Sunday morning everybody hauled themselves out of bed to face the task of cutting up these pigs into some useable product. Sheesh, talk about daunting. We're so lucky Polly was there because she had studied up on it, found a great video to help walk us through, and knew all the cuts. I was so exhausted I could hardly think straight, so she really saved the day. It was cold work.
Photo credits on the farm - Israel.
First thing you do is remove the shoulder and hock. We had to use the reciprocating saw, which is what he used to cut them in half as well.
Erek and Megan had two pigs they had to deal with. I think they ended up with 170 lbs of sausage!
I wish I had gotten some pics of us making sausage in a field, lol, but by that point I was so tired and just trying to make it home I had no thought for pics.
These are the large slabs of pork belly that will br turned into bacon.
Monday I spent all day cutting up all the parts and vacuum sealing them. Aren't the chops pretty?
I pan fried a few pieces to see how it tasted. Pretty yummy.
We rubbed the bacon with lots of fresh ground pepper, salt, brown sugar and maple syrup. It smells yummy.
This is only about a third of the sausage. I think we ended up with over 50 lbs.
We're going to try dry-curing this large ham. It weighs about 30 lbs. Enormous!
I felt like I dealt with meat all week long after. I kind of just wanted to eat vegetables after all that, hah.
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