Streaky became Pork

*This post is not for the faint hearted- not that it is graphic, but some may find it upsetting.

But as our first pig, raised soley here; from paddock to plate. This made this a difficult decision to make, and a sorrowful event. But here is a breif account of the process.

Saturday morning was D-day for Streaky. Following months of perseverance in the hope she would produce piglets, the decision was made. We had enjoyed having her, and she had had a good life. But all animals on a small holding have their purpose. And since she wasn't producing and meeting one, it was to be the other.

So the kill itself was short and swift- direct shot to the head, and she had no idea it was coming; she was content and happy to the end. Although she was dead, it is still necessary to 'bleed' the animal. To avoid the blood congealing and spoiling the meat.



Our next, and by far one of the most difficult tasks was moving her. Once we got her to the bath. We managed to hoist her, on the 3^rd attempt- as twice she bent the winch!



Preparing water



We borrowed a 100kg scales, that she topped out before we even had her off the floor.

The next job, once the animal is bled, is to scold the skin/hair. We did this by heating 2 kegs of water, over gas flames and filling the bath tub. The rule of thumb for a successful scald is 2 buckets of boiling water, to every bucket of cold water. The actual desired temperature is 62-64 degrees celsius. Too hot and the skin actually sticks to the meat, too cold and it will be in/ or limitedly affective.



Pierce behind rear tendons to hoist



Once the was to temperature we lowered her into the bath and used a (clean) spade and a borrowed hair scraper tool to agitate the water and begin to scrape the skin.  Our Streaky was that big, there was little room for the water, and getting good coverage on the hocks etc was almost impossible. This just meant that the lower cuts off the limbs had to be skinned, and we did not use the trotters on this occasion.



And lower her in the bath



Getting the temperature right



Removing hair & layer of skin 



To be honest, she was probably too large for a home kill. We estimated her live weight at around 120-130 kg as we successfully have over 60kg of pork cuts and joints from her. (General rule ½ live weight to meat out come). In commercial circumstances a pig of this size would be scalded in an enclosed tank- working much like a washing machine.



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Then she had to be gutted and hung over night; just to get the core temperature down. Gutting provided an insight into why there had been no success with producing piglets, as she had a few pink cists. So guess it was never meant to be. We were relieved however, that despite her age and size, there was still relatively little fat on her- in pig terms.  



Too large for Bandsaw



Berkshires are known for their 'marbling' and this was evident in the meat cuts. To be honest none of us had ever seen such colourful meat from a pig. Just goes to show how the breed and free ranging make a difference! Guess the truth will be in the tasting.



Marbling is amazing!



As were the various shades of pink flesh... truely free range







  















This little pig... and a deer?

Well as our ‘freezer pig’ (bought in February to fill our freezer whilst we awaited piglets from our breeding stock) or ‘Christmas ham’, as she is known, is looking more and more likely to be carrying a litter.  Matt and a friend bought a pig each from a local piggery.



'Christmas Ham'/ 'Freezer Pig'- Berkshirex Saddleback
As a weaner- Feb '12



Now his friend is not a fan of our ‘slow growing,’ free ranging pigs (or of the quality of Berkshire meat) and swears by these commercially reared, fast growing varieties. And is a big fan of the stock raised by this local piggery. Therefore as we will not be in a position to consume our own, we joined him in purchasing (and supporting) as local businesses.

Christmas Ham, Smokey (our Berkshire bore) & Streaky (gilt)

They are duroc and landrace producers. And the animals are mainly raised indoors, something I do wouldn’t want for my pigs. But my Berkshires do not burn in the sun either, and at least these pigs have room and company, unlike many that reach our plates. Guess these are the compromises of commercial production.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not criticizing his methods. As he is a very experienced and his pigs are all healthy and appear content- though far less active or inquisitive than ours. And at the end of the day, we are still relatively new to this.  I have to admit I did warm to him more when he was discussing our pigs with Matt. He said he loved Berkshires and that there was no comparison in the quality of meat. And that he wanted to raise Berkshires when he first started out- only there was no market for them and ended up raising ‘pink pigs’ as that was, what was wanted.

I have to admit, he has been running this place for a number of years. So his story of raising ‘pink pigs’- fast growing, high production meat is common throughout the 1980’s and 90’s. As a result a lot of ‘heritage breeds’ such as the Berkshire, that do not do well in these more intensive conditions became less common, to the point where they have been listed as 'rare' on the Rare Breeds registers www.rbta.org/pigs.htm https://www.rbst.org.uk  

Now don’t get me wrong, this guy is commercial, but by no means cruel- there are pigs reared in far worse conditions out there.  His are clean, healthy and have space and company... more than many, but I’m not here to lecture on that- least not today, just can’t help but get distracted on the subject.

So Friday evening the boys returned with a pig each and (unexpectedly) a deer each. The deer belong to the owner of the piggery. I wouldn’t say they are reared, or farmed, but they are there. They have had a deer from him in the past, but these were ‘freebies’ as they were providing a service. They had escaped and were causing damage (and hostility) for the neighbour. So these exceptionally well fed deer (courtesy of the neighbour paddock and house yard) made an much appreciated addition.

Now Matt’s friend is not a believer in eating offal. In his opinion (which he has voiced to me numerous times) why eat it when there are perfectly good meat on a beast. I on the other hand believe if you are to take a life, then you do the animal justice and use as much as possible. Unfortunately for me, I don’t actually like all offal, liver in particular. Now it has nothing to do with what it is, as it was always a favourite of my grandparents. And I love the smell; it smells delicious! I don’t know if it brings back fond memories, but I salivate whenever I cook it for Matt… I just wish I liked the taste!

But his loss Is our gain! So Matt spent yesterday making batches of pate (something I will eat). So he used both the pigs livers and the venison livers- this will be a first for either of us. So am looking forward to reporting on the tasting.

And then last night, after leaving them hang, they processed the cuts. It took about 4 hours for all 4 beasts.  So tonight I go back with him to bag and tag… Then stock up the freezer.

D day for our 1st hatchlings

**Some of the images toward the end maybe disturbing to some, so use your discretion**

Sunday was D-day for the roosters and ducks (drakes). Having advertised them for sale and successfully selling one pure Sussex rooster and 1 drake and one hen from the ducks, it was time to deal with our excess birds. Now this is never a pleasant process, but I do stand by our decision to raise our own food. This, as meat-eaters includes our poultry. As a matter of hatching and raising chicks for layers, we accumulate roosters.  We also (as we keep and raise ducks) have an ongoing source of ducks. However this does mean we have to deal with the excess livestock to fulfil their purpose and fill our freezer.

These however were our first batch of poultry, hatched and raised here.  The 3 roosters were now 20 weeks old and the now 10 week old ducks (males at least) were growing rapidly, as was their appetite.  So whilst we have reared and culled our own chooks in the past, these were the first we had hatched and our first ducks full stop.

As with our previous birds, we set up our temporary station, cleaned and set up the table, knives, poultry scissors and bucket of water.

Our station consists of a stand and 2 cones. I have seen/read a number of ‘effective’ and ‘humane’ methods of killing poultry. But a number include the use of a ‘cone’ shaped item and either cutting the throat or in some cases the head off and bleeding the bird. The cone helps minimise the movement and (hopefully) stress.  We do try to keep the kill as clean as possible, as we do not want to put the birds through any more than we have too. And stress itself affects the meat, which in turn defies the point in doing this.
We had in the past, attempted a technique from a Butchery book that involved piercing the brain/nervous system through the beak, before bleeding. It is supposed to be instant, however we were unconvinced. As it was awkward and if you were to do it incorrectly, then surely you were putting the bird through more pain/stress. So we have since opted for the more direct approach.

I guess regardless of how it is done this is the part of the process I struggle with the most. Once they are dead I can process the bird; skin and gut, I guess as it becomes a matter of wanting to respect the life you’ve taken and not wanting  to waste it. I know many would view my stuggle to be over sensitiveity, and other would question why do it then? And more so why document it? But I guess I will always struggle with my meat eating philosophy and my animal loving instincts... I hope I never change. As I don't hink (or hope) I will never be complacement about taking a life. And will therefore want to respect and make the most of any meat, all meat, but especially those we rear.

Some may also question our method of feathering. As I have documented in the past that we choose to skin our birds, for time and health reasons. It's more time efficient and whilst many argue that the skin is the tasty part, I remove it whilst or after cooking anyway. So might as well save ourselves the extra work.

I will admit skinnin the ducks was far more work than the chickens. As without going into too much detail, the skin was alot tighter to the meat and I needed to gentally coax it way with the knive, also the layer of fat under the skin was initially baffling. But persistance was key.

Result a stocked freezer-3 chickens weighing 1.3kg, 1.6kg and 1.9kg and 6 ducks, the smallest being 1.1kg, all the others being 1.4-1.6kg, some duck livers for making pate. And some very well fed dogs for some day to come.

The smallest bird was the larger of the younger birds we were raising.  We still have another, which was much smaller, 2 that are still in that awkward yellow fuzzy stage- one I believe is a boy, the other could be a girl as ‘she’ is smaller. However this could purely be down to her lameness and ability to complete for food. We also kept the only other hen (other than the one we sold). Matt decided as they were our first ducklings he wanted to keep one and as she was the only girl it wouldn’t be as if we were increasing our resident numbers too much. His reasoning being the females are drastically small and he was worried she wouldn’t be carrying a lot of meat. To be honest I would have to agree, as she would have been smaller than the youngest male. So a reprieve for her at least.

Sunday has been a poultry day all round.

First thing we culled and skinned the last of our “Meatbirds”. These were a replacement batch from the hatchery of specifically developed “Ross cobs” (originally a Scottish breed- though these were a New Zealand version). These birds are commercially used for “meat birds”. And whilst they fulfil their purpose (and currently stock our freezer, along with the one roasting in the oven). I have some issue with their lack of chook instincts. At 12 weeks of age these birds were probably older than any we have raised (of this breed) for the table in the past. Mostly as this time around we regularly removed the food and tried to encourage them to scratch and graze- normal chook behaviours.
As commercial poultry these birds would have access to food day and night and be kept in a lit shed, meaning they wopould quite contently sit and feed constantly. Ans as a result are ready for the supermarket shelves in 40 days- ½ the time of ours.
Although I have to be honest, whilst I am always sad to see an animal go. And I know that is what they were bred and raised for- something I reconsile myself with as I know that their life (however short) was probably better for being here. If we had of kept these monsters they would not have been long for this world and it would have been cruel- as their quality of life was dwindling and would probably have died due to the stress on their bodies from their size alone.

But these final birds does mark the beginning of our own “meat birds” (think I prefer the term “table birds”)- A cross between game and dual purpose layers. Hopefully these will be able to free range happily and hopefully be more chook-like.

Today also saw the arrival, and passing of some ducklings. The ill fated batch from the borrowed incubator. As a result this will be returning to its owners by the end of the week.
At present we have one running around contently in the brooder box with the Rhodie red crosses and the 2 w/o duckling with the bad leg. We are waiting on 3, that have pipped and unfortunately the first to pip, struggled to break free. And even with assistance it had begun to dry out, inside the egg and much of it was stuck to the egg or itself. It just didn’t have to strength to survive. So from 20, so far only 5 have had any signs of life. Maybe the settings of the incubator in those early stages were just too high and had already done the damage.

And then this weekend was the annual Sarina Show, so having dropped Rockie and Ronnie off for their Show debuts bright and early yesterday morning.

Rockie- Light Sussex

Ronnie- Indian Game

We collected them lunch time today. Both had placed (3^rd & 2^nd) in their respective classes. Even if I did (unintentionally) enter them both as “cocks”- so they were competing against fully fledged roosters (nothing else). As opposed to the “cockerels” that they should have been, which are birds under 12 months. The confusion lay as I understood cockerels to be a young male, as “pullets” are young females. Only once a female is laying (usually 18-22 weeks), I thought they were then “layers“ or “hens“. And by association young males become “cocks” or roosters once they are crowing and working.

But apparently not, guess as the saying goes "you learn something new everyday". So considering they were being compared to fully grown birds, they did very well. But I have to admit this is an experience neither of us are too keen to repeat. Whilst I entered them as a bit of fun, fun was the last thing it seemed for our birds. It was stressful, and clearly something they were neither used to, or comfortable with- confinement. That is without the stress caused by catching them (and to me and the scratches I sustained as a result), as well as transporting them there and back. Whilst this seems a regular thing for many of those locally who keep birds (as well as all around Oz and at home). I guess it just wasn’t for us, I’m happier watching our birds roam, and being birds.