The pigs are no longer foraging the front lawn. The lawn has been sown with wildflower seed and the pigs are now pork. As the previous air dried hams were such a culinary success we decided to make four air dried hams. You can never have too much air dried ham, it's an absolute delight. Similarly you can never have too much saussison or salami which is why we made less sausage and more salami this time too. The only problem is the waiting and salivating in anticipation. We shouldn't have too much longer to wait for the salami but the hams were so large it could be another three months before they are ready. However, it's most certainly worth the wait.
We hang the salami in a muslin lined chicken wire cage and the hams are wrapped in cotton pillowcases to deter scavangers.
So we are without pigs at the moment but hope to get more weaners in July which is good timing as it means we will have more pork to process in the Autumn. October is a great time to be working on pork. It means the weaners have been growing during spring and summer when wild food is bountyfull and the weather warm, so the extra foraging they do adds to their flavour and the concentrate feed we give them goes further as less calories are burn't off to keep warm. And ideally, in October, there are few flies and the weather is cool, ideal conditions for butchering.
Lovely to read your posts again. Enjoy Easter.
Lorna x
Posted by: Lorna | April 10, 2009 at 03:05 PM
Great post! I love your pictures, anyways I bookmarked your site and will be back very soon, I look forward to reading some interesting posts! Thanks, Whitney
Posted by: Whitney Segura | April 18, 2009 at 11:21 AM
These look so amazing! I can't wait until we are able to get pigs of our own, a long way off as we only have a flat at the moment :)
Posted by: Cat | April 21, 2009 at 09:53 AM
I am totally thrilled to have found such an informative and helpful site....
thank you!
Can't wait to puruse through more...
Posted by: Anne Marie | April 21, 2009 at 08:18 PM
Hi,
found you today. I must say how interesting it is reading about your hams.
We only keep chickens and plant our own vegetables at the mo, but who knows what the future will bring.
I enjoyed my visit.
:D
Posted by: Stiggy | May 04, 2009 at 12:42 PM
This is one of my favorite blogs. i just started a craft blog and added this to my blog roll.
http://sailmakersdaughter.blogspot.com/
It's the only not-fully-crafty blog I listed but it's wonderful and it's Irish. Hurrah.
Posted by: Sailmakers Daughter. | May 12, 2009 at 10:00 PM
wow! That's a lot of pork and great info. I had never hear of air drying pork before!
www.aconservativebird.typepad.com
Posted by: Birdy | May 15, 2009 at 07:52 PM
It's been ages since I dropped by, sorry about that, life gets so busy sometimes. I think the timing for the pork sounds perfect, and as you say they eat less feed and more of what nature has to offer. I'd love to see the salami process too.
Posted by: Maddy | June 05, 2009 at 12:36 AM
wow! That's a lot of pork and great info. I am non vegetarian :) feeling hungry :)
Posted by: Beth | June 05, 2009 at 12:02 PM
mmmh i love air dried ham, and smoked cured ham, too! i once brought a small piece from germany, but i couldn't cut it with any of my knives, it was half an hour's work to shave off a few flakes, in the end i had to throw most of it out! how do you cut yours? my mum has a carving machine in her pantry for cutting meat and cheese...
Posted by: Péitseoga | June 06, 2009 at 11:02 PM
oh, and bread, too! it's a great gadget. and meat and cheese are cheaper and keep longer if you buy a piece and slice it yourself as needed...
Posted by: Péitseoga | June 06, 2009 at 11:04 PM