Initial Dry Run

Homemade Stainless Steel Knife and Saw Sanitizer
Now that the construction is done for the initial phase of the butcher shop and I have submitted all the paperwork to get our licenses we wait. But we don’t just wait, we catch up on farm work… And do the dry runs!

What is a “Dry Run” you ask?” It’s where we pretend. We make believe. We fantasize about cutting up beautiful, delicious pastured pork. Ah, loin chops, Boston Butts, jiggling fresh bellies, luscious trotters and tenderloins…

No, really! The dry run is where we practice taking apart the equipment, cleaning it, putting it back together, taking it apart again, cleaning it, putting it back together, running it a little, taking it apart, cleaning it, putting it back together, filling out our paperwork, speed trials on who can assemble the bandsaw the fastest, olympic gymnastics with packing bags, packing strange objects like sponges, brushes, knives to test various bag thicknesses, clean all the surfaces again, practice assembling and disassembling the shelves, uneven parallel bar dismounts of the sausage table transforming it into a cutting table, click up the primals table, pop it back down, check the Aquabot…

Okay, more like that. What we’re doing is getting into practice with the equipment, making sure we have all those little things like a set of measuring spoons, spritz bottles and other things that we need for pre-operational sanitation (pre-cleaning), cutting meat, post operational cleaning (cleanup), etc. We’re learning to dance in this space, to move together as a team. Once we got our moves, the band is in tune, we get our license and then we’ll be ready to cut pork.

Once the dry runs are going perfectly we’ll do our first wet run where we’ll cut half a pig. This pig won’t be under inspection and won’t be for sale. It will be a chance to run for real with meat under blades. Maybe tomorrow.

Outdoors: 82°F/62°F Sunny
Tiny Cottage: 72°F/62°F

Daily Spark: Breed for lucky pigs.