Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Project Bacon Pt.1


Ever since we moved to our home we have been on  a steady trend of finding more ways to use our land as pasture,garden, or orchard. This has been in no small part due to my hatred of mowing, but also as part of a move to produce more and different kinds of food on our farm. We have had a lovely half acre of land on the NE corner of our property that we have really not done much with ever since we moved in. It is far to distant from the house to be used as a garden or yard and it is partially shaded by mature maples most of the day so it wouldn't be ideal for orchard.  We have instead just mowed it once or twice a year and otherwise it has been under utilized.
   Well we aim to change all of that. We have decided to raise pigs on it for a season. We have never raised pigs before and are very excited to begin. We look forward both to having more and different types of animals on the farm as well as the quality meat they will one day provide us. Our plan is to purchase some feeder pigs and raise them over the Summer and butcher them this Fall. Jess has found a supplier and I have been hard at work erecting fencing and getting the old "bunker" ready to function as pig housing. Everything is just about complete on that score. The fence has been erected and the door and window installed on the bunker. The last thing I need to do is to bury a few sections of the fencing and add a strand of electric wire around the fence to keep the pigs from digging underneath. 

I don't have any pictures of the completed pen yet so please except this picture of home cured bacon I made last summer instead.