We butchered our two pigs on Monday . It was a great mean solar day , with multiple Quaker coming over to help .
One pig weighed in at 350lbs :
And the 2nd one was 332lbs .
My friend Erick brought his tractor so we could raise the carcass and move them .
Once hung , we skin and gutted each pig , then cut the carcass in one-half and brought it into the dining room to be butchered .
Erick is using a sawzall withstainless steel blade . This makes short oeuvre of tough cuts through bone !
These pigs had lots of blubber , include the beautiful blubber used to make folio lard :
We should be capable to render about five gallons or so of lard total from the fatness we saved .
The pigs were patently a Red Wattle / Guinea Hog cross , and had lots and plenty of good fatness inside . We also got some good porc loin , roasts , Boston butt , pork abdomen for Francis Bacon , and some beautiful pork chops .
The big chest freezer is full now !
Last night I made about 10lbs of loose sausage , which we ’re about to deplete with breakfast .
We ’ve got many pounds of Viscount St. Albans to smoke and cure , plus lots of lard to render . We labour the blubber up to make lard , plus undercoat deal of scrap pieces into ground pork , using ourKitchenaid stand mixerwith themeat grinder attachment .
We used freezer bags to package most everything :
As a side bank bill , why are all the vacuum sealers we ’ve ever used such temperamental and unreliable automobile ?
Overall , pigs may have been the easiest and most productive homestead fauna we ’ve ever raise . They were mostly feed on fighting and expired dinero and needed little care to turn to an enormous size .
Weraised them from about January 10thto December 11th of this twelvemonth and they went from lilliputian piglet to big old animate being in that clip menstruation .
They were so cunning , before they got huge .
In 2024 we ’ll decidedly do it again . I am sold on pig . It was well - worth trying , and now I see why our ancestors raised them as a survival staple fiber .
A adult thanks to Erick , James , Holly , David , Helen , Eva , Collette , Colina and Stella for help out , along with the help from our own kids who jump in and drive things done .
The butchery occupy from 8:30AM to about 9:30PM . What a daytime , and what a production !
UPDATE:
Our final entire return was 449 3/4lbs , from two pigs which weighed a unite free weight of 682lbs at slaughter . register more here .
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