I went to this class last year and it was extremely helpful. They butchered two wild pig and had lots of different sausages for us to try. The attached flyer has details. I think it is well worth the money and time.
The class is held in U of Florida's meat processing schoolroom. The instructors are professional butchers and teachers so they know their stuff and how to explain it to beginners such as myself. Everything after the kill is demonstrated. The pigs had been trapped earlier in the week, dispatched on the farm with a .22 to the head that morning, placed on ice, and transported to UF. The two wild pigs are skinned, disemboweled, beheaded. I had to miss last year's final two hours, but I think during that time they separate the major cuts, hams, ribs, etc. Sanitation, temps, knife sharpening, liver inspection for disease are covered. I learned a lot and it helped me get past my fears of dealing with guts, bad smells, and all the gore and slime of butchering.
That sounds great. I always wanted to get into butchering but never did. It seemed it was a ending as an art.
