Bacon Time

Now the weather is becoming increasingly autumnal and the bluebottle population have retired into hibernation I fancy a spot of dry cured and air dried bacon making again.
A friend is coming down from Scotland this week for some stalking. I find him a muntjac and he invites me up for a staggie later in the year. He has a new bit of forest now which contains a good head of wild boar. He shot two recently and is kindly bringing me a loin from which I am hoping to dry cure some for bacon.
I discussed this with a most helpful wild boar breeder and butcher at the West Midlands Game Fair yesterday, and it would appear not to be any more difficult than curing ordinary domestic pork. As the belly meat is much thicker I will need to allow a slightly longer curing time and also remove the leathery skin before commencing.
We travelled to the Game Fair in some style. One of my shooting pals had the use of a rather unusual Range Rover for the weekend. An Autobiography Range Rover converted by Cosworth Engineering. 5.2 litre petrol engine giving 0 to 60mph in 3.6 secs.
The recent breezy weather has given us an orchard floor littered with windfalls. My own attempts at cider making have never been very successful, but a chap along the road has all the equipment required and will collect the fallen fruit in a few days in exchange for a few litres of last years brew.
Just spent a few minutes sorting through my stored spuds. Time well spent as quite a few rotten ones due to keel slugs and blight.
Whilst doing a little border weeding I came across the granddaddy of all frogs. He's probably a more efficient slug killer than several kilos of slug pellets.