Note to my vegetarian friends – you might not want to read this.

A week ago we went up to give ‘the pigs’ their final supper – the last of the fallen apples from the orchard.  They never did make it down here as we couldn’t find the time to repair our fencing – but they’ve had a happy life up at the farm.

They came back from the butchers today as follows x 2.  A box for Mr C and one for us:

6 x 500 g of mince

12 sausages

2 shanks

2 cheeks (including ears)

2 flat belly pork – 1 kilo each

1 loin – steak

1 loin – rolled joint

2 back legs – rolled for hams to cure

2 fore legs rolled

6 thick cut chops

4 trotters

It wasn’t the most pleasant job working out which bit was which (nothing was labelled) and involved a couple of calls to the butcher and a lot of blood.    It certainly put us in touch with the reality of the situation – and a reality check seems in order if we’re going to carry on eating meat.   At least this way nothing will be wasted.

After an hour’s work, it’s all in pristine bags and appropriately marked up in the chest freezer.   It should last us a year.  The first thing I’m planning is my own cured ham.   The trotters seem like more of a challenge.

I have to admit that after today’s exercise I do feel a little queasy about eating it (it’s something to do with the butcher’s shop smell – reality check cont’d) but that may not last. Ed feels the same.  Having said that, Mr C has 2 sheep set aside for the new year and next time Ed’s talking about doing the butchering himself….