Last fall some of my writing was picked up by the magazine “Livin’ The Vermont Way“. It has been a rather interesting experience having my writings published in a local magazine because all of a sudden friends and neighbors are reading what I wrote. I’m frequently getting stopped on the street or down at the General Store and other places with people saying, “Hey, I read your article!”
When we got the first sample issue with one of my articles I read it aloud for that night’s after dinner story. It was interesting rereading what I had written back a while ago and there was a lot of laughter. It’s good to be able to keep your family cackling.
So far Livin’ Magazine has published Wife Swap and Keeping a Pig for Meat. Check out the upcoming issue in a few weeks for another story. All I will say is it features our tractor… Of course, you can get the magazine just to read my stores and then you’ll discover they have some other great writers too! :)
Outdoors: 19°F/12°F Sunny, Windy
Farm House: 57°F/45°F 3rd Whey Tank installation finished
Tiny Cottage: 58°F/49°F Ceiling to floor temperatures within 1°F!
Walter Jeffries Tinker, Tailor… A bit eclectic & a tad eccentric, polymath, quantum mechanic & Farmer. Also lucky at cards.
Thank you so much for posting a link to Wife Swap as I may never have come across it otherwise and it’s the best thing I’ve read in months. Still wiping away the tears. I’ve never seen that show but what an offensive idea and what a dream response you gave her. I bet she is still laughing too.
Congrats!!! That is awsome!!
Way COOL Walt!!!!! I saw the cover at the book store. Now Ill check it out!
I love your blog! It’s part of my surfing routine to read it every day.
I was reading a past post about curing pork today and you mentioned that you don’t use nitrates.
Concerning curing pigs with nitrates. There is a fascinating article from Scientific American magazine http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=bad-rap-for-nitrate that says that the idea that nitrates cause cancer is wrong and that they are good for you!
I thought you might find it interesting.
Second, what is the function of the sugar? I like to keep my carbohydrates to an absolute minimum and was wondering if you have to use it.
Thanks for taking the time to write such an excellent blog.
Lellie
p.s.In case the link doesn’t work, I am braking it up with spaces so you can put it back together to get there. http://www.sciam.com/
article.cfm?
id=bad-rap-for-nitrate
The sugar helps with the curing process and it adds flavor. But most importantly it makes for a complete diet – a proper balance of protein, fat, salt and sugar. Ice cream is another example, says my wife Holly. (I’m joking about the diet… :) :) )
Very interesting about the Sci-Amer article. I will go read it. Here is another link to the article incase the above doesn’t work for people.
The reason we don’t use nitrates in our family ham recipie is it isn’t something we have on the shelf and there is/was some question on health.
Since then I’ve done a lot of reading about them and concluded that they are not an issue in the small amount used although I still have some discomfort with them, possibly just left over from all the scare stories back in the, what, late ’70s??? “3,000 times the normal dose kills rats!” sort of headline.
For our hot dogs we don’t use nitrates or nitrites because that was what customers asked for and it gave us the widest market. The limitation is the hot dogs should be kept frozen until it is time to thaw them for use unlike some hot dogs that can simply be left out on the counter… (Sit! Stay!)
Regarding sugar in curing ham, we’ve found that we prefer a much higher percentage than even the “sugar cures” use. We use 50:50 salt and sugar. The sugar mellows the saltiness of home cured pork and also makes it brown nicely. You have to remember that the store-bought hams we’re used to aren’t actually cured, more like just flavored. For actual preservation it takes quite a bit of salt. Sugar really helps take the edge of the saltiness.
Judy at Tabletop Homestead
I had this same experience! Our local paper picked up one of my posts and I have to say I felt so…. sheepish when people mentioned the article. Almost like the blog world and world world shouldn’t meet :)
Perri