Pigs who will live their entire lives at our farm.
“…Oh, and just one more thing… We’re building a butcher shop.”
Yes, that is what I said a few days ago. Our top secret big project for the past year and a half is a butcher shop. Well, about as top secret as anything is on a small planet. The gossip has been fun and I’ll admit that I have fueled the stories a bit. This big project is what has put a slow down on some other more minor projects like expanded fencing, new pastures and the greenhouse. Although we were able to get bits of each of those done so they’re ready for more later. Everything in its time.
Short Version: We are building an on-farm slaughterhouse and butcher shop located on our farm so that we can get our pork to customers’ fork. This will assure our farm of available slaughter and butchering capacity, guarantee humane animal handling to the end, reduce our energy consumption and expenses while increasing the quality of the meat and keeping our prices from rising. Processing is essential to farm viability. We will be slaughtering just for our own farm which helps other farmers by freeing up slots in the area butcher’s schedule. The opening of our butcher shop is expected in early 2010. Find out about getting free processing when you do a CSA Pre-buy which helps fund the butcher shop - details soon…
Removing Shed Roof - Saving Materials for Pig Shelters
I hear some muttering in the back of the crowd:
- “Walter’s gone over to the dark side.”
- “He’s sold out to the goobermint.”
- “He got too big and became one with the enemy.”
Rest assured that this is not the case, the rumors of my conversion to Big Ag are grossly exaggerated and unfounded. We are still a small family farm raising Naturally Grown pastured pigs sustainably on pasture. Having our own on-farm process does not change how we farm nor our fundimental beliefs and core values. Heck, I can’t even get a loan never mind a temptation on the mount. What this does do is improve the end of life for our livestock, improve the quality of the meat and increase our farm’s financial security.
Read the full story here…
[This is part two in the series. I have moved this story and comments from here back over to my Sugar Mountain Farm blog in the interest of keeping the discussion thread in one place. Visit http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/ regularly to follow the progress as we bring our on-farm slaughterhouse and butcher shop up to USDA inspection. Learn about how the story of our butcher shop and NoNAIS are intimately intertwined… -WJ]
