Today we went to the locker to pick up a hog and half a deer. I’m eager to try the hog as it is the first Berkshire we have tried – an old breed bred for flavor. One of Linda’s former students raises a few hogs and loves to deer hunt, so we are beneficiaries of more local food!

As putting the meat away involved some freezer consolidation, (we have two big chest freezers for all our treasures) I just went ahead and defrosted one using the rapid defrost method with hot water to get the ice pieces to slide off the walls. Here’s Martin holding a prize piece of ice from the defrosting!

The other night we had our first beef from our friends at Sugar Creek Farm. We had a roast and it was very good and topped it with homemade horseradish from the good people at Morning Sun Farm – send your thoughts and prayers to Morning Sun today and the next few days as one of its residents undergoes surgery and three weeks following of low activity.