Do you have a favorite animal on the farm? It’s honestly hard for me to decide, but I do know that I never want to not have pigs. Our pigs are Kune Kunes, a smaller breed of lard pig, which means they offer both high quality meat as well as high quality fat to be rendered into lard.
We chose this breed because we wanted to be able to butcher pigs ourselves easily without heavy equipment, and because they are more of a specialty breed so selling extra piglets won’t be hard. Kune Kunes also eat grass and don’t root as much as other pigs, so these guys are great on a small acreage like ours.
We decided to add pigs to our homestead after our cows freshened and we found ourselves with an overabundance of milk to deal with. Pigs LOVE milk. In fact, we don’t buy any feed for our pigs at all! Between eating our year-round pasture, food scraps from the house, and excess dairy (skim milk, whey, and clabber), our pigs are well-fed. The trick with Kune Kunes is to keep them from getting too fat (they’re lard pigs, after all!). By feeding primarily milk and grass, we’ve managed to strike a good balance.
Our pig mentors agree, but the real test will be when we finally butcher our first pig in the Fall. We just have three pigs right now. Petunia is our gilt, Wendell Berry is our young boar, and Piggy Smalls is bacon. We are hoping for Petunia and Wendell to make some babies here really soon and then to keep a steady stream of pigs ready to process every six months or so, and sell the rest of the piglets. I can’t wait, because if you’ve ever seen a tiny piglet you know they’re pretty much the cutest!
I am not well traveled. I’ve never flown on a plane. I’ve never been north of Ohio or west of Texas.I’m not as well traveled as some may say one should be, but this piece of land has housed all of my fondest memories…
Do you ever worry that your kids will miss out because of this homesteading lifestyle choice? This fear crosses my mind time to time. I’m sure many, if not most of you, could agree that it can be extremely difficult to get extended time away from the homestead for more than a full day, especially in the busy summer months when daily chores demand our regular attention…
“In some Native languages the term for plants translates to ‘those who take care of us’ … the land knows you, even when you are lost.” – Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass…
Babies, Business, and Bumper Crops: How I am Learning to Homestead with Babies in Tow
Have you ever had one of those days? You know the days when you are cleaning the baby’s diaper, milking the cow, scooping poop in the barn, wiping noses, and cleaning more poop off of kids’ shoes…
Hey there, Homesteading Mama’s!
I’m Rachel from @frontier_homesteading. My husband Ryan, three children and I have been homesteading for about 10 years now, first in Wyoming and now in Alaska.
We currently have milk goats, pack goats, sheep, a pig, a cow, chickens, rabbits, bees and a dog. Seasonally, we also have more pigs, meat chickens and turkeys….
Stained glass windows date back to the 7th century. With the earliest known reference dating
from 675 AD when workmen were imported from France to Britain to Glaze the windows of a
monastery…
Homesteading and growing food is not the easy way out of this life, i would say it is the hard way as there’s nothing convenient about it. It’s a lifestyle, a life change not a trend or hobby. Well, that’s my opinion any way…
Awakino Station is a child’s dream. There is the river to splash in, tussock covered hills to explore, animals to raise and a bustling kitchen with a baking tin full of something yummy to eat…
Last year, my husband got in touch with a large, local, area food bank
that was paying to dispose of fresh produce once it was no longer suitable for human consumption…
