Ossabaw Island Pigs, a New Addition to Our Farm

Friday, Chad wrote this on our facebook page:

Danelle is on her way to pick up a breeding pair of Ossabaw Island Hogs - should have them in their pen learning what an electric fence is by this afternoon.

Generally speaking I don't put much stock in the differences associated with pig breeds...it's not the breed, it's how likely the breed was to have been bred at some point in it's family tree for confinement traits. Breeds like Berkshire, Large Black, or Mule Foot aren't necessarily better, they are just less likely than something like a yorkshire to have been bred for confinement. Even then you have to be sure to talk to the breeder to see how many generations they've been on pasture to be sure to get the right kind of traits for pasture. Even confinement hogs will remember how to be pigs again after a generation on grass or in the woods.

Ossabaws though...these are different. There are Ossabaws raised in confinement by scientists studying them due to their extremely efficient feed conversion, but they aren't bred with confinement traits in mind, and everyone raising them for meat has them in pasture or wooded areas. They remain for the most part, exactly as they are found in the wild.

They are descendants from the Spanish Iberian pigs that are run in the oak forest in spain to produce the most famous hams in the world. They were let go on Ossabaw Island south of Georgia* so they could naturalize and be a food source for the Spanish. Fast forward to today and they are much smaller pigs heavily adapted to foraging and living in harsh conditions on their own. They aren't 'improved' like almost all the other pig breeds - they retain as much piginess as is possible to have in farm raised pork. They have the darker richer flavor and marbling of the spanish Iberian, with the ability to efficiently convert extra feed into lard in large quantities.

We expect to begin offering meat from these pigs sometime next year - price still to be determined, but carcass size will be smaller...though, because they have superpowers, they produce about the same amount of bacon as one of our Berkshires would despite the small size.

They may be the perfect pig. : )

The drive was long and hot and I got lost twice, delaying our trip by nearly 3 hours and putting us smack into the intense and dangerous heat of the day that my 5 am departure was meant to avoid. I stopped and refilled icebags into the water pan twice. Poured cold water onto the pigs a few times too. It was not a good day for transport.

All said they settle in nicely. The kids learned a lot of 1920's and agricultural history (Bonnie and Clyde and why there are so many fruit orchards in Missouri). It was a hot, sticky, lovely road trip. 

*originally I had written Florida and that was a mistake. There is also new evidence that shows the pigs ancestry and I will share that soon!

Moments of Grace

Last week I was doing chores at dusk and caught this amazing sunset. The picture cannot even begin to express how amazing and breathtaking the beauty that washed the entire pasture in rose and gold light. All the animals turned West to watch it and I stood there in silence. This is when I feel close to God, part of a larger creation, and completely in awe of Earth.

Let There Be Heat

This year I grew cayenne peppers. Yes I did. I love them so much. A friend loaned me her dehydrator and it has been plugged in and going full of peppers ever since. When one batch finishes, I reload and process another. Chad bought me a set of gallon glass jars and one is already filled to the top.

Tonight, I got out the mortar and pestle and crushed 4 of the peppers to seed and powder. I was surprised actually at how almost instantly they powdered. I thought I would have to grind and work it, but they just disintegrated under light pressure. Three strokes and I was done. I added some salt and had an amazing salt rub for the pork loin I was cooking for dinner.

From the farm, our bounty nourishes us. Making my own spices was not something I thought I would ever, or for that matter, could ever do. I dried poblano peppers too. I am super excited to try to make Mole sauce.

Histories and Blogging

Everyone has a story. Everyone. Some of us are better at telling our stories, but the secret to that is actually practise. I write well because I write often. It is a craft. Being good at the craft doesn't mean that I am the only one with a story worth telling.

Everyone has a story that is valuable. From a historical perspective, what we blog and facebook will be the diary and memoir records of daily life. It will be where historians go to find our how people reacted to events of cultural and political importance. It doesn't matter if you don't have millions of readers, your reactions and observations matter historically.

They also matter personally. Your children and family could have a record of who you were and what you thought. I think about that when I write about my children, if something were to happen to me, have I told them all my stories? All the folklore and family history that I know and make up our collective family origin stories? Will they remember how much I loved them or how much I worried over them or the joy they brought me everyday? No one is promised a tomorrow, am I making enough of my today? Are you?

Do not worry about grammar or perfect expression. Just write like you would talk. This is not a magazine or a book, it is a diary. The only folks who are held to perfect writing on blogs are those of us who are academics and professors and the only folks holding us to that are not usually very kind to begin with. Just write. You'll get better at it with practise and you can always go back and revise.

When my grandmother Mel died, I had a chance to look at her diaries. They were mostly newspaper clippings and random horoscopes and weather reports. It was very much like facebook is, things she found interesting. Little notes here and there. Collectively they said a lot about who she was in those last 20 years of her life. Scraps in a notebook.

I would have loved her to write more and in more detail. I love reading the memoirs of folks who lived through historical events, especially those who were like me- mothers, wives, farmers, just everyday folks not celebrities and politicians. I find these stories matter more to me as a mother and as a historian. I love reading essays about everyday life and relationships.

Too many times really interesting people dismiss their own stories as being too boring or mundane to share. Who would want to read them?

Me. I do.

So, write for me. All of you wonderful folks, write your stories and I will read them. I will value your thoughts on things. I won't judge your grammar or style, I will just love that you are telling your histories, for prosperity.

Writing publicly has its downside. Those critics are never far, chattering their negativity and pointing out flaws, trying to undermine us all and silence anyone else who dares write. Don't be fooled and bullied. Write anyway. Dare to dream. If you need, to make your blog private or anonymous, or journal on Google docs. It is still important. Do it for long enough and you will find your voice.

I know I have. Now that I found it, I am giving it a work out and will not be hushed or put down. Too long did I let those external critics voices become the ones in my own inner dialogue and determine the worth of my thoughts. My thoughts now? If you don't like what I write, don't read it. If you do, yay! I love readers and making people think! If something I have written sticks with you, let me know. If you need encouragement to write, I'll be here for you. Everyday.

This is what I thought about as the miles sped by on rural Missouri highways today, as I drove an 8 hour round trip to fetch new pigs. Each abandoned farm house sighed at me as I passed, whispered that the stories of those who lived there are all lost and gone, washed away with the years and the rain and the snow and the wind. Gone.

Don't let yours disappear like that. Write them all down: what you ate, what games you played, what your thoughts on Syria or Miley's VMA performance are, what the weather was like, what books you read and liked, what beauty you found, acts of kindness you witnessed, your everyday happiness and sorrow- they all have value.