Bacon's trip to Hog Heaven

This past February, Terri and Bob had the good fortune of catching a cute little baby pig in one of the traps they had set up on the property (the island is overrun with wild pigs- they have no real predators other than humans). They decided to keep her, name her Bacon, and put her to work on the farm. Each day Bacon was fed all the delicious farm scraps from leftover fruits and veggies to the errant chicken that one of the dogs took care of. In turn Bacon has provided the farm not only with a signature wafting smell (particularly nasty when you're working in the nursery :), but more importantly with a rich compost to fertilize the gardens and orchard with.

When I first arrived on the farm I learned from Terri and Bob that Bacon's days were numbered, and she would be butchered during my stay. With images of farm fresh pork chops, bacon and kailua pork running through my brain I began to heavily anticipate the big day. With T-2 days to go Bacon was fed her final meal so she could as much as possible out of her system.

Although Bob and Terri have previously butchered a number of different animals on the farm (including pigs), Irish, Rick and I were excited to take part in the dirty deed. Everyone said their last farewells, paid homage to our future meal and then the butchering began. It was extremely important to all of us that we limited Bacon's suffering as much as possible, so a number of different techniques were discussed.

In the end Rick tied a noose, grabbed her by the hind legs and brought her out of the pen. Irish and Bob preceded to hose her off so she was nice and clean, then string her up in a shady spot under the palmello tree. Bacon seemed to calm down and enjoy the bath, and as Bob whispered to her and petted her she was fairly calm throughout the entire process. Although Rick had planned on slitting the throat, when it came down to it Bob had to takeover and put the pig to death. The short movie clip depicts this portion of the slaughter.

After a time all the blood was let out, the head was completely removed and Bacon was flipped and gutted. Irish and Rick were very careful to remove all the organs without contaminating the rest of the meat. Next Bacon was laid out on the table and Terri went to work removing all of the skin, butchering the meat, bagging it up and placing it on ice. We preceded to leave the pig on ice for at least 24 hours in order to get rid of the rigor mortis.....and then she was ready to eat!

Overall I enjoyed the entire experience from beginning to end, and I think it's something that all meat eaters should take the time for. It's so exciting to know that this pig was fattened up on an all natural, all organic diet free of any hormones and chemicals, and now I have the privilege to eat her! And let's be honest, that's what I was most excited for, the eating!

We've been eating pork nonstop ever since the slaughter and it is no joke, absolutely the best pork I've ever tasted in my life. First night Terri prepared delicious ribs with an amazing Mamey Apple BBQ sauce (which I plan to steal the recipe and make a jar for myself and bring it home with me for the rest of you to taste). To go along with the ribs I prepared a banana cream pie (TJ's grandma Bell's recipe) and it was literally the best pie I have ever produced. I used Bacon's pork fat for a real lard crust and it was flakiest crust I've ever baked (and I even baked the pie on the BBQ!). Plus I used fresh bananas from the farm, fresh goats milk, farm fresh eggs and freshly grown vanilla- words cannot describe these flavors!! The following night we had a tasty french onion soup made from the broth that the ribs were parboiled in, and the third night Bob prepared one of my new favorite dishes: Green Papaya Pork. You really can taste a difference in the flavor of freshness in all of this food- and all I can say is THANK YOU BACON!