Well, we are bit behind on the butchering but we are finally getting some really good temps for it and it will be happening over the next couple weeks, and so we need to make a lot more room in the freezers, this will be done in a combo of ways, canning more meat up, planning on curing and drying a good amount of the new meat, that will hang saving me freezer space but it also means that I really need to process along of lard and tallow..
The Tallow is easy, its going to be done into blocks and will be used for both household use and for soap making but the lard, well its a bit much.. I mean really, I have over 100 plus pounds of it , and that does not include what will be coming with the new pigs.. its more then I can use in terms of house and its more then I want to use for soap making..
I was smart this time and I paid to have my lard ground up, I have got the big rolls and cut them up and processed them, but why make extra work for myself when I can get it trimmed and ground for ease of making it at home.
But It can NOT go to waste.. so it will be thawed, rendered, canned up and then it will be used to create my own bird feeder blocks for my chickens and other fowl.
This is not going to be a fussy recipe at all, and I will play around with it but in a nut shell, I plan on mixing
My wonderful locally grown, harvested and freshly ground chicken feed, with black oil sunflower seeds, some whole grains, with a bit of dried greens and nettles mixed with the lard and pressed into blocks that will be served up to the birds, and also made into balls to be haul in the trees for the wild birds as well.. must not forget my wild feathered friends. While its still all good right now, when its very cold, I always give them a helping hand.
I will do a post on making these very soon in detail, but I plan on rendering tallow and lard all this coming week till that space is free again. What is your favorite way to use your free range grass fed Tallow and your home raised lard?
Do you have a favorite recipe that you just love to make your own bird balls or blocks?
linked on simple Saturday blog hop
Just another Day on the Farm 
Wow! What an awesome amount of lard!
I never got that much and every precious amount was used for cooking.
I raise lard pig breeds, normally large blacks an I grow my pigs big, which means lots of lard back, but the marble is quite different from modern breeds, which is fine in my books
Nice looking lard! That is a great idea, getting the butcher to grind the fat! But, our butcher always seems to leave a lot of pork on the fat, which takes us a lot of time to cut away. How do you get your butcher to cut away all the fat? Do they do a good job of it?
they have done a excellent job in the past to date, I tell him the trim percent I want on the chops an so forth, that I want the pork minx natural and that all fat trim is to be ground, some packages are cleaner then others but in no way would I say, he leaves pork on the fat.
Great information! Thank you! We have never trimmed our chops or other cuts. We simply take the back fat cuts for lard. We have to cut off a lot of meat. I am going to work with the butcher to trim this better in the future and grind it. Thank you for this great information!
By the way, we are watching the latest season of The Walking Dead on Netflix, and we always think of you when we see Darryl! We are wishing you the best, thank for so much great information! Justin