It’s been a crazy busy couple of weeks on the homestead. We’ve had a birthday, both families in town for a visit, lots of outdoor fun taking kayaking and fishing trips, and of course lots of work in the garden and with the animals. We have eagerly planted all of our Spring and Summer veggies. We may have jumped the gun on Summer crops, but I have a feeling we will have tons of food like last year and a wider variety.

Since we had a visit from a couple of very helpful family members it was decided it was time to harvest a duck. We processed two. For our first duck processing day I think we did a great job. It was about two hours to do both.

We enjoyed one with a taco dinner. The duck was quartered and seared crispy then braised and it was delicious! We will probably sear off the breasts of the other and enjoy those with crispy skin. The last duck we got from the farmer’s market we rendered down all of the fat and it supplied us in duck fat for nearly a year. We have the tiniest amount left and I can’t wait to have my stores replenished. We love using duck fat in the kitchen; it’s good with everything!

Now we are wondering what are we going to do with these pigs? They are seven months old this week. Happy Birthday dear girls! Last week we did a preliminary weigh in using string to measure them and a simple equation we found online. We were surprised to discover they are weighing in at about 200 and 220 pounds.

After a lot of discussion over how to process these girls, we have decided to do it at home with the help of an experienced friend. We debated frequently over sending them off to a local processor, but we think the cost involved with that is not worth it. The point for us of raising the pigs was to humanely and frugally get our own food from our own backyard. We have heard a lot of opinions on the cost of sending them off for processing and it seems that would really take away from our original goal.

We are planning on having a friend who is an avid hunter and homesteader, and who has processed many many hogs on his own, to come and help us in about two weeks time. They have grown so much since we first brought them home nearly six months ago. No doubt this will be a difficult task. It will be a sad day to lose these sweet girls, but we look at it as one hard day after a happy life.

Happy homesteading!