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 …
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 …
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 …
Hickory nuts are dropping in the woods and in the hedgerows. The pigs are pleased. They crush the shells with their molars and then sort the nut meat from the shell with their tongues, spitting out the fragments. The noise from the cracking shells sounds like it ought to be painful, but the pigs obviously don’t …
Forty-two pounds of edible fungus In the wilderness a-growin’ Saved the settlers from starvation. Helped the founding of this nation. Homer Price, Robert McCloskey Funny how I can still recite this chorus from Homer Price. I’ve forgotten the story now, but the chorus burrowed its way into long term memory. Actually I’m surprised that I haven’t reread …
The English language has a history of a highly specialized vocabulary for animals. We have words for specific types of animals (“herd”, “flock”, “pride”, or “gaggle”). We have words that differentiate by gender (“buck” vs “doe” or “dog” vs “bitch”). We have words to indicate age (“colt”, “kit”, or “kid”) and general body condition (“nag” …
Over the last few years I’ve been able to find good deals on round bales of oat straw for the pigs’ winter bedding. There are sometimes a small number of oats in the bales, but the raking and baling processes tend to dislodge most of the grain. I don’t count on the grain as amounting …
