Recently someone pointed out this blog post about “Cowpooling” and I thought … “hmm, I should recommend this to others”. I know that in the past people who have purchased whole or half hogs from us have split up their portion either because they didn’t have the freezer space or because they knew they wouldn’t be able to go through their pork very quickly. But, I really like the idea of a group of people getting together to do some “cowpooling” or “pigpooling”. I believe it goes hand-in-hand with our desire to build community through having a connection to the food we eat.
In a way the bundles of pork we have available now are variation of “pigpooling” I suppose. We have split up a whole hog into approximately 17 bundles that offer a fairly equal variety of cuts. This way a customer who does not have the freezer space for a half or whole can still get in on the action. So far we have been able to sell a decent about of the bundles, but we still have more for sale … if you are interested in purchasing a bundle just check out this post and shoot me an e-mail.
Now that I have the sales pitch out of the way (I have to do these every once-in-a-while since we are trying to run a business) I do want to say that I think “cowpooling”, “pigpooling”, “gardenpooling”, or even “small-grainpooling” is the way to go. For too long we have been moving away from communities of people that can depend on each other and share with each other. I have a feeling that in too many neighborhoods these days when you come up a cup of sugar short you just head to the store instead of stopping at the neighbors house … I know that I’m guilty of that.
Sharing a cow or pig or garden share with your neighbors and friends is a great way to get good food … have a connection with your neighbors/friends … support local farmers … and, know where your food is coming from!
Many of our customers who buy whole pigs are actually halving it with friends. I strongly encourage this. We price half pigs at $4.00/lb and whole pigs at $3.50/lb. When ever someone orders a half I point out the difference and almost invariably they find a friend to get the other half thus saving them both money and making a sale for us.