2015 South Florida Gathering (5th Annual) November 13th-15th

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Alright yall! I've been in search for a good pig farm around my area and found it! Super nice folks! Alan, the owner, is a 30 year marine vet and this is actually he and his wife's retirement 'hobby'....pig farming. Not my idea of a relaxing retirement hobby but to each there own haha.

They have a nice set up and have a few Bulls and mom's that they raised from babies 2 or so years ago. The pig we are going to get for the gathering is a mixture of berkshire  and yorkshire. In the picture below of the piglets, the 2-3 larger ones are the size of the ones that the little ones will be when i go to pick it out. Those guys are 90-100lbs and the smaller ones are currently 60-70lbs. I'm actually going to go Thursday AM before the Gathering to pick out our pig and they are going to kill and clean it for me right there (said i'll have to wait about 1.5hr), doesnt get much more fresh then that! They also have Durrok pigs (i didnt get any pictures) and are actually the same price as the Y/B's. I was surprised to hear that since Durrok are held at such a high esteem in the culinary world.

The farm is called Blackberry Pig Farm, if anyone in the area wants to get nice pigs for a good price i can give you the contact info. They told me all about the feeding process..some was over my head but they do not give there pigs any slop except for an occasional treat if there local farmers market has some waste to get rid of. 16% of there feed is grains/oats (as to not only feed them stuff to fatten them up)...i couldnt keep up wiht exactly the other 84% of the diet is but something like 60% of it is a fiber/hay mixture that helps the pigs maintain weight and to not just make them fatten up to quick. 

Alan and Linda are in the process, in the next year, of expanding the farm so they can rotate the pigs around the property and not let them sit in one area to long. This couple had a wealth of information and i look forward to working with them more in the future! 

My plan wasn't to ask for money but many of you insisted so as it looks right now the Piggy is going to be $100 (for 90-100lb, one heck of a deal!) and $30 for the butchering. I'm hoping this SOB fits in my 120qt coleman but if not i'll borrow a friends 160qt. I put a 48lber in my coleman with plenty of room to spare so i dont foresee a problem there. 

And not for you viewing pleasure...if anyone wants to pick out a potential piggy from the photo feel free...lets see who ya like:) But then again i wont know who they are when i go back in 4 weeks :)

Now i'm even more excited!!



The mommas and the poppas!


Nice drive home to Gainesville with Orange and Blue Skies! (no Will Greer joked please haha)

 
Doug.. not bringing smokehouse since we aren't doing sticks and sausage.. but I am bringing my highly moded MES 30.. we can do jerky in it... I agree with doing some batches of jerky... so if anybody wants to bring some meat to cut up for jerky.. that would be good....

Getting close now.. Starting to get things around... gonna get some of the 4x4 wood I bring for the campfire... not sure I can haul enough to last for the whole wknd... but i'll bring as much as I can... If y'all remember the ridiculous price they charge for firewood...
 
 
Doug,

I will be happy to donate to help cover the cost. Will give it to you at the gathering or sooner if needed.

I'll also bring the charger you left at my place.
No rush Ron, like i said its a pretty good price for a whole pig, cleaned and out the door for $130! Cant wait to cook him up! Awesome about the charger
Doug.. not bringing smokehouse since we aren't doing sticks and sausage.. but I am bringing my highly moded MES 30.. we can do jerky in it... I agree with doing some batches of jerky... so if anybody wants to bring some meat to cut up for jerky.. that would be good....

Getting close now.. Starting to get things around... gonna get some of the 4x4 wood I bring for the campfire... not sure I can haul enough to last for the whole wknd... but i'll bring as much as I can... If y'all remember the ridiculous price they charge for firewood...
Yea if anyone has some extra fire wood that'd be great and if you wanna donate some beef for jerky. I can bring the marinade fixins. i'll have enough wood for the pig in the smoker. Being that the pig might take up the majority of the smoker space we might need to figure out another place for others to cook sides or whatever else. Last year we loaded up my smoker with alot of the stuff for the Something Special and all that. 
 
I'll add to the fire wood or smoker wood pile just had a scrub hickory die in the back yard. I'll get it cut up and it should be dry enough by Nov. Will definitely contribute to Doug's piggy account. That's a heck of a good deal.
 
Did a small batch of Jerky yesterday.  It turned out okay, but still not spot on.  Looking forward to seeing how the experts do it next month.
 
Ron.. Eye Round is on sale this week (starting Thurs.) at Publix... I'm gonna pick up 5 lbs (there about)...


I see some people doing pork jerky.. wonder if we want to try some of that as well (a little bit of beef and a little bit of pork)... I believe they were using Loin for that...

Steve.. did you use the recipe from NEPA's ?? or something else ?? BTW... Doug is the expert, not me ...
 
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Ron.. Eye Round is on sale this week (starting Thurs.) at Publix... I'm gonna pick up 5 lbs (there about)...


I see some people doing pork jerky.. wonder if we want to try some of that as well (a little bit of beef and a little bit of pork)... I believe they were using Loin for that...

Steve.. did you use the recipe from NEPA's ?? or something else ?? BTW... Doug is the expert, not me ...
Eye of round is what i usually use...and last year Don brought some a couple london broils and they turned out pretty good as well! 

Loin would be good for pork jerky, we just remove the fat cap. I'll bring my dehydrator but i believe last year we finished it all the way on the smokehouse. If we are using the MES we'll be limited on room compared to teh smoke house so maybe not to much meat for jerky, then again we can do it in batches and even use my trailer for it when the pig isnt on. 
 
We can do batches.. the racks will hold about 5 lbs worth... Plus I'm gonna see what I can come up with for extra grates... The PID will hold it wherever we set it.. no heating up and cooling down like a stock MES... I also have the big 10 tray Cabelas dehydrator... If it looks like we are going to need it I will bring it... Been wanting to try it out anyways... had it for 3 or 4 yrs and it's still new in the box...
 
We can do batches.. the racks will hold about 5 lbs worth... Plus I'm gonna see what I can come up with for extra grates... The PID will hold it wherever we set it.. no heating up and cooling down like a stock MES... I also have the big 10 tray Cabelas dehydrator... If it looks like we are going to need it I will bring it... Been wanting to try it out anyways... had it for 3 or 4 yrs and it's still new in the box...
Awesome! I wont bring mine then. I have some wire racks and pizza trays i use for jerky with wood blocks that separate them, i can bring those to if we need them. 
 
Steve.. did you use the recipe from NEPA's ?? or something else ?? BTW... Doug is the expert, not me ...

Yes, I used NEPA'S recipe for teriaki jerky. It was fine, but I may cut back a little on the salt next time. Thanks for the tip about Public's sale! Yesterday I bought a 4.8 lb sirloin tip roast, choice grade, for $3.99/lb at Save A Lot. Going into the freezer today. When we get down to the wire, I'll check in with what I have in the freezer as I'd like to contribute somehow since I'm not bringing the smoker.
 
Pencil me and my wife in. Just going to be a day trip for us in the car either the 13 or 14. We are in FT Pierce so it aint that far.

Can my 2 furry kids come to the park?

What would y'all like me to bring?
 
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Pencil me and my wife in. Just going to be a day trip for us in the car either the 13 or 14. We are in FT Pierce so it aint that far.

Can my 2 furry kids come to the park?

What would y'all like me to bring?
Furry kids are always welcome! I might be bringing mine again and others bring theirs every year. 

Putting you down on the attendee list now. As far as what to bring...there is usually plenty of smoker space so of you want to bring something to cook up feel free or you can premake something. We usually just have stuff cooking all the time with no set eating times.

On that note with this being the largest group we've ever had we might actually want to plan out some cooking/eating times...what do yall think? Or just have food constantly being made and eaten?
 
Pencil me and my wife in. Just going to be a day trip for us in the car either the 13 or 14. We are in FT Pierce so it aint that far.
Can my 2 furry kids come to the park?

What would y'all like me to bring?

Rick.. it will be great to see ya'll ... I wouldn't mind taking a bite or four of something that you have dry cured or some sticks... something in that range ...
 
We'll be bringing our 2 furry camp pals. They are smoking meat coinsures...

 We are getting close to the kick off date. What do we need to be bringing?

 I got the side dish, bringing some pork for the breakfast sausage.

We have a few newbies that want to participate and want to know what they need to bring?

I'm stoked and can't wait for November!

 Craig
 
Craig... How long are your friends planning on staying ? ... I've not heard anybody say they are bringing anything to make ABT's, or fatties, or pork shots... So if they would want to do something like that... I'm sure we'll pitch in to help make them.. but really whatever they wanna bring (if anything at all)...
 
Craig... How long are your friends planning on staying ? ... I've not heard anybody say they are bringing anything to make ABT's, or fatties, or pork shots... So if they would want to do something like that... I'm sure we'll pitch in to help make them.. but really whatever they wanna bring (if anything at all)...
Ditto! I would say side items or snack-y type things
 
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