I ate Pigs Feet

Trotters.

Pig's feet.

I used to feed this to the dogs. Hey, you want to eat trotters? No. What changed? I was reading in, uh, Foxfire, the OG, the original. These old Appalachian Well, they were all homesteaders. If they didn't grow it, they didn't eat. We are on a mission to grow what we eat, and the second part is key, and to eat what we grow. We grew these feet. We grew these. Are we just taking it too far now?

I think it's great. I think that nose-to-tail eating is the healthiest way to eat.

That too. Not just making use of what we grow, the health benefit. Is there something to it? That my worst symptom is pain in my feet. I'm gonna eat feet.

Oh, like helps.

They say if you have— need help with the heart, eat heart. If you need help with the liver, eat liver. I need help with the feet, so I'm gonna eat some feet.

They're just thought of as gross because they're feet.

Like, yeah, you know, but if you read these foxfire books, these Appalachian people, it was not gross. It was like the prize thing. They even tell us how the old-timers cook it, roast it for really long, or cook it in some bit of salt water, which I'm gonna salt it to taste and make a broth. Pig feet soup is going to be my dinner tonight. That's one less dinner we had to buy or provide. Y'all probably want to see this, don't you? I didn't do maybe as good of a job as I would because I was planning on feeding these to Winnie. In the scraping, scalding process, I could have gotten a little more of this hair off. I'm gonna see if I can't cut some of that off. We got the outer toenail off. The butcher cut it in half for us. Look at all that gelatin. Is that gelatin? No.

Is it gelatin or is it like—

Bone marrow. Yeah, like look at all that bone marrow we're going to be accessing. I didn't do a great job because I thought we were feeding it to Winnie. You're already gagging? Oh, that's funny. I mean, reading Aunt Arie, an old-timer, and Ulysses used to laugh at her because she would gag if she got a If she got a pork hair in her mouth, I think I heard her gag. She would just gag and gag and gag, and he would just laugh and laugh.

And that's you.

But she would do it.

He was reading some of it to me yesterday, and it's so much like his granny. Like, it's really cool. I'm so glad we got that book. Okay, I cannot look at that.

And asked us last night if I ever eat anything gross. I said I eat all kinds of weird stuff. She said, whose picky? I said Rebecca's pickiest. I've eaten eyeballs. I've had the little iris pop out and shoot out.

Stop!

That popped out. It's all fine, this stuff. It would— we're gonna boil this. Our primary reason for homesteading early on went from providing energy to providing medicine for our family. And like Rebecca said, the health factors are in nose-to-tail eating. That means the whole animal. They're gonna metal wire through this thing. You know, this is why we don't do this in America anymore. It's so much more efficient just to get the meat. I spent just 20 minutes cleaning this, not counting the scraping I did out in the field. Uh, what do you think? Very clean, very nice. Maybe enough food for me tonight. Now, the economic values say maybe my meat eat mostly meat. Let's say it was going to be a pound and a half of ground beef. That's going to be like $12 at best. So I'm saving $12 right here. Did that once a week, it's over— is that $50 a week? A month? That's something. On today's episode of Burn It Up Cooking Show, trotters. And I have no idea what I'm doing, so we're gonna just cover it with water.

Ew.

There's the weird stuff I got off, including one of those outer shells, uh, toenails. Oh, this is— I'm gonna call her on that. Just like with a chicken, there's an outer toenail that you got to get off in the scolding. That one got missed because I was just gonna feed it to Winnie. You determined to make this work just for my— for my ancestor's sake too. My goodness, there's that aspect. My people would have eaten this. I use this salt when I'm doing liquids. Utah Sea Minerals. It's got other minerals in it besides salt, but You know that, Rebecca? This is just like a crazy health boost. We're gonna get that to a boil pretty fast, and then we're gonna slow boil it all day till supper. Hang tight, we're gonna eat that tonight. My apologies, Winnie. Hey Winnie, if we're gonna eat what we grow, honey, we gotta eat the feet, we gotta eat the livers and the hearts. Even the old-timers ate the lungs. All right, there's a recipe in Foxfire for all that. Eat the dry dog food.

Okay, how would I do that?

She's doing her morning exercise, girl. Definitely works better with a camera.

Stop it.

Good for you. Good for you.

It's my morning movement.

Oh, good.

Just to move, get my body—

It's a big day as always as we grow what we eat and we eat what we grow. Today she's making pecan pie, although we did not grow— Do we have anything Do we have any farm contribution to that?

Yeah, eggs.

Okay.

Butter. Eggs and butter could be doing it. All right. And—

We do have butter in there. I mean—

Is that better, Mom?

The maple syrup? That is good. Roll out your dough and get it in here. And then—

Yeah. What are you gonna do with that leaf? Put it on top?

No, she's gonna then press it into a piece of dough and cut it around it.

Oh, okay.

And it'll be like a decoration.

All right, nice. And after that— paintball for a video for the boys' channel with the Hollers, the Holler Boys, and Grace from Bree From Scratch. And then Mom's gonna eat the pig feet, and I'm going to— for Granny's—

and I'm gonna make leftovers because I'm gonna have cooked all day.

You ready for this?

Okay, I'll say welcome to part 2 of—

you don't have to do another intro. You did it. She's doing 3 pies. For Thanksgiving special? So you could just say—

It's the next day.

With the pumpkin? Okay, you could say, but the next day—

It's the next day and I am going to be baking a pecan pie.

There you go, I like that. We're gonna make her a video for her channel. You are quite the YouTubers these days. Wonder where you got that from.

You.

There's been an explosion! Pecan pie explosion! They have got this beautiful thing in the oven going. Let me show this to you. This is amazing. Oh, look at that, all decorated, all nice. Counting your money? Huh?

I have exactly $900.

Okay, what are you gonna buy with that?

Horse supplies. I already bought brushes that costed like $40. Okay, because they're nice brushes.

I realize we don't have a saddle or a bridle, so I guess we might not be riding this thing for a little bit.

I want to buy used. Yeah, I want to buy, um, I was talking to my friend and she likes vintage stuff because it's like actual real leather. And like, yeah, so I want to get like a good quality saddle because there's such an equestrian center just south of us. Um, well, I'm kind of— there's like different sizes. I need to figure out what size she is, what size he is, what size she is, and all the things. And maybe I'm not even opposed to when you go— if, if this all works out and you go down there, maybe they have tack that they want to sell.

Yeah. Oh, that's a good point.

So that's—

that was another one.

Yeah, I don't know. I feel like that's a whole nother thing, but I want to buy used. I don't want to buy new.

You're getting—

I want to buy used.

Overwhelmed to shop.

But I do want to buy a couple of extra saddle pads.

Your horse is going to the vet today at 1:30. That goes well, we're saying we're coming to get it. So hopefully we'll know by the end of this vlog. Checking out the horse's hocks There had been another time where a vet suggested it needed— Hawks needed treatment once a year, but she—

but they had never done it before.

That's right.

So we're thinking he's done shows and stuff. He hasn't done like big shows, and we're not gonna do big shows, so we're just gonna make sure he doesn't have a lot of deterioration.

You gonna play today? Uh-huh. Okay, take it easy on him. If he gets hit and raises his hand, don't I shoot him anymore? Pea cotton pie turned out glorious. We are eating the food that we have grown today. Garlic and onions. We've got potatoes. That's a second run of potatoes in the season. They turn out smaller. These are some of the smallest ones. I think last year we probably would have just boiled them, feed them to the pigs. Not this year, we're eating what we grow. A little tiny nuggets. Don't worry about the pigs, they still get plenty of stuff. Banana peels, even little onions we're gonna use. Rebecca taking advantage of Black Friday sales for the homestead house remodel.

Everything's like 20-30% off now.

I'm like, hey, get off that, bro. Come on. Get all this glorious yellow butter. And I say, hey, let's have a brunch because I have to skip breakfast so much I don't get to eat a lot of our eggs anymore. So I'm like, I need some eggs. Once a week we need to have breakfast for lunch. Look at how yellow that is. Mm-hmm. We're gonna have garlic and lots of it. Maybe what, 2 cloves? Huge cloves. Purple onions, white onions, yellow onions. I love onions. Got the garlic ready. This is what I'm real excited about— bacon from our just recent harvest. Well, I don't call it Burn It Up Cooking Show for nothing. This ain't burnt, that's onion. I got distracted with the bacon. Mm, I hate that. I've learned We don't even need to cure this. This is just— this is just pork bellies cut into slits. Then we have to go through the process of smoke. Like, you really like smoked bacon? You're curing it? No, it's just freeze it as slices. You gotta salt it though. Oh, I almost forgot cabbage. Kiss the cabbage. Not this year, but next year. And I've been reading about how the old-timies Save it, you just bury it in the ground. Saves your cabbage all year. Next year we're eating cabbage from the land. The trick to great fried cabbage— well, fried, but our butter— also chop it up thinly.

How'd the bacon come out?

Looks like bacon.

Excellent. Let's put eggs on all up in that sausage grease. Proud of this well-balanced breakfast right there. Eggs, sausage, bacon, a little bit of cabbage.

I think you were really hungry.

Oh, onions! We forgot the onions. Yeah, don't let the guy who intermittent fasts make the brunch. Or you do want the guy who does that to make it. Well, you should have your big meal at lunch. Onions and garlic from the farm on the eggs. On the cabbage. Mmm. But before we eat, apple cider vinegar shot. Stay strong. Sends shivers down my body. What you working on?

I'm working on cornbread for cornbread stuffing.

Cornbread stuffing coming right up. Alright, Dar. Side hugs. Side hugs.

I want you to be safe.

Stop. Safe from the paintballs? We're safe from the traffic on the way there. I am riding in the car with 7 other kids. I know. Teens.

You're like, um—

Young teens and preteens.

Let's see, you're, uh, carpool dad.

Oh.

What is it, daddy daycare?

I don't know, guys. I mean, I guess I like hanging out with the kids. It's kind of cool. But, uh, I guess childcare wasn't necessarily an avenue that I felt professionally I was headed towards.

That's exactly what I said. All right, y'all text me, let me know if we're getting a horse Friday.

Oh yes, yes, I might have to call you.

All right, I should probably try to figure out how to put my ringer on. You don't want to go out? Oh, bless you, Grace. Lucky dog in the front. What is going on? What am I, a youth pastor now? This is my youth group. This is Boy Scout group. Welcome to the Head to Be Scouts. We got a girl too.

Uh-huh.

This is scout group. Who's Team Jonah? Who's Team Josiah? It's brother versus brother today, huh? You gonna help them out? Each game they win a $20 Amazon card. Maybe you'll think of your hero teammates. Hey, the Hollers beat us here. Wow, boys, ready to get shot up? Mess up. Y'all play paintball before? Yes, sir. This is the first time. Okay, you think you got what it takes?

Maybe.

You play paintball? Oh, I used to. Me and my brothers used to get out. Oh, good, good. My brothers and my cousins. Yeah, this was our jam. Okay, good. Once you're not taking it easy on any of them. I may be under special orders to make sure a couple of them get a few extra shots. You've got some coming to you, huh?

I think I know who it is.

Rich has his own gun. 15 years old, hasn't been shot in 15 years. Who's going to be on Rich's team? I'll be on it. Top of the hoppers, marking you for your team. After we get you marked, we'll explain the boundaries. Hey, are you scared? You're brave though, kid. You don't care that you're the littlest guy here? Nope. Gonna make you captain. So I'm gonna— you guys are gonna be captains. I don't know if you get to call your team or they give you teams, but give me the ball. Brother versus brother. Red team versus yellow team. Team, go yellow!

It's going to start about 150 yards that way. Field's about 100 yards wide. The field is a triangular shape. We're in one corner, they're in another corner. The final corner is out there in the open field.

What's the strategy?

I'm going to try to flank them. Have fun!

Yep. Anybody get shot? Yeah. Did anybody not get shot? Even Grace got shot.

Listen, I only got shot like 2, 3 times. I only got shot like twice. I got shot like twice in the speedball ones.

Okay.

Did you tell Ella? Yeah.

Look at you, you finally getting a horse. Yeah, you're finally getting a horse. Yeah, what do you think? I don't know, can you believe it?

No.

In 2 days you're gonna meet your horse.

Yeah.

Wow, it's been a long time waiting, hasn't it?

Yeah.

Have you got the stall and everything ready?

Yes. Okay, so I got ready a long time ago.

So we're ready, huh? Hey, we'll keep you and you come and visit and start folding towels. I'm gonna move in real soon, man.

Get the house ready, I'm moving in.

Yeah, I know, the moment everybody's been waiting for. Look at this. There's some meat there that has fallen off. See, now did the old-timers eat the skin? I'm not gonna eat the skin, that's kind of gross. Oh look, that's gonna be good, I can tell you that right now. That piece of meat, that's gonna be good. Okay, I see why we don't do that. I spent another 20 minutes siphoning this out. Probably be delicious, but goodness, it took me forever. I shouldn't have thrown away the skin. Oh, I work for a little bit of stuff. Okay, here we go. Cartilage, fat, meat. Tastes like sausage. All right, very soft sausage. Let me have some of that meat. That's not meat, that's a bone. Here, let me have some of this meat. I was getting very little meat in it. It's all cartilage and fat, tendons. It's really tasty. The, the texture's not what we're used to. Real fatty taste and its texture. The real banger though is how much broth we made from it. I'm gonna have a soup. To meat this up— meat it up like meat, put some meat into it— put some bacon in there from this morning, put some of their burger that they're having, put some flossy in there.

They'll have the That's my kind of soup.

It's my kind of soup. Pig feet. There are two sides of me. There, there's one side that says, that was weird, but you want to eat what you've grown. But it took so much time to process those trotters for such little weird meat. But the broth, that was amazingly easy, and it's super healthy. There wasn't that much to eat off of that. Okay, okay, well, let's make a deal. We'll take the extra time at harvest to scald and scrape the feet. We'll put those in a broth and we'll just use the broth and we won't worry about that fleshy cartilagey skinny weird stuff. Deal, deal.