"Whole Animal" Pig Processing Workshop with Tamara Wilder in Petaluma. Many people who eat meat feel that they are out of touch with the sources and processes behind the food that ends up on their plate. The knowledge required to efficiently and humanely transform an animal into food is an essential tool for self sufficiency, and the entire process can be easily and cleanly accomplished with just a few basic tools.

Pigs are considered to be one of the most "edible" of animals, meaning that every part can become a delicious dish. Being omnivorous "garbage disposals" that consume garden, orchard and dairy surplus and transform it into delicious meat & fat, pigs have long provided a staple of food and fat for homesteading and landbased families all around the world Pork is particularly desirable as a meat because it is very good fresh, but is also exceptionally tasty when cured and smoked into bacon and ham. The fat that they produce provides an essential staple for baking and cooking when rendered into lard. As a group, we will slaughter and process a domestic pig. Parts of this process will be demonstrated but the majority of this workshop is very hands-on, meaning that all participants will be "doing" most of the time.

Processes include: Extracting the innards (heart, lungs, liver, spleen, blood, fat, etc...) and preparing them for a delicious potluck dinner, Processing the other miscellaneous parts (tongue, ears, head, skin for pork rinds, stomach for menudo, intestines for sausages, bones for bone broth, fat for lard), Breaking down the carcass into a variety of usable cuts Salting & smoking bacon Grinding meat & fat and stuffing them into intestine casings

http://www.paleotechnics.com/scheduledclassespage.html