Yucky but Useful

Upon our return from an overnight visit to GG and Aunt Debbie in Kingston, Alistair and I returned home to discover that we have a new house guest and that Ian learned a new skill.

A swallowtail caterpillar is our new visitor.  He was munching up our parsley and Ian figured that with the temperatures dropping to the freezing point at night he might appreciate a vacation in our butterfly hatchery. 

I have named our new caterpillar Salvatore the Swallowtail and while I still find caterpillars a bit yucky, he is also a tiny bit lovely.  Hopefully he continues to grow on me (figuratively - he must stay in his terrarium).

I find it amazing that Ian and I are still able to come up with homestead related things to try for the first time.  For example, Ian just taught himself how to make lard by rendering pork fat.  Interestingly, it was exactly the same as melting and cleaning beeswax.

First Ian scrapped the fat off the pig skin and put it in a pot with half a cup of water.  The water started off the process, allowing the fat to begin melting without burning.

As the fat melted, he skimmed off as many impurities as he could.

After about four or five hours, the fat had all melted and any remaining impurities had consolidated into greasy chunks.

Ian poured the melted fat through a sieve and then left it to cool into lard.

He then poured the semi cooled lard into mason jars. 

We will store these in the freezer for use in pie crust and baked goods.  The verdict on the lost art of lard making is that it is similar to caterpillars, actually - kind of yucky but very useful.