Fat is stored energy. When looking at a self-sufficient homestead, fat sources must be considered. In this post, we'll discuss why it's important to raise fat sources on your homestead and how to do it!
You can buy your way out of many issues if/when they arise. You can purchase solar power and get off the electric grid. You can buy water backup and storage systems and get off the water grid. However, you can't buy your way into food security. You can't buy food security if you're not growing or raising it yourself or supporting someone doing it the right way with enough to support you and your family.
Why Are Fats Important
Fats have gotten a bad rap in the last handful of decades. However, when you strip away all of the healthy or unhealthy discussion about fats, we realize just how imperative fats are to our survival.
We won't discuss the differences between saturated and unsaturated fats or the omega 3 to omega 6 ratios. If you've never done a deep dive into the health and necessity of fats in your diet, I highly recommend you get a copy of Sally Fallon's book Nourishing Traditions. You can also check out the Pantry Chat podcast, where she shared the top three dietary changes to drastically improve your health.
The Downside of Fat
One of the things to be aware of when it comes to sourcing high-quality fat is that toxins are stored in fat. Whether as humans or as animals, if something is exposed to toxins, those toxins are stored in the fat. Check out this blog post for more information on common toxins.
This is extremely important when buying fats from the grocery store. Butter from conventionally raised cattle will not be as healthy as homemade butter made from cows on an all-grass diet.
Conventionally produced plant-based fats have their issues. The high-heat processing of these fats can denature or even change the fat makeup within the fat, creating health issues of their own. (Source)
Animal Sources of Fat
The first and most obvious source of fat on the homestead is from the animals being raised there. This includes fat from pigs and beef and milk/cream from dairy cows. You can also pull fat from sheep, geese, chickens and turkeys, which is also highly valuable on a homestead. But when it comes to putting up large quantities of fat, we're just focusing on the pigs, and beef and dairy cows.
Pigs for Lard
Pigs will provide the largest amount of fat (lard) for their size. Bears will also provide lard, so if you're a hunter, this is another option (though not always a yearly guarantee).
Lard has a higher smoke point and is safe for high-heat cooking and frying.
If you're looking for lard pigs, choose from Kune Kunes, Mangalitsas, American Guinea Hogs and the Idaho Pasture Pig. The amount of lard produced per pig will vary based on breed and diet.
Learning how to render lard at home is a great skill to have. When rendered and stored correctly, home-rendered lard should last on the shelf for about a year, making it a fantastic homestead fat source.
Beef for Tallow
Tallow is the fat from beef cattle. Venison, sheep and goats also produce tallow, which can be used in various ways. Tallow is safe for high-heat cooking and frying but also works great for household uses like soap making and sealing leather products.
Dairy for Butter
We love making homemade butter from our cow's milk. However, it is a constant process that happens week after week to make it happen.
While cow's milk will naturally separate and is easily skimmable, goat's milk is homogenized and will require a cream separator.
There's a bit of a learning curve when it comes to washing the butter to remove all the milk (milk remaining in the butter is what spoils it more quickly). Furthermore, butter isn't shelf-stable for more than a day or two, requiring refrigeration or freezing for longer storage.
Butter has a lower smoke point and is ideal for flavoring or finishing dishes. It can be used with minimal heat, such as adding a bit of butter at the end of cooking a steak or buttering your warm loaf of bread.
Plant Sources for Fats
There's a lot of discussion about the safety of using seed oils. However, remember there are many uses for fat around the homestead that don't require ingestion of the oils. Even if you're not into consuming seed oils, they still have a valuable place on the homestead.
You can use seed oils to make homemade herbal oils, salves and balms and so they still have a valuable place in the survival garden.
Sunflower Oil (Seed Oils)
We've been growing sunflowers on the homestead to produce our own sunflower oil to use for cosmetics and herbal oils. This does require an oil press, but the process is very similar to grinding your own grain into flour.
Ten pounds of sunflower seeds (grown specifically for their oil) yields about one gallon of oil. This is something most homesteads could do, plus you have the added benefit of beautiful sunflowers in the garden all summer.
If you want to learn more about pressing your own oil, check out our podcast with Bevin Cohen.
Peanut and Hazelnut Oil
If you live in a climate where you can grow peanuts underground, or a hazelnut tree, you can grow and press your own nut oils. The beauty of this is that the byproduct is a delicious peanut butter or hazelnut butter.
Olive Oil & Avocado Oil
Again, if you live in a warmer climate where olive trees and avocado trees can grow and thrive, you can press your own oils from the flesh of these fruits.
Four and a half pounds of olives yield about 8 Tablespoons of olive oil, whereas you will get about one tablespoon of avocado oil per avocado (the amount varies depending on the size of the fruit).
How to Maximize The Fat You Get Off Animals
- Butcher Yourself - If you want to maximize the amount of fat you get off each animal, we highly recommend learning how to butcher yourself. You'll take much more care of cutting out every piece of fat you see, whereas butchers process multiple animals a day. If you can't butcher at home, then get to know your butcher and let them know the importance of the fat to your lifestyle.
- Consider the Breed - There are specific breeds known for their fat production.
- Feeding - As we said, toxins are stored in fat. High-quality animal feed will produce high-quality fat. Feed as cleanly as your budget allows. There are also feeding methods that create a fattier animal vs. a lean animal.
When thinking about building resiliency on the homestead, considering your fats is a key element. We hope this post has helped you think about ways to start sourcing your own fats. If you want to learn more about homestead resiliency, we encourage you to check out some of our other posts below.
