*Next class is May 8th-10th*

The yield of the pig is so expansive and diverse that we lack the time to cover it all in our original Family Pig class. The Family Pig II is a three-day harvest of completely new material. It is not merely adding recipes to the list, but conferring competency in traditional processes to establish the well-off frugality of the family table.

Using antique cutlery and your hands, this extensive class transforms a heritage breed pig into fresh, fermented, and preserved pork. Among the many techniques, we will make and learn to use a preservation brine. We will make rillettes, preserving meat with fat in the confit pot. The intestines will be treated artfully, beguiling their customary baseness. We will transform the head into headcheese, and the trotters into a meal that has become a favorite at the Sheard table. 

Though it is a “part II” to The Family Pig series, no prior experience is required. The Family Pig II is simultaneously another way to harvest a pig, and a way for those who have been to The Family Pig to broaden the human power of artful nourishment.

*Just 1 spot open in the December 6th-7th class*

Using your hands and antique cutlery, we will harvest two grass finished Texas Longhorn steers.  We will transform one 30 day aged carcass into kitchen-sized cuts for your pots, pans, and ovens. We will unknit the carcass without creating any waste. Our yield will be 100% of hanging weight in resolute distinction from the convention of wasting over half the harvest. The silhouette of the magnanimous bovine is our only parameter.

This class is for the beginner and the experienced alike. In two days, you will have gained enough hands-on experience to harvest cattle at home wisely.

Each student goes home with 10lbs of beef for the family table.  These longhorns are artfully rotated on the cross timber prairie grasses of Oklahoma and never fed grain.

*Offered only once a year around the Feast of St. Martin. This year’s class is November 15th-16th*

The goose is the noblest bird of the farmyard.  As grazing waterfowl, it supplies the home kitchen with utterly unique provender.  Starting with living geese, we will transform them into undiluted goods for the family table through the culinary traditions of the premodern peasant.

“The confit pot is one of the most useful storage items in the French farmhouse kitchen.” -Elisabeth Luard

With the convenience of refrigeration so widely available, we can easily ward off spoilage, at least for a little while. But this ease comes at the cost of flavor. The freezer cannot improve the meat it contains; it can only delay its inevitable demise. Older methods of preservation not only keep meat from going bad, but help it to go good. The traditions of our fathers in preserving the harvest evince thrift and extravagance in equal measure. One of these methods is confit.

*Subscribe to our newsletter to be notified when we’ll offer this class again*

This is a unique chance for farmers and hunters of all stripes (new or veteran) to learn more about growing livestock and field dressing your game with good meat as the goal. Using your hands and antique cutlery we will turn 4 lambs into kitchen sized lamb cuts, sausage and charcuterie.

Brandon will demonstrate humane sticking (killing) and bleeding methods. There will be no stunning involved, which only registers more pain and longer consciousness in the animal; we only need a very, very sharp knife. You then will take the knife in hand as Brandon leads you through clean and efficient hanging, skinning and eviscerating methods. We’ll extract all the offal and talk about the homesteader’s culinary use of the whole animal.

As always this is a very intimate and memorable teaching setting with Brandon as he works at your pace and we let your questions guide the day. You’ll be working with 4 lambs (1 lamb/2 people), making for plenty of material to learn on. Bring your notepads and filming devices. All instruction is entirely translatable to any other ruminant harvesting including goats, deer, elk, beef, etc.