Higher Grading, rarer than hens teeth.
Hi Poultry Pals I have come to the realization that the only reason we had children is to force home the absurdity of both farming and life. Kids say the most insightful things. Having made the choice to rear our offspring in the fresh air and denied opportunities, we are often presented with anecdotes of why no matter what choice you choose, you will never be 100% right or wrong. I wasn’t a farm kid. Farm kids are strange beasts. Last night I pulled a tooth from our eldest. I think it was his second or third shedding. Better parents would be more sure than I am. I have never seen someone so proud of me for doing so little. I was declared his favorite person. It lasted as long as it took to say the words. Realizing his error, he quickly add ‘and mom…’, after another error he added… ‘and Jo’. Shoo, we were all accounted for. Teeth are funny things. Believe it or not it is how cattle and sheep are graded. It is a very broad way of telling their age. In the same way that when you look at a grade 1 class you think, surely it is better to teach kids to read when they have all the facilities to actually pronounce the words they are reading. It is also really interesting to see that all kids lose teeth at different ages and stages. Cattle and sheep are the same. Your basic grading, A grade, AB, B and C all have to do with how many teeth an animal has. I know, bizarre. It has nothing to do with an animals meat quality. So when someone brags that they only sell A grade meat, all they are really saying is that the cow probably can’t read. Together with the age, a number from 1 to 5 is added for the amount of fat an animal has. In my opinion the best beef is an older B grade, with a level of 2 or 3 for fat. The same goes for lamb. If I were to stray either side I would rather go for a younger C than an A. Pigs are a little different. Their age is not really relevant. They still get graded on their fattiness, but cunningly use Numbers P, O, R etc. They also get assigned a number. Basically on the conformation of the carcass. This is a fancy way of saying how it looks. In a similar manner to a construction worker cat calling. It is not unusual to refer to a carcass as beautiful. It is possibly also not right. Still My kids are still at that age where their vocabulary allows us to insult them without them knowing we are doing so. I’m sure in years to come there will be a therapist that sees our humor in it. For the moment we have learned to just giggle inwardly. My daughter puts the wrong shoes on the right feet. We call this banana feet. This morning she got called a fruit salad. She knew we were talking about her shoes. Her response was that I was a beef steak. All good. I told her I was not apposed to being called beefy. I said she was a chop. She retorted that I was a boerewors. She then said Mignon was a Chicken. Giggles all round. And then said ‘And we kill chickens.’. Hushed silence. It had taken a turn for the worse with the pre-school threat of death. It was always our goal for our kids to know where their food comes from. Perhaps our children are a little too aware. Speaking of chickens. We have loads of stock up on the website if you are looking for a whole bird for a family roast. We have also added a few products to our kitchen staples section. After a compliment from a friend on our Pork Rubwe decided to pop some online to see if they were just being polite. We have also added some Braai Salt. The rub doesn’t contain any salt or sugar. It is better to salt your crackling prior and add the rub after, without making everything too salty. If you are not making crackling, just add your salt to taste toward the end of your cook. The braai salt however does have salt and sugar added. Both go really well with pork fat and lemon juice. Honestly we use them for everything from roast chicken to the flour we deep fry our battered fish with. We are also now stocking Soga Organic Orange juice. It is really good. It goes well in kids school lunches or just as a general hit of goodness. We have decide to sell them in singles or six packs. There are pecan nuts dropping. We have shelled some if you are keen to give them a go, they are on a special at the moment.
Discounts & Specials
The middle of the month is always a little slow, so we have brought out the big guns to entice you out of the supermarkets. We will be running a Burger and a pork sausage special till Monday next week. use the discount code "Bang-a-Burger" for 10% off Burger patties, Pork Sausages, Kids Sausage and Breakfast Burgers.
We have been shuffled around the pork abattoir schedule. I think it will be to our benefit. We will need a little time to settle into a new delivery schedule, but the plan for now is to deliver in up in Gauteng on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. We will then be doing KZN on Thursdays or Fridays. Either way we will communicate it at the time. For the Highveld folks it means we will be able to take orders up until Monday lunch time to be able to deliver the following day.
