A Resolution for the New Year...

We aren’t big on trying to start things off each new year planning a lot of changes. But there is one thing that we vow to change around here. You won’t find me out in the snow and cold smoking cheese and pastrami again… Yes, I know that Tramp 1's unexpected back surgery left me with sort of half a helper and I sure did miss the other half of him!

We smoked some 20 pounds of round steak into two kinds of beef jerky. This was finished before the really cold and snowy weather hit.

Our handcrafted pastrami is very time consuming. The brisket we use takes weeks to brine and then must be spiced and smoked. I was up late into the night smoking the 15 pounds we made due to the weather and subsequent temperature extremes.

We smoke pepper jack, cheddar, colby jack and monterey jack cheese with four different flavors of smoke.

We smoked 17 pounds of cheese. Each piece is 1/4 pound in size. We seal and label them all by type of cheese and flavor of smoke.

These are all very labor intensive foods that we create. We enjoy doing it and folks seem to enjoy receiving our special snacks. But this year it will all be done early, in the fall while the weather is still warm. Just think of the time we will end up with around Christmas - we will be able to find some other crazy endeavor to get involved in, I am certain!