New to buying farm-fresh meat?
When you buy a whole or half pig, you are getting a lot of meat at once! Meat comes wrapped in butcher paper, and frozen. You’ll need quite a bit of room in the freezer. A whole pig is a little more than 4 cubic feet (a milk crate is one cubic foot, for reference). A chest freezer is best to store your pork, without automatic defrost. Auto-defrost can dry out your meat, and cause freezer burn, so turn that feature off.
Generally, fresh cuts of pork, like roasts, chops and tenderloin, can be kept well-wrapped in the freezer for up to 6 months. Well-wrapped ground pork can be kept for about 3 months in the freezer. Vacuum sealing is available at an extra charge (about $50 per whole pig), which will help preserve the meat for a longer period of time.
Please check the main Order Info page for current pricing.
Meat doesn’t come packed like at the grocery store
Meat is wrapped in butcher paper or clear packaging, or vacuum sealed (extra charge) if you prefer. There might also be some variation in the meat in each package (eg. You might get really big pork chops in one package, and regular-sized chops in another due to the size of the animal and natural variations in that part of the animal. There might be an oddly shaped chop from the end). Farm-Fresh meat isn't cookie-cutter. These natural variations are completely normal, because your meat is coming from different sized animal every time.
Farm-Fresh heritage pork and beef tastes different
Fresh hams are different than the ones pre-packaged in the grocery store. The bacon might not be as salty as you are used to, and heritage breed, pasture-raised animals have better marbling, and are a deeper colour than commercially raised breeds. It’s just better meat, and it tastes better as a result!
You won’t know the final price until the meat is ready for pick-up
The final price depends on the weight of the animal (hanging weight - does not include head, skin, feet, neck, jowl, etc), packaging options, if delivery is needed, etc. Because there are natural variations in the size of each animal, and if you choose special packaging options, you won’t have an exact dollar amount until your animal has been butchered. As a rough estimate, the typical hanging weight of a whole pig is 180lbs. Check with us for current price per pound.
There's more than in the store
Commercial cuts are available, but you can always request custom butchering. Want thick pork chops? No problem. Like to keep the lard for cooking and baking? Great Idea. In love with liver? This will be the freshest you can buy! You can keep everything from snout to tail.