Introduction of sorts...

I guess when you start a blog your first posting should be about introducing yourself to the world, a kinda meet and greet if you will so here goes.  Hello, my name is Jered, and I’m a pork-a-holic.  My wife recently accused me of having gone hog wild, I don’t deny it.  I have a passion for meat, particularly pork and even more specific to that all the wonderful and tasty creations that come from porky goodness, salt and time for long long time.  I’ve been making fresh sausages for many many years and have recently been provided the opportunity through added space to dedicate more effort on smoking and long term curing.  I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to have some formal teaching on charcuterie products but I’m mostly self taught.  I’m happy to invite you on little trip down the happy road to a place I call porkville.  

My interest in the transformative powers that time and effort can have on simple things has expanded my interest into many concepts that have recently been given the label of urban-homesteading.  While I don’t consider myself a homesteader I like the idea of making things that most everyone else just runs to the store and purchases and I want to look into expanding my repertoire and sharing my efforts and subsequent successes and failures with you.  It’s about craft and craftsmanship, learning from others and finding ways to improve your product through repetition, dedication and concentration.  Instead of flittering from thing to thing like a confused bee, bumping and bumbling around and running into things the idea of craftsmanship means inspecting something with an eye towards detail (cuz that's where the devil is) and finding ways to improve the product and by extension you.  I don’t know where this path will lead me but expect some postings on basic gardening, heritage animals and plants, possibly some composting, maybe a little soap-making, a dessert or baked good here and there and definitely, mostly, (almost exclusively actually) pork, meat and charcuterie.  Now that I’ve made the circle complete and I’m back on the subject of the bestest beastie around, porcine hugemongous, we’ll move more into the happy piggy....