Not as easy as it looks…..

(getting a piggy to market)

…..it took the better part of a day to accomplish it…..

…..it took a village…..

We currently have about fifteen pigs…..of various ages and sizes…..

We started out with four (three girls and one boy)…..

…..what can I say…..

…..they got along quite well…..

I suggested getting them cable TV (just to give them a distraction of something else to do in the privacy of their swamp)…..

…..it didn’t work…..

But now after having expounded on porcine-reproductive-wonder…..

…..the sow that went to the butchers never produced a litter…..

…..all that fun and no piglets…..

So…..

…..on down the road she went…..

I was raised on a small/hobby farm in Ohio…..

We had sheep…..

We ate a lot of mutton…..

…..a lot…..

…..of mutton…..

I had one sheep named Daisy who was never butchered…..

…..she was my pet and my friend…..

…..Betty Jo Bob and I would try riding her like a pony…..

…..Daisy was a patient ewe…..

…..but anyone else in the flock was fair game…..

(and don’t ask about Jerry the ram who made the mistake of butting my Dad)

I won’t say it’s ever easy to decide who and when someone gets butchered…..

…..it shouldn’t be…..

…..but I’ve raised my daughters to understand that any meat protein originally had a face…..

…..and don’t even think about not finishing the meat on your plate when you’re at my table…..

…..someone had to give up their life for that…..

But having said that…..a sterile sow on a farm was a necessary decision…..

…..getting her to the butchers was another thing entirely…..

It took hours and hours and hours for us to get her into the trailer…..

…..HOURS…..!

…..I was dizzy from the heat and my older daughter severely wrenched her knee (hopefully not tearing a meniscus)…..

…..after she successfully launched at the trailer door to ultimately slam it shut on the sow’s butt…..

I think I posted before that all of the butchers around us have closed for some reason since the first of the year…..

But we found one…..an hour away…..

…..and that’s where we went…..

About a week later we picked up the white packaged meat…..

Our home-raised pork is leaner than store-bought pork…..

…..it’s a challenge to keep it moist while cooking…..

…..but we’ve managed and worked out a few successful recipes…..

………….BUT………….

…..the sausage is phenomenal!…..

…..I’ve never tasted better…..

I’d consider having all of the future pigs processed into sausage…..

It was THAT good…

…..fifteen more to go…..

I’ve started to “bucket train” a few of them who are outside of the sty…..

…..that way…..

…..hopefully…..

…..they will just follow me into the trailer for a promised bucket of food…..

*************What could possibly go wrong with that plan?*************