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Posted: 3/1/2018 8:02:53 PM EDT
[#1]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Feral: Hmmm. I've enjoyed the hell out of raising pigs the last few years. It's been a heck of an education having "pastured pigs." Looking back, I realize how simple the first years were. Buy some weaners in the Spring, put 'em in the pen, feed them, take them to the butcher in the waning days of Fall. Easy enough. Filling our freezer with fine pork and selling the extras to folks we know was gratifying. Running the numbers and finding we were generating enough money to cover our costs AND filling the freezer was also gratifying. Everything became more complex when we started with breeding stock. More mouths to feed.....and bigger mouths at that. It was eye opening, to say the least. Things changed considerably, and not always for the better, when we went from feeding out a few weaners to "farrow to finish." [to be continued] |
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Posted: 3/1/2018 8:37:34 PM EDT
[Last Edit: sparkyD]
[#2]
Did Feral retire from raising pigs?
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Posted: 3/1/2018 11:06:31 PM EDT
[#3]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By sparkyD:
Did Feral retire from raising pigs? I miss his threads. When this used to be Homestead, Food and Garden (Or something like that) he had the MOST amazing food threads. Those were some good times. I miss them. |
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Posted: 3/2/2018 8:57:18 AM EDT
[#4]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs: He just got really busy with life and work, from what I understand. I think he may still be raising pigs for butchering, but he doesn't have as much time for the forum as he used to, and doing an ongoing thread takes quite a bit of time. We all have a saying that "Real Life Comes First," and my understanding is that he's got his hands full with that at the moment. I miss his threads. When this used to be Homestead, Food and Garden (Or something like that) he had the MOST amazing food threads. Those were some good times. I miss them. |
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Posted: 3/2/2018 10:22:36 AM EDT
[#5]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs:
He just got really busy with life and work, from what I understand. I think he may still be raising pigs for butchering, but he doesn't have as much time for the forum as he used to, and doing an ongoing thread takes quite a bit of time. We all have a saying that "Real Life Comes First," and my understanding is that he's got his hands full with that at the moment. I miss his threads. When this used to be Homestead, Food and Garden (Or something like that) he had the MOST amazing food threads. Those were some good times. I miss them. Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs:
Originally Posted By sparkyD:
Did Feral retire from raising pigs? I miss his threads. When this used to be Homestead, Food and Garden (Or something like that) he had the MOST amazing food threads. Those were some good times. I miss them. |
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Posted: 3/2/2018 3:07:42 PM EDT
[#6]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By sparkyD:
I know what that feels like. Kid moved out and now I have to work harder to make up for the little bit she would do. I just buy a couple of show pig's to help the local kid's out. I know I spend more but just maybe I'll get a little back in the future. And you probably DO get a little better hog out of that. And you certainly get a gentler, easier handling hog. |
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Posted: 11/27/2018 12:08:23 AM EDT
[#7]
Bump
Because this is an amazing bunch of information and 'tis the season to be thinking about spring farming. 
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Posted: 6/24/2020 3:44:20 AM EDT
[#8]
Just bumping this up to keep it from archiving.
We are looking at buying some hogs in the near future so it is good reading.
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Posted: 6/30/2020 11:01:30 PM EDT
[#9]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By fas2c: Just bumping this up to keep it from archiving. We are looking at buying some hogs in the near future so it is good reading. It should not archive. I have it set to not unless somebody else changed that. It's good to bump it though. Most folks never see the wealth of information on the last page. |
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Posted: 7/8/2020 6:55:36 PM EDT
[#10]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By fas2c: Just bumping this up to keep it from archiving. We are looking at buying some hogs in the near future so it is good reading. I'm two years into doing American Guinea Hogs and it's been such a good experience I'd recommend it to almost anyone. They're super interesting animals, tasty as can be, and not a ridiculous amount of work. I really enjoy doing a heritage breed, too, since there's a whole goofy community that comes along with that.  Attached File Attached File Attached File |
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Posted: 3/13/2021 11:50:44 AM EDT
[Last Edit: Merlin]
[#11]
We don't raise hogs but we did buy two of them from Dennis Holder of Holder Farms, Belividere TN last year. We took them to Weavers Processing in Hartselle for processing. One of the things I asked for on the cut sheet was the leaf lard. We got about 20lbs of raw fat from each pig.
 One pigs worth of fat:  Probably the most tedious part of the whole process (besides cleaning up the greasy mess) was the cutting the fat into easily rendered chunks:  Starting to render it down. Most rendering recipes recommend adding water at the beginning so as to not scorch the fat. Since I used this slow cooker on Low, I didn't add any water. As the fat rendered, I did turn the heat up to High and let it cook.  And it ended up looking like this; except there was about 2 gallons +/- or so. I don't have a pic of the whole result because we started giving it away before I was even done; it took a couple of days. My biggest mistake: Offering to one of our neighbors - who I forgot was a vegetarian! OOPS!  Fortunately, they're daughter and her family got it and made good use of it. |
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Posted: 3/13/2021 4:10:47 PM EDT
[#12]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Merlin: We don't raise hogs but we did buy two of them from Dennis Holder of Holder Farms, Belividere TN last year. We took them to Weavers Processing in Hartselle for processing. One of the things I asked for on the cut sheet was the leaf lard. We got about 20lbs of raw fat from each pig. One pigs worth of fat: https://i.imgur.com/W9NzBVC.jpg Probably the most tedious part of the whole process (besides cleaning up the greasy mess) was the cutting the fat into easily rendered chunks: https://i.imgur.com/pFdtHVI.jpg Starting to render it down. Most rendering recipes recommend adding water at the beginning so as to not scorch the fat. Since I used this slow cooker on Low, I didn't add any water. As the fat rendered, I did turn the heat up to High and let it cook. https://i.imgur.com/lm5A7ix.jpg And it ended up looking like this; except there was about 2 gallons +/- or so. I don't have a pic of the whole result because we started giving it away before I was even done; it took a couple of days. My biggest mistake: Offering to one of our neighbors - who I forgot was a vegetarian! OOPS! Fortunately, they're daughter and her family got it and made good use of it.https://i.imgur.com/4X1yfSO.jpg Lard looks great! Do you notice any difference from store bought? |
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Posted: 3/14/2021 1:37:09 AM EDT
[#13]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Milsurpninja: Lard looks great! Do you notice any difference from store bought? Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Milsurpninja: Originally Posted By Merlin: We don't raise hogs but we did buy two of them from Dennis Holder of Holder Farms, Belividere TN last year. We took them to Weavers Processing in Hartselle for processing. One of the things I asked for on the cut sheet was the leaf lard. We got about 20lbs of raw fat from each pig. One pigs worth of fat: https://i.imgur.com/W9NzBVC.jpg Probably the most tedious part of the whole process (besides cleaning up the greasy mess) was the cutting the fat into easily rendered chunks: https://i.imgur.com/pFdtHVI.jpg Starting to render it down. Most rendering recipes recommend adding water at the beginning so as to not scorch the fat. Since I used this slow cooker on Low, I didn't add any water. As the fat rendered, I did turn the heat up to High and let it cook. https://i.imgur.com/lm5A7ix.jpg And it ended up looking like this; except there was about 2 gallons +/- or so. I don't have a pic of the whole result because we started giving it away before I was even done; it took a couple of days. My biggest mistake: Offering to one of our neighbors - who I forgot was a vegetarian! OOPS! Fortunately, they're daughter and her family got it and made good use of it.https://i.imgur.com/4X1yfSO.jpg Lard looks great! Do you notice any difference from store bought? |
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Posted: 3/15/2021 11:58:37 AM EDT
[#14]
Nice clean looking lard there.
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Posted: 12/1/2021 8:05:22 PM EDT
[#15]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Feral: Nice clean looking lard there. @Feral Glad to see you around here. The years have flown by. |
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Posted: 12/2/2021 8:49:47 AM EDT
[#16]
I'm killing and hanging 2 hogs later today with a few family members. We're going to work them up Saturday. I think I might try Merlin's crock pot lard rendering method after all the meat is worked up and put away.
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Posted: 12/2/2021 11:23:38 AM EDT
[#17]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Buckshot4U: I'm killing and hanging 2 hogs later today with a few family members. We're going to work them up Saturday. I think I might try Merlin's crock pot lard rendering method after all the meat is worked up and put away. https://www.ar15.com/forums/outdoors/2021-Pigs-Making-Lard/19-701294/ |
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Posted: 12/2/2021 12:50:41 PM EDT
[#18]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Dave15: @Feral Glad to see you around here. The years have flown by. Hey, old friend. Good to see you're still kicking too. :-) |
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Posted: 12/2/2021 12:58:45 PM EDT
[#19]
We are finally pulling the trigger and are going to do this come spring time. Any advice on what equipment? Was thinking about sinking 4 posts in the corners and using hog panels, then strengthening with T-posts. Lean to for them to get out of the weather. Would like 1 or 2 for ourselves and are thinking of raising 2 to sell for family and friends hopefully get our pigs for free from selling the 2 hogs.
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Posted: 10/6/2023 11:49:10 AM EDT
[#20]
It's starting to finally cool down around here. It will be down in the high 30's, low 40's later this week.
I have at least 7 bags of fat, each with 20-22 lbs of good old pure pig fat I have to render down.
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Posted: 10/6/2023 1:28:09 PM EDT
[#21]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Merlin: It's starting to finally cool down around here. It will be down in the high 30's, low 40's later this week. I have at least 7 bags of fat, each with 20-22 lbs of good old pure pig fat I have to render down. The lard works in mysterious ways. I'm planning to help butcher up a couple piggies in a month or two that my cousin is currently feeding out. |
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Posted: 10/6/2023 4:13:39 PM EDT
[#22]
"We've already agreed that there will be no naming of the pigs beyond "sausage", "ham" and "bacon." Hamlet, Roast, Pork Chop, Hillary, Tasty, Blue State, and plenty of other creative, funny names to come up with.
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Posted: 10/6/2023 5:38:08 PM EDT
[#23]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Merlin: It's starting to finally cool down around here. It will be down in the high 30's, low 40's later this week. I have at least 7 bags of fat, each with 20-22 lbs of good old pure pig fat I have to render down. Lots of pig fat, right before deer season? Sounds like sausage making is afoot. |
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Posted: 10/6/2023 6:25:02 PM EDT
[Last Edit: Kitties-with-Sigs]
[#24]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Genin: "We've already agreed that there will be no naming of the pigs beyond "sausage", "ham" and "bacon." Hamlet, Roast, Pork Chop, Hillary, Tasty, Blue State, and plenty of other creative, funny names to come up with. The neighbor behind us may give us a pig or half of a pig depending on what we can take (read, whether my freezer that's been sitting for 15 years in the garage, still works or not). These are some kind of fancy breed. They have a sow and a boar and they have young pigs. Will be about six months before they are ready. We have, in the past, fed their animals and watched the little farm while they were away, but fortunately their son is now old enough to do that if they are gone, so hopefully I will never have to see these pigs except in small white packages. Just sayin. I've gotten so soft as I've grown older and so many years away from the farm. I would honestly be vegetarian probably if my body would survive on that, but it won't. I grew up killing beef and hogs, eating squirrel, rabbit, quail, all of it. But unless we are forced, we won't be killing anything to eat now. We are both too soft hearted.   I'm ashamed of that actually.  |
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Posted: 10/7/2023 8:05:46 PM EDT
[#25]
We’ve grown to like Kunes and AGHs.
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Posted: 10/8/2023 9:35:30 PM EDT
[#26]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By The_Like_Button: We’ve grown to like Kunes and AGHs. Kunes are great. We raise standard pigs and kunekunes. The kunes are our favorite.  Attached File Attached File |
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