11/25/2025
❤️
Friday, we completed our 2025 Pork Harvest with the processing of our 3yr old sow, Elizabeth. I had dreaded the day since we made the decision. A decision I fully stand behind, as much as I hated it. 😞
As I looked at my girl, firearm in hand, I went back to a place I hadn't visited in a long time- April 17th, 2017. A date engraved into my brain... the last time I allowed someone else to process one of my animals for me. 📅
That day went as poorly as it could have, from start to finish. A young man who looked to still be in his teens, showed up around 8pm with little sunlight left. I'd made the appointment months ago, but he told me he was only informed of it a few hours earlier. I believed him, because I had spent the previous 3 days trying to get ahold of someone to confirm my appointment that they clearly forgot about. 🤦🏻♀️
He had me move my pigs about 20' into the backyard area of my house. My boar was dispatched quickly, but my gilt was not. I felt helpless listening to her screaming as he fumbled for another shot... & then another. I focused on setting up my brightest work lights so the young man could safely skin & gut my two pigs in the dark. 💡
Ironically, I had paid extra to have them dispatched at home so that they'd be less stressed. I'd also paid extra for my bacon & ham to be cured & smoked, but it was flavor-less. The rest of the meat I received back from both pigs was... unexplainably inedible. Right then & there, I vowed to never let anyone else touch my animals again. 🙅🏻♀️
Just a few years after the only mobile slaughter unit around failed me, I decided to build my own. 🤷🏻♀️
I'm sure that sounds crazy to the average person, though I'm not sure many of my followers could be classified as such. Months of hard work & even more months of healthy meals destroyed at the processor in a quick week's time seemed crazier to me. 🤡
At Freeland Farms, we believe that our livestock deserve the best life we can provide... & the best death possible. Maybe I care too much, or maybe I'm just a control freak. Either way, I kept my vow to my Elizabeth & I did the hard thing I knew I had to do. 😭
Teary-eyed & snotty-nosed, I couldn't help but think about the LENGTHS mankind has gone to avoid this ✨EXACT✨ feeling. A feeling I can't describe well, but one every homesteader knows. There is sadness for the end of a life, gratefulness for that life to sustain your own, & no time to think about either as you immediately have to get to work to honor it.🔪
I know that it is much easier & more convenient to remain ignorant to where your food comes from- that is a choice you can make. Big corporations like Tyson, JBS, & Cargill definitely prefer it that way. 🙈🙉🙊
BUT REMEMBER... ☝🏼
Just because you didn't pull the trigger yourself, doesn't mean you did not actively participate in that animal's death. ☠️
Next time you eat, I challenge you to ASK yourself what's in your food, where it came from, & how it got there. If you don't know the answers right away, I encourage you to jump down that rabbit hole. 🕳️🐇
RIP, Queen Elizabeth 👑❤️
Below is my favorite pic of her, heavy bred, in a pasture full of pumpkins from last fall.👇🏻
