In April we brought home two of the cutest pigs I had ever seen. One was a gift for AmberMae who wanted a pig more than anything and the other was a gift for Aeryn. Both girls wanted to try to raise their own pigs for pork. As I promote any sort of farming activity to get kids involved and thinking about where their food comes from I was a huge advocate for this idea.
What surprised me was my sister Evelyn's take on the situation. She agreed for Amber to have a pig and to let us house Aeryn's pig with it. I was very excited. The only reason it surprised me thought is that Evelyn is not much of a farm girl. I am definitely the farm girl of the family.And that is okay. Because it helps to make us unique. The world would be boring if we were all farm kids!
The piglets were so little and adorable. Aeryn of course picked the runtiest pig out of the litter. As soon as we brought them home the kids were in love.
It was a really long Summer and Fall for AmberMae. Since the pigs were at their house this seemed the best bet. I just did my best to keep the food coming. I am going to have to get AmberMae on here within the next few days. Or have her write something for me to type. I really think that it is important to get her perspective on what raising these beasties was like.
From my perspective the biggest pain was getting them slaughtered. Who knew that the slaughtering business would be so completely booked up so far in advance? Mom called around for days trying to get our piggies a place to go. Finally we found one and there was a whole new battle. Getting them there.
Every truck that we could get in touch with fell through with very short notice. Eventually I borrowed Mary's pick up truck hoping that we could get them into the bed. I built an ingenious enclosure in the back using some pallets that I managed to snag from TSC. Unfortunately after three hours of struggling with them to get into the bed of the truck we gave up. I was cold, wet and unbelievably smelly at that point. As a matter of fact I took off my shoes at the door and put them immediately in the trash.
The pigs were picked up Friday by the nice man who we had scheduled to slaughter them. (Apparently we should have asked if he picked up sooner) For a small fee he drove to Walpole and loaded them into his trailer Coincidentally it only took him about fifteen minutes to have both pigs in.
On Sunday night I called the butcher and gave him the order for the cuts of meat that I was looking for and he said it would be available to pick up today. Hurray. Final hanging weight of Delicious was close to 200 lbs and the hanging weight for Sir Bacon Bottom was close to 300 lbs. Tonight we enjoyed some beautiful lean pork chops. (Evelyn is planning to have some of the breakfast sausage that we ordered so I am sure that I will be reviewing that soon)
My biggest fear was that Aeryn would not eat her pig once we got it into the freezer. We butchered pigs in the spring and she did not have a problem eating it. (even when she was a part of the cutting and packing process) But I felt that this was a bit different. I was afraid that the pigs would become pets and that she would have a problem remembering what their purpose in life was.
I am so proud of my girl. Even though she loved the pigs she remembered their purpose. They are food, not pets. She believes that meat will taste better if it has been loved and cared for instead of growing up on a factory farm. After tonight's dinner...I agree with her.
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