Guest Post by Hardscrabble Farmer
On Saturday I slaughtered a hog and my neighbor came up to help me break down the carcass. We’ve been breeding our own livestock for almost 20 years now so there are always animals on deck for slaughter whenever someone needs a half or quarter or our own stock starts to get low. The cost for us is our time caring for them, the time required to pick up their feed daily- I’ve explained how we do that in the past, cost free except for time and gas between the farm and the supermarket- and the time to slaughter, quarter and butcher.
My friend gets some. We get some. A relative of one of our children’s friends gets some for which they pay us a fair price compared to the supermarket and that money more than offsets our fuel costs. The dogs and the barn cat get the bones and the meat scraps, even the coyotes get the entrails left at the far end of the property to keep them at a distance.
The hogs live a great life until harvest, they help us clear woodlots in the Summer, they live outdoors year-round with shelter from Winter storms and excellent diets compared to factory farmed pigs. They produce a huge amount of manure and by constantly adding carbon; leaves, woodchips, pulpwood, rotted wood, branches from pruning, etc. we get a high-quality compost for our gardens, pastures, and orchards come Spring. There are always multiple generations living together in the swine herd; breeding stock, piglets, pigs for slaughter. We’ve become very good at making sausages, cured meats like hams and bacon, and the meals we prepare from the meat is always delicious and very healthy.
I keep bringing these stories up to remind people that anyone can do this if they desire this type of life. We came in with zero experience and taught ourselves. We’re healthier, happier and I have never thought once about the price of meat in the last 15 years or more because we don’t buy it. Living in a constant relationship with other living things provides other benefits that are impossible to articulate, from a feeling of being part of something larger and more significant, responsibility for another species that we work with, not for, etc.
It’s just one aspect of what we do that is 100% exempt from inflation that allows us to continue living like we always have without having to do without an important part of our diet.
2020 should have been the starting gun for anyone with the sense God gave a rhesus monkey to get going on some sort of self-reliance and disconnect from the corrupt systems that led to our present situation. If not then, how about now?
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[ H/T The Burning Platform ]
On Saturday I slaughtered a hog and my neighbor came up to help me break down the carcass. We’ve been breeding our own livestock for almost 20 years now so there are always animals on deck for slaughter whenever someone needs a half or quarter or our own stock starts to get low. The cost for us is our time caring for them, the time required to pick up their feed daily- I’ve explained how we do that in the past, cost free except for time and gas between the farm and the supermarket- and the time to slaughter, quarter and butcher.
My friend gets some. We get some. A relative of one of our children’s friends gets some for which they pay us a fair price compared to the supermarket and that money more than offsets our fuel costs. The dogs and the barn cat get the bones and the meat scraps, even the coyotes get the entrails left at the far end of the property to keep them at a distance.
The hogs live a great life until harvest, they help us clear woodlots in the Summer, they live outdoors year-round with shelter from Winter storms and excellent diets compared to factory farmed pigs. They produce a huge amount of manure and by constantly adding carbon; leaves, woodchips, pulpwood, rotted wood, branches from pruning, etc. we get a high-quality compost for our gardens, pastures, and orchards come Spring. There are always multiple generations living together in the swine herd; breeding stock, piglets, pigs for slaughter. We’ve become very good at making sausages, cured meats like hams and bacon, and the meals we prepare from the meat is always delicious and very healthy.
I keep bringing these stories up to remind people that anyone can do this if they desire this type of life. We came in with zero experience and taught ourselves. We’re healthier, happier and I have never thought once about the price of meat in the last 15 years or more because we don’t buy it. Living in a constant relationship with other living things provides other benefits that are impossible to articulate, from a feeling of being part of something larger and more significant, responsibility for another species that we work with, not for, etc.
It’s just one aspect of what we do that is 100% exempt from inflation that allows us to continue living like we always have without having to do without an important part of our diet.
2020 should have been the starting gun for anyone with the sense God gave a rhesus monkey to get going on some sort of self-reliance and disconnect from the corrupt systems that led to our present situation. If not then, how about now?
Tweet
Continue reading...
[ H/T The Burning Platform ]
