This little piggy went to the freezer and other happenings...

Last month we aquired 2 pot bellied pigs. These were the same pigs that we castrated a couple of weeks ago.

One night last week we had a hard freeze and due to unforseen circumstances, we lost one of the pigs. What a shame, he died during the night and we had to bury him.

Today we butchered his counterpart. I really wanted to scald and scrape him, since we were planning to use him as our whole hog Hawaiin BBQ....but after trying to scrape for a while, I decided to skin. We are firm believers in using every part of the animal possible when we butcher, so losing the skin is bothersome to me.

The heart, kidneys, liver, head meat, and feet all went to the dogs. Good stuff for a growing pup like Aegis. We kept the carcass whole and vac sealed it for a future BBQ.
I butterfly'd the carcass so it is grill-ready.

Today was the last day for the corned beef in the brine. I cut each brisket into meal-sized chunks and trimmed the fat. Here it is all ready for the freezer.

Bob's got the smoker going and the other pieces are in the smoker being turned into Pastrami. They will smoke for at least 8 hours.

Lessons learned:

Potbellied pigs are NOT the same animal as a regular farm pig, I won't make that mistake again.

• they gain way more fat than muscle for each pound of food compared to farm pigs
• they should not be castrated in the same way you castrate farm pigs (ours healed well w/o complications, but we were blessed)
• they can not tolerate low temperatures at all w/o additional heat
• they could be a good homestead pig if you take extra precautions