Butcher Schools Us on Breaking Down a HOG

We got a big day today. Got a workshop coming. Zane, I didn't scare you off yesterday? No sir. All right, he's back for more, earlier this time. I read a good quote last night in Jordan Peterson's 12 Rules for Life. Is there something you could do today that you would do that would make your life a little better? Kind of like the 1% rule, just do a little bit. That for me was cleaning up the porch and putting in my heart to keep it that way. We have a little problem here. We are in a swamp. I'm hoping we don't dig in right there and then spin out right here. But it wouldn't be homesteading without problems, would it? Digging in there. We're gonna have to go get the tractor. It would happen like that. The butcher's here. It looks like everybody is here. We have a good turnout. James and Jeanette Christensen, we're from Picken, South Carolina.

We're Jason and Abby Knowles, Desmond, Etta, and Bryden.

We're from over kind of southwest of Raleigh. We're growing peppers and tomatoes, cucumbers, peas, cows, chickens, ducks, goose, rabbits.

Hi, I'm Mandy. I am I am from Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, and I'm growing chickens, lots of tomatoes, and lots of weeds.

Who's further than Wisconsin? She wins, okay.

I'm Bree, and this is Gage and Jack, and we just moved to Marshall not too long ago. We have 30 chickens living on our porch, and we're building the Chickshaw. I'm Heather. We have a 30-acre farm in Pendleton, South Carolina, but we don't live there, but we have 10 cows there.

Doug and Betsy Painter. Seneca, South Carolina. We have— Are y'all neighbors? We could be.

We have a house on King Hill.

Close by. Tomatoes, peppers, okra, beans, and trying to clear 36 acres to grow them.

I'm David Jones. This is my wife, Jenny. I'm the butcher at the event. I'm the head butcher at the Biltmore Estate. And this is my wife. She's a health coach. We live in West Asheville.

And we're growing tomatoes and squash and cucumbers and—

and a baby. And a baby. Nice. Congratulations. Congratulations. You're going to break this down for us.

Yes.

And talk about the different ways you can cook the different things. Yeah.

We were on your farm tour a few weeks ago, and I overheard someone say, I don't— I wouldn't know what to do with all these cuts. So I thought, well, Let's get to the bottom of it. So let's cut it. Let's figure out how you cook it. All the different cuts that you probably won't get, but that can be pulled. And, uh, yeah, just have a piggy morning. There are really like 4 big sections on a pig. Those are called the primals. That's what you call primals. And under that you have the subprimals, which will be the various other cuts that come out. So the big primals are the shoulder. We have the loin back here where our pork chops come from, the belly, and then the leg. So those are the big primals. So I'm going to count 5 ribs up. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Let's make a little cut. Because I'm going to cut at this point, uh, 5 and 6, I won't have to cut through a scapula. So I'm going to cut through right through the sternum, which is very similar to ours. And there's our shoulder.

We just wrapped up the lesson. How do you think it went? Dang good. It was good. A lot of information. How was it? There's a lot of information. It was really good. Yeah, I'm gonna have to go watch it again. I know, right? Get all the details. I told these people, don't worry about taking too many notes, it's gonna be on Abundance Plus. We're giving away some of the cuts, all of the cuts.

Yeah, buddy, you're ready to stock up.

Yep, my bad. How was it, guys?

Great.

You must have really liked it. She's got a handful of meat. Okay, you kind of liked it. You liked it a little more, but you liked it.

I loved it. I'm excited.

Okay, good. What are y'all cooking tonight? Uh, see what we got. Some schnitzel. Never had that. So we learned the German schnitzel. We're done with the training, and now to tear up the dock. Wow, okay, the construction worker lives 3 miles away in my childhood home nonetheless and has just gotten a family cow and isn't milking it. The calf's only 2 weeks old. And I'm gonna see if I can't just— I can tell him how to do it, but I think it would be better if I just show it. Let's go do this. There she is. Now it's going to be a trick getting her separated from all those Angus beef cows. She's right there. The trick is going to be getting her separated. I'm imagining these guys are going to be much less handled than her. We're going to just try to box her in where she's at. She's laying down. If she's as calm as I think she is, she'll stay laying down and these guys will clear out. Of course, she might want to follow them. And only one of them's in milk? They're both in milk. Look at you, man. Let's try to keep them, uh, resting and laying down, and we'll just kind of quietly put up a net around them. She got a collar on her? No. You get her going on the alfalfa, and then we're gonna put this rope halter on her, and then you tie her to a tree. And then you can just milk her next to the tree. And when she's done and she tries to walk off, she doesn't walk 50 feet off. Has she been milked before ever? No, or at least I don't think so. Okay, she's gonna be a good one. She's gonna be a good one. Let a complete stranger go out and milk her in the field like this. Yeah, you got good teats on this thing. She's giving lots of milk despite having a calf on her. I noticed she doesn't— she don't really like me at the head, so I'm gonna go there. Okay, she's gonna— she's gonna really hurt you if she kicks you with me right here. So that's why I went behind and I'm right here on it. Okay, because then all she's doing is that, and she'll eat 5, 6, 10— got 10 pounds of this alfalfa. You're milking! How long do you think it'd take the milk curd to empty? Do 5 squeezes on a teat without getting anything and you're done with that teat. Okay, how do you feel, Seth? Awesome. Okay, we have one approach, don't we? Yeah, the good news is she's very milkable. The bad news is it's gonna be tricky to get her from the other herd. Yeah, but you can do it. We're back home. How you doing? You got your— you got your leg hung up there? Come here. There you go. How's that? How's that? Well, Mom, we helped somebody milk their first cow today. I know, it's exciting. That was exciting. It couldn't have gone any better. Oh, you can get down here. Come on, I'll get you. He wants his mama. Food from the farm, every single bit of it. Everybody eat their green beans? Yeah, Grandma's got some green beans left. Let's see that plate.

I do, but I ate all the carrots.

Roast beef, potatoes, and green beans.

Carrots.

So rate the food, Zane. How's it been? It's good. It's been terrific. Good.