*NOTE TO READERS: WE RAISE PIGS FOR OUR OWN PERSONAL USE, NOT COMMERCIALLY.

On May 5th, The Family G went to Hollister Hill Farm and carefully chose two cute little piggies.  We were fine with the kids naming them, Amelia being the only one old enough to understand that these little sausages would be bacon come the fall.  Amelia chose Wilbur for the male and Genevieve chose Rudolph for the female.  Rudolph, the Feminist Pig!!  Though we’ve enjoyed their company these last 6 months, they are now much bigger, noisier. ornery, and their expiration date is fast approaching.  This cannot come soon enough for us right now as they are going through about 100 lbs of organic grain per week, which is not so cheap.  Obviously, they ate less in the beginning, but I’d say they’ve been at around 100 lbs. for the last few months.  We are looking forward to seeing them move from the pasture to the freezer!

As a reflection on our first foray into raising pigs, it has not been a great deal of work thus far.  Ten minutes in the morning and ten minutes at night to give them water and food.  Not too bad.  Once every couple weeks we spend 20 minutes and move them into a different paddock(we have 6 paddocks roughly 30′ x 30′).  We should mention that we have great neighbors who have allowed us to get away when we needed.  Thank you!

The greatest expense and time has been in setting up the infrastructure(fencing, charger, pig shelter, etc.) in the spring.  Now that it’s set up, and we have an idea about what we’re doing, we should ideally have more time for other things next year, should we decide to raise piggies again.