bye bye pigs

Well its all done and dusted.
The pigs were collected the Wednesday after taking them in to slaughter, and we started to butcher them ourselves on that morning, we collected the three pigs on the Wednesday as all three were ready, and so three of us had the a lot of work to do!

I was surprised how therapeutic it was! In fact i found it so therapeutic, that i wanted to do them all and not let my partner or friend have a go, but of course i didn't tell them that hahah

We collected the three pig carcass' in the morning, and started to do the job at about 11.30 ish, I had (with the help of my partner) butchered one half before my friend turned up at 1.30pm, we then decided that it was silly her taking her pig home to butcher, especially when we had all the tools and equipment out and sterilised ready ... so she did hers here at our home(with our help) and made sure everything was not only clean, but also not mixed up.

Afterwards, when my friend had gone home, with a very large box of joints, chops, rolls, sausages, bacon etc...we got down to doing the second half of the first pig!
First we cut off the hind leg(to be our Christmas ham), then the next cut was was horizontally up the belly, separating the belly from the ribs, we then cut the hock away, and separated the gammon, a few chops later and a few slices in my own hand, and the second half of the pig was done!

we decided to do the last pig the next morning, but as we didn't have a fridge big enough, we left it in the boot of the car, it was going to be a cold night anyway, so it would act like a large fridge!
The following morning, my partner had butchered the first half of the second pig, before i had even opened my eyes! he was just so keen!
I finished the second half later that morning, we had 4 hams, several bags of chops and bacon, we flavoured the sausages, my favourite one is the honey and sage! hmmm yummy! And we now have a freezer full of various joints and rolls.
The ham's are now in the spare room, one in salt(drying to make our version of Palma ham), one in the freezer(later to be smoked), one in a brine with a beer and molasses mix, and one in a brine and mulled wine mix(our Christmas ham).

Also this week...I have managed to get my web site up and running, and although at the moment people can only buy items with Pay pal...(I hope to add cards very soon)... they can still buy, which is the main thing...I only hope customers do now though, its been hard work...and with my partner being threatened with redundancy as there is no work at present...i really need this to work!
The website for those who wish to look, is www.thegleefulgoat.co.uk i do hope you all enjoy the site.