On Monday we took three of our hogs to the processor, something I failed to mention on the tours I gave the previous weekend. While everyone likes to know where their food comes from, some folks don’t like knowing that trip is quite so imminent. With Vicente and Miguel both here, loading pigs goes pretty quickly.
Have I mentioned how much I love the pig trailer we built? All we do is back this trailer up to the gate much as you see here. We then drop the trailer by raising the tires on their built-from-junk custom pivot axles, then open the gate to the trailer, open the red gate you see in the picture, and drop a little food into the trailer. The pigs fight each other to get on. Once we have the pigs we want onboard, we close the trailer gate and I hop in and start sorting out who we want off. By this point the food is gone so the pigs are agreeable to get back out. With out selected pigs on board, we lower the tires, which raises the trailer, and we drive back to the barnyard where the stock trailer awaits. We back up gate to gate with the stock trailer, using the hydraulics to make the transition level with the stock trailer. The pigs step across the opening with little to no encouragement and we close them in the stock trailer ready to ride.
It takes about 30 minutes from the time we hook the trailer up to the time we are unhooking the trailer, done. The pig walk onto a level trailer, and walk off of a level trailer with no slipping, slapping, or pushing. It’s SO much better than what we used to do which involved sweating and foul language as the main ingredients.
These pigs are destined for three things.
One, we have a new customer, Neuse River Brewing Company who will be opening shortly in Raleigh. They will be serving our pork snack sticks at their tasting bar (which is awesome btw) so that’s pretty cool. This is the first time any of our products have been available in a restaurant/bar/whatever. Not that we don’t get inquiries but we just cannot produce the volume that most restaurants need. The snack sticks are an exception because we have plenty of pork available and they use the grind/sausage which is easier to come by.
Two, our other wholesale outlet, The Butcher and the Baker in Fayetteville has become woefully short on pork. They actually have a wait list of people waiting on Ninja Cow Farm pork products. Not that I like to keep people waiting, but these are folks that I’ve never met and don’t know. I haven’t had a chance to sell them on why our products are better, show them our operation, meet their kids, etc. They simply bought our product out of a freezer and liked it so much they are willing to wait on ours vs. getting someone else’s pork that is available. When you work so hard on your product, it’s great to get validation that is that clean and free from bias.
Three, our pork sales freezer is looking pretty sad. There is more air than pork in there currently so we are going to restock the freezer so everyone has plenty of selection. We should have all the sausage and bacon and whatnot back in about a week and a half. I’ll post when we get it in. We are getting Italian sausage and breakfast link sausage back in stock with this order, and also restocking on BBQ so if you are getting low, we’ve got you covered. If you want me to put a hold on something when it comes in, just shoot me an email. I do it for people all the time.