Why I love keeping a veggie garden

As I was plodding in my garden the other day, I was thinking about all of the reasons that I love keeping it.

But first, all of the things that I don't love about the garden. I don't love getting dirt under my fingernails. I don't love the dirty hands-look or the feel of dirt on my skin. I don't love squishing slugs and picking cabbage worms off of the plants. I don't love bringing a head of cabbage into the kitchen, peeling back the outer leaves, only to have a dozen earwigs crawl out and totally freak me out. I don't love the feeling that I may lose the contents of my stomach, when I see this buggy, crawling exodus from my head of cabbage. I don't love the tedious jobs of gardening, like weeding, thinning, and tying up and staking plants. I don't love the disappointment when I thought I planted the second batch of beets in plenty of time, but the garden decided otherwise.

But what I do love is this:

• I love that all of our veggies are organically grown. No pesticides, no chemical residues, nothing that could be potentially harmful to our bodies. This is a biggie for me, as both my parents died far too young, from cancer. If something isn't doing well in my garden, I know that next season I need to add more compost to the soil, not douse it with more chemicals.
• I do love that our produce is very fresh, and hasn't lost nutrients sitting on a supermarket shelf for several days.
• I do love that having a veggie garden encourages us to eat far more veggies than if I was buying all of our produce. I was hungry the other afternoon, and instead of reaching for something starchy, salty or sweet, I went out to garden and cut a zucchini and picked a tomato. I chopped both and tossed in a small frying pan with some oil and garlic powder. With a few slivers of Parmesan, this became my afternoon snack. With sack lunches, I'm able to pack 2 or 3 servings of fruits and vegetables each day, for my family. If I had to buy all of my produce, I'd probably be just putting  one piece of fruit in each lunch. Today, my daughters will be having quiche made with kale and shallots, tomato wedges and rhubarb-blackberry sauce, in their lunches -- and all of the produce came from our yard. 
• I love that we save money, but you already knew that one, as this IS a frugal living blog.
• I love going out to the pumpkin patch and visiting my pumpkins. I have no idea where my obsession for pumpkin comes from, but going out to count my pumpkins is a daily ritual.
• And I am thrilled beyond words that this time of year, there is ALWAYS something to eat coming out of the garden. I sometimes think about how we could manage if our income suddenly went away. I brainstorm how we could enlarge the garden, what we could plant more of to keep us fed, and how we could make this a year-round garden. I can't control whether or not my husband stays employed. But I can control whether or not we have a veggie garden and orchard. I imagine, if need be, I could devote most of my day to getting the absolute most out of our garden, to keep us fed.

Yeah, sometimes I have to deal with creepy or disgusting things from the garden. And the work isn't all that fun. But when I think about the things that I do love about keeping my garden, I can see that the positives are outweighing the negatives, and so I keep on with the gardening.

How to Render Ham Fat to Save for Use in Cooking

At the very end of using a baked ham, I always have chunks and pieces of fat. Rather than throw these chunks out, I render the fat to use in cooking later.

Rendering fat is an old-fashioned method for preparing solid animal fat to use later by separating the fat from any other tissue in the fat. Lard, for example, is a rendered fat. The happy by-product of rendering pork fat is the cracklings, those small bits of crunchy, tasty roasted fat, which sometimes have a bit of meat in them.

When you render ham fat, those bits of fat, the cracklings (with maybe some meat), have a taste and texture similar to bacon bits. The rendered fat, itself, tastes like ham or bacon. I use it in cooking the same way I would use saved bacon fat.

To render fat:

In the process of using a baked ham, simply set aside all of the fatty bits and chunks that you don't want to consume in their current state. On both the shank and butt portions of ham, there can be a substantial swath of fat across part of the exterior. Go ahead and bake the ham with the fat on, scoring well to render fat while baking. Not all of the fat will render in such a large swath without severely overcooking your ham.

initial batch of fat dices rendering

With all of the leftover chunks of fat which you trimmed and saved, cut the pieces which appear to be only fat (no meat attached) into 1/4 to 1/2-inch dices. In just a few minutes of cooking, these very fatty pieces will give off enough rendered fat to thoroughly coat the remaining dices, allowing your main batch to render evenly.

• Place about 1/2 cup of fatty dices into a heavy-bottomed saucepan or dutch oven (depending on amount of ham fat to render, more fat = bigger pot).

• Heat over low, and allow fat to render slowly. Stir occasionally. On my gas stove top, I use a gas mark 2, out of 1 through 5.

cracklings removed to a sieve over a small bowl

• When there's a nice pool of rendered fat, and this first batch is done, use a slotted spoon to scoop the cracklings out of the pot and into a sieve, which is placed over a dish to catch drippings. 

• Add the remaining fat dices (again about 1/4 to 1/2-inch dice) to the rendered fat in the pot.  (I prefer to leave all my dices about 1/4-inch, as I just like the smaller "bits" to add to salads or to top soups.) 

• If you have any especially meaty bits, add those to the rendering about half-way through, to ensure that they don't burn. Continue to render the fat slowly, stirring from time to time.

some of the meatier dices I add about halfway through cooking main batch

• At the very end of cooking, remove the cracklings to a strainer/sieve or scoop into a piece of loosely woven cheesecloth. Use the back of a spoon to press out the fat into the dish below. Alternatively, put the cracklings into a cheesecloth spread over a dish, then squeeze out the liquified fat into the dish to save.

pressing the extra fat out of the cracklings to save for cooking

• The liquid fat is your rendered fat to be used in cooking, just like reserved bacon fat.

• The cracklings can be used in recipes for cornbread and egg salad, or to top soup, salad, and casseroles. Store cracklings in the fridge, or if not using within a day or two, freeze. Rendered fat for use in cooking can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or in the freezer for several months.

I used this batch of cracklings to top a bean and veggie soup --
tastes like bacon bits , Yum!

Rendering the fat from your ham is a way to make use of every last scrap. Hams are expensive; so why not make use of every last bit. Instead of tossing those chunks of fat, salvage them for cooking use. 


You'll find this post, and many others like it, a click away,  through this link (click) -- there's a compilation of my recipes, shopping lists, and menu plans that illustrates how I feed my family of 4 adults on $125 to $135 per month.