Learning More Anatomy

Gorgeous free range Linderöd piglets.

As slaughter season continues, we have now taken our learnings to a different level. Last week we had the opportunity to do more hands-on slaughtering than we had ever done before. One of our self-sufficient friends has some lovely Linderöd pigs and we were able to slaughter one of the 4 month old boar piglets with her expert guidance. Tina's two sows produced a total of 12 boar piglets and she is now culling them before they become sexually mature and do the deed with their mothers and sisters. Read more about Tina and her farm on her website: www.genevadnygard.se.

"Our" pig having his last meal with mother and siblings - completely stress free.

Without any high-tech equipment, the whole process from shot to pork in suitable cuts takes pretty much all day. It is very time-consuming and quite messy: first shooting and bleeding, followed by scraping off hair, then carefully removing the stomach and guts and finally butchering.

Removing hair (to get crackling).

Very careful opening of the stomach cavity.

"What do we do with this?"

As tricky and scary as it felt, it gave us more confidence that we will be able to do the same thing with our lambs next season, saving them the journey to the butcher and us the cost of having someone else do it. 

Pork cuts ready for cooking - maybe not all in one go.

A big thank you to Tina for all her hand holding throughout!

Tina prepared rooster for dinner, while watching us work.