Butcher Classes

Hogs and Butcher Classes

This is really exciting news.  One of the best ways to get quality food into your freezer is to  find ways to allow you to do some of the value added work. Many of you already buy whole chickens and break them down (legs and thighs, breasts, wings)  yourself- a little extra work but the savings are well worth the added effort.
The questions was: How could we do this with pork?
Light-bulb moment here. What if we could get the hog slaughtered and delivered to a convenient place where to you to cut it up? Perfect right?  Except not everyone knows how to butcher a pig. So what if we were to sell a class, along with the pig?

And that is what brings us to this moment today.  Taryn went off to butcher school, (Imagine what we packed in her knapsack: cleaver? Check. Boning knife? Check! Sense of adventure? Double check!!) we started compiling gear, and we all started practicing. Earlier this week we held our first class in downtown Bend. And. . .

It worked! The process looks like this:

• We sell you a live pig, or share of pig (a half or a quarter).
• We arrange for the slaughter and chill.
• As part of that pig/share you will receive basic butchery instructions.
• You will process you own animal at a central location with our tools and guidance.
• Each cut will be wrapped and labeled.
• You will pack your pork home to your freezer that night.

This process went well. We took over a coffee shop at 5pm one night…brought in stainless steel tables, knives, paper, saws and a couple of halves and went to work. The class took a bit over 3 hours and everyone went home happy! Taryn is a fantastic instructor: calm, understanding, encouraging, and knowledgeable. And the class is a lot of fun too! Anita and I joke around that this is the perfect ‘date night’ for foodies.

The pricing: $3.75/lb for the half the hog, and $100/per half for the instruction and wrapping .