Four Pigs

Photo Credit:  Timothy Young Photography

The staging is up. The knives have been sharpened and spices have been sorted. Twine, paper and string are shelved and we have been practicing our knot tying.

We are getting ready for our annual pig slaughter. This year is a bit different in that we have four pigs. We normally have two - a few times we have had three. We have been raising pigs for 18 years. Every year we try something a bit different - a different kind of breed or another location for grazing.

Several years ago we decided that we would not send them off to the slaughter facility after a very disappointing experience. After raising them and caring for them, we sent them squealing and stressed in the back of the truck. It just did not feel good for my husband or I to do this to our beloved animals, so we have been doing the deed ever since. Rich does the actual shooting. This year I spent the day before the kill, hanging with the pigs, thanking them for their life and just messing with them. I do love them and I am so very grateful that I have the property to support the animals that we eat. One of them insisted on a back rub and he followed me around wanting all of my attention. He is the biggest one and certainly the one that gets the most.

This year we raised Large Black and we raised four of them in anticipation of the Porks & Knives week. They ate a lot of acorns gathered by my friends and neighbors. They were going through a bag of organic grain a day (at $32.00 a bag) along with lettuce and cabbage from a local farm - and loads of whey from Mermaid Farm.

Yep. They have had a very good life and I will be grateful to them over every meal.