Interview about Sourced Material

Read David Horvitz's interview of Jake Levin about Sourced Material in 127Prince.org:
http://127prince.org/2010/11/26/interview-with-jake-levin-of-sourced-material/

Pig to Pork

This weekend, thanks to Fleisher's, we had a profound experience. We participated in our first slaughter. There is no real way to prepare for such an event. So, we arrived- anxious and excited- on a perfect autumn day, at a gorgeous small family farm. After some coffee and muffins, we walked through an idyllic Hudson Valley pasture to get to the pig and to start the slaughter process.

Leading us through the process were the Smother Bros. of butchery- Joshua Applestone and Tom Schneller. As we stood at the edge of the pasture one couldn't help thinking- "this is how every slaughter should be conducted." The temperature was cool enough so that one didn't have to worry about spoilage, the sun was bathing us in warm light so no one was uncomfortable, and Tom (the one doing the acutall killing) stood there confidently (a twinge of apprehension on his face) talking us through the process, while Josh threw in jokes here and there, easing the tension we all held.

The first two steps were, one- to make sure the cauldron of water was hot enough to scald the hair of the animal but not hot enough to par-boil it. And, two-  to get the pulley and gantry ready- the metal bar from which the pig is lifted off the ground and hung upside down, making the bleeding-out and eviscerating easier and quicker. As the water reached the correct temperature we all walked over, apprehensively, to where the pig lazily lay. Tom walked over to it, .22 in hand, gave it some food, held the rifle to its forehead and pulled the trigger. Knocked out- the pig rolled over, and with precision Tom stuck his 5" blade into the jugular allowing the animal to bleed out as quickly as possible. The animal's unconscious body spasmed for a few minutes and then stopped. Four of us picked up the still warm body of the pig, put it in the pack of ATV and brought it over to the cauldron and tree where it would be scalded, hung and eviscerated.

 For us, that was the most intense moment. The actually killing was not as upsetting as we thought it might be. This was due to Tom's skill and poise as well, as the evidence that surrounded us attesting the wonderful life that this pig had led. But during the journey from the kill spot to the gantry we watched the pig go from being an animal to being a large piece of meat.

Once the pig had been scalded in the 150˚ f water  we all took turn scraping off the hair. Scraped clean, we raised the gantry, a metal bar which is hooked into the tendons in the pigs feet, and Tom eviscerated it. As he slit the underside of the belly steam poured out and the organs easily slipped into the bucket below. We saw evidence of how humade the kill was as the bladder of the pig was full (under stress the pig would have expelled it bowels).

The 300 lbs pig was now about 270 lbs of pork.

For more images go here:

Pig Slaughter