Hogs Come to the Homestead (again)
Do you guys remember the day we accidentally started raising hogs? Well, in the end I’m not sure if I gave you the update about how we did end up eating two of them but all of them escaped from the fence at one time or another and that is how they met their demise.
Well, a couple of weeks ago we got a call about some wild hogs. So Stewart looked at me and said he was off to pick them up. While Stewart was picking them up, the boys and I shored up the old goat shed and prepared food and water vessels for them.
Well, one came home and got placed in her new home and, thus far, has remained. The other one came home dressed and ready for the oven. After cooking all day it fed us well for a good portion of that week. So now our little helpers are eager to bring the pig whey, skimmed milk, excess eggs, kitchen scraps, and some soaked wheat we get in bulk from a local grain elevator.
Our long-term goal is to have a permanent large pig set up for either any free wild hogs that come our way, or a more trusted breed of homestead hog. For now, I am very grateful that little miss Bonnie, as the children named her, is growing and has remained safely in her confines…. at least for now.
When I was a child, my mom raised two pigs every year. Someone she knew would give her two piglets in exchange for a few pies, loaves of bread, and some pickles and kraut that she had put up. We raised the pigs and one was butchered for us and the second pig was butchered and sold. Some of it went to the butcher, some went to the monks at the boy’s school in exchange for honey and other things my mother needed to help raise her herd of children. We only ate meat one day a week and that was on Sunday. Mom did use the lard to make bread, season beans, and to cook our eggs–I don’t think she ever used any grease but lard. If I close my eyes and sit very still, I can still see her standing by the hog pan while one of us kids poured sour milk into the trough. She said her hens, her pigs, and her milk cow kept us from starving. Your children will have some very good memories.