Sanitary Meat Grinder.

Fred and I bought this beast of a meat grinder recently.  It was actually white and Fred sanded it a bit and painted it John Deere Green.  This baby can grind 50 # of meat in 2 minutes….or less.  I freaked out though the first time he ran it because it looked dangerous.  By golly it WAS dangerous!!!  Not to worry though, after a bit of planning and scavenging around the farm Fred came up with a design to make a stainless steel meat tray on top and a hand guard!!  So proud of my farm guy.

Stainless steel meat tray.

Front view of old military Sanitary meat grinder. This baby is one of a kind!!

This unit is mobile and low enough not to be a back breaker.

Fred hand carved the plunger from a Maple log he found in the wood pile.  The meat actually gets fed under the curved guard, the hole being used only for the plunger.  He used a hammer to shape the stainless steel and some rivets to secure it in place.

This is Alan during our first test of the grinder before Fred built the safety tray.

Our new meat scale.

This scale works swell!!  When you are making seasoned meats of all kinds, you need to have an accurate scale or you can blow a batch of meat really fast.  Alan Ferber has been really helpful in teaching us new methods and little tricks to the trade. 

Alan explaining his methods to his students!

More instruction.

Alan located the scale for us to purchase and came over again to teach us more meat processing techniques.  He’s coming over again when we do more hogs to teach us yet more techniques that will make the processing quick and efficient.  Having been in the field for so many years, he is truly a professional meat cutter.

An eager student!

We have been processing meat for many years and yet are still learning important details.  Farming and the skills that go along with it are never boring.  I think it’s so important for people to know not only how to process their own food but also where that food comes from.