THE STORY BEHIND OUR PORK

Since we’ve gone to “manned” store hours, I’ve realized that everyone has their own perceptions about what we actually “do” here on the farm. As humans I think we all tend to operate from our own perspectives & I know that I at least, need to step back & look at things through a wider lens. I’ve decided to write a blog post for each of our species/products to help explain it. I hope you enjoy them & find them helpful!

We’ve raised a few pigs every summer for our own meat for years, but added pork to our product list about five years ago. Initially it was because they can drink a lot of milk & they help us to balance raw milk production & sales, but now our pork has developed a following all it’s own!

When we first started raising hogs for meat to sell, we thought we wanted Heritage (older, more traditional) breeds because they seemed to be yielding more of the healthy fat people want. Since we don’t raise breeding sows, & purchase our piglets weaned, we searched for local sources of these breeds. We ended up with a rainbow of piglets, who were absolutely adorable, but who put on too much fat with the amount of milk they were drinking. Turns out no one really wants to pay for that much fat! Now we almost always purchase our piglets from Tufts Vet School’s swine program. They are mostly Yorkshires, known for their lean muscling & low backfat, but when we get them on milk it seems to be the perfect combination!

The piglets are usually around 6 weeks old when we get them, and the season of the year determines how we manage them. We just brought home a batch of piglets last week (mid-January & mid-cold snap). These girls are being kept inside with plenty of straw & sawdust to hunker down in, and even have a heat lamp to get them by on these frigid nights. They do have access to the outdoors when they choose to take a stroll, and the sunshine’s getting stronger every day. They’re fed warm milk two times a day, have fresh water all the time, & get a grain made specifically for growing hogs. When they want to be outside, they’ve got a yard to dig in & do pig things. It’s amazing how strong their noses & necks get the more they root around! Piglets that we get in warmer times of year stay outside in a “super hutch” which is sort of like a big group dog house. They still get plenty of warm, dry bedding, but often spend more of their time outside. We feed them exactly the same as in the colder months, but they also get the benefit of green grass or whatever plants are growing in their yard. We’re slowly building up the nerve to move them farther away from the barns where we can keep a close eye on them. I know they’ll love it, but I worry if I can’t see them all the time!

We raise them here to 5-6 months old, depending on how they’re growing. Then it’s off to our USDA inspected processing facility, Meatworks, in Westport. This facility is state-of-the-art, & is based on design plans from Temple Grandin, world renowned animal behaviorist. All of the processing is done humanely & according to government standards. Pork does not need to hang as long as beef, so within a week the meat is cut, vacuum sealed, & flash frozen. We pick it up once any smoking or sausage making is done, & bring it back to the farm where we keep it frozen until you buy it.

As with all of our animals, their comfort & health is our number one priority. We know that feeding them high quality feeds results in high quality meats at the other end. We take the responsibility of caring for these creatures as part of our mission, & appreciate that we get this opportunity every day! I hope you’ll ask if you have any questions, & try some pork soon!