My problem is that I give so much of my cooks away there isn't much left for the freezer. Just gave another 3# of bacon to another coworker . . . I can't help but want to share the food I enjoy. Having said that, I just put 18# of belly into cure tonight, along with 10# of pork loin. Once those are cured, smoked, sliced, vacsealed, and frozen I'll be done for the season. My wife says we're keeping all of it . . . so I guess we are.   

I wrapped the pork loin in cellophane but the belly went into zip lock. The bellies are thinner, but they are close to 75% meat. That's going to be some goooood bacon!

Yeah, I give a fair amount away too... In fact I need to give my sister a few pounds of it now... I had also told a couple co-workers about my bacon and told them I'd give them some to try...

But, at some point I have to restrict that , because what typically would happen is someone would want more... and I'm convinced that if i were ever to try and sell my bacon at a price that would even come close to paying for my time, I'd have to charge like $8 a pound, and I would feel bad about that price. 

 I bet I spend probably close to 3 hours of time to turn 10 or 12 pounds of meat into bacon... and that's just the time it takes to cure, cleanup, put it on the grill, take it off the grill, put it in the fridge , slice it, package it up.    So, if I paid myself say $9/hour, the labor costs alone would be $3/lb.   I try not to think about it too much, because if I really valued my time any more than this, I'd probably not even make bacon for myself .

 Actually as most of us know, it's not about paying ourselves for our time , it's a hobby.  And honestly , I probably get more pleasure out of making bacon, that just about any other activity on my pellet grill. It's just so darn tasty..   But I also have other hobbies, not to mention other things that need to get done... So, Bacon is just one of things in life to share and do..

I can see giving my BBQ away, they can have it all...But I am not a Big enough Man to give away bacon!

I will edit my post.  Now reading your entire post, I have lots of fridge room.  I could see curing bellies if these friend were willing to pay for the...that would be acceptable! Ohh, and they get a smoked slab of bacon, to heck with this sliced and bagged stuff!

Bacon should be served at every meal!

I got a 10 pound side from Costco and I also bought some Pork Cushion meat at RD thinking I was going to use it on sausage.  I decided to try it on bacon.  So they all came out to about 2400 grams (A tad over 5bs.).  There were 4 pieces of cushion meat, I am starting with two.

It will be cheap bacon if it works.  I tried it once with butts and was not happy, but I think the process was flawed.  I am happy I have been able to cut my bacon cost from about $4.25/lb. for any halfway decent bacon, to $3/lb to Costco bacon, to now possible $1.30/lb bacon.  Probably would be best if it does not work...in the last 6 weeks, I have probably missed eating bacon on only 5 days!

Not bad, not bad. That's a great price for good bacon.

It will be cheap bacon if it works.  I tried it once with butts and was not happy, but I think the process was flawed.  I am happy I have been able to cut my bacon cost from about $4.25/lb. for any halfway decent bacon, to $3/lb to Costco bacon, to now possible $1.30/lb bacon.  Probably would be best if it does not work...in the last 6 weeks, I have probably missed eating bacon on only 5 days!

My grandfather ate bacon, eggs, sausage, cakes, and sometimes cereal every morning of his life. Of course, he was a dairy farmer and worked hard so he and Grandma ate well. He lived to 96 . . . I should do so well. I think I need to eat more bacon!

I guess we will find out next weekend!

Hate to sound stupid but what is cushion meat? Is this going to be buckboard style bacon? We have made buckboard a few times and it was really good but a little too tough/firm for breakfast but made really good BLT's.
I found the answer on the cushion meat. Just guess I have never heard it called that.

^^^ Count me as curious too.  What is cushion meat?  I saw it in the monthly specials flyer for my Restaurant Depot as well. 

All I know is the name.  It seems like the Eye of Round of the Pig, real lean for pig, so not sure how it will do.

And on a side note, I thought this was the thread I started about curing bacon several weeks ago...So sorry to have put the one from a few days ago in here.  Need to pay more attention!

Bacon should be served at every meal!

Time to find an online retailer to buy that t-shirt...and one for my 6 year old.