Makin' Baaaaacon

Dateline:  October 2010

Ok, so we don't eat pork at my house.  i find that the only things i really miss are breakfast sausage and bacon.  Must have something to do with the way i was raised.  Ever since we gave up pork, i have been looking for a suitable substitute for these delicacies, and let me just state for the record that turkey ham is doable, but turkey bacon?  Why bother. 

Have been experimenting with various kosher meats to try to come up with suitable replacement for these meats, and lamb seems to do it.  In fact, i have developed a lamb sausage recipe that is better than any breakfast sausage i have ever eaten.  Except for, MAYBE, Blue & Gold, the one the FFA sells.

Susan, dear Susan and i have been working toward buying sheep, for meat  purposes only, but it has been one thing after another the last couple of years, and we just haven't done it.  Mostly because we are both trying to keep closed herds, and with sheep and goats both being caprine animals, diseases can cross species, and neither one of us wants to risk our herd, obviously...anyway, Susan called me last spring and said she found someone who was of a like mind in raising food, i.e. didn't vaccinate, no hormones, no chemicals, fertilizers, etc.  All she raised was sheep, fed only on mothers milk and clean grass.  Just as God intended. So we bought a lamb and gave it a whirl.  Both families liked it (in fact Jethro loved it, calls it the best red meat ever.  First time i made lamb chops, he ate his, most of Ellie May's, and half of mine,) so we put in an order for 2 more. 

The lamb lady calls to tell us the woolies were ready, and i head off to Susan, dear Susan's homestead for butchering day.   Now, let me tell ya, fellers...you have not lived until you have seen two fat, menopausal women trying to hoist a lamb carcass up in a tree to gut it.  Somebody missed out on the $10,000 prize that day.  But we persevered got both lambs dressed and packaged up in pretty cuts of meat. 

Lamb is luscious, we have had some wonderful meals with it.  I find that my people like it best simply roasted with a little olive oil, garlic and rosemary.  It just slays me when i see a smallish leg of lamb at the grocery store for upwards of $50, and i know that i put a whole lamb in the freezer for that and a solid mornings work.
Susan dear Susan's people believe that the 5 food groups are beef, pork, chicken, turkey, and caprine, and boy, does she know how to cook them all!!!  She had just butchered a pig and was going to smoke bacon for her family, so i left some of our lamb for her to throw in the batch. 

Oh, Oh my Goodness, i cannot tell you how fabulous it is.  Delightfully crispy, and then just positively melts in your mouth.  Baaaaaacon will make you wanna throw rocks at that storebought pork stuff.  And then fry an egg you just snagged from the henhouse in that grease.....well, folks, that right there is why we do what we do around here.   MMMMMmmmmmmm.