The keeping of a pig is nearly essential to the workings of a northern climate homestead, they are an important link in the nutrient cycle, and preserved pork and cooking lard forms an important part of the traditional diet. We use no refrigeration in our storage methods and make smoked traditional hams, bacon, sausages, brined saltpork, canned stock, and all types of traditional pork products like scapple, blood sausage, brawn and souse, etc. We harvest the pigs humanely and clean and butcher them using traditional methods in a community workshop every fall.