We raised our own pigs for a few years and were never able to get much more than pork steaks and ground sausage. The small processors around here don't do bacon and for some reason the ribs never turned out well. We got bone in steaks from our last big pig (over 300 pounds) and the meat was so tough that it was almost impossible to eat. The pig was at least 3 years old and I'm sure that was why it was so tough. The two wild pigs we got processed we just got ground pork and I mix that with ground venison when I cook anything with ground meat. We got out of the pig raising business because we could never sell any and after 5 years it was just too expensive to feed them out. Last year we ended up with 18 babies between two sows because wild boars hopped the fence. DH Put out a sign "Free Pigs", and we even got rid of the sows. It was hard for me to get rid of the girls because I had become fond of them. But we still have the wild pig issue and we can still put pork in the freezer.I really should start a thread about this so as not to derail too much but I’m getting my first, half hog order in three weeks!
My cousin, who raised the hog messaged me so we talked on the phone last night about the details.... I still am trying to figure it all out (newbie ! Lol)
I don’t have room for the extra odds and ends but I do have a large extra freezer in the basement which is why I ordered the hog meat.
She says I need to get “my list and order” ready for her so she can give to the processor.
I only want these:
Bone in pork chops
Bacon!
Tenderloin roasts
A few butt roasts-smaller packages
I’m thinking about skipping the ribs due to space and would almost rather have extra chops instead of ribs. Hub might disagree though, but at this rate I’m slready going to be doing some creative “rearranging” to fit in what I positively want! We rarely ever eat ribs but do love them.
She said this will all come already wrapped and should fill two large coolers to get it all here.
Does this sound like a good plan, or any of you have thoughts about your own experiences?
( one thing cousin did mention that has me curious is “jowl bacon”... I ha e no idea what that tastes like?....should I skip that?)