From weaner to freezer.

[preppingsu]

Two of our pigs escaped yesterday!
As I am on feeding duty this week I made my way up and managed to get the food into the tough without them seeing me. Called them and next thing I know 2 pigs are squeezing their way back under the electric fence into the enclosure!
Due to their rooting around a lot of soil had been pushed up against and onto the lowest wire so it was decided a few weeks back to disconnect the lowest one.
But by their tough the land slopes down and they have been working (rooting) their way under the which meant eventually the plastic stake came loose and they were able to lift it up and get out underneath.

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The afternoon was spent raking soil off the wire, all around the enclosure and moving some debris they had moved downhill against the wire. This meant we would be able to reconnect the wire. Another lower wire was added onto the gap to stop them pushing through again. While we were working they did it again.

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I guess the grass is greener............

But once called they made their way back.

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All that adventure certainly tires them out!

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Food has been increased again which means we are using approx a bag and a half of food each week (apprx £13.00 a week). There will be no more increases from now on.

[Arzosah]

Wow! I'm vegetarian, have been for a long time, but part of that was for political reasons - the carp that industrialised agriculture puts into our food, for one, they put *less* in veggie stuff. And I studied anthropology at uni - and if all meat was reared like this, I'd never have gone veggie at all! I'm too used to it now, I wouldn't change, but this is lovely to see, thank you for posting up the pictures regularly

[preppingsu]

A quick update.
They are getting much bigger and forming a nice rounded belly. The 'hams' are looking good as they are having to work extremely hard in the mud. As you can see in the picture the mud is rather deep and even we found it hard to move around in it.

I purchased on ebay these pig feeders as the trough we made was getting too small and they were beginning to fight each other. This now means each pig receives the correct amount of food.

Now starting to begin to plan for the autumn and slaughter!

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[preppingsu]

Well, the deadline has arrived and tomorrow they go for slaughter.
A few months ago we had to move them into a different paddock as they kept escaping the previous one, through the electric fence!

It was a larger area, overgrown with long grass, nettles - a feast for the pigs.

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It didn't last long like that. It now looks like the Somme. And there has not been a week where they haven't escaped! So we (or should I say my OH - who will be reading this so thank you! ) have spent many hours repairing and strengthening the fencing, whilst saying through gritted teeth - chops, bacon, sausage, apple sauce. We are looking forward to getting our revenge!

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Tonight we had to move them to a holding pen, ready for an early morning collection and the short trip to the local abbatoir. For the first time in many months they were obedient and followed the sound of the food bucket to where they needed to be. Its hard to show how big they are but I am 5'5" tall and they reach my mid thigh in height and I can't begin to think how heavy they are but if they run at you, you get out of the way and fast!

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The meat will be ready next Thursday, our freezer is ready, the containers are ready for curing and the smokehouse is nearly built. I can't wait for the first Roast Pork Lunch. Yum, Yum!!

[pseudonym]

Thanks for the update, I look forward to seeing the next installment.

[moocher]

Off to ensors by chance?

[preppingsu]

Off to ensors by chance?

An abbatoir with a very good reputation. But are using one just a few miles down the road at Brookthorpe who provided the transport and does a good deal with a butcher in Stroud. It seemed a good deal financially so we'll just see when we get the meat back.

[preppingsu]

* The pigs weighed in at between 62kg and 74kg, cold weight (eviserated and tongueless). We had the 70kg pig.*


Well, the meat was collected on Friday and I have spent all weekend processing it.

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I felt a little overwhelmed by the task ahead and wanted to make sure I got everything dealt with correctly so that nothing got spoilt. I started by deciding what I wanted to freeze as joints so I could get that done quickly. Unfortunately the butcher had not cut the joints into family size so a quick trip to a 24 hr supermarket to get some new, sharp knives! (I'm a prepper - I should have these things..oops.. )

Into the freezer went: about 20 chump chops, diced pork (in family sized portions), corner gammon, 4 joints from the hand cuts, 4 joints from the shoulder, 2 leg pieces (boned and rolled - one is for christmas), 2 hocks, 2 lots of ribs, 2 tenderloins and another 2 leg joints which I took the bone out of and I will cure these at a later date for hams. I think that is everything in the freezer (possibly another 2 joints, can't remember which part of the pig though!).

I have 7kg of middle dry curing in the fridge for bacon.
I have 5kg of leg wet curing for ham.

I have packs of mince left to deal with which will be made into burgers (not confident to do sausages this time).

The trotters, heart, liver and kidneys went to 'older' members of the family.

All the bony bits with meat on have been simmered with some veg and liquidsed down to make a thick stock. I will use this as a base in casseroles, gravy etc.

We had some chops for tea, pan fried and finished in apple juice, very nice!

[pseudonym]

Fantastic

[moocher]

Porktastic even.