Hello, my name is Nick LaDieu and I’m a beefaholic. I just can’t get enough of 3.80 cents a pound grass fed pasture raised Angus beef. I just love it and the fever is spreading. I’ve already spread the addiction to many of my friends here in Pittsburgh and I want to share it with you now.

Excuse #1:
I don’t have time to cook.

Your not going to the grocery store to shop for meat anymore and I bet that consumes a lot more time than you realize. Guess what? You can still eat fast food. That’s right! I eat fast food 5 or 6 times a week. In fact just yesterday I had 2 burritos from McLaDieu’s freezer section. One grass fed bean and beef burrito and one pasture raised pork sausage and free range egg burrito. It even featured some jalapeno peppers grown right in my backyard! I got home from work late (9:30pm!!) and threw them right in a microwave just like the ones from the gas station.

McLaDieu’s also features beef and barley soup, grass fed Angus and venison stew. Ham, sausage and egg casserole and a bunch of other nifty meals ready to go. The chef (Nick LaDieu) told me it took him about 3 hours on a Saturday to make 40 bean and beef burritos. To make beef stew was just about 40 minutes of prep (chopping vegetables mainly) and throw it in a crock pot or cast iron dutch oven. McLaDieu’s sources his grains from his local food co-op who can order them in bulk for him. So convenient!

Excuse #2:
I don’t have a chest freezer. This one is easy. Go get one! What the hell… your not even trying to come up with a valid excuse here. You can even get small chest freezers that could easily fit in an apartment. Let’s be a bit more creative with the excuses people. You will not regret this decision.

Excuse #3
I can’t afford to buy groceries so I have to eat all fast food.

Ok, this is a tricky one and I’ll drop the jokey tone to address this one. I truly feel for people who don’t have means to get good healthy food for their families, however for the vast majority of people there are a few other factors going on. One factor is lack of knowledge, I’d like to believe this is the major factor and that if people knew how much money they could save by eating something like grass fed beef that they would switch over immediately. I think most people are stuck in the “buy as you go” model of consuming and look at a place like whole foods and say “I can’t afford that stuff”… hell most people can’t!!

The “elephant in the room” is most people are too lazy to cook and their mindset and priorities are too mainstream to even process the idea of buying 150 pounds of cow. Sorry, I have to call it like I see it! This doesn’t have to be you though, you can get yourself some grass fed beef.

OK, so you are cash strapped and want to get yourself some grass fed beef. Here are some ideas I have:

1) Look for work share programs that farmers offer
2) Talk to the farmer! Work something out, these people want to sell you their beef and they are wonderful people.
3) Go in with people. Rally the troups and get as much as you can. I tried this year to find people in Pittsburgh to get in on an entire cow but failed. I ended up getting a side again this year, however I’m going to try again next year so I can pay a cheaper price per pound. The more you buy the more you save.
4) Respect the saying “Pay the grocer or pay the doctor” Get your mindset right, learn how to cook, and get yourself some meat!

Look at these beef prices from the local giant eagle grocery store:

I pay $3.25 hanging (or about $3.80 a pound) for my beef. The only thing I could find in the grocery store that cheap was the 92% lean ground beef and that weird beef “stuff” that comes in the tube. You know, the kind with the ammonia washed pink slime mixed in (YUM!!)

Excuse #4
Bla Bla Bla…. I don’t want to hear it. Get yourself some meat.

Resources to get er’ done:

What you need

* A chest freezer. This is the one I have: http://tinyurl.com/7l73wsz
* 1 KW minimum generator
* Rotate 15 gallons of gas (You’re going to use it anyway so this doesn’t cost you anything other than buying the containers and stabilizer)

Open your own fast food restaurant

(Fix it, Freeze it, Feast)
My review of this book: 5 stars. I’m a bit of a cooking enthusiast so I always like to add my own twists. For example for my bean and beef burritos I make my own re-fried beans from scratch, but to make it easy I do it in a slow cooker (crock pot). No soaking required!

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/refried-beans-without-the-refry/detail.aspx

Also toss in whatever peppers you happen to have also. You don’t need to stay in their sandbox but it is a great book to get good ideas and also get a handle on the volumes you need to deal with to make lots and lots of great bulk meals. Saves time and money.

Most importantly… Get the meat:

http://www.eatwild.com- I’m sure there are other worthy sites, but this is the one I used and it worked out great for me!

Meet my farmers (so far)

Don and Becky

Audrene

Where I might be getting my next pig after I determine if the bacon is up to snuff:
Millgate Farm

This episode is all about my experience hunting deer. It is the viewpoint of an absolute beginner and it is just my experience and is very personal to me. You may experience better, different, or worse results.

One thing I forgot to mention:
I got to see this tool used: Butt Out and all I can say is it is going into my kit. Wow that thing just took the intestine out with such ease I could not believe what I was seeing. Worth every penny of the about $10 you will spend on it.

Links:
Beginner’s Guide to hunting deer for food

Mora Swedish Knife

Gut it, Cut it, Cook it (A MUST OWN!!)

Russian Mosin Nagant

Mosin Soft Point Hunting Ammo

This is one of the 2 deer I managed to harvest

The

Butchering the first deer with the help of a local butcher!

Mike butchering a deer

Meat Pile before packing

Fruits of our labor. This is before splitting it with Mike

Backyard Pioneer

Website: The Backyard Pioneer

https://www.facebook.com/TheBackyardPioneer

Skills

• Sauerkraut
• Ice Box Pickles
• Dutch Oven
• Lacto Fermented Radishes
• Sourdough Biscuits

Craig’s Knife
Becker BK7

Craig on the web
http://outdoorpodcast.com/

http://www.facebook.com/outdoorpodcast

http://www.youtube.com/user/outdoorpodcast

Craig’s Youtube Subscription list:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Back2DaBasix
Back 2 Da Basix

http://www.youtube.com/user/BushcraftOnFire
Bushcraft on Fire

http://www.youtube.com/user/Nativesurvival
Native Survival

http://www.youtube.com/user/wildernessoutfitters
The Pathfinder School

Bryan has been brewing beer for awhile as a means to circumvent the high prices of beer where he lives. In this podcast we learn how brewing your own beer is an economical choice if you enjoy the taste of a nice craft brew.

Bryan is a blogger and he breaks down the process at his website here: http://thecityhomestead.blogspot.com/p/home-brew.html

Resources

• http://www.northernbrewer.com/
• http://www.happymountain.net/
• The Alaskan Bootlegger’s Bible

First of all Thank you to everyone who sent me love and support during some life changing events I’ve had recently. If your interested you can keep up with me on the SOS facebook page http://www.facebook.com/saveourskills

This past May I was lucky enough to talk to Bentley from Red Worm Composting Vermiculture, however when life got in the way I never got around to posting it. So I hope you enjoy this.

Use code “saveourskills” for 10% off your worm order

Click here to buy worms

Youtube Channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheCompostGuy

Setting up a basic worm bin

Bentley has over 30 videos on his channel so it’s worth a look and a subscribe.

Jason from lenwoodleather.com has put together an incredible deal! 20% off all custom leatherwork and handmade leather items. Just call and mention “Save Our Skills” and you will get the discount. This discount is valid until May 31st so please consider getting your order in soon!

Shop now at the “Save Our Skills” lenwood leather store:

After May 31st Jason is generously offering 10% off all leather work for the remainder of 2011.

In today’s epsiode we learn how Jason got his start in leather-working and how he has grown the hobby into a business.

Resources for today’s podcast:

I run through some backpacking mishaps and a few frustrating events at the homestead.

Today I rant for about 20 minutes on bee keeping with my pal Jon Martinez. The original podcast we thought we recorded was about 1 hour and 20 minutes, however for some reason the last hour was just blank!!

Someone has it out for me this week!

I figured I would put it out there anyway just to salvage something out of this.

Hope you enjoy the little information I was able to get out there.

Just because I haven’t been posting doesn’t mean I haven’t been keeping busy. I just wanted to get you guys up to date on some of my homesteading efforts.

• Mushroom Inoculation
• Bee keeping
• Lawn Tractor Repair
• Etc

Today we talk to Chef Keith Snow from HarvestEating.com

I forgot to mention on the Podcast that you can get a nice little discount on his membership program over at The Survival Podcast website by just clicking on the banner there.

We talk about why we think eating seasonally and locally is important including

• Selecting the right culinary tools
• How to buy quality ingredients and avoid junk
• Why seasonal eating will be more important in the future due to rising fuel… build your skillset now
• How to mix eating with a busy lifestyle
• and much more!

Make sure to also check out Harvest Eating on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/HarvestEating

Jason is the Self Sufficient Gardener. You can find him here:

http://theselfsufficientgardener.com/

http://huntgathergroweat.com/

Announcements

• The Survival Channel is in the works
• SOS 2.0
• Lots more coming … so stay tuned!!

News from the Homestead

• Why you should never completely trust any guru. Use your head.
• Bee Keeping Mentor – An important thing if you want to keep bees
• How to trim grape vines going into year 2
• Why I think chicken tractors are swell

First Year Garden

Enhanced fruit growth decimates my plum tree

• I’m ok with buying soil your first year if that is what you want.
• Square foot garden is a highly accessible method for year one gardeners. It is great for getting people to catch the bug.
• How my corn was a failure
• Pole bean madness… wrapped around everything
• How an acorn squash plant killed about 1/3 of my crops
• and more…

Today’s podcast is a quick homestead update. I tell you about my plans for chickens and ask for a bit of help, we talk about some consideration when using maple for growing shiitake and finally I ask you very nicely to rate me in itunes.

I also remind you that I’m busy making plans for SOS 2.0 and thesurvivalchannel.com (so forgive the slow down in posts)

After that I have included a copy of Craig Cole’s podcast. He interviewed me about my climb up mt. Rainier.

If you are into fishing, hunting, kayaking, biking, climbing, etc then consider listening to the theoutdoorpodcast.com

I had the pleasure of interviewing Jamie Doyle from Sustainable Suburban Home

This is a new blog he is literally just launching this week. We got him on the podcast to discuss and event which shaped his life and made him realize that he needed to have a level of self sufficiency in his life and then we discuss his plans to build out a 1/4 acre suburban lot into a homestead.

Please consider subscribing to Jaimie’s blog and also connecting with him on facebook here

I’d love to get his blog off to a running start by getting his fan count up to at least 40 by the end of the week, so if you think this is something worth supporting consider giving him a “like”

Also I’ve had it with skype. the audio quality is terrible and I have to mess with the MP3s for hours. It actually comes out decent if I do skype to skype, but if I record a call from skype to a normal telephone it sucks.

I did the best I could to clean it up. I’m too busy to record my commercials and put my music on it so I’m putting it up there for you guys.
I hope you enjoy it and please if you want to come on the podcast just drop me a line.