The new batch of piglets arrived this week. They are currently working on their first assignment: rototilling some leftover hay from the cows’ winter feed.
It is funny how apt the adjective “piggish” is. For one thing, they are almost absurdly greedy. They will throw their little bodies across a trough of food, legs splayed, to prevent their siblings from getting a share. They also make really loud smacking noises as they chew—just about as loud as I possibly could if I were trying to sound rude. We shake our heads and tolerate the rudeness. They are just “expressing their pigness,” as Joel Salatin would say. And after all, unlike my own kids, they do their chores without complaining.
It’s very exciting that I found your site. I and my husband will definitely visit you and buy some fresh or frozen meats wile we’re there.
On same note as your article on eradicating invasive weeds, I’d like to put my two cents in. When I was working and living in Switzerland, I visited a lot of farms, only because it was the thing to do there, and many resdents would go to the farms to purchase their vegetables, meats and dairy directly from the farmers. I noticed that all of the farmers raising cows for veal (which is what they mostly sell there) or dairy make sure that their pasture has 50% dandelions in it, otherwise, they seed them with dandelions , which they usually do in the spring. I asked them why, and their answer is to pack the meats and dairy with lots of vitamins and minerals from this weed. The farmers and thier families themselves eat the dandelions as vegetables. And from then on, I’ve been fertilizing (with organic fertilizer) any and all the dandelions I can find in my yard in the Spring a week before I harvest them.
See you soon.
Jeanne Hall