NH Homesteader's journal

[NH Homesteader]

The child went to bed. It's quiet now! Lol

Last section now... I'm weighing everything so I can calculate weight for future reference.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

It's quiet now!

Ya gotta make the most of those times, lol!

 

[NH Homesteader]

And.... Done. Well for tonight anyway. The meat grinder is way too loud to use after bedtime for the little one! Grind and wrap the rest in the morning. The freezer is FULL! Might have to shuffle and repack some things tomorrow.

 

[Mini Horses]

I applaud all your efforts!! Butchering is a HUGE job....really makes you appreciate the charges at the butcher to do the job. The friend with the cooler is a REAL friend. I would love that & feel better about butchering because you can keep the chill even and work on it in sections. Mine was done alone. I was really "over it" by time 2 small hogs were cut & wrapped. Birds I could chill in an old fridge that will freeze if not monitored, so plenty cold!!

There is a butcher locally that has own set up at his house to kill. Of course he can cut! But I've never asked about a chill box. Must do that as it would change my mind about Spring hogs butchered.

Also, saw plans on a site to build a walk in with an a/c & a special thermostat deal -- forget the name now -- which sounded interesting and could be done fairly economically. May further investigate that after I ask Richard (the butcher) about his chill arrangements.

I plan to hatch birds & kill excess this year. Will see how that goes.

eta: I didn't cure my bacon but vac sealed and froze with plans to do curing this winter. Anyone ever try that?? Results? Any reason it may not work?

 

[NH Homesteader]

We actually did the same with some of our bacon... We are hoping to do something with it later on. No clue but I would think it would be OK?

Hopefully we will have a cooler of some sort by spring. We didn't feel too bad taking advantage this time around because the cooler was fired up for two deer anyway but I don't want to have to use someone else's cooler again. If we can help it!

 

[NH Homesteader]

The pig is in the freezer! All of it!

My husband had today off and I didn't tell him what to do all day. Yay me, I had some restraint!

BTW that means nothing I wanted to do got done all day...

 

[baymule]

Nothing like a good pork roast, rubbed with ginger. Yum!

 

[NH Homesteader]

I like garlic... Not a fan of ginger!

So we have approximately 125 lbs of pork in the freezer. We deboned the pork chops, which we usually don't, but we didn't have the equipment to cut through the bones efficiently. So I would guess her live weight was around 250 lbs give or take. Which is the commonly recommended slaughter weight for full size hogs. We just eyeballed it!

Last year we butchered an Old Spot/Chester White who was larger but had a good deal of fat on him. The pig from this year is Old Spot/Duroc, and had way less fat. The perfect amount of fat really. Some marbling in the meat but the Duroc really helped in the meat (rather than fat) department. My husband was really happy with the looks of the meat, and he's butchered all kinds of pigs.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Interesting to hear the difference in the meat due to the different breeds. Thanks for sharing that!

 

[NH Homesteader]

Absolutely. It's really interesting to us to see the different breeds. Hoping to get a Large Black/Duroc piglet in the spring to raise and see how that is. I love the Old spots, they're adorable (which is obviously important lol!) and the fat makes the meat super flavorful. Old spot pork wins a lot of blind taste tests!