It's nice to know that you took such good care of your piggy and now he (she?) will take care of you for a couple of years. Those freezers look beautiful!
Crikey! I am AMAZED you didnt have to go buy another freezer!!! Take your time getting over your surgery Rachel - you can be healing really well but your stamina takes a hit doesnt it? you feel fine and then all of a sudden feel absolutely exhausted. We know you are there and we can rewatch older videos and of course Todds videos to keep your numbers - cos we love you both :) xxx
I had beef processed at Jerome's this year. They do a great job at such a reasonable price and they are such nice folks. And it is such a beautiful drive. Your freezers are PACKED full, you are truly blessed!
My husband prefers a freezer to be full. He says the freezer works better full and it doesn’t have to work as hard to freeze and keep things frozen. If we have a freezer that is too empty we put jugs of water in it to fill the empty space just for the purpose of it not having work hard to freeze the empty space.
Great haul! My only suggestion is to take all products out of bags - replace with plastic freezer baskets from the dollar store. Bags or boxes don’t allow equal air flow and you’ll have frost issues eventually
Your pantry is absolutely amazing. Being able to go downstairs and pick ingredients to make a meal must be a true blessing. All that hard work pays off.
We have bacon cooked with garlic over spaghetti at least once a week was always a family favorite. I usually cooked it on a Monday night a 30 minute meal with a salad. Love you guys!
We started parting out our chickens when we processed them so that we could get them in the freezer. Can't wait for your "What's for dinner?" videos. They are the best.
What's for dinner is ALWAYS inspirational. While it's hard to put the videos together sometimes, just know it always gives us ideas about what to do with the things that we grow. THANK YOU! It is most certainly appreciated in our household.
Wowowow! So glad the whole pig situation ended up being ok! I was so crushed for you after the last video, so this was a lovely surprise! Thanks as always!
Wow guys!. I never would have thought that piggy was so meaty!!!!. Kind of weird luck that you only ended up with one. Glad to see you're set for the coming year and I'm looking forward to more what's for dinner and pantry tour. I just reorganized mine. Thanks guys!!!
What a beautiful sight, all that glorious pork meat - good job Tamworth (a town in Staffordshire, England) piggies. Thank goodness you didn’t have to find space for two piggies worth of meat. Hope you’re making good progress Rachel and that Tod’s back is improving too. So looking forward to the pantry tour, you guys cannot have worked any harder this year.
You guys are definitely set for a couple of years. Way to go. I’m jealous of your pork!! I love your “what’s for dinner”. I get so many great ideas from you. What in the world will you do with yourselves next year. I admire you taking a sabbath. I’m not sure I can do it. Lol. I’ll enjoy watching your experience.
A lot of projects planned, plus more cabin trips and maybe we'll even take you guys out on our boat again to do some fishing. There's so much more to a homestead than just a garden ♥
Yes! Get a deli slicer!! I use mine all the time for bread, cheese, ham, roast pork loin, and roast beef. It’s so handy. I got a cheaper one from Amazon about 8 years ago and have not regretted it.
I’m so happy for you to get all that amazing looking pork! I don’t know what I would have guessed, I’m not familiar with the difference between the on-the-hoof weight and hanging weight. It’s hard to believe that much pork could have come from one pig, amazing!
I bought a Cuisinart Meat Slicer just for making my own lunch meats and WOW what a game changer. Subs are definitely on the menu more often.. The savings alone is wonderful not to mention my choice of fresh farm meats. $100 for the slicer, I've done steaks, pork tenderloin cuts and I really don't know WHY I waited so long to purchase one. Raised 4 of my own children [single parent] and have been raising 3 grandsons for nearly 13 years I could have used the slicer as a helping hand many many times. Great for jerky slicing too. Easy cleanup as well. It's not huge which doesn't take up much space yet it does a big job.
So looking forward to your pantry tour! My pantry is full, no more shelf space and I only have 5 quart jars left empty. So I can use that for dehydrated stuff too. Think I need another set of shelves next year. And another dehydrator.🎉 well done!
Wow!!! Absolutely brilliant!!!!! There is such joy in stacking freezers and such peace in food security ♡ LOVED this video. ❤️ I am close to fully carnivore so I run my body on fat, it fuels my energy 100% so a fatty pig is perfect for me. But I love either. Well done Mike and Chelsea too!!! Woah!!!!!! My guess was 188lbs!!!!!! That is amazing!!!! 🥰
We have two chest freezers and one upright. Raise our own chicken lamb and beef. I’m nervous about canning meat so freezing it is. Buy our pork and Turkey from farm neighbours. My husband wanted to process another cow but I asked him to check our freezers first, take an inventory and be good stewards first. Looking forward to the inspiration from what’s for dinner.
What an absolute blessing for you to have the ability to do this!! You are such an inspiration to me and my family. We love watch you. God bless you both.
219 lb. WOW that's a lot of meat. Todd your going to need to build a walk in freezer or buy another freezer. That's a great idea about getting a slicer. We have one and we slice our own lunch meats from beef, ham, turkey and we will by whole salami, copa, pepperoni. That pork looks amazing and the bacon does have lot's of meat on it. We are looking forward to what's for dinner. Thanks for sharing. God Bless.
Thank you so much for sharing! We are having the same problem so much meat and such limited space! Congratulations on such a successful season raising him! Looking forward to seeing all the yummy things you make with it!
I think I tend to can and hoard my canned stuff :P Hubby was just complaining how he doesn't have room to stack his winter wood anymore; my canned goods are taking up wayyyy too much room!!! haha! He put in a giant tool cabinet he picked up somewhere and I got everything off the floors, sills and even some off his piled wood. :) A good problem to have although I would complain if I'm cold this winter with no fires getting built..
He looked like he was about 400+ lbs lol but I could be wrong! We are really thinking of doing this :) Thanks for all you do and share with us! Bless you both!
I get bacon from a local farmer, it's a full pound, not the smaller package at the store. It's very lean, and tastes great. I also get chops, roasts and ribs, chicken and eggs. So mmm e beef as well. I am blessed, I don't have a homestead, but I do what I can.
Oh heavens, if you had TWO pigs to put in the freezers, you would need more freezers!!!! :) :) Now I want to raise/harvest a pig! Fresh and cut to order, that sounds terrific!!
Y'all should have wi fi freezer alarms if there is such a thing. I know there's regular freezer alarms. But with all that meat I think I'd have a few freezer alarms. Yes indeed y'all are both blessed. I have three pounds ground in fridge I am turning into Italian sausage to can probably. Three pints pork chunks and two pints leftover chili in my small batch canner right now.
We always get a half a beef every year, and I agree I wish the butchers would date the packages. At least the year would be nice. The packages all look the same and we rotate it oldest on the bottom but those round rolls mix in easy. LOL
We butcher our 1st kunekune this year he was a little over a year old he weight 190 but we got so much meat from him we gave it all to family we don't eat pork lol but we rasie kunekune pigs....❤️ your big gave you alot of meat thanks for sharing with us ❤️
Rachel carbonara is one of my favourite pasta !! I asked my butcher this year to have the ends of bacon they can’t slice no more I will cube them and use them for carbonara !! So good
This shows the economy of a home grown pig, yes you have the cost of feed, and processing, but it looks like you can eat for a season or two, great deal.
I am still playing catch up with your videos, but I wanted to play along. My guess on the hanging weight is 225 lbs. I think your last pigs were around 180, and this guy looked longer and chunkier. Also, your meat haul looks like a lot, so that's my guess. 225. Thanks for letting me play along :)
Irish Hills! Jerome! That's just under an hour from where I lived...in Coldwater! I-69 goes right though it. So you were in my old stomping grounds. Two of my kids, my in-laws, and a whole passel of my friends live there. Beautiful country side, but it's lower in elevation so it gets bitter, bitter cold in the dead of winter. In 2015, we maxed our school snow days due to sub-zero temperatures for several days.
My guess is 335lbs. I know nothing about pig size nor am I sure of what hanging weight means but I'm thinking it's like the Wicked Tuna show with head & tail cut off. Looks like you are recovering well, Rachel, just be sure not to overdo it while you are healing. Todd is able to make up the video slack, like he did such a good job making you a station for dry jar filling. Many Blessings to you both from Deborah in West Virginia!
The only issue when doing this kind of storage is the need for power backup, in case of a blackout, given the amount you have invested in your freezers, and refrigerators.
We just got our first hog and we were shocked at the amount of meat!!! 😅 We are used to getting a half a cow. But this was our first time getting a whole hog. I had to work some fast magic to get it all to fit and pulled so much to can LOL and we still haven't gotten our hands and bacon yet because I had them cured! 😅 So I still have to make more room somehow!!
