New pigs, pigs to market, liverwurst and blutwurst

born today - 3-12-2016

Weather report says that we're due for another spate of high winds; 30 to 40 mph sustained with gusts to 50 or 60.  We had that sort of weather about three weeks ago, and it tore the door off of one of my sheds, so I spent the day battening down the hatches - literally - and doing various maintenance tasks.  

I sent four pigs to market this morning; the farm kill guy was here and prompt; he had two guys with him, and after shooting and sticking the four pigs that were going today we chatted while he and his guys prepped them.  While I can do the work myself, there's only so many hours in the day, and Scott the farm kill guy does a great job.   

I was up a little earlier than usual to prepare the area where the pigs were processed; it's got a concrete floor, but I took the time to pressure wash the concrete and make sure that there weren't any loose buckets or anything.  I value Scotts time, as he values mine, and so I take care to make sure he can come, and go, as fast as possible.  When he opened up the back of the truck I could see two beef and another pig that he'd already slaughtered that day.  I wondered if if was one of the piglets I sold last year.   I asked scott what color the pig was, and he said black - so maybe.  

One by one the pigs were split and hoisted on the truck.  My customers rarely take the hearts and livers; my brother loves the hearts, and I've wanted to try making liverwurst, so I kept these four livers and I'll see what I can come up with tommorow.  

When I want to make something i've never made, I'll often just do a search for it, and then read 6 or 8 recipes, and look for things they have in common, and then pick the one that sounds best to me.  With internet recipies I've found that the seasoning - amount of salt particularly - is often too much for my taste, so what I'll do with the sausage is I'll make a small sample of it and cook and taste it; if it's good I'll make the full-sized batch.

The three little ones to the left are sleeping after feeding

When I make sausage I'll usually want to do it in a big batch; it takes a while to get set up, and once you're all set up, well, might as well make 15 or 20lbs of sausage instead of 2 or 3.  Sausages freeze well, they're popular as gifts, and, if it's a culinary disaster, they're easy to feed to the dogs.  :)

One of my dogs has pups, and after the farm kill truck had gone, she went over to the concrete and ate all of the clotted blood.  She went over to the kennel where the pups are, and I was a little horrified to find her vomiting blood - a lot of blood - on the ground in front of the pups.  It didn't bother the pups at all.  They formed a circle and in 2 minutes had eaten all of it.  After realizing it was the pigs blood I was a big relieved - and actually happy that the blood was going to use.  Nice to use every part of the pig.

The chores done, the hatches battened, pigs to market and everyone fed and watered, it was a good day today.  Pretty satisfying.