Honey Apple Pork Loin

It's a new year and a whole new upstart for Ms. Jenny Farm! This year I will dive more into cooking around the homestead with some great off the grid ideas and of course still throw in some exciting "on the farm" features as we will be very busy around here with expansions and improvements in 2015.

 We are starting the year off right with two full freezers of fresh, farm raised pork. In October we had a gilt and the un-cut boar butchered. The gilt came in at 396 lbs and the boar at 90lbs, that equals a whole lot of bacon, sausage and ham!


My holidays were spent perusing pork recipes and ideas on how to reinvent the ham dinner. When New Year's rolled around I didn't want the same old savory meal. I pulled out my 11lb pork loin, some honey and apple juice and went to town. The result was a dinner with no leftovers and a meal even Hairy Man couldn't complain about. I wanted to share it here today in a smaller version on a 2-3lb loin. Try it for Sunday dinner this week and let me know what you think!

Honey Apple Pork Loin
Serves 4-6
1 2-3lb pork loin
4 cups 100% apple juice
3Tblsp Soul Food Seasoning
3Tblsp light brown sugar
2Tblsp honey

Place your loin fat side up in broiler pan. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Rub the soul food seasoning onto all sides of the loin generously and return to the pan. Slowly pour the apple juice into the bottom of the pan around the loin and seal tightly with foil. Place on middle rack of the oven and sit down with a good book.

Two hours later pull the pan out and uncover. Pour off half of the liquid into a medium saucepan. Now the yummy begins! Mix brown sugar and honey in small bowl. Flip loin so that fat side is down in pan. Rub sugar mixture onto top of loin and return to oven uncovered for 30-45 minutes. You are looking for a dark caramel color but avoid burning.

Pull loin out of oven and allow to rest on platter tented with foil. Pour all those remaining juices into saucepan and simmer till reduced by half.

Slice loin into medallions, pour pan sauce over top and enjoy!

Cut and Run

We are the proud owners of a large gilt and four little piggies, two males and two females. The gilt is a red waddle and chester white cross. The piglets are a cross between red waddle and large black or as I call them the mudflap pigs.

 The piglets came to us uncut. I am not going to go into a lot of detail here other than to say that they came with all their baby making parts in place. Being uncut poses a problem with the males because if you want to butcher them they will take on a gamey flavor if they are uncut.
This was not a process I or Hairy Man was looking forward too. I had already decided that I was not going to be directly involved in the process but like a good little wife I would procure all the supplies and organize the operation.
I had heard through the grapevine, the local feed store ole timers, that I needed the "purple wound spray." The spray would help the bleeding to stop and calm the little pigs down after the deed was done. Apparently the purple spray was magic.
Off I went to a livestock supply store in a nearby town to get some of this magic spray. I was looking around all the shelving determined I was not going to ask for help. After about five minutes I gave in. Little Guy, my youngest son was with me and the livestock store is like the county fair to him. He runs from shelf to shelf yelling, "Look at this mom!" My brain was quickly fried and it was time to woman up and get some help.
After explaining to the gentleman running the counter what I was after and watching him blush and feeling like I need to crawl under a rock he pointed me in the right direction and wished me luck. Mission accomplished for me.

 The cut day soon arrived. We planned it for a weekend when my in laws were planning on coming out because apparently Hairy Man wanted company for this chore. As soon as they arrived off Hairy Man and my father in law went down to the pig pen with Missy and Bubby in toe.
They managed to get one of the male piglets separated from the over protective gilt. He started to scream his head off just being held in true piglet fashion. That was about the time my mother in law and I decided it was a tad to hot out and to high tail it to the kitchen for some sweet tea.
About twenty minutes later in came Hairy Man, my father in law and my two eldest right behind. Missy looked on the verge of tears, Hairy Man was white as a sheet and Bubby was quiet as usual. I got them sat down with some tea and gave my girl a hug.
Hairy Man then proceeded to tell us that he was only doing that once, next time he's paying someone to do that, and that was just rough work. Missy went on about how the piglets would never like her again and a bunch of rambling about how she was going to become a vegetarian. As my father in law proceeded to reaffirm to them both about how it needed to be done, Bubby finally spoke up.
"What's for lunch?" He asked. We might make a farm boy of him yet.

Wilson's Creek: A Step Back or Forward In Time...

Happy Mother's Day to all Momma's out there! I received my present a little early this year, a little one on one time with my eldest daughter (Missy) and my eldest son (Bubby). I was blessed to escort them both on a field trip to Wilson's Creek National Battlefield in Battlefield, Missouri.

I will be honest at the first thought of this trip I was thinking logistics. Do I have the time to do this? What is the weather to be like? What should I pack for the picnic lunch? Once I got all my anxiety driven worries aside the kiddos were filled with anticipation of all they were going to see and do there. I started to reminisce back to the days of my field trips to the battlefield in elementary school and was happy to know that they also would have memories of walking around that peaceful place with friends feeling like you had taken a step back into the 1860's.

We had beautiful weather for our trip and actually made it a little early to the battlefield! I was excited for the kids but was weary that I would get anything out of it. I took a Civil War class in high school and Hairy Man and I took Missy when she was a little thing to a reenactment weekend at the battlefield so I felt like I had been there and done that.

The day started off with a presentation on Civil War medicine on the site of the Ray House. I was expecting the usual gruesome discussion of amputations. That was touched on during the presentation and our speaker had the tools on display for viewing, but the subject of unsanitary conditions and illness was really the main topic. Measles was discussed and I found that to be very relevant for the kids considering the latest outbreaks.

Off we went to the Ray House itself. Outside on the porch with the beautiful view of the rolling fields, our guide greeted us and tried to set the picture of the day the battle began. He explained in detail, like a great storyteller, Mr. Ray sitting on that very porch watching as both armies ran in and out of his cornfield and destroyed his harvest. Inside as we were surrounded with all the daily utensils and furniture of that time period, it was really pounded home to all of us what the cost to the family the war was. The destruction of their crops that they needed to sustain themselves for the winter, the loss of livestock to the army and even the loss of wool for their clothes as it was needed for wound dressing.

 

After a lovely picnic with good friends, we went on to the Visitor's Center to listen to a presentation by two gentleman about daily life for a soldier complete with a musket demonstration. My mother's heart was a little concerned. Bubby and boys around his age are fascinated with all things military and watching a gun being fired is usually the highlight of the trip. My concern was that the boys would get a glamorous idea of war. I was so very wrong. This was a very fun demonstration so it definitely kept all the kid's interest but it was very relevant that the Civil War was brothers fighting brothers and friends fighting friends. It was also explained that many of these young men left to join the war so they could see the "world" and they unfortunately did not get very far.

This spring has already fired up some significant tornados in our state and surrounding states. Living this rural life now I had a totally different perspective on our field trip than I have had in visits past. I was struck throughout the day on how this was so similar to our modern natural disasters. All that you have worked for to sustain your family can be gone in the course of a couple of hours and you cannot take time to mourn the loss because you have to help others and give what you can. The senseless loss of life and the everyday hero's that come out of such disaster. I am thankful that this trip not only gave my kiddos a historical step into the past but lessons and memories they can carry with them into the future.

Oh and they did not care one bit what I packed for our picnic, sometimes the little things don't matter.

Busy Baker's Creek

Why is every weekend so busy? When my kiddos were small we were always trying to keep the weekends busy so that they would be entertained and exhausted and we could get them to nap and sleep through the night. Rural life is very different for us. We are overwhelmed with an endless to do list of things that need done for planting, harvesting and taking care of growing livestock. Often when opportunities present themselves for us to visit with our families it is bittersweet knowing that if we enjoy ourselves for the day more things are piling up back home. Not this past weekend.

Sunday after church we loaded up the kiddos and headed out of town. Guilt-free road trip! We have planting to do for the garden so off we go to Mansfield to a well known hide away called Bakers Creek. A wonderful little old time village with the focus being an heirloom seed store. We wanted to be there to take in all the sights and sounds of the Spring Planting Festival and to really enjoy the occasion we were able to meet up with my parents there and have a little Nana and Pawpaw time!

As soon as we walked in the entrance gates we were tempted by the luscious smells of food carts and flowers mingled together. There were booths filled with colorful handmade and home grown offerings of vendors from all over the country who came to gather in this small field. My favorite site of the day was seeing a clothes line strung up on the porch of the Mercantile building flap in the breeze sending the attached sun bonnets dancing. My mom caught me watching them and shared a sweet memory with me of when I was her little girl running around all summer with a bonnet in my hair. True to her nature she still has my pink gingham bonnet that her Jenny Lynn wore.

This little hideaway in the Ozarks was bursting with a record number of visitors this year so it was slow going around the village but what better way to enjoy all the sights and sounds of some wonderful bluegrass and gospel music on a beautiful spring day. Nana and Pawpaw made sure to keep the snacks coming for the kiddos and much of the day was spent splitting up to spend some sweet one on one time with a kiddo that wants to do this or look at that.

So what seeds did we get? What a question! The seed store itself was packed to the brim and Hairy Man (my dear hubby) had a list of things a mile long. He is an impatient one so when I met up with him he had not purchased a thing. Could not handle the line he said, could not move he said, didn't have time he said. This impatient man left with a huge smile on his face because we have the seeds of the memory of a guilt free family outing and valuable time spent as a family on a busy weekend.

Oh and a new Dutch bunny was purchased too!