You’re very lucky to have proper butchers within walking distance. I still need to jump in the car, but things have definitely improved.

Hi H! You should give it a go. If nothing else, it’s useful experience for putting in a novel somewhere My hands didn’t get cold at all… they were always in motion so that kept them warm. (Plus the meat wasn’t icy cold. Just well… cold.)

Mmmmm rib roast… I’m almost tempted to do that at Christmas too. And I hear that there’s good eating on squirrels!

Hi Aleta! No problem–glad you enjoyed!

Hi Lorraine! It’s always worth asking your favourite butcher if they’d be interested in doing such an event. You could put it to them this way… they’re going to be breaking down the carcass anyway, so why not do it in front of a captive audience who will be almost guarnateed to buy loads of meat after staring at it for an hour or so? The ten of us bought almost all the meat that came from half a pig as well as other meat from the shop.

If their meat is good, then people will rave to friends and family and the butchers should see an increase in custom

Hi Helena! Lots of villages and towns have lost their traditional butchers in recent years, but with all the celebrity chefs pushing the old cuts of meat–it wasn’t that long ago that no one would consider cooking belly of pork, after all–there’s renewed demand for them. Mike the butcher told me that in the last year he’s had six lads looking for apprenticeships with him. He’s never had people asking before, so something has changed in a good way…

Maybe you’ll get a new butchers in a few years!

This post reminded me to look up butchers in the area we’re moving to, and I found a couple of leads…and even better, I found that two of our favorite natural food stores are in the area! (Well, almost two–the second opens next week. Next week! I’m so excited. We’ll be able to have standing rib roast again for Christmas. … If the economy doesn’t get loads worse between then and now. Otherwise, I guess we’ll have to start learning how to hunt squirrels.