Sir Loin Returns…

Well, even though it may seem like it’s all about the pony around here, it’s not… In fact, there have been a lot of cool things going on, just have been so busy, hard to get to it all!

One of the best things to come along has got to be the return of Sir Loin, our hog that we sent to finishing school! He has returned in all his glory and let me tell you, my goodness, is he welcome here.

He weighed in at 240 pounds. He dressed out to 160 pounds of wonderful, humanely raised fresh and smoked meat.

His processing fee was $137 and his feed and initial purchase was $95. $232 spent over 5 months. $1.45 a pound. Unbelievable. Bacon, chops, hams, sausage, roasts, loins… all there.

I gave away the heart and liver, we’re just not those kind of folks to know how or appreciate those delicate parts.

We’ve had a couple pounds of bacon so far, a package of chops, and a ham steak. And oh my gosh… insanely good and to me and the girls, so, so different than store bought meat. It’s hard to really describe. It’s not THAT much different, but it’s lean, it’s moist, it cooks beautifully. And just when you get down to it, it just tastes good.

I’m sure some of it is the whole thought process and commitment to eating better and eating humanely. I’m so thankful for Jr. and Junior to raise this hog for us and to treat him good. He had such a nice piggy life with his brothers and sister, and wasn’t shot full of antibiotics and caged in a space he can’t even turn around in. He had sunlight and fresh air and good food and clean straw and heat lamp when it was cold and mud to wallow in, everything that a pig savors… he had. Including baked goods and kitchen yummies. And space to be a pig. Every time I saw him he had a big happy piggy smile. And was active and running about and playing with his siblings. And that means something to me. Just like having our meat chickens learn to be chickens and lay out in the sunshine and dust bathe and all. Eat bugs and grass and scratch in the compost.

Of course, we want to do this now too. Raise a pair of pigs every six months. We have so many friends that want a share of the operation. I don’t blame them. I sure don’t want to ever have factory meat again. Soon as we can, I’ll be buying a quarter beef for the freezer from a local grower. I know enough that we are not set up for cattle. No, that will have to be done off farm. But we can do pork, chicken and turkeys….

But, I want to be prepared. We know where we will be building our pig pen. On the east side of our big barn. And we know how… with sturdy heavy posts, cement and hog panels. Just not sure when! haha… We have our design formalized…. our pen will be nice and big… 30 foot by 16 foot. And we will only do 2 or 3 at the most, at one time. The one thing we did learn while watching and experiencing our friends is that 6 hogs is a lot of hog. It’s not so bad when they are little dudes or even teenagers, but once they hit that 200-250 pound stage, six of them was a real handful. They said two are a breeze. I can see that now.

I’m telling you… if you are considering this lifestyle and it’s a blessing most days, do all the learning, research and fact finding you can before jumping in. And then, if at all possible, find a mentor in these things. Watching and learning from our friends really gave me WAY more information and wisdom than any book. Books and such, they are really good at making it sound easy in a page or two. They make it appear that by simply following these few basic steps you will have nothing but EASY sailing. Yeah, right. Pigs are big farm animals and as we have learned, farm animals have a mind of their own. And an agenda. And it usually involves food and creature comfort. Oh yeah, and sex. They’re pretty into that too. And funny, they just don’t talk about those things in great detail in those nice and pretty homesteading books. They neglect to tell you that a pen of hogs will kill and eat a rooster with hardly a feather left. Or that they will root under heavy fences and wander your yard at the most inopportune moment. Or that they bite REAL hard when your thumb gets in the way of their feed. Or that 6 hogs worth of manure is a LOT of manure!

Well, we have some deep post holes to dig… and a hog panel trench to set up first. That doesn’t cost anything but some labor at the Windhaven Gym. And we’re getting a huge dying pine cut down sometime this week, and I think it might yield some decent HEAVY corner posts for us for free. Over the next month or so, we will work on our little pig palace. In the meanwhile, we are so thankful for our hoggie in the freezer. He will feed us for many months! Of course, if we don’t give him all away, we’ve shared him with friends and family so far, just samplers, because we just think he is awesome! And so do they!!!

Related Posts with ThumbnailsPin It

About Mobymom

the banjo player for Deepwater Bluegrass, and the editor of BuckeyeBluegrass.com as well as the main graphic designer of the Westvon Publishing empire. She is a renaissance woman of many talents and has two lovely daughters and a rehab mobile home homestead to raise.

Comments

Sir Loin Returns… — 3 Comments