With apologies to both Trent Reznor and Johnny Cash. (The Nine Inch Nails song was a big deal when I was in high school, but I like Johnny’s Hurt better. I have a soft spot for just about anything by Johnny Cash, no matter how mawkish. I’m not sure why, but I’ll enjoy something sung by him when […]
You work twice as hard to be a farmer as to be his hog. Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes I think “twice as hard” simultaneously underestimates the farmer’s workload and overestimates the contribution of the pigs, but the general idea is right. Not that the pigs don’t do any work. They have been working all
Lately our pigs have been enjoying a little Italian food: whey and chestnuts. The famous Parma prosciutto and ham come from pigs raised on a whey and grain diet, then finished on chestnuts. I do have some suspicions about just how much of the caloric intake comes from chestnuts (similar to reservations I have about
The Most Best Porkchop Read More »
Fall weather descended upon us and, unacclimated as we are, we’ve been shivering. The cattle must have seen the cold weather coming because they all have begun thickening their coats. The pigs don’t seem to appreciably increase their coats; their cold weather strategy is more aligned with marine mammals, protecting themselves from the cold with
Pasture Farrowing in the Fall Read More »
I first encountered the word trencherman about five years ago. The word “trencher” is so much more robust than “plate” or “bowl” and not nearly as uppity as “charger”. But if we think about trencher in its original form as a slab of stale bread, the term is even more evocative. Trencherman brings to mind a hale
“…the foam which flows from the mouth of wild boars, and many other things- though they are far from being beautiful, if a man should examine them severally- still, because they are consequent upon the things which are formed by nature, help to adorn them, and they please the mind; so that if a man
Raising pigs on pasture eliminates the need for a lot of fancy, costly infrastructure, but it occasionally requires specialized equipment particularly suited to our situation. Since we aren’t doing all-in, all-out groups of pigs, we need to sort groups from time to time, removing a few pigs for transport to the butcher, separating piglets for weaning,
What really gets us excited? How about a portable, modular pig corral? Read More »
I spent the whole day up in Oswego. The location was fabulous, a crazily canted old stone building right at the mouth of the Oswego River opening onto Lake Ontario with tugs, barges, and cranes all busying about. But my sightseeing only came in glimpses as I lugged dirty insulated panels out to the truck. I was
