Where do I get lard?

[Jimibell]

I can't figure this one out. I've asked at a few whole foods and they all look at me like I'm crazy. They say there is no such thing as organic lard. Can I make it myself? I don't want to get it conventional, I want it from healthy pigs. Have no idea how to get it.

[PaulaJoAnne]

Go to your local meat processor and ask for the fat trimmings.
They will charge you some, but it should not be too bad.
Try to get both beef and pig.
Render them seperatly though. One is Tallow, and one is lard.
What you do is trim any meat left on the fat.
Cut up into 1 to 2 inch chunks.
Place a couple of handfulls in a large pot on your stove with the setting slightly higher than low.
Stir every few minutes. Make sure the lard does not get dark.
As it melts, you keep adding chunks until the pan is 3/4 full.
Continue to render down until the cracklings are free of any white and no longer have a spongy feeing.
Lift cracklings out, allowing them to drain further through a strainer.
Pour lard into pint size jars and seal.
When the lids have popped, place the jars in the freezer.
Lard will be white when cold and slightly yellow and runny when at room temp.

I did up around 50 lbs of bear fat this fall.
Took me a couple of days, but it was worth it.
Never have we had such good tasting lard!
Paula
www.steveandpaularunyan.blogspot.com

[momtoalexsarah]

Find a local farmer with organic pork - when they send an animal to be killed they can request the fat back - it comes as slab or chunks and you have to render it as the above poster said. Most farmers leave the stuff because they dont need it - we get ours back to use as a salve on our winter weary hands, and on rub some on the cattles bellies to keep the wet and mud off their fur in winter (you can't send a dirty animal to get killed and in our climate it's a constant winter challenge to keep em clean)

[snowbunny]

If you're stuck and can't find a source of lard from pastured animals locally, you can look on LocalHarvest.org as a few of their vendors will ship.