Pasture Raised Heritage Pork

We raised our first pork in 2008 and were just thrilled with the whole process. Pigs are a joy to raise. They take complete delight in the littlest scrap of food and snort with joy as they forage for goodies hidden beneath the soil.

We fenced in a 3 acre area which was mostly wooded and brushy. In only one season, they not only supplemented their feed by rooting around for tasty roots and insects, but they also managed to clear about an acre of land. We will leave them on this pasture until it has been completely cleared, probably another 2 seasons, then we'll move them to a new area and start the process again.

The pork itself tastes unbelievably good. In addition to the usual roasts and chops, we also tried our hands at brining and smoking bacon and hams. These were a little tricky, and to be honest our first attempts came out a bit salty. We smoked the bacon and hams after brining them, using a neighbor's smokehouse and a combination of apple and cherry woods. We also made a ton of sausage: breakfast links and patties, English bangers and Chiorizzos.

The most wonderful thing about pigs is that they turn garbage into food and fertilizer. They ate things that nobody else around the farm wants: cabbage leaves, broccoli stumps, green tomatoes, spent vines of every kind, stale bread, bruised apples... the list goes on and on. Its amazing how many things a pig will absolutely relish that others just turn their noses up at.

In January of 2009 we bought a weanling gilt (young female) from the very nice folks at High Meadows Farm in Delhi, NY. She is a purebred Tamworth pig, a heritage breed noted for their cold hardiness and foraging abilities. We have named her Talulla (that's her in the picture above). Talulla has been bred to a Tamworth x Large Black boar and is expected to deliver her first litter of piglets during the first week of May 2010.