The Whole Hog!

Warning...picture of a hanging pig to follow...nothing super bloody though, but if you are squeamish, please read a different post instead!

Monday, the butcher arrived at the farm. When he left, our pigs had been processed from this...

Into this...

I learned a lot watching the butcher, and enjoyed seeing the process. Someday I hope to be able to butcher most of our own animals. It'd sure save a chunk of change ($65 per pig for instance....)

A phone call from the butcher shop on Wednesday  allowed me to give our specifications for cut and wrap. I love being able to do that. 

And today? We went to pick up our fresh pork this morning. 

 

I also met the man who had purchased out extra hog from Craigslist and was paid. That money covered our cut, wrap and cure, and paid for the kill fee on the sold pig and our pig. Not too shabby! It was a blessing that it went so smoothly. I had never done that before, and was a bit worried about it all. 

Once the money part had been taken care of, three of my helpers loaded the fresh pork into boxes in the back of the Suburban.  

We had a makeshift assembly line going which tied in nicely with our coverage of Henry Ford in history yesterday! 

We are looking forward to sausage, ribs and roast this winter! Since we aren't butchering a cow this fall, pork and chicken will make up the bulk of our meat for the time being. 

The bags you see contain the pork fat. I'll be rendering that into lard in the crockpot in a few weeks. I'm hoping to try my hand at soap making with it! 

Now all that's left is to pick up the cured hams and bacon in a couple of weeks, yum!!

What's your favorite pork recipe?