Reserve Your 2025 Pork Share

FOREST/PASTURE RAISED PIGS

Last month we brought 8 piglets onto the farm that will be raised in our forest and processed this fall. It’s been incredible to see how much they’ve cleaned up each area we’ve rotated them through so far. Our goal is to turn some of our flat forest area into silvopasture and we are using the pigs to help. Silvopasture is created by widely spaced trees that provide shade for livestock while allowing sunlight in to encourage grass growth beneath. Did you know that putting livestock on new ground can actually disturb dormant seedbeds and prompt new growth without having to plant grass seed? Check out this video to see what our end goal is!

Why Forest/Pasture Raised Pigs?

Like our mentor Joel Salatin, we believe in “honoring the pigness of the pig.” To us, this means raising animals the way we believe God intended and honoring the land in the process. For pigs, this means giving them space to roam around on, forage to eat, and dirt/mug to dig in. By moving them to new areas every week, we are giving them new opportunities and also removing them away from their manure, which in turn produces a healthier and happier pig. We believe pasture raised pork is more nutrient-dense and better tasting than commercially raised pork.

Processing and Pricing

Just as we prioritize ethically and sustainably raising animals, we feel that how an animal leaves this world is just as important. While it is not easy to grapple with the idea of taking an animals life for our own sustenance, we find peace in knowing that we gave them the best life possible and that they only had one bad day during their entire life. We feel strongly that processing day should be as peaceful and least stressful on the animal as possible - and always done on farm when possible. Our pigs will be slaughtered on farm and then brought to Mureta’s Meat Processing in Northfield, VT. This eliminates the need to load them into a trailer and a stressful ride to the processor. The processor custom cuts and packages each whole or half pig based on your selections on the pork cut sheet.

We expect each pig to have a live weight of 250 - 300 pounds. Whole and half pigs are sold by hanging weight, which is the weight of a pig after slaughter and removal of blood, head, hide, hooves and viscera. This is typically around 70% of the pig’s live weight. So a 300 pound pig would have a hanging weight of around 210 pounds. We sell our whole and half pigs for $6.50/lb of hanging weight. This includes processing and smoking/curing fees. This results in a whole pig costing around $1365 and a half pig costing around $682.50.

The finished cut weight will be on average 60-70% of the hanging weight as finished, packaged meat, depending on your cutting selections and how much bone and fat is discarded by the processor. For a 300 lb pig, this would result in approximately 135 lbs of finished pork cuts. A whole pig will take up between 4 and 5 cubic feet of freezer space. We will transport the cuts from the processor back to the farm but your share will need to be picked up that day.

Since this is our first year raising pigs, we started out small but we do have limited shares up for sale! Reach out or click the link below to reserve your half or whole pig which will be ready early November.

**A deposit of $200 for a half or $400 for a whole pig is required with each order. Balance is due upon pick up at the farm.