Comments on: In It For The Money: Whole Hog

By: Joel Goldberg

Joel Goldberg — Mon, 23 Sep 2013 14:08:38 +0000

Great story, David. We’ve been members of Old Pine Farm’s CSA for several years; our greatest initial surprise was the meat’s outstanding flavor compared to what we’d been buying elsewhere. (I actually gave up grinding our own beef because it couldn’t compete with Old Pine’s.) Although we’ve also observed that local grass-fed beef and outdoor-raised chicken can sometimes be less tender — due to less fat — than their industrially-raised cousins.

By: Dan Freidus

Dan Freidus — Mon, 23 Sep 2013 13:28:09 +0000

Nice article but you omit most of the processors closest to Ann Arbor (e.g. Dunbar in Milan and Boyer in Canton). Also if you only got 50% of live meat back as wrapped meat, was that because it was a Heritage breed hog? Most breeds being raised now would have yielded closer over 60%. If someone is ever paying anything based on “hanging weight” it’s important to clarify what that includes. It may or may not include head, skin, and feet. Finally, one nice way to buy a meat animal is the Washtenaw 4H Youth Fair held every summer.

By: Timothy Durham

Timothy Durham — Sun, 22 Sep 2013 13:14:02 +0000

Thanks for writing/publishing this. Very informative…

By: Jim Carty

Jim Carty — Sat, 21 Sep 2013 19:56:53 +0000

Great story.

By: Dave Askins

Dave Askins — Sat, 21 Sep 2013 17:16:50 +0000

Here's a bit of Instagram video from eby above: [video]

By: Mary Morgan

Mary Morgan — Sat, 21 Sep 2013 15:48:50 +0000

I was unfamiliar with the Ark of Taste. Here's more info on that: [link]

By: Julie

Julie — Sat, 21 Sep 2013 15:31:05 +0000

This was a great article, Erik. I learned some stuff, and it was also a very gentle and humorous way of putting some hard-to-stomach truth out there. Thank you.

By: Eby

Eby — Sat, 21 Sep 2013 15:02:46 +0000

Should also mention, like many areas of agriculture there are those trying to bring back heirloom (heritage breeds) varieties, but also many working on keeping endangered varieties alive. They will cost you more as these pigs often even have “papers” certifying their heritage but if you care about such things there are multiple growers in michigan doing Mulefoot, Red Wattle, etc. Not all are easy to find, some are listed in breeder directories or the Slow Food Ark of Taste

By: Eby

Eby — Sat, 21 Sep 2013 14:41:24 +0000

I’d expect more in the $3-4 / lb hanging with heritage breeds these days with food prices going up. We do GMO-free feed for our pigs though, which bumps it up, but in our area (Traverse/Leelanau) I see most people charging $3+

But thanks for the write up. Chest freezers + buying sections of the animal is much better overall. There is a disconnect between what cuts you get out of an animal and what you tend to eat when shopping a super market. There was a paper that looked at grocery store shopping habits and found it takes many animals to feed someone the equivalent of what one animal could because people tend to choose the best cuts for things. There are limited number of tenderloins. Unfortunately causes a lot of waste and side waste streams. Christien Meindertsma has a book called PIG 05049 with 196 pages of products where pigs end up.

By: Vivienne Armentrout

Vivienne Armentrout — Sat, 21 Sep 2013 01:11:54 +0000

There are meat CSAs now.

But we bought a freezer when we decided to buy a half hog from Ernst. It is now full of quart jars of tomato puree, etc. Local food preparation is much easier with a freezer.