[Sca-cooks] OT OP Slaughterhouse Live

[Suey]

Traditionally the slaughter of pig is done in Spain on St. Martin's Day 
on November 11th but the slaughter on the Canary Islands is at the end 
of January. For several years now we slaughter five pigs outside of 
Madrid on the last Thursday of January. Between Thursday and Friday we 
make all the sausages, bury the legs in salt for serrano ham and on 
Saturday roast legs and invite about 500 to eat at lunch time. I do not 
say that to brag. Its hard work especially as I have had acute back 
problems of late but I really enjoy the slaughter and the meat 
preparations more than the guests (between us). The pigs come from 
southern Spain. One year they sent us a male who weighed one ton and 
pregnant females. Our slaughter man sat down on a bench beside me and 
explained to me that if the male bite him he would cut all the meat from 
his thigh. I thought, that would be more than my leg!!! In the end the 
last pig to be sacrificed was a pregnant female. She escaped!!! I jumped 
on the roof of the chicken coops. I was scared to death! She raced to 
the river and broke through the fence. She was finally lazod by our men. 
They gave me the the big teeth of the male, what are they called? and I 
made a necklace with the two. My neck is smaller than that.
My kids don´t get the point that it is man over the animal or visa 
versa. I try take them to bullfights, they refuse to go there or  to the 
farm when we are doing the slaughters but I think survival of the fitest 
very interesting.
Suey