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? 

The Newest Additions at the Farm...

Folks, I'd like to introduce you to Bacon, Sausage and Ham--the newest critters to join life at Grouse Creek Farm. 

Jayme, Ellie and Sydney were able to ride with Grandpa to go pick them up.  They were really excited! The piglets sure can squeal when they're scared.  You really understand the phrase, "Like a stuck pig" when you hear it. 

These will be our first pigs ever raised on grass and dirt.  We are hoping to provide them with an area where they can act like pigs while they gain weight, instead of being in a small concrete pen.  By keeping their stress levels low, and their needs met, we should have some really tasty meat this fall.

Speaking of their needs, since the cows have been back out on pasture, we have an abundance of milk.  I see three little piggies who will enjoy having their grain soaked in it each day.  What a blessing!   

You might be wondering about their names.  Yup--we sure did name them after our favorite cuts of pork.  We teach our kids early on that while we take good care of the animals in our care, they will eventually end up in the freezer.  They know where their food comes from.  Which I think is essential.

When you don't know where your meat comes from, you don't notice if it's been adulterated.  You don't realize that your chicken has been bleached or your beef has pink slime.  I'd much rather explain the process of butchering an animal that we have raised than have them think that meat comes from little packages in the store.

Let's raise up the next generation to realize that food doesn't come from a store.

And as we do that, we'll enjoy some cute pigness. Yup.  They crawled right into their trough of milk-soaked grains and slop.  They won't be small enough to all fit for long.