This year we are selling 2 1/2 pigs and keeping 1 1/2 - they got sooo big this year, too, so we have a good amount of meat from even just one pig!
Now, I don't know if it is nationwide or if it's a state law or what, but it is against USDA regulations for individuals to raise and butcher animals and then sell it... but we *can* raise and sell animals and have an approved butcher (one with a butchering license and passing health department inspections and what not) do the butchering. It is legal to butcher our own meat provided we don't sell it... all of this makes sense, because it protects the buyer/ consumer from getting meat butchered in a dirty environment and getting sick. Honestly, as big as I'm getting with this pregnancy, I'm thankful that I only needed to butcher ONE of them anyway! haha!
Here is a picture of the killed pig hanging, with me skinning it (though my husband also helped me skin - and was a tremendous help when it came time to take the head and feet off!!! I could not have done that part on my own - and was very thankful for his strength - and his reciprocating saw! - in getting that part of the job done!!!!
He was a big pig!!
Anyway, he's skinned, all cut up and everything but the hams (which I wet cured and have the last of them in the smoker now, with others baked so they are fully cooked before freezing) and bacon (which is still in the wet cure, to be smoked early next week) is done! Hams will be finished by the end of today - yeah!!! and bacon will be finished by the middle of next week.
The other three pigs go to the butcher Monday morning - and I'm ready to see them go for the year! (though we'll also be looking forward to raising them again next year) and then I'll have a week or so before we get the meat from the half pig that we are keeping from one of them where I'll start the curing and smoking process all over again - but half of a pig's hams and bacon only take up half of the space that the full pig does... and whew! a full pig has a lot of meat!!! I'm happy to have my refrigerator back for normal use for at least another week!! :)
Anyway, it's been a great experience getting to raise our own animals for meat - and learning to do the butchering for ourselves! Next year we'll do pigs again - and next fall we'll butcher our first cow, though I'm not sure we'll do the cow butchering ourselves... I"m not sure the rafters of the garage are strong enough for that added weight! (nor do I think I have the refrigerator space to keep the meat while I work on it section by section!)
This year's butchering was tremendously helped by the teens of my friend who taught me how to do the butchering last year - this year they came out again and killed and gutted Hamlet for me, and got him hung up on the gamber so that I could do the rest of it... this was my first year going it solo, and my husband's first year helping with the skinning! Perhaps next year we'll be brave enough to try the kill and gutting ourselves - but I wasn't about to try it being very pregnant this year! :)
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