When your pigs get to slaughter weight you can take them to the abattoir and they'll kill, butcher and bag up all the meat if you wish. Of course after you've been through it all a few times you may start to get tempted by the thought of saving a few Euros, or simply be keen to have a go and attempt to do the butchering yourself. You can arrange with the abattoir for them to kill and gut the pig so you can collect the cleaned out carcass in two halves and attempt the butchering at home.
Amazingly (and you'll be even more amazed once you've tried it yourself!), a trained butcher can cut up a pig in little over an hour but don't use this as your guideline for completing a the job! Allow a full twelve hour day with the help of at least one other person, preferably four keen workers. A second day will also be needed if you intend to make your own sausages and salami. Don't forget about freezer space, a couple of pigs will fill three or four drawers of an upright freezer.
Before you gather troops and collect the pig carcass it's vital you have a number of essentials to hand which should be organised and lined up ready to hit the ground running a few weeks prior to the event. Invest in some butchers knives and a sharpener, ask your local butcher where he buys his own. Also buy a couple of rolls of plastic bags for packing and a good black permanent marker for labeling bags. It's handy to have a weighing scales for measuring out portions when bagging up too.
If you also intend to make sausages ensure you have already decided on flavours and bought in the necessary herbs and spices well in advance, mix these the day before so they can be easily added to each batch of ground sausage meet as you work. Ensure you have sausage casings and a sausage maker ready to roll. Buy and watch the River Cottage DVD 'Pig In a Day With Hugh & Ray', watch it several times and set it up in front of the table you'll be working on so you can play and pause the DVD as you make your cuts. We pool bought ours to share between friends. Keep a well stocked first aid kit close to hand. Take regular breaks and eat well because you'll need to keep up your energy levels. Warn any squeemish, vegan or vegetarian friends and neighbours not to call in that day! Have some chilled beer and wine to crack open once you've finished to celebrate.
Again this is a fantastic experience for children to witness first hand. There is no mistake where their pork chops come from after seeing this. I'm all in favour of educating people as to where their food originates and if that results in my children choosing to become vegetarian then I'd be proud to assist them, we all eat too much meat anyway. I don't want them to be so disjointed from the realities of food that it comes as a shock that pork was once a living pig, or that their burger was a cow. So many kids (and adults) these days don't make the connection or never get the opportunity to, because meat is not packaged with any visual reminders of animals on the labels and our lives are so removed from the whole process. It's all too easy to mentally bypass the realities of life, death and animal welfare that is required for us to consume meat.
I've often had visitors to our home who meet our pigs and find them delightful creatures (which they are), then when I explain that they aren't pets but are for the table, the conversation usually goes ; 'That's so cruel, how could you?', 'Are you vegetarian?', 'No!', 'Do you eat pork from the supermarket?', 'Yes, but that's different', 'yes it is because our pigs are outdoors and free ranging, your pork has probably never seen the light of day and has been raised indoors', silent thoughtfulness then ensues. On the other hand I've had lifelong vegetarians stay with us who have decided to eat our meat because they see that the animal welfare issues that stop them supporting intensive meat production systems are simply not an issue here. Education and awareness followed by informed choice and less meat eating could improve life for a lot of pigs!
Well done for expressing it all so eloquently. I totally agree - we should all appreciate where our food comes from and more importantly, ensure the animal has a good free range lifestyle. I find it infuriating that some organic meat is simply organic because it has been fed organic feed but indoors so it hasn't had a natural life outside at all.
Posted by: Lorna | July 29, 2008 at 01:25 PM
I must say I found your post very interesting and informative. It seems like you all had a great time and really enjoyed yourselfs.
Our 2 saddleback weaners will be ready for the butcher in October, we have thought about getting the carcass split and having a go a few times but always chickened out at the last minute.
Your post may be just the push we need to have a go ourselves nextime.
Posted by: Mark Burrows | July 29, 2008 at 04:59 PM
How fantastic. I have such a respect for you to be able to teach your children first hand where meat comes from.
I would so love for my children (and us) to have this experience, one day, god wishing.
I love the way you write.
Oh, and the cheese looked fabulous.
Ok gushing over, ha!
ClareX
Posted by: Mbutterfudge | July 29, 2008 at 08:44 PM
It's so interesting to have read this! My husband necked our first cockerel yesterday and he's currently hanging in the fridge. My seven year old and I had a conversation about it as he's struggling with the "meat with a face" aspect and can't correlate that with "meat in a package from the supermarket". He's coming around though.
My husband will update it in our other blog http://thegoodliferedux.wordpress.com/ if you want to read over that in a few days :)
Posted by: Vonnie | July 29, 2008 at 08:49 PM
You truly command respect; not only for the way you live your lives, but also for how you write.
This is why you seem to have been doubly nominated to award the 'Brilliante Blog Award 2008'. It seems that Lorna got there first!
This doesn't take away from the fact that your blog is simply one of my favourites and one of the very few I subscribe to; which is why I have included you in my list of nominees!
Congratulations...
Posted by: polly peirce | July 30, 2008 at 06:49 PM
You truly command respect; not only for the way you live your lives, but also for how you write.
This is why you seem to have been doubly nominated to award the 'Brilliante Blog Award 2008'. It seems that Lorna got there first!
This doesn't take away from the fact that your blog is simply one of my favourites and one of the very few I subscribe to; which is why I have included you in my list of nominees!
Congratulations...
Posted by: polly peirce | July 30, 2008 at 06:51 PM
Here here! We've been getting our meat from an organic farmer near Newmarket in Cork and we see all the animals running around the fields just before we choose our juicy chops. I think it's wonderful and I am happy that I am eating good cruelty free meat. I'm even beginning to think that one day we will keep our own pigs and sheep. Thanks for the ideas on butchering...
Posted by: Maria | July 30, 2008 at 06:59 PM
My husband grew up on a farm in KY and they would butcher their own pigs. Plus my dad is a butcher, so I don't think it's cruel at all to eat an animal you've raised yourself. At least the animal had a good life.
Posted by: Cathy | July 31, 2008 at 03:30 AM
I'm realy grateful for what and how you wrote!! No news to me, I've experienced this,too but it's a mission we shouldn't forget about!
Thanks!
Posted by: Uschi | August 01, 2008 at 07:47 AM
As much as how they live, how they die is of concern to me. Even though you butcher them yourselves your pigs are still being cruelly slaughtered in the same way the industry pigs are. I can't support that.
Posted by: Deela | September 27, 2008 at 02:15 PM