Pasture Raised PORK Fed No Soy, No Corn, No Wheat |
| (a little bit of a scary sight with nothing but some little wires strung near the ground to keep them from running off) Raised Outdoors With Pasture And Woods, They Also Receive Supplemental Certified Organic No Soy and No Corn Feed Daily. Instead of Soy, They Eat Flax, Sunflower, Field Peas, Alfalfa and Forage. They Are Available At Various Times Of The Year. A Limited Supply Is Available As Always Because We Ain't No Pork Factory. Ham, Bacon, Pork Chops, Ribs, Sausages, Ham Hocks, Loin Roasts, Pulled Pork, Roast Pork, Tenderloin... Pork is available year round as a rule if purchasing "cuts" from our freezers. Sides (1/2 pigs) are available only at certain times of the year. Your price for purchasing a side includes all the usual fees for the butcher, BUT, there are certain value added costs that we must pass on to you if you choose them. Sausage making is an additional 65 cents a pound for the amount of sausage you have made if more than the usual amount of trim from your pig, such as "I want all sausage, that's all I like". Curing and smoking of ham hocks, hams and bacons and anything else you want cured and smoked is an additional 75 cents per pound for conventional curing and smoking for those items only (and I DON"T recommend this option) or you can go the No-Nitrate curing and smoking route but it is pricey at as much as an additional $1.95 per pound for the meat you have processed this way. When your pork is not cured and smoked it is referred to as fresh. So... Recently I had been experimenting with using the bacons fresh and instead cooking and seasoning them while cooking or right after taking them from the pan. Delicious! You can still get it sliced just like the bacon you are used to making it easy to cook this way at no additional cost. Also I use "chunk" bacon and roast it whole or dice it, cook and season for use in other things, like lasagna, salad topper, omelets, use your imagination. More versatile! A real cost saving. Fresh ham roasts and fresh ham steaks... same thing! People, we have been hoodwinked for years in believing that these items must be cured and smoked or ground up! No they don't! This curing and smoking was a thing to preserve the meat before freezers were available. I admit, a little bit is good, it can make for a smoky tasty addition to life, but you could do this small amount yourself in a little home smoker or many other ways by creating a smoky atmosphere in your grill or oven or stove top with a covered pot! . Save that fat and use like lard for cooking other stuff. This is a good way to keep a steady supply of small amounts of fat for cooking. And it's just good clean fat, not loaded up with salt and smoke flavor! I strongly suggest you give this a try. Ham and ham slices I have used fresh and found the same to be true. Cooked on the grill is extra special, I rub with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic and rosemary first. Oven roasted still awesome and again, so versatile. Pan fried ham steaks too, quick and easy. I use the hocks fresh or put them on the grill to give them a little smoke flavor for adding to pots of greens or beans or pea soup making or just eating! All this from the pig without paying extra for curing and smoking it all! You can have only part of your cut as "fresh" and have the rest cured and smoked as usual. This way you can try it without committing to have all your pork done this way. Maybe you'll find that half and half works very well for you and you'll always want to do it that way. I also have been using the ground pork more instead of having the butcher make sausage for me. Again the cost of sausage making continues to go up so it makes sense to find ways to reduce the cost there. There is no extra charge to just provide ground pork. I have a few recipes for adding my own spice to make various sausages that allow me to control the amount of salt in it and use my own organic seasonings. Check out our pork recipes page for ideas. Not many there but always adding something new when it's tried and true. See our "Order Form" page for pricing and to order sides of pork. See our "Current Price List" page for pricing of individual cut. |
