5 minute read
Freezer Meat
Story and photos by Katlyn Sanden
If you’re wanting to save money on your weekly grocery bill, then you may want to consider buying freezer meat. Whether you’re looking to stock your freezer with a half or whole hog, or even a quarter or half of beef, the odds are in your favor.
“When you break down half a hog, you’ll get about 70 pounds of meat,” said Sam Lowers, founder of S&L Pork in Wyanet. “When we break that down on a per pound basis, you pay the farmer about $2.10/ pound. We charge by the hanging weight. You’re going to pay the meat locker about $1.00/pound to have them process it, so you’re talking about $3.10/pound on 70 pounds of meat. If you go to the store, you’ll probably pay $5/pound for bacon and $3.50/pound for sausage. It’s definitely a cost savings. It’s a relatively cheap way to bulk up your meat supply.”
Lowers started raising hogs in 2017, but as demand for freezer pork began to grow, so did his side hustle. What began as just a hobby is now a full, fledged USDA-inspected business. S&L Pork was officially born in 2019 and has been steadily growing ever since, and it has supplied meat for Wya-
See MEAT page 12 First-time customers are usually pleasantly surprised when it comes to how nice and neat the pork is packaged, using minimal freezer space. This is what a package of butterfly pork chops and two packages of jalapeno cheddar brats look like. A package typically contains four pieces each.
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Sam Lowers of S&L Pork takes his time as he checks over all the hogs in his care. Their health and safety is his number one priority.
Sam Lowers mixes up another batch of feed. He takes great pride in feeding his animals quality feed, which in turn creates a quality hog. net Meat Locker as well as other places and families.
“It’s nice knowing where we get all of our pork for our families,” Lowers said. “It’s nice to see on your plate, what you produced and raised. It’s important to us.”
He said a lot of customers steer away from a half hog because they fear how much freezer space it will take, but in all reality, a half hog, or 70 pounds of meat, can fit in a 65-quart cooler, which is no bigger than a typical refrigerator/freezer. He says first time customers are shocked at how well the meat is packaged as to take up minimal freezer space.
Another great thing about ordering direct from the farmer, according to Lowers, is the ability to choose exactly what types of meat cuts you prefer.
“You can do a multitude of things,” Lowers said. “You can have it all ground up into breakfast sausage if that’s what you want. But your basic cuts are bacon, pork chops, pork shoulder, ham, sausages, brats, brat burgers, ground pork, ham steaks, pork roasts, shoulder roasts; basically, anything that can be cured. On a half hog, you’ll probably get 7 to 8 pounds of bacon, but it’s good bacon. You can pretty much do anything you want.”
And with today’s customers wanting to know more and more about where their food comes from, S&L Pork prides itself on being 100 percent transparent and raising hogs as naturally as possible.
“We use very minimal antibiotics,” said Lowers. “It’s no different as if you were sick and you go to the doctor to get a shot if you need it. We don’t give our pigs shots unless they absolutely need it. We’re not going to use expensive medicines just to say we can or to prevent anything. These hogs are outside in open
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air. I’d challenge they’re just as healthy as any hogs in confinement. We pride ourselves in being as antibiotic free as possible.”
Lowers’ passion for quality pork products has transcended into many repeat customers.
“There are three reasons I buy freezer meat from local producers,” said Jason Hasbrook, who is feeding a family of five. “That’s quality, value, and knowing where my family’s food comes from. S&L Pork checks all those boxes. They sell a very high-quality product at a great price and are produced locally.”
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