Proud Pigs

I woke this morning to the steady sound of rain. For me, sound is the first sense to come alive in the morning. With my eyes closed, in the stillness of the now luxuriously late dawn I listened further to learn more. Beyond the patter of rain on our metal roof, and past the loud drips of rain pouring off the eaves, I listened for the sound of running water. 

Rain is a familiar sound this year and the seasonal drainage by our house, which is normally dry all summer, has been a vibrant source of play, frogs, birds and dog baths. There in the background was the surging rhythm that told me we had significant rainfall last night. My heart sank, we did not need any more rain…and then I remembered we processed our last batch of chickens and all the coops in the field were empty, waiting to be put to bed for the season.

I sighed in relief and got out of bed.

The end of chicken production always marks a change in the seasons and in the farm’s rhythm. Chickens are the most sensitive animal group to the whims of mother nature’s weather. With the end of chickens for the season we also received our group of piglets for the winter. 

I have been excited about this group of piglets for a long time. They come from our friend Tim and his family at High Low Farm in Woodstock, VT. I first talked to Tim in the spring when I was left scrambling to find piglets because the arrangement I thought we had with another producer had suddenly disappeared. Tim did not have any piglets to sell, but we started planning for the fall.

In the past we have sourced piglets from many different sources, some from local neighbors who raise their sows in a barn, once from our friends at Essex Farm but rarely from the same source. One of the tenets of how we farm is to consider not just what we do on our farm, but what the other farmers and businesses have to do to grow or make the inputs we need on our farm. This is why organic is so important to us as a livestock farm, it’s not just how we raise our animals but also how other farmers grow the feed or bedding, or in this case the piglets.

In talking to Tim I was excited to hear that he was raising and breeding his sows to farrow (have piglets) on pasture year round. He was using great genetics: a 50/50 cross of Berkshire and Mangalitsa, both known for their excellent flavor and Mangalitsa in particular have a thicker coat of hair making them well suited to our colder winters. Tim typically feeds non-GMO feed to his pigs, mostly because of the cost, he told me. He believes that his customers are not willing to pay for the added cost of Organic Grain. 

I realized in this conversation, which I’ve had many times with many different producers, that I have a role to play in the change I want to see. I asked Tim if he would feed organic grain to the sows that he suggested he could sell us the piglets from. Yes, was his emphatic answer. So these piglets are not Certified Organic, but their mamas have eaten only organic grain (plus all the yummies from woodlands and pastures) since they had their piglets. 

So not only do we have some awesome heritage genetics – great instincts and training from mamas who know how to live outside –, we also know that their whole lives, including their lactating mamas, have supported organic grain growers. We can see right from the beginning that these piglets know and love the outdoors. They started rooting right away, they know how to pull and carry bedding to make cozy beds, and they have thick hair to shed rain and keep them warm as they snuggle together at night.

This week Lovett has come down every day after school, and some days before school, to check on the piggies. One day she even brought her two friends over after school to “play piggies.” Her two friends are both farm girls and there was some pretty awesome creative play by both species. Racey and I sat back and admired as the girls made “hay roofs” for the piggies, and the pigs got more and more curious about the small humans. 

On Monday we processed our last batch of chickens, on Tuesday we received the new piglets, and on Wednesday I loaded up the truck and drove to Brooklyn! Brooklyn? Yep, Brooklyn. We have been out of our delicious chicken broth for a while now and Racey has been hard at work finding a processor that can make us an excellent broth. She finally found the folks at SpringBone Kitchen in Brooklyn, NY. They purchased some of our chicken bones for their broth and we also contracted them to make us some chicken broth and some beef broth!

So I brought down some more beef bones for them and picked up a pallet of chicken broth. It was a long day of driving, and a reminder of what traffic is like when you do not live in the Adirondacks, and we are proud to offer some excellent, no salt added, chicken broth. In the future we would consider adding some of their flavored broths to our offerings. 

Order some of our chicken broth and let us know what you think!

With already saturated ground, heavy rain all night yielded a fantastic network of puddles and canals to be navigated by “sponge wood” and wooden boats. There is treasure everywhere.