Last Friday evening, Scott and I headed over to Jodar Farms to pick up our pork order.  This is the second year that we have purchased 1/2 a hog from Jodar Farms.

This year we were able to pick up the pork directly from the farm instead of having to drive all the way out to the processor.  This made pick-up a breeze since the farm is much closer and we were able to deal with Aaron Jodar directly.

Now my freezer is stocked with pork and I can’t wait to dig in!  There’s more fat for making lard and we got some other goodies to play around with this year as well.

In addition to all the roasts, chops, and ribs we also received:

• Skin (which we are giving to friends because I currently do not have a way to fry it up to make rinds)
• Jowl
• Trotters (pig’s feet)
• Heart
• Liver

The organs are going to the dogs and Scott gets to deal with that task because I hate organ meat.  But the jowl and trotters? Bring it! I’m especially excited to play around with those as I have never had either of them before.

Luckily I have a pork-centric cookbook that I should be able to put to good use this year.

This year, the half hog purchase yielded us 97 pounds of pork products, not including the goodies already mentioned. There are roasts, country ribs, spare ribs, bone-in chops, ground pork and bacon.

This year’s amount does seem a little less than last year and since we love pork so much, next year I think we might just go whole hog.  We would probably need a second stand-up freezer if we did that though but something to consider.

Now we just need to get some beef and we’ll be set for the year!

Do you participate in any meat shares?