A Bag of Fat

We took the pigs to the processor yesterday morning, and it was a remarkably squeal-free experience. The trick, we've learned, is using the old horse trailer as the pig hut. Every night since the weather cooled off, the hogs have gone into the trailer, burrowed down into the warm straw, and dreamed their sweet piggy dreams. Loading the pigs this time around required only that sometime before bedtime Sunday night, one of us went out and closed the back of the trailer. It worked like a charm. Much less stressful than this. Or this.

The concern then was that the trailer isn't exactly road legal. The plates are expired, we have no title, and the turn signals didn't work. This made it just a little bit of a nail biter, but I drove behind him on the back roads for safety, and we got there and back just fine.

Five of the six pigs are spoken for, and the other will be our year's supply of pork. Four of our customers asked about lard, which our processor can't make for us. When I asked her about it, though, she did say that it wasn't too hard to render at home. "If you'd like, we can save you the fat," she offered.

So, along with our chops and roasts and bacon and hams, we'll be getting a bag of pork fat for making lard.

I know what you're thinking. You're wondering why in the world anyone would want to make lard, which has had a terrible reputation since the world went crazy about fat. In truth, lard from pastured pigs is full of vitamin D and good fats, like avocados, and is actually good for you.

So, I found this site, and will be boiling up my bag of fat for holiday pie crusts and such at the first opportunity.

It's all very exciting.