Clay Neubauer
TVWBB Pro
A few days ago Fareway (local grocery chain that has a superb meat counter) had 'half-a-hog bundles' on special. That sounded like something I should own, so I came home with one. 78 pounds of meat for $171, including bacon, sausage, ham, steaks, roasts, Boston butt, chops, and loin. Very good meat- they cut it while I went down the street to have a beer and kill some time, nothing prepackaged or filled with additives.
Had to quality test some of it, of course. These Iowa chops never made it to the freezer, but somehow all I managed to grab was a quick cell phone pic on the Performer. No plated pic- my bad.
Here's a ham steak in action.
Half of it, plated with peach chutney, a few smashed taters, and some of last summer's sweet corn. I am going to refuse to buy any more winter seasonal sampler beers from Blue Moon after this one is gone.
Part of my reason for this post:
That's a lean hog futures chart. For those of you who are fairly remote from production agriculture, there is a virus called PED that has been really hard on the pork industry this winter. The Cliff's Notes version is, it causes diarrhea which is deadly to very young pigs and while steps are being taken to get it under control, it has made a sizable dent in the baby pig crop which is leading to drastically higher prices. So far, the effects have been mitigated partially by cheap corn which makes it affordable to feed hogs to higher weights before slaughter. However, the results of this will probably be trickling down to your local grocery soon. If you can pick up some reasonably priced pork and have the ability to store it for the summer grilling season, I think you will find doing so to be a good investment.
Had to quality test some of it, of course. These Iowa chops never made it to the freezer, but somehow all I managed to grab was a quick cell phone pic on the Performer. No plated pic- my bad.
Here's a ham steak in action.
Half of it, plated with peach chutney, a few smashed taters, and some of last summer's sweet corn. I am going to refuse to buy any more winter seasonal sampler beers from Blue Moon after this one is gone.
Part of my reason for this post:
That's a lean hog futures chart. For those of you who are fairly remote from production agriculture, there is a virus called PED that has been really hard on the pork industry this winter. The Cliff's Notes version is, it causes diarrhea which is deadly to very young pigs and while steps are being taken to get it under control, it has made a sizable dent in the baby pig crop which is leading to drastically higher prices. So far, the effects have been mitigated partially by cheap corn which makes it affordable to feed hogs to higher weights before slaughter. However, the results of this will probably be trickling down to your local grocery soon. If you can pick up some reasonably priced pork and have the ability to store it for the summer grilling season, I think you will find doing so to be a good investment.
