A half a hog - locally sourced meat

I know, not in line with meatless Monday, but something I’m feeling pretty good about none-the-less. We have been buying a large portion of the meat we do eat from a local buyers club through Abundant Life Farms (check out their awsome story on their site). About a year after buying from farmer Scott and his family who run the farm we took our daughter and several friends who also buy to the farm to meet him (see pic to the left and below). We took lots of time to talk with him about his animal practices and we felt really good about the choice we were making to pay more for the product. This was the one of the first times in my life I realized I would happily eat less and pay more for such a pure product.

After two years of buying a few items within our budget every two weeks we have taken the plunge and filled our freezer with half a hog. We are more of a pork family than beef and frankly the prospect of trying to get a freezer big enough to hold even ¼ of a cow just sounded insane (though I would now consider sharing with someone). So we went with ½ a hog and sharing some with friends. I’m excited. My daughter says she can’t wait to have more zucchini and nut feed bacon (because when we went to the farm they were eating zucchini and farmer Scott explained they forage for acorns in the woods too). If you ever get a chance or can manage a freezer to do it I highly recommend you consider finding a friend to try this with. I’m really looking forward to truly experiencing all the pieces of an animal and not just buying the same pieces over and over from the store. Oh, and last nights pork chops on the grill were so sweet!