The Pigs’ New Digs

In partnership with our neighbour, Marg Kerr of Kervan Farms, we’re raising seven pigs this year, and we are thrilled to report they’ve all settled in quite nicely to their new home.  As we had last year, our pigs are a heritage breed called Tamworths (four are full Tams, three are Tam crosses), and again we are feeding them only certified organic feed.  However, this year we’re pleased to announce that our pork will be not only fed certified organic feed, but it will also be pastured!

Last year we raised our three pigs in our heritage bank barn in stalls that once housed my childhood horses mainly because we were at a loss for a fencing solution, since all our paddocks were still fenced (I use that term loosely) for well-behaved horses who didn’t want to escape.  Knowing that we wanted to raise pigs again this year, and more of them since we sold out, we were determined to come up with a fencing solution so that the piggies could have the best of both worlds: lush grasses from the pasture and fruits and nuts from the forest trees, but also the comfort and security of a cozy straw bed in the barn at night.  We set up a fence-training paddock, and the pigs are loving their outside time, including bathing in the bathtub that catches rain water for them!  Once we have all the pigs fully fence-savvy, there’s an area that includes both pasture and forest to offer all the free-ranging yumminess they can eat while also providing them with shade from the hot sun (yes, pigs get sunburn!), and they will still have the option of coming into the barn at night.  At the time of writing this, our three youngest pigs are out almost all day every day (except in bad weather), and our four older ones are still a little timid about the idea of the great outdoors, but slowly and steadily we keep their training going to see if we can’t get them outside more also.

We will again be selling pork by the quarter, half, or whole, and we will also be selling individual cuts, our locally-smoked bacon, and our homemade artisanal sausages (Maple Breakfast, Spicy Thai, Spicy Italian, and Honey Garlic).  We anticipate our pork should be ready late September-early October in time for Thanksgiving.  Drop us a line to secure yours early!