Bacon Bits Went to Freezer Camp

Last year we bought a boar piglet with the hopes that he and Miss Piggy would make baby piggies.  The jury is still out as to whether or not he's done the job; but being that he was so mean and obnoxious it got him a one-way ticket to freezer camp yesterday.

For those of you that are squeamish....just move on along since there are some graphic pictures.

Not only do we feel responsible to grow what we eat, we do all of our own processing.  This is least stressful for the animal since there is never any loading, transporting, and unloading the animal.  It is very difficult work, but it really keeps you grounded on the importance of caring for an animal properly from birth to death.

Hanging weight he was roughly 150 lbs.  We use a stun shot and then bleed them out.

We wash the pig every step of the way to keep things as clean as possible.  Once we've skinned and gutted the pig, the carcass is washed and wrapped in a clean tarp....and driven up to the house.

Next we split the carcass in half to make is easier to carry indoors for the finer cuts.  We keep this sawzall with the butchering equipment and it is only used for meat. It's the best tool we've found for this purpose even though we don't always get straight cuts.

Once inside we use the meat saw for cutting the rest of the carcass. 

That meat saw was one of the best investments we've made regarding our meat cutting.  It makes short work of cutting lovely chops....and it sure beats the hours of hand cutting that we've done for years.

Later this week I'll be curing the hams and the little bit of bacon. 

Of course nothing goes to waste.  The offal is a great high protein snack for the chickens, and the dogs are enjoying some meaty bones.

I seasoned the neck meat and boiled it off the bones, added it to some sauteed onions, garlic, and peppers and wrapped in a tortilla.  Never enjoyed that pig so much!!

I think Miss Piggy was happy to see him go too...now she doesn't have to share her food.