A Most Beautiful Wedding and Some Pretty Pigs

We arrived home late last night from a quick jaunt to Vancouver, Washington, where we had travelled for the wedding of our niece, Annie, to her true love, Sean.  It was a beautiful and fun event, and we were so happy to celebrate with Roger's family.  We wish Annie and Sean many decades of happy adventures together.

It was a whirlwind trip so we did not have time for touristy explorations, but we realized we were very close to the farm of a former colleague of Rog's and could stop for a few minutes on our way to the airport yesterday morning.  April used to work as an engineer in Rochester, but returned to farm near Vancouver, where she grew up.  April and her husband Brad have April Joy Farm, a picturesque, 28-acre farm where they raise a spectrum of organic vegetables and heritage pork. They operate a veggie CSA,  sell produce to restaurants and markets, and sell their farm-processed pork directly to customers.

We accompanied April to feed her Tamworth pigs, a pretty red breed with big ears. Ginger and MaryAnn are the two newly-acquired young sows.

Rosie is the queen of the farm. She is due to have piglets next week. I wish I could have seen the newborn piglets, but probably a good thing  they hadn't arrived yet or I would have been so tempted to  sneak one home on the plane!

April acquired Rosie when she was only 30  pounds--she is about 700 pounds now.  She is a beauty.

April built this enviable chicken tractor on an old  trailer her brother had. In the background you can see some of the table grapes, planted the first year she bought the farm. There is also a small orchard and a large, new high tunnel greenhouse on the farm.

 

What fun to see an old friend and kindred spirit and her amazing enterprise! We hated to leave this idyllic farm (not to mention the beautiful green, spring morning) so soon, but we had to get home to our own sweet little farm - and a foot of fresh snow.

SBF Valentine

The Pig Tale

Several people have written wondering how the pig harvest went. We slaughtered our two pigs two weeks ago, and all went according to plan, but I didn't take photos (actually, I tried to stay out of the way) and Sara asked me to wait to write about until we got the pork back from the processor. It took a couple weeks while some of the meat was smoked and cured.

Sara decided to slaughter the pigs on the farm so they wouldn't have to be transported frightened to the processor. Our farmer neighbor, Mark, did the hardest part - shooting the pigs and hanging them from his skidloader, then placed them in the back of the pickup. Sara and Cadence wrapped them up and drove them immediately to the the processor for butchering. The entire slaughter only took about half an hour. Even though these pigs were raised specifically for this purpose, it was an intense and emotional day--I was proud of Sara for maintaining her cool and handling everything so calmly and thoughtfully.

This Wednesday, Sara and Cadence drove back to Dover and picked up the finished meat, all neatly frozen and wrapped. The two pigs provided 330 lbs. of pork chops, bacon, roasts, ham, steaks, ribs, and sausage. Sara had orders for three quarters and we gave meat to the dairy farmers in appreciation for providing us with milk for our pigs and to Mark for helping with the slaughter, so we will end up with about half of that amount for ourselves. That's a lot of bacon!

Last night Sara prepared a fabulous feast of braised pork shoulder, served with walnut-beer bread, spinach and dried cherry salad, and mashed potatoes for our dear friends who were also our first pork customers. We said a little thank you for the pigs. The meal was exquisite.

We have never been so close to our food before moving to the farm. We had grown our own vegetables and eaten fish we caught, but that is not anything like eating chickens you raised from day-old chicks or pork you have raised from young piglets, knowing them as individuals, feeding them, scratching their heads, laughing at their antics and making sure they have a comfortable, happy life. I know could readily be a vegetarian farmer, but then there would be no reason to raise these animals. And since these pigs were destined for the table, they couldn't have dreamed of a more pleasurable life.

Sara, ever philosophical and poetic, remarked as we ate out first pork meal, "It is a cycle - Right now we are consuming everything we fed our pigs this summer--the milk from our neighbors' cows, bushels of tomatoes and squash from our garden, those acorns we raked up from Hal's yard, that powdery pig chow we got from the feedmill, the bones from our organic chicken stock, broken eggs, wild raspberry plants and roots they dug up from the woods, insects they caught, and all of our lovely kitchen scraps." Yes, those pigs feasted like gourmands, and now they are nourishing us very well.

Here is the braised pork recipe Sara used for our dinner. She added beer and wine to the braising liquid:

Braised Pork Shoulder with Chimichurri
Recipe by Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo

ACTIVE: 45 MIN
TOTAL TIME: 3 HRS 15 MIN
SERVINGS: 8

INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
5 pounds pork shoulder, trimmed and cut into 5 equal pieces
Salt and freshly ground pepper
5 garlic cloves
2 large onions, coarsely chopped
3 thyme sprigs
1 bay leaf
2 cups chicken stock

Chimichurri sauce (recipe below)

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 275°. In a large skillet, melt the butter in the oil. Season the pork with salt and pepper and brown over high heat, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Transfer to an enameled cast-iron casserole and add the garlic, onions, thyme, bay leaf, stock and 2 cups of water; bring to a boil. Cover with foil and bake for 2 1/2 hours, until the pork is falling-apart tender. Transfer to a dish; keep warm. Strain the liquid, return to the casserole and reduce by half over moderately high heat. Season with salt and pepper, add to the pork and serve with chimichurri.

Chimichurri sauce: In a mortar, mash 1 chopped garlic clove with 1 seeded jalapeño. Season with 1 teaspoon of salt. Work in 1 bunch each of stemmed curly and flat-leaf parsley and 1/4 cup of chopped oregano. Stir in 3/4 cup of olive oil and 2 tablespoons of white wine vinegar and season with 1/2 teaspoon of crushed red pepper.

A Little Taste of What's To Come

On Friday we were forecast to get a few snow flurries, but I don't think anybody anticipated the 4 inches of heavy, wet snow we actually got. Yes, it was pretty, but at the same time a bit dismaying, since we have only had a few nice fall days so far this year.
Most of the trees haven't dropped their leaves yet, and the combined weight of the leaves and all that snow was too much for many of them. A large limb broke off a huge silver maple by the barn, totally blocking our driveway. Sara was out feeding her pigs and heard the crack and the crash.
If you didn't notice them in the previous photo, the turkeys were enjoying shelter from the snow in the fallen foliage. They were funny--cocking their heads and looking up to the sky as if trying to figure out where this cold white stuff was coming from.
Snow falling on the chicken coop, hens cozily inside.
Snow sifted upon the open barn door.
I walked out to the woods for a few wintery photos, followed by the turkeys.
The big rock in the snow. I could hear branches snapping and falling throughout the woods and decided it might not be the safest place for a photo session just then.
At first the pigs weren't sure they wanted to climb out of their nice dry pile of straw inside the pig shed, but they came out to check out the snow.
They followed me as I walked the perimeter of their fenced yard knocking the snow off the wires. Snow had weighted the electric wires down to the ground and the pigs could have easily walked over them and out if they wanted to.
Lasso, the Dexter steer calf, hung out inside the loafing shed rather than get all wet in the snow.
By late Saturday afternoon the snow ended and was already beginning to melt. The first chore on our weekend To Do List was to cut up and remove this bough Saturday morning. Happily, by Saturday afternoon the snow was gone.

The Big Pig Day is Set

Our second big moment of truth as farmers is coming next week - we will harvest the pigs. Our first moment of truth was harvesting the chickens. But it is not nearly as easy to know and become fond of 200 roosters as individuals as it is two sweet sows. Of course this is all part of the cycle of farm life, and we did get these pigs knowing that they would be food, and we certainly can't afford to keep them as pets - but still, it will be hard.

My bedtime reading the past week has been "The Compassionate Carnivore," by Catherine Friend (a sheep farmer from nearby Zumbrota) and it has been the perfect preparation for this aspect of farming. The book is fascinating, compelling and not preachy. Friend's four steps to being a more compassionate carnivore are:

1. Pay attention! Know where your meat comes from.
2. Waste less meat (Friend estimates that the amount of meat Americans throw away every day = 7500 cattle, 18,000 hogs and 1 million chickens. How can anyone, even a carnivore, think it is ok for this many animals to be slaughtered, then wasted?)
3.Replace factory meat with meat from animals raised humanely.
4. Choose meatless meals over meat from animals raised in factories.

This issue is much broader than just providing animals with a good life. Eating as a compassionate carnivore supports local farmers and strengthens farmer-community relationships. Raising animals on small-scale, sustainable farms is also much easier on the environment than concentrating them in huge feedlots on factory farms.
There is no question that Sara's pigs have led a most pleasant life -- exploring a quarter acre of woods; wallowing in a huge mud puddle of their own construction; feasting on 3 meals a day of antibiotic-free grain, garden produce, and fresh milk from the neighbor's dairy; hobnobbing with a flock of friendly chickens who chose to reside with them, and enjoying daily conversations and belly-rubs from Sara.

Our much-more experienced farmer-hunter-neighbor will assist us with the slaughter, right here on the farm. The pigs won't be herded onto a truck, scared and stressed. Their lives will be idyllic up to the very last minute. We will thank them for the great enjoyment they have given us as farmers and for the sustenance they are about to provide (and I know I will cry anyway.)

These pigs have been Sara's project from the very beginning,and she is being very professional and matter-of-fact about everything. She is now taking orders. If you are interested, here are the details she sent out:

I will be harvesting my two pigs at the end of the month, and am offering half and whole hogs for sale for $2/lb hanging weight. This is an economical way to stock your freezer: I expect each pig to have a hanging weight somewhere around 215 lbs, and to yield around 170 lbs. of meat, so a half hog (around 85 lbs. of meat) will cost around $215, and the per-pound price for the meat would work out to around $2.50-2.60, not including the cost of processing.

The pigs will be processed at Burt's Meats in Eyota. Burt's charges $0.37/lb hanging weight for custom butchering, plus $0.25/lb for any meat you want ground, and $0.85 for any meat you want smoked. They have a huge variety of sausage seasonings and curing options. You would pay Burt's directly for the processing, and they'll do it to your specifications. (As an example, if you buy a 108 lb. half-hog, the butchering will cost you $40. If you want to smoke 30 lbs. of ham and bacon, add $25.50, and if you want to grind 10 lbs. for sausage, add $2.50, for a total processing fee of $68).

Just to give you an idea of the kinds and proportion of cuts that a hog yields, my pig book says a pig with a hanging weight of 180 lbs will yield about 44 lbs of ham, 36 lbs of loin chops, 12 lbs of picnic roasts, 13 lbs Boston butt roasts, 28 lbs bacon, and 7lbs spare ribs. (My pigs are a bit bigger than this).

The pigs have been raised on grain, milk, vegetable scraps, and forage, and have spent their lives in a large wooded enclosure with their own shed and swimming pool (although they usually preferred to dump it out and wallow in the mud). For pictures, check out the blog: www.squashblossomfarm.blogspot.com.

If you have any questions or would like to place an order, give a call.
Thanks!
Sara
507-252-9639

Pigs in Heaven

Rog and I are taking care of Sara's pigs while she is off visiting friends for a few days. On Sunday, between rainshowers, we went for a walk in the woods and paid the pigs a visit. They blissfully appreciated being petted and scratched, then they started crazily racing around the woods, barking and crashing through the brush. It is a bit unnerving to have two 300-lb. pigs barreling straight toward you at breakneck speed with only a little 2-wire fence between you and them. But the pigs have the utmost respect for the wire fence and screeched to a stop before touching it.
The pigs have industriously working, rooting and tilling the ground. This area of upturned earth was thick underbrush a couple weeks ago.
The pigs have very expressive tails. They can straighten or curl them at will, and when especially happy, they wag them in a twirling motion!

The Pig Picture Post

I know I don't have proportionally as many photos of our pigs as I do of the other farm animals. This evening I went out specifically to take pig picture to rectify that and it became clear that the reason I don't have many pig pictures posted is that pigs in pictures are problematic.
Our two pigs have a small penned area next to their pig barn that opens out to a huge fenced area in the woods. The "fence" is just three strands of electrified nylon wire that the pigs could easily clamber over, but they respect it--they don't want to risk a little zing to the snout.
Tonight when I went to see the pigs they began tearing around the woods like maniacs. Until I got there, they had been lazily lying in the mud. Were they overjoyed to see me? Just showing off?
Usually, as soon as I go out to the pigs they begin wrestling around with each other obnoxiously--butting each other's heads and shoving each other around. The image I can capture im my viewfinder is generally of the top of their their heads or of their butts.
My best option is usually the sterotypical shot of the pig wallowing in the mud.
Frequently one or both of the pigs will flop down on the ground to rest and then they look...dead. I suspect if I find the image of a pig relaxing disturbing, I must be watching way too many factory farming documentaries.
My next strategy will be to photograph the pigs with Sara, who finds them mesmerizing. I am hoping to see the beauty in pigs that she sees.

P-P-Perfect & P-P-Productive Weekend

Peachy Pie. Actually, it is a nectarine & wild black raspberry tart, one of several traffic-stoppingly beautiful pastries Sara made for the Farmers Market on Saturday.
Painted Ponies--Not to be outdone, Cadence made dozens of pretty equine cookies with black raspberry glaze and filling to sell at the market.
Platform Plan. Rog and Cadence designed and got the supplies for building the loft in Cadence's granary cabin.
Pig Therapy. Sara spent a much of this afternoon communing with her beloved pigs. She cleverly constructed two wooden frames that hold plastic planter boxes for feeding and watering the pigs so they don't dump it over. They're still trying, but haven't succeeded yet.
Pasture Protection Rog installed electric wire at Dexter cow nose level all around the inside of our main pasture this morning, excluding the orchard. If this doesn't keep Lariat in the pasture and the calves out of the poor nibbled fruit trees, I don't know what will.
Paint, Paint, Paint. I am still working on paintings for my exhibit to be installed in just nine days! These new paintings have an irrepressible farm theme -our animals have been modelling for me.

A Fur and Feather Report

The farm critters are a never-ending source of entertainment. Lately, one of the free-range roosters has claimed the column at the bottom of the steps as his pedestal.
The pigs have created an awesome wallow by repeatedly dumping out their watering containers and rooting around in the resulting muck. On hot days they like to sink deep into it.
Afterwards they turn into bi-color pigs. They really love to be scratched and petted, but I have to admit I don't touch them as much as they would like because they are usually so muddy.
Cadence's second 100 broiler chickens are getting big and handsome. As soon as the first 100 chickens are harvested (next week!) they will get to leave the chicken tractors and be free range. A few have gotten out prematurely when we have moved the tractors, such as this barred rock who is outside the pen, but they seem to stick pretty close to the flock.
Lariat, the Dexter cow, has also managed to get out a few times. Either she is a master escape artist or we are pathetic fencers. Probably the latter, but we are gradually figuring out how to make cow-proof fences.
We have been using the movable electric fence with the solar charger and pasturing the cows in the front yard intermittently. They seem to like a change of venue. And new trees to nibble on.
Supposedly Dexter cows are very hardy and prefer to stay outside, even in the depths of winter. Our Dexters must be unusually wimpy. They choose to hang out in the loafing shed when it is barely even sprinkling. Lasso, the steer calf, loves to lie in the manger so I have nicknamed him "Little Lord Jesus."
The turkey chicks are now three weeks old. Somebody wrote that they must be getting ugly as they grow up. They are a bit gawky, but still rather cute, I think.

Every morning after they eat breakfast the dogs take off to explore the marshy ditch and the tall grass prairie. They return an hour or so later-- filthy, wet and exhausted, but with big grins on their faces. Here's Cocoa...
...and here's Nutmeg, happy and soggy after one of their morning forays.

A Few Great Guests and the Great Cow Escape

Last week we hosted our first Couch Surfer. Couch Surfing is a way to meet new people by either staying at their home or offering your home as a place to stay. Sara had signed us up online and we had our first request from Andrew, a UW-Madison student coming to Rochester to take the MCAT exam. Despite the fact that each couch-surfer's profile, photo and references are posted on the website, I was a bit worried that we could be inviting some crazy person into our home. However, Sara asked Andrew if he was a serial killer, and he said "no" so of course my mind was put at ease.

Andrew turned out to be the ideal considerate, charming guest. Plus, he had lived on a farm before and dived right in, helping Cadence fabricate a set of killing cones for her chickens and helping Sara install a movable electric fence for her pigs. He would have even helped Cadence harvest her chickens (so much for the serial killer denial!) but she determined they were still too small.
I didn't get a photo of Andrew installing the fence, but the new fenced area is behind Cadence in this photo of her feeding the pigs. Those pigs are very happy exploring that large wooded area and they learned to mind the fence after just a single touch of moist snout to hot wire.
On Sunday, Rog's brother Chris and family arrived for a brief visit from Danville, CA. Our sister-in-law, Vicki, fell in love with the cows and asked us to let her adopt them if we ever planned to eat them.
Our 12-year-old nephew Zack and his buddy Nick had never been to a farm before, but by the end of the afternoon they were catching chickens and driving the garden tractor around the yard.
Shortly after Chris and family left, another car drove into our yard and a man got out and asked if we had cows. "Yes." "They are out on the road!" "OH NO!!" But then we realized that our cows were safe in their pasture. we looked out the kitchen window and saw that our dairy farming neighbor's cows were out and traffic was stopped along the highway.
The man drove across the gravel road to the dairy farm but returned immediately when he couldn't find anyone home. Cadence and I followed him to the loose cows. We discovered that 15 cows had busted out and were romping in the neighboring cornfield. Compared to our little Dexters, Holsteins are HUGE and kind of scary! We didn't know what to do, other than signal the cars to slow way down and try to prevent the cows from running onto the road.
Fortunately, a few moments later Nancy, the farmer's wife, happened to drive by and pulled over to see what was up. "Your cows are loose!" She sped away and within minutes the entire family was there, some on foot and some on 4-wheelers, herding the cows back through the broken fence. One rebellious cow charged out toward the road and fell several feet into the ditch. We held our breath, sure that she must have broken a leg, but amazingly she was ok.
By the time the cows were heading back to their barn, our adrenalin surge was beginning to calm. Cadence and I looked at each other, relieved that no cows or cars or people were injured and slightly comforted by knowing that our cows are not the only ones that occasionally escape.