Category: Our blog

I want to share with you a great, but little-known joy in my life. Hear me out: lard is lovely! 

I have respect for pork-free lifestyles and plant-based happiness but for those of us that do partake in pig, allow me to educate and hope to entertain the idea of using more lard in your life too.

We raise pastured pigs here at Glade Road Growing. They live outdoors and are rotated around the farm to root and soak up sunshine throughout their lives here. At harvest, we have a variety of pork cuts (sausages, roasts, chops, bacon, etc) and also a large amount of pork fat, upwards of 12% of the total weight we get back from our butchers. In our strive to utilize all that comes back, we have discovered some pretty versatile uses for the pork fat, which otherwise would essentially be a waste product.

Lard is simply the fat rendered down from pigs. I’m not talking just any pigs and I’m not talking grocery store lard.

I’m talking happy, healthy hogs raised locally, living outside, soaking up lots of sunshine. A lot like the pigs we raise here.

I’m talking about lard made in small batches, is minimally processed with no added ingredients and is not artificially hydrogenated.

Lard was once revered, then suddenly and unfairly got a bad health wrap. But that is starting to change. Besides its nutritional and cooking qualities, it’s an oil that we can produce locally as opposed to olive oil, coconut oil, and palm oil which are typically imported from overseas. Oils and fats for foods and soaps are essential and have to come from somewhere! Why not from here? 

We sell rendered lard to use as a cooking oil and for years our friend Elisabeth Swindell of Antonina’s Garden has been making handmade soaps with lard from here as the main ingredient. 

As a soap base, lard has many benefits.

Lard soaps are especially mild and moisturizing because the cellular make up of lard is very similar to our own skin. The soaps produce a light lather that doesn’t strip your skin’s natural oils like many other soaps on the market.  Lard soap bars are especially long-lasting and do not turn to mush in your soap dish. Animal fats in soaps is not a new concept. Most commercial bar soap (Dial, Ivory, Dove, Jergens) are all made with tallow. Fancy designer soaps usually use coconut oil, palm oil, or olive oil.

Lard soaps clean well yet are mild enough for my face and my kids. Our soaps are scented with an assortment of essential oils (options include lavender, tea tree, patchouli, atlas cedar, spearmint, tangerine, rosemary, and unscented) and available in bulk without needless packaging. They’re available for sale at our farm stand during full service hours.

As a cooking oil, lard continues to be a rock star!

Lard, especially that raised from outdoor pigs, is high in vitamin D. It is has higher mono-unsaturated fat (ie “good fat”) than butter, coconut oil, and soybean oil. Lard has a high smoke point and so is especially good for frying. For pastries and pies, the lard crystal melts in a way that leaves air pockets for that revered flakiness.
 
The internet thinks so too! Here are some articles on the benefits of lard:
Huff Post, In praise of lard and how to render your own
Iron Chef Alton Brown, The virtues of pork fat
Supermarket Guru Phil Lempert, 5 reasons to choose lard as you cooking oil
Prevention, Should you be eating lard?  [yes!]
Dr. Andrew Weil, Is lard healthy? [yes!]

I use lard for almost all my frying and am experimenting more and more in baking. I usually take a recipe and substitute the  listed amount of butter with lard and get tasty results. My good friend eats both dairy-free and gluten-free and I have found that using lard in these such recipes works just fine. To prove it, here is a lard chocolate cake recipe, easily converted from a vegan recipe passed down by my grandmother. The recipe is dairy-free and egg-free and works well with either regular or 1:1 gluten-free flour:


Wowie Chocolate Cake using luscious local lard
 
Ingredients:
1.5 cups flour (or 1:1 gluten-free flour)
1 cup sugar (or honey)
1 tsp baking soda
3 TBS cocoa or cacao powder
1 TBS vanilla extract
1 TBS vinegar
1 cup warm water
5-6 TBS melted lard (less for a fluffier cake, more for a fudgier cake)

1. Preheat oven to 350 deg F.
2. Mix dry ingredients.
3. Make a well and add wet ingredients.
4. Mix well. If batter is too thick, add more water 1 TBS at a time.
[Optional: top cake with shredded coconut or chopped nuts before baking]
5. Pour into 8″ or 9″ cake pan.
6. Bake 25-30 minutes.
[Optional: Dust top with more cocoa]

I don’t usually throw around the “S” word [sustainable], but I am thrilled to be using more of the whole of the animals that we raise. Maybe you and your family will be willing to give our lard a try too. 

How we render lard:
While the fatback is semi-frozen, grate or cube it into smaller pieces, as small as you can.

Put in a slow cooler on the “Keep warm” setting with the lid slightly cracked to let the water evaporate off.

Check every 30 minutes or so to stir and keep cracklings from sticking to the bottom.

As soon as the fat has melted (this should only take about 2-4 hours), carefully ladle it off and pour through a cheese cloth into a mason jar.

You can continue to cook the cracklings down, salt them and add them to salads or just have them as a snack

This is our first blog post. Hooray!

There are so many delicious veggies that grow in spring that you rarely see on grocery store shelves. Here are some we grow here at Glade Road Growing that may be new to you and some simple preparations to try them.

Raab

We know spring is underway when the pretty golden and green florets of raab start to form. Raab is another word for the flower shoots that start to show on kale and tat soi that has survived the winter. The flower buds themselves are slightly sweet and the stems holding them have a little extra snap, with flavor reminiscent of broccoli.

Preparation: The simplest and most popular way to prepare raab is to sauté in olive oil with salt, pepper, and garlic to taste. Small slices of fruit like apples tossed in at the end help balance out the peppery flavor of the raab.

Pea Shoots

We grow a winter pea cover crop and pea shoots in the greenhouse of a variety called Austrian winter peas. They form curly tendrils with broad, tear-drop shaped leaves. Pea shoots have somewhat of a nutty flavor and a texture different from all our other greens.

Preparation: I like to top salads and wraps with pea shoots (chop them into 1/2 pieces if you have long tendrils). I also love them in stir-fry. They hold up well to the heat and it brings out more of their flavor, too. Try tossing with some sesame oil and soy sauce /liquid aminos and adding them in towards the end if stir-frying with other veggies.

Kohlrabi

Its name means “cabbage turnip” and it looks like an alien head! It has a double skin and so is one of the few vegetables I peel. Its texture is apple-crisp with flavor semi-sweet and a little like broccoli but not quite as strong.

Preparation: Raw! I peel and slice kohlrabi and love it raw on a veggie plate. Its sturdy form holds up well as a scoop for dips like hummus or ranch. Cut into sticks, it adds great crunch and flavor to salads.

Hakurei salad turnips

If you like radishes on your salad, you’ll love salad turnips. These all-white turnips are very different from their winter storage counterparts. They have a thin skin and softer texture than salad radishes and are super sweet. The fresher the better. And their tender turnip greens are a mild-flavored nutritious cooking green as well.

Preparation: Raw again is my preference here. Their bright white color adds appealing visual contrast in salads. They are also great quick-pickled with rice-wine vinegar and some grated ginger, or simply drizzled with sesame oil. They do roast well, too, and all those sugars caramelize and brown up for an additional sweet veggie treat.

Fennel

Fennel is related to dill and carrots but tastes totally different. It has a sweet flavor, like licorice, that reminds me of Italian seasoning (which contains fennel seeds). Fennel has a texture and growth habit like celery.

Preparation: I love roasted fennel. I add it to other things I’m roasting like potatoes and chicken to impart its subtle flavors. Shaved thin, it’s also great raw on a salad.

Garlic scapes

Garlic scapes appear mid-spring and are the flower shoot of hard neck garlic. It has a noodly shape and garlic flavor that is not quite as strong as garlic itself. They’re only here for a short window so be sure to enjoy them when they’re in season.

Preparation: Make garlic scape pesto by processing scapes in a food processor with lemon, olive oil and parmesan cheese. Spread the pesto on buttery toast or over pasta. Another favorite way to have scapes is to cut them into 1″ lengths and then steam them. They will come out with a texture similar to green beans but with a light garlic flavor.

Sorrel

Sorrel is a spring green related to spinach. It has a lemony flavor and is great blended with broth and cream with spinach for a classic sorrel soup.

Recipes

BEET PATTIES

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas or black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/4 cup fresh dill
• 3 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
• 1 small onion, roughly chopped
• 3 garlic cloves
• 2 medium raw beets, peeled and roughly chopped (about 2 cups)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon oil + more for cooking patties
• 1/3 cup chickpea flour or other gluten free flour
• tzatziki for serving

DIRECTIONS:

In the bowl of a food processor, combine the rolled oats, drained and rinsed chickpeas, and fresh dill. Pulse for 5 seconds. Add the white vinegar then continue to blend until the mixture appears finely chopped and sticks together when you press it between your fingers. Scoop the mixture out into a large bowl and set aside.

Next add the onion, garlic cloves, and beets to the food processor then blend until finely chopped. In large skillet, warm the oil over medium heat. Add the beet mixture from the food processor, sprinkle with a teaspoon of salt and cook for about 5-7 minutes, until soft. Transfer the mixture to the bowl with the chickpeas.

Add the chickpea flour to the bowl and stir together until well-combined. If the mixture appears too wet, add more flour (1 tablespoon at a time) until it’s dry enough to hold together. Scooping out about 1/4 cup of the mixture at a time, use your hands to form individual patties. Cook them in the greased skillet over medium heat for about 4 minutes on each side. Serve with tzatziki.

SPINACH AND SORRELL SQUARES

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 lb chopped spinach sorrel blend
• 1 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup melted butter, oil or bacon fat
• 1 small onion, roughly chopped
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 cup flour
• 1/4 cup finely chopped onion

DIRECTIONS:

Enjoy!