Butchering season wound down this past week as Don finished curing the bacon. We’ve been butchering deer and hogs each year, for several years now, and it’s a satisfying feeling to pause and reflect on what our efforts as a family have provided. What exactly has been provided? Time spent with Don’s dad who came over to help; family helping family. Elizabeth and Mason have been provided the opportunity to hone their life skills. Food for the coming year has been prepared and stored. We purchased the hogs locally and supported a neighboring farmer. And last but not least, we have been afforded the satisfaction of “doing it ourselves”.

Over time, we have acquired several items to make this annual event go smoothly. Really, not a lot of equipment is needed. A hand-held meat saw, a commercial-type meat grinder, assorted knives, a band saw, an iron kettle for rendering lard, a lard press and a hay wagon covered with butcher paper.

The total process is simple but time consuming. The actual butchering and packaging took six hours alone for two hogs. This year, the hogs where killed the night before and hung in the shed overnight to cool out. The next morning they were skinned, cut in half lengthways, laid out on the hay wagon and sawed into the different cuts or trimmed up for grinding. This year we put more effort into trimming additional fat from the hide for rendering. It was worth the effort and we processed a total of two and a quarter gallon of lard.

This morning, we had a taste of our efforts too. Don fried up some sausage and jowl for breakfast. The sausage and jowl had just enough fat to fry themselves. Visit the recipe category to find the ingredients we use for making sausage.