Butcher bringings home the bacon with marijuana pigs

A Seattle butcher said he’s found a way to marry marijuana and meat – by feeding pot plants to pigs.

“We’re able to make anything you can imagine,” said William von Schneidau, who runs BB Ranch Meats in the heart of Pike Place Market. “Somebody requests something and we make it, and make some extra of it, and see if people like it.”

Von Schneidau, who has long experimented with meat – even feeding vodka to hogs in the past – said he can’t remember how he came up with the idea to feed pot to pigs.

“I don’t smoke, but I guess it’s foggy,” he said, chuckling.

He partnered with a local medical marijuana grower earlier this year to take the remnants of pot plants and feed them to swine on a ranch in Snohomish.

“People have been asking all these questions. ‘Do you think (the pigs are) feeling it? Are they stoned?’ and I’m like, ‘Wait a minute. Let’s back up here for a second.’ All we’re trying to do is to help the local ranchers and to figure out some ways to shorten the carbon footprint,” von Schneidau said.

The shop sold four pigs in various forms earlier this year, including with pot-infused bacon. The meat “tasted savory,” von Schneidau said, adding that he has a small amount leftover that he’s using to make into prosciutto.


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