Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Got Pork?

WE DO!!!  This past weekend, we purchased a breeding pair of Yorkshire/Duroc cross pigs.  The sow is a year old, and the boar is about 7 months.  She is bred and due to have her piglets around 11/21.  I have named the breeders Porky and Petunia.  Out of the litter, we will probably only keep 3 or 4 for our own butchering, and sell the rest as piglets.  If anyone is interested in any of the piglets once they are weaned, please let me know.

Temporarily, the happy pair has a lean to within our electrified goat pasture.  Soon, James and the boys will be fencing in our lower pasture for them and building 2 separate huts and dividing the pasture so that when Petunia has her babies, we can separate Porky from them so that he doesn't eat any of the little ones.

I am hoping to find a local resturant (or an employee) to give us their prep scraps for the pigs as well.

I can't describe the feeling, knowing that soon, we will have our own perpetuating supply of delicious, natural, grassfed, homegrown meat!  It was one of the big missing pieces on our overall homesteading plan, as free range chickens give great eggs, but the meat is lean and tough.  We will also be aquiring a couple of rabbit bucks to breed with our does soon, so that we have a good supply of delicious (don't knock it till you've tried it!) rabbit meat.

I have a short term goal of being able to cook at least 1 meal a week this winter, made entirely out of foods we have grown, hunted, or raised on our homestead or made from scratch using minimal store bought staples.  Wish me luck!

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