Bif skin

We got Bif's skin back from the abattoir before the meat. It has been sitting upstairs in salt since then. We finally got round to getting it down for an inspection and to start scraping it ready for curing.

The scraping is to get rid of fat and flesh on the skin before we apply the cure to it

 This is the front side. It is quite dirty, the patches are actually white. Look at the little tail!

There is still a lot of work to do scraping it then many many applications of cure and various rinsings and washings. Pretty big job. The abattoir save all the hides of animals they kill and they are made in to various things from rugs to waistcoats and bags. We are going to ask them if we would be able to pay them to cure our next skin! It will be fun (ish) to do one, but after that it would be amazing if we could outsource it.

Hainoa back grazing

Hainoa is finally feeling better and gone baxk to grazing so Doug as been able to remove the calves body. We stll haven't been very close to her, but it is an improvement at least. We haven't milked her, and apparently it should just dry up, this would be a different story if it was one of the Jerseys as they produce so much more milk.

Basse Cote

You are going to get mighty bored of pictures and descriptions of different beef cuts. However we are keen to remember what we have done with each one, and which ones we liked best. This will help us when we are deciding how to have the next one butchered.

This was quite thin. Perhaps 2cm (or 1.5cm?). I cooked it for 1 min each side (smokin hot pan) and it came out medium rare. I made a with some cream poured into the pan while the steak were resting, a drop of sherry and some french mustard. Sauce on the side so we could fully appreciate the beef.

This cut seems to be called chuck in America, possibly same in Britain.

First taste of Bif flesh

Beef tomato to go in a salad alongside the beef

Made in to a salad with home grown potato, tomato, mange toutes and sugar snap peas. With just olive oil, salt and pepper for dressing.

These are araignée de boeuf (spider steaks or oyster steaks in English). Doug has been obsessed with them from long before Bif was killed as you get just two per cow. They are also sometimes called 'the butcher's steak' as he often got to take them because people didn't know about them. They are well marbled and tender so very good.

I was quite stressed about how I was going to cook them as I don't cook steak that often, they are the first I have done in literally years and Doug was going to be very upset if I ruined them

I decided to do in a very hot pan with a reasonable amount of olive oil, salted just before they went in, then 2 mins per side and I added a knob of butter on to each one at the end of the cooking time. Then rested for about 5 mins.

Aiming for medium rare. Could have been fractionally less cooked perhaps (Doug goes for rare normally) but absolutely delicious. Best steak I have ever had I would say - which must say something about the quality of the steak rather than the cooking I think.

The dog has her bit of Bif too.

We had Madiran which is a local wine with it. Yummy!

Day off work

As we were both feeling a bit sad about Hainoa and we have lots to do on the farm over the weekend (mostly worming, but we also need to get on with curing Bif's skin and the garden needs weeding and mowing), so I decided to to take Friday off so we could do something nice.

Something wrong here!

This is where the abscess has come out at the top of the hoof (in the middle of the blue bit which is antibiotic spray). He’s doing great now!

Looking good!

Graceful mounting bareback. Doug actually had to lift me up, Owen doesn't look very tall but he has a big belly and nothing much to hold on to making the whole thing difficult.

Fortunate he is so patient

Oh for gods sake woman! What are you doing, just get on already.

Hainoa update

Poor Hainoa won't leave the calf's body alone and is very protective of it. This means we cannot get close to dispose of it, so it has been there three days and doesn't smell very nice. She is obviously in some discomfort from the difficult birth and we cannot get near to inspect what damage might have been done to her. She also won't go and eat, but seems to be drinking at least.
We have given her some cow granules (concentrated food) and are now going to give her some hay. We were hoping hunger would get her to move away, but it is a balance between her getting weak and managing to get rid of the body.
Presumably at some point the hormones will subside and let her move on. It is all very sad to watch and we both still feel sad about it too. Apparently it is likely that next time she will give birth normally, but we will think about that and what to do with her once she is back to normal.

Good news - Bif fitted in to the freezer

We had been worrying there was too much meat even with the new freezer, but it was all ok and fitted in. We are considering putting Lismore in there too!

This is before removing the bits we sold. We sold 65kg which is a bit less than half of the total meat after butchery.

Lismore will make a pretty rug (she is the stripy one in the foreground here)

Sad news - Hainoa's calf died being born

The calf was breech and all tangled in the umbilical cord. V sad.
Hainoa won't let Doug take away the body either, which makes it more distressing.
Life with on the farm is not all sunshine and baby animals :(

Looking after friend's animals

These are the vietnamese pot bellied pigs. There are also chickens, goats and a couple of dogs

Tongue fajitas

The tongue is quite big as you can see here

I boiled it for 5 hours and then peeled it (part way through the peeling here)

I then chopped it up and cooked it on its own for a while to crisp it up a bit then added fajita spices, onion and pepper. 

It was pretty tasty. I saved a bit of tongue so we could have it cold with bread as well.

Islay's calf is male

Look how CUTE he is.

He has just woken up here.

He looks like a little bear cub

Pretty energetic for 2 days old - he has been prancing around for the few minutes a day he is not sleeping.

We (I) tied Islay to a tree so Doug could sneak off and apply fly repellant to him. He then tottered over with her running round the tree madly mooing like a crazed beast.

Off in the sun together

Bye bye losers we have had enough of you

With the rest of the herd (minus Bluebell and Myrtle who are up by the house because Bluebell was tricky with Lismore and we wanted her in a small field where she is easier to catch and milk - but she is being fine this time).

The people we bought Islay and Hainoa from (who also let us take them back to breed with Capi one of their bulls) rushed round to help and advise us today when we let them know that Islay had had the calf and that we had been having trouble getting close. They were worried that we wouldn't be able to get close enough to put fly repellent on which stops fly strike (maggots eat the animal alive which we know full well how HORRIBLE it is, as we have had it happen to the sheep) and they have some super concentrated stuff that they apply with a huge water pistol for when they cannot get close to the calf. Fortunately we had managed to apply some Butox close up earlier in the day.

However it was still great to see them, as they have confirmed that he will turn out dun in colour. This is his father Capi whose colour I think is called white (though really he looks creamy). I guess the calf will end up with similar-ish colour hair, perhaps a bit darker/greyer, but the skin underneath is black which you can tell from his grey nose.

They told us dun is a popular (because rare-ish) colour, so we have decided not to castrate and beef him, but rather to keep him entire and sell him when he is about 6-9 months old. This depends a little bit on how he comes out conformation wise, but as mom and dad are fine specimens we hope for good looks from him.

Also they think that Hainoa came into heat around the same time as Islay and that she didn't take on the same cycle, so it should perhaps be 3 weeks until she gives birth (or potentially 6 weeks though we are not sure that she would still have been with the bull then).

Exciting new toy

Or, I am excited at least! Doug maybe not so much. There's no space!
I was intending to start off with Alpaca wool that the man we bought the highland cows from gave me. However I have discovered that Alpaca is more difficult to start off with, than sheeps wool because it doesn't have little scales on it which help the wool fibers grab together.
So I have carded some of the Ouessant wool and I am going to give that a go.
The wheel is a Lendrum DP from Canada. I haven't managed to set it up to actually work yet as we have been so busy this weekend going to a friend's birthday party, recovering from the hangover, looking after cows and feeding some friends animals. It is meant to be a great beginner wheel that is great for more advanced spinners too. It packs flat for storage and easy travel.

Bedroom progress report

Progress is slow due to all the cow activity.
However there is stuff going on in the brief interludes. This is a bit of the ceiling that is done with all the metal bars

This bit still has to be done. Perhaps 3/4 still to do? Shhhh maybe I shouldn't say that as it will depress Doug!

Bif offal

There was some problem with the liver so we didn't get it back (I think when we get the paperwork it will be clear what. Liver fluke perhaps)
I did get:
Tongue - It is currently boiling away in this casserole dish. I am planning on simmering for 3 hours or thereabouts, then skinning it and cutting in to pieces which I will fry and make in to beef fajitas.

This is the very back of the tongue (I think!)

Kidney - put in the freezer to make in to steak and kidney pie once I have the steak

The heart. It is HUGE. But I guess that makes sense as he was quite big too. It seems to have a lot of fat, but I think that is normal (fat round it rather than marbled in the meat).
I am not quite sure what I am going to do with the heart yet. Probably render the fat for cooking. Maybe some of the meat will go to the dog. Seems a bit of a waste, but the heart is big and I have never been super keen on heart. I will try frying some just to make sure. Advice seems to be do it rare as there is no fat in it.

Not offal exactly, but this is the skin. We need to set about fleshing the 'flesh side' so that all the fat and bits of muscle have been removed then we can cure it. It again is HUGE. So lots of work. Looking forward to getting started tomorrow.

I did ask for the suet (kidney fat) but didn't get it. I wasn't sure if he said I would get it with the meat or it is just not coming at all. The joys of not speaking the language properly. MUST LEARN!!