Pig Scraping
An unscheduled power cut in the night has wiped the time memory from our alarm clock, so I woke up late and this will be a rushed entry.
There is nothing particularly enjoyable about the process of killing, scalding and gutting pigs but there is pleasure in a job well done which is something I suppose when you're up to your armpits in blood and gore. The black pig (or Bulgy Eyes as we called him) went first and it was a textbook performance. The point blank 4.10 shot to the forehead killed instantly and Chris was there in milliseconds plunging the double sided blade into its breast to let the dark blood gush out. Bleeding over, we wheeled the pig across the lane, head lolling from the side of the barrow and lowered the extremely hairy creature into a bath of hot water (165°F). As soon as the skin began slipping, we hauled it out and began a frenzied session of pulling and scraping to bring their hair and epidermis off in large swathes. After another couple of dips and a bit of a shave with a sharp knife, the carcass was clean enough to winch up to the bar for gutting. The acorns had clearly done a good job of fattening as Bulgy Eyes was surprisingly heavy and a good amount of fat was present around the kidneys. Ginger pig, being smaller, was even quicker and having only started work at 1 PM (due to G sitting) were admiring the carcasses hanging in my parents’ cool room by 5 PM.
Dinner
Crispy fried duck and pancakes followed by prawn and vegetable curry followed by trifle. It's my birthday so, joined by Kit and C, Em and I went to my parents house for dinner. Mum is a staggeringly good cook and the food was memorably good. Em made the dessert which was not only memorably good but colossal! She's generous by nature and 30 guests would have struggled to do the huge bowl full justice!
Giant Trifle
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