pregnancy. They are confined again in farrowing crates for up to five weeks, just before they give birth until their babies are weaned.
This is a mix of lies and implications and half-truths.
A dry sow or gilt can be confined in a mating stall for up to seven days. This will not be during early pregnancy. This is for mating, (you know, how they become pregnant - if they're already pregnant, mating wouldn't happen) when they're in season to prevent fighting between sows. A mating stall must (by law) be big enough for them to get up, lie down, turn around and have separate space for toileting, eating and drinking. Artificial insemination is also the most common method for breeding in NZ which would make most of this week unnecessary and therefore unused.
They can go into a farrowing crate a maximum of five days before farrowing until a maximum of four weeks after. So while up to five weeks is accurate, the bold first line implies that five weeks is standard, not the maximum. Most keep their sows in the crates for no more than ten days after farrowing, making it two weeks rather than five. The exceptions are when there are health issues or fostering of piglets that requires human intervention, for the safety of all concerned.
The first line says "Mother pigs are confined for over three months each year." Normally, they only have two litters each year. This makes it a maximum of 12 weeks a year (which is just short of 3 months) that they can be confined, not that they are confined.
So let's fix that and make it more honest and truthful.
Mother pigs can be confined for up to three months each year. The aggressive ones might be confined in mating stalls for up to seven days to mate. They might be confined again in farrowing crates for up to five weeks, just before they give birth until their babies are weaned.
Next bit:
They can’t take more than a step backwards or forwards, and can’t turn around. Expressing natural behaviours like nest building, foraging, or interacting with their piglets and other pigs are impossible.
This implies that the mating stall is the same size as a farrowing crate, which isn't true, as stated above.
The minimum standards in the Code of Welfare practices states that at no time should the sow be able to touch both sides, or both ends simultaneously. She must be able to stand and lie down comfortably at full length without leg restriction.
"Expressing natural behaviours" is a misleading phrase. From the Pork Industry Submission to the Primary Production Select Committee:
Animal behaviour is an important component and valuable indicator that contributes to an integrated assessment of animal welfare status. In the current pig welfare code, Minimum Standard No. 9(a) requires that pigs be managed in a manner that provides sufficient opportunities to express and satisfy their normal behaviours (NAWAC, 2010). These include, but are not limited to, feeding, drinking, sleeping, excreting, vocalising, thermoregulation, and social behaviours.
Conversely, natural behaviour describes most elements of species-specific normal behaviour, but is performed in the context of natural conditions (e.g. allogrooming, pacing a territory, fleeing a predator). Natural behaviour is performed because it is pleasurable and promotes biological functioning in a wild or natural setting in the environment of evolutionary adaptation (i.e., the environment in which the animal evolved) (Bracke and Hopster, 2006). However, natural behaviour is never fully hard-wired; and always includes an element of plasticity or flexibility depending on the context and situation (Spinka, 2006). It follows that behaviour which is natural in one situation, or towards one object, may be unnatural in other situations or towards another object (Spinka, 2006). The assumption is often that animals living in a wild or natural state are all in good condition and experience good welfare (Volpato et al., 2009). Thus, the implication is that animals that can perform natural behaviour are therefore in a good state of welfare, which may not be the case. The issue of accommodating an animal’s normal behaviour is often raised in the context of achieving positive welfare outcomes. As acknowledged in the Animal Welfare (Pigs) Code of Welfare, some normal behavioural traits of pigs (such as dominance-related aggression and fighting in social groups, and feed-related aggression) need to be managed carefully in order to minimise or prevent negative consequences for welfare (NAWAC, 2010). Furthermore, and perhaps most significantly, what is considered normal behaviour of domesticated livestock is the result of their adaptation to an agricultural environment, including regular interactions with humans (Segerdahl, 2007). The behaviour of domesticated livestock, as observed in farm housing systems, may vary in many ways from the behaviour of the same species in a natural environment. However, it is not reasonable to assume that these differences in behaviour equate to poor animal welfare (Wechsler, 2007). Thus, natural behaviours of wild boar may not always be considered normal for domesticated pigs, and we need to meet the needs of domesticated farm animals that have evolved in the presence of humans, not those in the wild.
For the tl;dr folks, this is pointing out that natural behaviours are not the same as normal behaviours. What is natural to wild pigs is not necessarily natural to domesticated pigs and it is not reasonable to assume that the difference results in poor animal welfare. Positive traits in the wild (specifically dominance-related aggression and feed-related aggression) are not positive traits for the welfare of domestic pigs.
The Code of Welfare states that sows in all farrowing systems must have manipulable material before farrowing - that is straw most commonly and it is there to allow the sow to build a nest.
They have free access to food at all times, removing the need to forage. They only forage when they're hungry and don't have food freely available.
The piglets come and go freely. In the first few weeks, piglets nurse hourly and sleep a lot. Normal interaction with their mother consists of feeding and sleeping it off. That is completely available in a farrowing crate. The sows are also exhausted by the demands of their piglets and spend most of their time eating, feeding their piglets and sleeping.
Interactions with other pigs isn't normal or natural behaviour until the piglets are weaned. This being impossible is not a problem for sows.
So shall we fix this one too?
While they are confined, they must still have enough space to stand and lie comfortably at full length without leg restriction. Expressing natural behaviours like nest building is possible and provided for, foraging is unnecessary as there is plenty of food provided, interacting with their piglets happens just like normal and interacting with other pigs isn't normal or natural behaviour after farrowing.
Next paragraph.
Pigs are intelligent, sensitive animals that show obvious signs of distress, their heart rate becomes elevated and they may bite the bars of the crates.
This is vague opinion and an appeal to emotion. It implies that you would have to be heartless to approve of this. This is like all those facebook guilt trip posts that tell you only people with a heart will like and share.
Next paragraph.
The Government’s own advisors, the National Animal Welfare Committee (NAWAC) had previously advised the Government that farrowing crates do not meet the requirements of the Animal Welfare Act. Both the Labour Party and the Green Party committed to banning farrowing crates prior to the election. More than 112,000 caring Kiwis like you signed a petition and told the Government that they want farrowing crates banned.
From the Code of Welfare:
Note: Before the Animal Welfare Act was amended in 2015, Section 73(3) of the Animal Welfare Act 1999 provided that the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (NAWAC) may, in exceptional circumstances, recommend minimum standards that do not fully meet the obligations to ensure that the physical, health and behavioural needs of the animal are met. In making this recommendation NAWAC must have regard to, among other things, the feasibility and practicality of effecting a transition from current practices and any adverse effects that may result from such a transition, and the economic effects of any transition from current practices to new practices.
NAWAC considers that the confining of sows in farrowing crates for extended periods does not fully meet the obligations of the Act. Minimum Standards 10 (e) and (f) restrict the time sows are confined in farrowing crates to a maximum of five weeks in any reproductive cycle.
Simplified, before 2015 NAWAC could recommend minimum standards that didn't quite meet their obligations but only in special circumstances. For the amendment to the Act to be mentioned means that this loophole was closed, that they can no longer recommend minimum standards that don't meet those Welfare obligations. I believe that the second paragraph explains how the standards now do meet those obligations.
This statement now becomes kind of half true, although SAFEs statement is missing the words "for extended periods" which makes it misleading at best.
Both the Labour Party and the Green Party committed to banning farrowing crates prior to the election.
Now, I can find the Green Party's manifesto online easily enough including where they say they want to "reduce confinement of sows in farrowing crates". This is not the same thing as "committed to banning farrowing crates". However, I cannot find any sign of the Labour Party having any position whatsoever. In fact, all my google searches only showed up instances of SAFE claiming that Labour had made this promise and should be held to it.
More than 112,000 caring Kiwis like you signed a petition and told the Government that they want farrowing crates banned.
"More than 112,000 caring Kiwis" gosh, that sounds somewhat impressive doesn't it? In a population of over 4 million this is maybe 2.5% of people in New Zealand. Not quite so impressive now is it? It is also not the 75% claimed in the article I linked to above. "Caring Kiwis like you" is another appeal to emotion, another guilt trip and more attempts at manipulation.
Shall we fix this one too?
The Government’s own advisors, the National Animal Welfare Committee (NAWAC) had previously advised the Government that the use of farrowing crates for extended periods do not meet the requirements of the Animal Welfare Act. This has now changed. The Green Party committed to reducing confinement in farrowing crates prior to the election. SAFE claims that Labour also promised to have them banned but this can't be verified anywhere. Approximately 2.5% of the population, caring Kiwis like you signed a petition and told the Government that they want farrowing crates banned.
Next paragraph.
But your voices have been ignored - because the Government continues to allow the unlawful confinement of mother pigs in farrowing crates and mating stalls.
Oh dear, how sad. That tiny percent of the population should be the only voice that is listened to? This is more emotional manipulation. The big bad Government doesn't care about you, it's not listening to you and you are really important. You are the only ones who care. Do you see how you're being played?
As is shown in the Code of Welfare, there is nothing unlawful about the use of farrowing crates or mating stalls.
But your voices have been ignored - because the Government continues to follow the advice from the industry experts and independent advisors and allows the lawful confinement of mother pigs in farrowing crates and mating stalls.
Next paragraph.
The Government has failed to protect mother pigs and continues to put the interests of profits for farmers above the well-being of mother pigs. It’s not right and it contradicts the Animal Welfare Act.
The Government has not failed to protect mother pigs at all. The health and welfare of mother pigs must be balanced with the health and welfare of her piglets. NAWAC, the New Zealand Veterinary Association and the Pork Industry all agree that while this system isn't ideal, it is the most suitable one available that best meets the needs of sows, piglets and farmers.
Profits and well-being go together. It costs farmers to be neglectful or cruel to their animals. Stressed animals fail to thrive - which means they don't gain weight or breed easily and therefore don't make a profit - or they die. It has always been more profitable to ensure that your animals are well cared for. Don't fall for the hype.
As has been shown above, the Animal Welfare Act is not being contradicted at all.
So let's fix this paragraph.
The Government has balanced the health and welfare of mother pigs with the health and welfare of their piglets. It’s the best we currently have for all concerned and is completely in line with the Animal Welfare Act.
And the last part.
Because of their failure to act, mother pigs are suffering every day.
We need your help to ensure justice for mother pigs.
It’s time your voices are heard.
These are more appeals to emotion and to believe the lies stated above.
The Government has no need to act, because the current laws and practices are the best thing for all concerned. Sows, piglets and farmers. There is no justice required. Your voices refers to the fraction of a fraction of the populace who have signed the petition and it's ridiculous and arrogant to think you should be the only voices that matter.
Because of their failure to be moved by misleading propoganda, mother pigs and their piglets are thriving and mortality rates are low.
We need your help to interfere with things we don't really understand.
It’s time your voices are heard.
Shall we put it all back together again?
Mother pigs can be confined for up to three months each year. The aggressive ones might be confined in mating stalls for up to seven days to mate. They might be confined again in farrowing crates for up to five weeks, just before they give birth until their babies are weaned.
While they are confined, they must still have enough space to stand and lie comfortably at full length without leg restriction. Expressing natural behaviours like nest building is possible and provided for, foraging is unnecessary as there is plenty of food provided, interacting with their piglets happens just like normal and interacting with other pigs isn't normal or natural behaviour after farrowing.
Pigs are intelligent, sensitive animals that show obvious signs of distress, their heart rate becomes elevated and they may bite the bars of the crates.
The Government’s own advisors, the National Animal Welfare Committee (NAWAC) had previously advised the Government that the use of farrowing crates for extended periods do not meet the requirements of the Animal Welfare Act. This has now changed. The Green Party committed to reducing confinement in farrowing crates prior to the election. SAFE claims that Labour also promised to have them banned but this can't be verified anywhere. Approximately 2.5% of the population caring Kiwis like you signed a petition and told the Government that they want farrowing crates banned.
But your voices have been ignored - because the Government continues to follow the advice from the industry experts and independent advisors and allows the lawful confinement of mother pigs in farrowing crates and mating stalls.
The Government has balanced the health and welfare of mother pigs with the health and welfare of their piglets. It’s the best we currently have for all concerned and is completely in line with the Animal Welfare Act.
Because of their failure to be moved by misleading propoganda, mother pigs and their piglets are thriving and mortality rates are low.
We need your help to interfere with things we don't really understand.
It’s time your voices are heard.
So I followed the link and read the information on SAFE's website. I am still horrified by what I read. Not because it highlighted cruelty. Not even remotely. Because it was packed full of lies, half-truths and easily discredited opinion.
I freely admit that I have issues with SAFE. I have had conversations with their volunteers, conversations where I found their propoganda was filled with errors and lies. At the time, I was working at an egg farm. Part of my job included studying the animal welfare codes and legislation, dealing with MPI audits and ensuring that our farm was up to the standards and codes of practice required by law.
SAFE were campaigning against colony cages. Out of curiosity, I went to see what they were saying. The volunteer told me that it was all a con. Colony cages were bigger, but there would be more birds in them so they ended up with less individual space than battery cages. I knew this to be false. Battery cages required birds to have 0.5 sqm per bird, colony cages required birds to have 0.75 sqm per bird. This is monitored by MPI in two separate audits each year (if you have a high standard of compliance, more often if you don't), one of these audits is booked in advance and one is unannounced. There is no opportunity to rearrange the birds or hide what you might have been doing. Even if you could, where would you hide the thousands of birds you'd need to be shifting?
He talked about how the birds were pumped full of growth hormone. I asked if he was sure, he said, "Oh, I mean meat birds, they're the ones full of growth hormones." I told him that growth hormones had been illegal in poultry in NZ for over 30 years. He looked stunned and didn't know what to say. I couldn't decide if he was shocked that I knew enough to refute his propoganda or if he was shocked to learn that he'd been given false information.
We live in an age where information; correct, factual information is easily accessible. Right from your comfy chair in your living room, you have access to the details of political campaign promises from two and six years ago. You have access to the documents submitted to the Government by the independent organisations who oversee animal welfare. This includes their recommendations and reasoning. You have access to the reports and recommendations from national Veterinary associations. Less than five minutes searching on Google and you can have all of those documents right in front of you.
So why aren't we fact-checking?
These documents are not written in difficult to understand jargon. It's not as though they're beyond the reading comprehension of the average person. They're in plain English. They're accessible.
We have people getting up in arms and angry about the abuses they're reading about. Which is understandable. People are getting wound up about the broken promises and ignored recommendations from Vets and welfare bodies. That's also understandable and commendable even.
But when all that anger is directed at lies, what should happen then?
How does an organisation like SAFE get away with lying to everyone? How much contempt must they have for their own volunteers and the general public to assume (albeit correctly it would seem) that they're just going to believe whatever they're told if there's enough outrage attached.
Below is the story according to SAFE:
Now let's break that down shall we.
Mother pigs are confined for over three months each year. They are confined in mating stalls for up to seven days during early pregnancy. They are confined again in farrowing crates for up to five weeks, just before they give birth until their babies are weaned.
This is a mix of lies and implications and half-truths.
A dry sow or gilt can be confined in a mating stall for up to seven days. This will not be during early pregnancy. This is for mating, (you know, how they become pregnant - if they're already pregnant, mating wouldn't happen) when they're in season to prevent fighting between sows. A mating stall must (by law) be big enough for them to get up, lie down, turn around and have separate space for toileting, eating and drinking. Artificial insemination is also the most common method for breeding in NZ which would make most of this week unnecessary and therefore unused.
They can go into a farrowing crate a maximum of five days before farrowing until a maximum of four weeks after. So while up to five weeks is accurate, the bold first line implies that five weeks is standard, not the maximum. Most keep their sows in the crates for no more than ten days after farrowing, making it two weeks rather than five. The exceptions are when there are health issues or fostering of piglets that requires human intervention, for the safety of all concerned.
The first line says "Mother pigs are confined for over three months each year." Normally, they only have two litters each year. This makes it a maximum of 12 weeks a year (which is just short of 3 months) that they can be confined, not that they are confined.
So let's fix that and make it more honest and truthful.
Mother pigs can be confined for up to three months each year. The aggressive ones might be confined in mating stalls for up to seven days to mate. They might be confined again in farrowing crates for up to five weeks, just before they give birth until their babies are weaned.
Next bit:
They can’t take more than a step backwards or forwards, and can’t turn around. Expressing natural behaviours like nest building, foraging, or interacting with their piglets and other pigs are impossible.
This implies that the mating stall is the same size as a farrowing crate, which isn't true, as stated above.
The minimum standards in the Code of Welfare practices states that at no time should the sow be able to touch both sides, or both ends simultaneously. She must be able to stand and lie down comfortably at full length without leg restriction.
"Expressing natural behaviours" is a misleading phrase. From the Pork Industry Submission to the Primary Production Select Committee:
Animal behaviour is an important component and valuable indicator that contributes to an integrated assessment of animal welfare status. In the current pig welfare code, Minimum Standard No. 9(a) requires that pigs be managed in a manner that provides sufficient opportunities to express and satisfy their normal behaviours (NAWAC, 2010). These include, but are not limited to, feeding, drinking, sleeping, excreting, vocalising, thermoregulation, and social behaviours.
Conversely, natural behaviour describes most elements of species-specific normal behaviour, but is performed in the context of natural conditions (e.g. allogrooming, pacing a territory, fleeing a predator). Natural behaviour is performed because it is pleasurable and promotes biological functioning in a wild or natural setting in the environment of evolutionary adaptation (i.e., the environment in which the animal evolved) (Bracke and Hopster, 2006). However, natural behaviour is never fully hard-wired; and always includes an element of plasticity or flexibility depending on the context and situation (Spinka, 2006). It follows that behaviour which is natural in one situation, or towards one object, may be unnatural in other situations or towards another object (Spinka, 2006). The assumption is often that animals living in a wild or natural state are all in good condition and experience good welfare (Volpato et al., 2009). Thus, the implication is that animals that can perform natural behaviour are therefore in a good state of welfare, which may not be the case. The issue of accommodating an animal’s normal behaviour is often raised in the context of achieving positive welfare outcomes. As acknowledged in the Animal Welfare (Pigs) Code of Welfare, some normal behavioural traits of pigs (such as dominance-related aggression and fighting in social groups, and feed-related aggression) need to be managed carefully in order to minimise or prevent negative consequences for welfare (NAWAC, 2010). Furthermore, and perhaps most significantly, what is considered normal behaviour of domesticated livestock is the result of their adaptation to an agricultural environment, including regular interactions with humans (Segerdahl, 2007). The behaviour of domesticated livestock, as observed in farm housing systems, may vary in many ways from the behaviour of the same species in a natural environment. However, it is not reasonable to assume that these differences in behaviour equate to poor animal welfare (Wechsler, 2007). Thus, natural behaviours of wild boar may not always be considered normal for domesticated pigs, and we need to meet the needs of domesticated farm animals that have evolved in the presence of humans, not those in the wild.
For the tl;dr folks, this is pointing out that natural behaviours are not the same as normal behaviours. What is natural to wild pigs is not necessarily natural to domesticated pigs and it is not reasonable to assume that the difference results in poor animal welfare. Positive traits in the wild (specifically dominance-related aggression and feed-related aggression) are not positive traits for the welfare of domestic pigs.
The Code of Welfare states that sows in all farrowing systems must have manipulable material before farrowing - that is straw most commonly and it is there to allow the sow to build a nest.
They have free access to food at all times, removing the need to forage. They only forage when they're hungry and don't have food freely available.
The piglets come and go freely. In the first few weeks, piglets nurse hourly and sleep a lot. Normal interaction with their mother consists of feeding and sleeping it off. That is completely available in a farrowing crate. The sows are also exhausted by the demands of their piglets and spend most of their time eating, feeding their piglets and sleeping.
Interactions with other pigs isn't normal or natural behaviour until the piglets are weaned. This being impossible is not a problem for sows.
So shall we fix this one too?
While they are confined, they must still have enough space to stand and lie comfortably at full length without leg restriction. Expressing natural behaviours like nest building is possible and provided for, foraging is unnecessary as there is plenty of food provided, interacting with their piglets happens just like normal and interacting with other pigs isn't normal or natural behaviour after farrowing.
Next paragraph.
Pigs are intelligent, sensitive animals that show obvious signs of distress, their heart rate becomes elevated and they may bite the bars of the crates.
This is vague opinion and an appeal to emotion. It implies that you would have to be heartless to approve of this. This is like all those facebook guilt trip posts that tell you only people with a heart will like and share.
Next paragraph.
The Government’s own advisors, the National Animal Welfare Committee (NAWAC) had previously advised the Government that farrowing crates do not meet the requirements of the Animal Welfare Act. Both the Labour Party and the Green Party committed to banning farrowing crates prior to the election. More than 112,000 caring Kiwis like you signed a petition and told the Government that they want farrowing crates banned.
From the Code of Welfare:
Note: Before the Animal Welfare Act was amended in 2015, Section 73(3) of the Animal Welfare Act 1999 provided that the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (NAWAC) may, in exceptional circumstances, recommend minimum standards that do not fully meet the obligations to ensure that the physical, health and behavioural needs of the animal are met. In making this recommendation NAWAC must have regard to, among other things, the feasibility and practicality of effecting a transition from current practices and any adverse effects that may result from such a transition, and the economic effects of any transition from current practices to new practices.
NAWAC considers that the confining of sows in farrowing crates for extended periods does not fully meet the obligations of the Act. Minimum Standards 10 (e) and (f) restrict the time sows are confined in farrowing crates to a maximum of five weeks in any reproductive cycle.
Simplified, before 2015 NAWAC could recommend minimum standards that didn't quite meet their obligations but only in special circumstances. For the amendment to the Act to be mentioned means that this loophole was closed, that they can no longer recommend minimum standards that don't meet those Welfare obligations. I believe that the second paragraph explains how the standards now do meet those obligations.
This statement now becomes kind of half true, although SAFEs statement is missing the words "for extended periods" which makes it misleading at best.
Both the Labour Party and the Green Party committed to banning farrowing crates prior to the election.
Now, I can find the Green Party's manifesto online easily enough including where they say they want to "reduce confinement of sows in farrowing crates". This is not the same thing as "committed to banning farrowing crates". However, I cannot find any sign of the Labour Party having any position whatsoever. In fact, all my google searches only showed up instances of SAFE claiming that Labour had made this promise and should be held to it.
More than 112,000 caring Kiwis like you signed a petition and told the Government that they want farrowing crates banned.
"More than 112,000 caring Kiwis" gosh, that sounds somewhat impressive doesn't it? In a population of over 4 million this is maybe 2.5% of people in New Zealand. Not quite so impressive now is it? It is also not the 75% claimed in the article I linked to above. "Caring Kiwis like you" is another appeal to emotion, another guilt trip and more attempts at manipulation.
Shall we fix this one too?
The Government’s own advisors, the National Animal Welfare Committee (NAWAC) had previously advised the Government that the use of farrowing crates for extended periods do not meet the requirements of the Animal Welfare Act. This has now changed. The Green Party committed to reducing confinement in farrowing crates prior to the election. SAFE claims that Labour also promised to have them banned but this can't be verified anywhere. Approximately 2.5% of the population, caring Kiwis like you signed a petition and told the Government that they want farrowing crates banned.
Next paragraph.
But your voices have been ignored - because the Government continues to allow the unlawful confinement of mother pigs in farrowing crates and mating stalls.
Oh dear, how sad. That tiny percent of the population should be the only voice that is listened to? This is more emotional manipulation. The big bad Government doesn't care about you, it's not listening to you and you are really important. You are the only ones who care. Do you see how you're being played?
As is shown in the Code of Welfare, there is nothing unlawful about the use of farrowing crates or mating stalls.
But your voices have been ignored - because the Government continues to follow the advice from the industry experts and independent advisors and allows the lawful confinement of mother pigs in farrowing crates and mating stalls.
Next paragraph.
The Government has failed to protect mother pigs and continues to put the interests of profits for farmers above the well-being of mother pigs. It’s not right and it contradicts the Animal Welfare Act.
The Government has not failed to protect mother pigs at all. The health and welfare of mother pigs must be balanced with the health and welfare of her piglets. NAWAC, the New Zealand Veterinary Association and the Pork Industry all agree that while this system isn't ideal, it is the most suitable one available that best meets the needs of sows, piglets and farmers.
Profits and well-being go together. It costs farmers to be neglectful or cruel to their animals. Stressed animals fail to thrive - which means they don't gain weight or breed easily and therefore don't make a profit - or they die. It has always been more profitable to ensure that your animals are well cared for. Don't fall for the hype.
As has been shown above, the Animal Welfare Act is not being contradicted at all.
So let's fix this paragraph.
The Government has balanced the health and welfare of mother pigs with the health and welfare of their piglets. It’s the best we currently have for all concerned and is completely in line with the Animal Welfare Act.
And the last part.
Because of their failure to act, mother pigs are suffering every day.
We need your help to ensure justice for mother pigs.
It’s time your voices are heard.
These are more appeals to emotion and to believe the lies stated above.
The Government has no need to act, because the current laws and practices are the best thing for all concerned. Sows, piglets and farmers. There is no justice required. Your voices refers to the fraction of a fraction of the populace who have signed the petition and it's ridiculous and arrogant to think you should be the only voices that matter.
Because of their failure to be moved by misleading propoganda, mother pigs and their piglets are thriving and mortality rates are low.
We need your help to interfere with things we don't really understand.
It’s time your voices are heard.
Shall we put it all back together again?
Mother pigs can be confined for up to three months each year. The aggressive ones might be confined in mating stalls for up to seven days to mate. They might be confined again in farrowing crates for up to five weeks, just before they give birth until their babies are weaned.
While they are confined, they must still have enough space to stand and lie comfortably at full length without leg restriction. Expressing natural behaviours like nest building is possible and provided for, foraging is unnecessary as there is plenty of food provided, interacting with their piglets happens just like normal and interacting with other pigs isn't normal or natural behaviour after farrowing.
Pigs are intelligent, sensitive animals that show obvious signs of distress, their heart rate becomes elevated and they may bite the bars of the crates.
The Government’s own advisors, the National Animal Welfare Committee (NAWAC) had previously advised the Government that the use of farrowing crates for extended periods do not meet the requirements of the Animal Welfare Act. This has now changed. The Green Party committed to reducing confinement in farrowing crates prior to the election. SAFE claims that Labour also promised to have them banned but this can't be verified anywhere. Approximately 2.5% of the population caring Kiwis like you signed a petition and told the Government that they want farrowing crates banned.
But your voices have been ignored - because the Government continues to follow the advice from the industry experts and independent advisors and allows the lawful confinement of mother pigs in farrowing crates and mating stalls.
The Government has balanced the health and welfare of mother pigs with the health and welfare of their piglets. It’s the best we currently have for all concerned and is completely in line with the Animal Welfare Act.
Because of their failure to be moved by misleading propoganda, mother pigs and their piglets are thriving and mortality rates are low.
We need your help to interfere with things we don't really understand.
It’s time your voices are heard.
This makes it a very different story.
So my questions are:
Did someone from SAFE read the information freely available online and misunderstand it or did they knowingly choose to misrepresent it?
Do they assume that their volunteers and the general public whose opinions they're trying to sway are stupid and gullible enough to just swallow this without checking for themselves?
Do they really expect that 2.5% of the population should be heard over the remaining 97.5%? Especially when in the 97.5% there are people who actually know what they're talking about?
Is there a hidden agenda buried in all of this contempt and misleading information?
Why aren't we checking for ourselves? This is the information age after all, are we too lazy, too afraid we won't understand or too gullible?
I'm sure SAFE was created with noble intentions. Well, to be fair, I'm not sure, but my Pollyanna side wants to believe that most people are good and honourable. I'm sure that at some point, they've done good works, even if I haven't seen it. However, when you are campaigning on easily discredited misinformation and emotion, it makes you easy to ignore. You clearly don't have enough of a clue to be taken seriously and as an organisation you become a joke to the rest of the populace.
Main Sources:
NAWAC - this website provides links to documents detailing full codes of welfare, best practices and the reviews of current and previous codes. All documents are pdfs which need to be downloaded. I recommend reading the Review of the use of farrowing crates for pigs in NZ.
SAFE - this is the page regarding the proposed legal challenge to current laws around the use of farrowing crates. The main body of text is what I have used above.
The New Zealand Veterinary Association - This page explains what is meant by much of their terminology and their guidelines regarding the use of farrowing crates.
NZPork's Submission to the Primary Production Select Committee - This is a well researched document with plenty of references to studies on both sides of the fence.
I have also had conversations with two large pig farmers, one who no longer breeds pigs, but is internationally recognised as an Industry Expert and the other who for personal reasons, no longer has a pig farm. I cannot quote them directly, name them or cite their references as I have not asked their permission and these conversations have been occasional ones over several years. Mostly when I have asked for advice regarding issues with my own pigs. I am grateful to them for their knowledge and expertise and how much it has helped my own understanding of raising pigs.
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