The good old days…..

I sure wish we’d get back to the good old days when we could buy pork for $.79 to $.99 per pound. Last year I did, in fact, find the pork butts to make my sausage at $.99/pound but this past year has been a struggle to fish half decent prices on butts and loins. I found butts at $1.49/pound locally and bought 35 pounds to get my summer sausage and sticks done. I’m going to wait until after New Years and maybe see about getting enough to do pork brats and pork breakfast sausage. The breakfast I am putting up in 1-pound chubs. Stuffing those tiny and tender sheep casings sucks and the sausage tastes the same.

I know a few farmers who are under contract with either Hormel or the other big pork producer and none of them say they’re making any more money than from 6 years ago so it must be the middleman getting fat. If I had the immediate freezer space I’d go to one of these guys and buy a whole hog, pull the bellies, ribs and the loins for chops and make sausage from the rest of it.

When I found Butts for $1.29 I picked up 3 whole butts. I would guess it will add up to 45lbs once deboned. This week it will be cold enough for me to start processing. I like it to be cold out so I can set the grinder/stuffer/meat on the deck.

I’d be doing mine now too, but I have too much going on until after Dec 10th or so. I’m going to join a couple others on some super good deer ground for the muzzleloader season and help them fill tags. Normally I prefer to hunt alone, but one of these fellas has some heart issues and since I am generally in better health than he is I’ll do what I can to see to it he has some venison for the winter. I can still take a doe and will use my muzzy tag to fill that and give the critter to my grandson. He started a new job in late fall and has had a bad case of huntus interuptus and is sorely lacking venison to help feed his tribe.

I feel your pain. We too normally buy a bunch this time of the year. About $1.29 is the cheapest I have seen in a while now. The price of even making sausage keeps going up and up. Sheep casing have sky rocketed. Even some of the pre-mix seasonings are adding a buck a pound to the cost of snack sticks. Pretty sure we are not going to make nearly what we have in the past years.