Home Butchery @museum.de

Well, girlie, you've filled out nicely, inhaling your food like that. Here, have the potato peelings, too, they’re delicious. You poor thing – it will be curtains for you soon enough, enjoy your final days.

Hey, Hans, having a little chat with the sow? You sound really gloomy. And yet you always rave about the ham and the sausages!

True, and in fact the mistress has requested a visit from the butcher. He’s coming next week. The mistress has already bought everything: pickling salt, spices, sausage casings. I’ve even fetched thorns from the blackthorn bush to pin the ends of the sausages.

But that sounds good! And we'll all lend a hand with the butchering. It’s not something you can manage on your own. And afterwards, everyone will come round and drink to the fat pig with a glass of schnapps, and then we’ll make sausage soup and all the other delicacies.

Yes, but think of all that work! Slaughtering and jointing the carcase -- well, the butcher handles that. But afterwards? It takes until late in the evening to boil and salt and then go on to smoke the meat, and render the fat for lard. The mistress will be in a complete tizzy for days, as if tomorrow wasn’t another day. Besides, Martha, you're the one who’s always complaining that it’s too much, and the women are slaving away from dawn till dusk anyway.

Yes, but that doesn't mean it’s not worthwhile, Hans. What else am I supposed to do all day... sit in the parlour and twiddle my thumbs?

No, I’d be bored to tears and give in to melancholy. Slaughtering the pig will be a great event, I'm looking forward to it. Right. And now I'm off home. My Johann must be back from fishing by now, and I want to cook him something special. That’s something else to look forward to. So I'll say goodbye, to you and to our nice visitors. Come and see us again some time! But before you go, make sure you take a look at our old storage shed, at the far end of the yard. Bye now!