Thanks for the answers.
I’d really like to try something like that someday.
Down the line, my job may allow me to transfer to a more rural location.
I hope you don’t mind if I bug you with more questions about your “spread”?
Ask away! Just keep in mind I don’t know that much yet. Although the guy that brought me my pigs did say he was going to steal my idea of running a string of barbedwire about 2" above ground level.
NOOOOOOOOO! WILLLLLLBURRRRRRRRRRR!
I have a friend who refused to eat pork after reading Charlotte’s Web - nearly 20 years later, she still hasn’t touched the stuff. I always teased her about it, but that pic is almost (almost, I say) enough to convince me she has the right idea. Those piggies look adorable.
Well this is sort of a zombie thread, but it’s my thread and so I give myself permission to resurrect it.
I took the pigs to the “processing facility” today, to use the more P.C. term. I thought I would be sad and teary, but it was so much work wrestling them into the back of my truck that I didn’t have time for it. It was about a 15 minute drive and they seemed to enjoy taking in the sights.
It’s going to be a little weird without them, I did enjoy having them around. I met all of the goals I set for myself in raising them. They got to a good weight (253 and 218 lbs, respectively), they received no antibiotic-laced feed, and they led a happy piggy life running around a nice big pasture and eating lots of fruit from our orchard. So, I gave them the best life that I could and now they will provide food for our table and for those that bought pork from us.
. . . Aaaaand? We don’t get to hear the details?
Boom. Dead piggy. Start the saw. Whirrrrrr. Mmmmm, pork chops.
So…how’d they taste? Are you going to do it again next year?
My grandfather raised two calves last year for this same purpose. I really did think he wouldn’t be able to bring himself to take them to the plant because he gets really attatched to animals. He managed to do it, though, and it’s the best beef I’ve ever had. Even the “bad” cuts are as tender as veal.
Home grown, organic, free range animals equal good eatin’.
The top two threads in MPSIMS when I opened it were:
I have piglets! with pictures!
August West
Hash Browns n’ Eggs…mmmmmmm
Chefguy
Eve, here really aren’t too many details to relate. I trucked them there, took down the tailgate and led them up a ramp into the building. Everything that happened after that I wasn’t party to.
I filled out the order forms for each of them and I’ll pick them up in white paper packages on October 18th.
WhyNot, like I say we won’t get them back for a few days yet, but I’m sure they will be great. We will most likely raise them again next year, we are thinking about maybe raising three of them because we had quite a bit of interest from potential buyers. We shall see.
I’ve been buying some artisan-produced organic pork for the last few months, and I have to say the difference is tremendous. Instead of dry, lean, flavorless chops, we’ve been enjoying juicy, unbelievably flavorful cuts. It costs more, but I just buy less pork and we enjoy it more. The butcher calls it “Berkshire pork”, and I buy rib chops that haven’t been trimmed of every speck of their fat, which probably also makes a difference. Is that how your pork turned out, August West?
Pork chop night at the Simpsons was never like this!
It takes nine days to cut up two pigs? I don’t get it.
If any one is interested in organic pork, here is a link you may find useful.
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It takes nine days to cut up two pigs? I don’t get it.
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Well, it’s not just cutting them up, they also have to cure and smoke the hams and bacon, and make all of the braunschweiger, brats, breakfast links, etc.
I should point out that my pigs were not organic. They were “Naturally Grown”, which means they weren’t fed background antibiotics or growth hormones. I also did not give them any animal protein-based feed. They pretty much kept themselves fed on pasture. I spent a total of $63 on feed for them.
If you are interested in naturally-grown or organic pork, Local Harvest is as good a place to start as any.
Here’s the Berkshire pork website. It looks like it’s not organic, like I thought, but “naturally produced”. That doesn’t matter nearly as much to me as the flavor. I’d like to try their ribs and do a full-on all day rib smoking to see how well I can do.