How Much Pork In A Pig?

Pigs are pretty efficient.  They aerate and fertilize your pasture, eat up food scraps and quickly grow to a weight that gives you a wide variety of meat products (born in the spring, reached 250+ lbs by the fall, more on that here).  From holiday meal hams, tenderloins and roasts... to ribs and pulled pork... to breakfast bacon and sausage... to soup seasoning meat, there's alot of meal choices there.  We went with the basics cuts, no chorizo or prosciutto this time.  I also heard of another local pork raiser who had some of the meat made into hot dogs.  No preservatives and you can control what exactly goes into them.  I think we might consider those next year.
So I wanted to show a visual break down of what we got.  A few things are missing because we have sold some already to friends and have already eaten two hams for Thanksgiving.  So prepare your eyes for a meat picture overload.

What we got from our two pigs-

14 lbs of Ribs (2 baby backs ribs, 4 spare ribs)

39 lbs of Boneless Hams (Smoked)

34 lbs Thick Cut Pork Chops (can you say delicious pork steaks, nothing like the thin store bought)

20 lbs of Fat Back.  And before you point a cholesterol prejudice finger... know that I believe fat has a place in a healthy diet, ESPECIALLY developing kid's diets.  Its not hydrogenated or processed.  With that said recipes, uses anyone?  All I know is split pea and other legume soup seasoning or is that just salt pork?

On a similar but more prestigious note, Leaf Lard.  Amazing cooking uses, small piece of info here.  Goodbye can of Crisco.

3.4 lbs Pork Tenderloins (smaller since we had pork chops pulled too and they share the same loin area)

26 lbs of Pork Butt (aka Boston Butt which is the upper shoulder).  For pulled pork.

 28 lbs of Bacon (natural and nitrate smoked).  Yes please, on the side along with our fresh eggs.

19 lbs Breakfast Sausage Patties.  Get them Biscuits ready.

19 lbs Italian Sausage

16 lbs Loin Roasts
12 lbs Rib Roasts (no pictures, sorry)
6 lbs Pork Shoulder (also no picture and not motivated to get my hands cold again to take one)

And finally....

37 lbs of feet, tail, hocks and neck bones.

Now don't you feel enlightened from looking at all the pork... or hungry.... or sick..... or appreciative of pigs?  I personally am more appreciative of pigs.... and a bit hungry. :)

The Rewards of Work (Pig Meat in the Freezer)

Kudos to my husband for his hard work this past year.  Because of such, we've harvested some great things we are VERY THANKFUL for.

Because he built a chicken coop...

We've had fresh eggs all summer.

Because he chopped wood...

We can stay toasty warm for alot less money.

Because he worked hard this spring and built a fence....

We have close to 300 pounds of pasture raised pork in our freezer!  Woohoo!  Fills up our 14 cu ft. freezer pretty well.  Mainly because they gave us all the fat back (in the left basket), feet, lard, shanks, hocks and neck bones along with the meat.

More about that pork.... picking it up was like Christmas day.  I was soooo excited.  Our farm raised meat and less trips to the grocery store.

This is how a pork chop is supposed to look, like a steak!

Those interested in costs and if there is a cost savings for raising your own, heres a quick price break down-

The details are a little more complex than the chart above reflects but this shows a decent summary and average.
So far we have eaten some sweet italian sausage and pork chops and the taste is noticeably better than your our typical store bought pork.  The quality of how it was cut does contribute to this along with the freshness and animals diet.  Needless to say we are happy for our harvest.

Hope everyone has a nice Thanksgiving!

Other pig related posts:
Farewell pigs (talks about how we fed them)
The Big Pig Post (details of their progress and raising them)

Filling Trim Holes, Windows and Tape

We are slowly making progress towards our goal of completely finishing the dining room.  This week we are filling those little brad nail holes in the window trim.

You gotta do what you gotta do-

Progress list so far:

Fill and sand holes in trim - in progress

Paint window trim white

Paint window frames black-

Put up baseboard trim

Fill, sand and paint baseboard trim

Sand off stain on walkthrough boards (or are we replacing?)

Put up trim around walkthrough

Fill, sand and paint walkthrough trim

Make and install stair banister

Paint and install heater end plate

Make blinds or curtains - possibly have fabric choice!

It would be nice to have the windows complete and painted before the holidays but house updates will not be a priority in the coming weeks.
Did you notice the fake grills on the window?  Those are made of electrical tape and were helping us visualize what style grill to get on the newly ordered bay window.  What are your all's thoughts on these two styles?  4 pane grill or 6 pane grill?

The 6 pane grill looks better from the outside of the house since its more colonial.  I kind of like the 4 pane because it looks more 'open'.  For the bay window we went with a 4 pane grill on the two small side windows but that would match with any grill we go with on these full size windows.

Where you even able to see the windows through the tree stationed on our table?  This is our Giving Thanks Tree (not near as pretty as the inspiration, thanks Tori for sharing the idea with me).

We started it last night and each of us are adding a leaf each day with something we are thankful for written on it.  Can you guess whose this is?

I'm finding it to be a good activity for our almost 3yo who didn't fully understand thankful when we explained what it meant.  So this has helped him understand and even voice it.  While eating lunch today and looking at the tree he told me he was thankful for me (so sweet, made my day).... but then he threw his scrambled eggs in the floor.  He maybe changed his mind after I disciplined him for doing so.

Last I wanted to share our mad efforts towards cleaning the yard after two high wind storms.  Last Saturday was a great workout and my super human strength mom arms continue to amaze me. :)  Other moms know what I am talking about.  Throwing logs across the yard....  no problem <enter Xena princess warrior scream>.

My 13 mo weighs more than these, and how many hours a day am I carrying her around.

I feel like we racked up enough pine needles, sticks and leaves to build shelters for a small village (MacGyver could totally do it).  Thankful we have an easement area we can dump on instead of having to bag all this mess.

Jonathan likes chopping wood.... and I like watching him :)

He looks mad at that log.

I hope to post more about our farm and winterizing sometime later.  I have herbs that are still surviving out in the garden and hens whose food is getting swiped in the night.  That stuff interests me... maybe I am the only one. :)

Timmmbbbeeerrr!

Lots of trees and limbs have been coming down around here.... some were planned.... some from the storm.  Our multi-talented friend Topper came and cut down these trees we, and our neighbor, have been wanting rid of.  The two on the left were dead or close to it anyway.

Our neighbor has plans to put up a new split rail fence and possibly some type of screening trees.  Notice Jonathan's nice lush grass growing on the left side of the driveway... that area used to be brown and ugly.

Little man thought it was cool... anything that has to do with tools and equipment is cool.  He got to see the tree fall.

Our birch in the back yard had a large branch snapped off from the very top during the storm last Monday (we only lost power for two days btw)-

Topper also trimmed up the birch tree saying it should help it be more healthy.... which it has not looked too healthy since we've moved in.

The tree company people were also back working in the easement before the storm.  They cleared out more space which we were hoping for.

If you look where baby girl is sitting (mid left of picture) that is where our current back corner fence post is, we hope to extend the fence back to this area now the over growth is cleared out.

It would add about 8400 sq feet to our pasture bringing the area to .5 acres or more.  Building fence takes time and money for materials so this isn't at the top of the to do list but its a lingering hopeful. :)

As far as house news (and preview to upcoming posts).... dining room work is continuing, our BAY WINDOW is ordered and will be replaced soon, and we are expecting our pig meat back any day now.

OK, I am typing this with a cranky baby on my lap so....  :(