Three more Tamworth piglets on the farm

 

Three 9-week-old Tamworth pigs, on their first day at our farm.

On August 12, I brought home our latest batch of Tamworth pigs, three this time. If you've been keeping track, this is our fourth batch of pigs, all of them Tamworths. While I was away on the 6-hour (RT) drive to Toledo, WA to get them, David was setting up the electric fence and moving the A-frame Piglet Palace. The yard he fenced off was quite large, with a good mix of shorter and taller grasses and clover. 

Right out of the gate, the piglets raced around, clearly thrilled by their grassy surroundings. In fact, although we had a trough with a lovely organic hog mash all ready for them, they ignored it for quite some time, being apparently more interested in the green stuff. They were probably around 30 pounds or so when we got them, and when they went into the taller grass they nearly disappeared from sight. Evidently they were having a good time, though. We got a couple of drinks and sat there for a while watching them; great fun, I'm telling you.

Two little Tamworths, ignoring the yummy organic hog mash in their 

trough. At least we don't have to bribe them to eat their vegetables.

 The piglets have grown noticeably in the five days we've had them. Just today, one of them decided to free-range, so we spent a while getting him back in the yard (OK, we did this several times) and troubleshooting the electric fence. Clearly the little dickens wasn't respecting the fence. When we were finished, though, we were rewarded with the telltale yelp when his snout touched the rope. Pigs are smart, and they learn pretty fast to stay away from that hot rope. They're also speedy runners, and I hope we don't have to do the piglet roundup again anytime soon.

Pigs have food issues

We've all heard that feeding corn to beef cattle isn't good for them; large amounts of grain like corn causes acidosis. And although pretty much everyone agrees that corn-fed beef has superior taste, we've been conditioned to have a knee-jerk reaction that corn-fed meat in general is bad, grass-fed is good. However, this is not true of pork. Please bear with me as I step briefly onto my soap box to explain.

OK here it is, the big difference between pigs and cows: Cattle are ruminants, pigs are not. A cow's elaborate system of four stomachs (the word "ruminant" is derived from "rumen," the cow's first stomach) is designed to efficiently convert grasses and legumes into muscle. Pigs, on the other hand, not only love corn, they positively thrive on it. Our Tamworth pigs, being the champion rooters of the pig world, definitely love being on pasture or even in the woods, but we do also feed them organic, non-GMO grain, including corn. Usually they will eat a wet grain mash first thing in the morning, but after a few minutes of that they head off for a busy morning of rooting.

Like all our animals, we try to give the pigs as natural a life as possible, while balancing their needs and preferences with our desire to keep them safe and healthy. Pigs (especially Tamworths) love to root, so we provide them with plenty of pasture to plow up. Right now, their paddock extends into the edge of a wooded area as well, so they have quite a variety of interesting roots to divide their attention among.

From all we have learned, we believe that a balanced diet is the right thing for our pigs, and that includes a variety of grains, including corn. Actually, at this stage of their development, we have bumped up the proportion of corn so as to slightly lower their protein intake; the extra carbohydrate also helps keep them warm at night, as well as enhancing the quality of the finishing fat.

So, there you have it: Corn-fed pork is a good thing. They love it, and they are happy and healthy. If you're still skeptical, come see our pigs for yourself. Better yet, visit the Alder Wood Bistro in Sequim and ask for Tamworth pork!

Method #1 for roasted heritage Tamworth pork belly

First, I will get back to poultry-related subjects shortly; the past couple of weeks have been all about Tamworth pork. I've got a large cooler full of various cuts (shoulder, loin, leg, belly) curing here, and I'm helping Gabriel (chef at the Alder Wood Bistro) with the curing of prosciutto, pancetta, bacon, guanciale and Canadian bacon. I'm quite excited about this amazing pork, and now we are planning for a mid-winter barbecue here at the farm.

The other night, for the first time, I roasted a nice thick piece of skin-on pork belly. It was close to three inches thick, with a nice balance of fat to lean; the lean was a rich dark red. (The belly is the cut from which bacon is made.) As we do with all premium cuts of meat, I simply sprinkled it with a little Kosher salt and freshly-ground pepper. I let it sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes. Then into the oven at 400F, and I set the timer for 30 minutes. (Not having done this before I wasn't sure how long it would take, but I was aiming for an internal temperature of 150F.) I meant to roast it with the skin side up, but forgot until I checked the temperature after 30 minutes; then I turned it.

Altogether it took about 45 minutes to reach 150F. I let it rest in the pan for 5 or 10 minutes before we sliced it to serve. Two things I noticed that were a surprise to me: first, the skin seemed to dissolve into the fat just below the skin, and like the fat, literally melted in my mouth. Second, the fat on this pork did not seem greasy at all! I have heard that the diet of the pig directly affects the quality and taste of the fat, so I think we'll keep doing what we've done so far.

Roasted pork belly seems to be a "hot" menu item in restaurants these days, and I'd highly recommend that you try it when you have the chance. It's not always easy to find uncured pork belly that you can roast yourself, but you can try asking the butcher at your grocery store or co-op. It's worth the effort, in my opinion, to find really good-quality pork, though, which may not be available at your grocery store.

Have you tried roasted pork belly? If so, where did you have it? If you've bought and roasted your own, where did you get it and how did you cook it? I've heard of a slow-roasting method where the belly cooks for 5 hours or so, but I have yet to try that myself.

Gilts behaving badly

After a hard day of free-ranging, the Three 

Little Pigs snooze in the turkey roost area. 
(Photo by David B. Miller)

"It's like three of the most gorgeous [gilts] raising hell."
-Molly Shannon as Mary Catherine Gallagher in SNL's hilarious film Superstar


Oh, those pigs. Sigh. The Three Little Pigs (can I just say that they are NOT afraid of the Big Bad Wolf, so you needn't e-mail me), unlike our first four Tamworths, are determined to prove that their reputation as escape artists is well deserved. No matter how we adjust the two strands of electric rope, they continue to find new ways to get out. During their first week here, we actually saw them jump over the fence. Frankly, I never imagined pigs could jump; it was quite a sight, believe you me.

The Three Little Pigs are all gilts; that is, female pigs less than a year old. Why this batch are so different from the others we've had is a mystery to us. It's not as if they are hungry and just busting out looking for food. It's not that they are simply adventurous little things that want to see the world. We're rapidly coming to the conclusion that they are breaking out pretty much because they can. Apparently being pasture-raised isn't enough for some pigs; they want to literally free-range like all the birds do. At least they don't seem inclined to disappear into the woods, thank goodness.

I figured out the other day that they respond to a waving broom much more positively than to waving arms. For some reason it is relatively easy to herd them back into their yard with the broom (I did this by myself a few days ago, much to everyone's surprise). Not that I'm wasting time analyzing the whys and wherefores; it's good enough for me that I've found something that works. I'd much prefer to find a way to prevent them escaping in the first place, but what the heck, they're going to be slaughtered in a couple of months anyway.

Poor little pigs, they seem so happy when they're running free and turning over the birds' feeders and rooting up my garden. Gilts, you know, just want to have fun.

Tamworth pork: The other red meat?

We've been quite busy this past week or so dealing with several hundred pounds of wonderful Tamworth pork. The two pigs we had brought home last June at 7 weeks of age had grown steadily, happily rooting and grazing on pasture as well as enjoying top-quality organic grains. We knew they were bigger than the two Tams we had had slaughtered last year, but we were fairly astounded to learn that they were actually quite a lot larger than we expected.

Last Thursday, we met with Gabriel (chef at the Alder Wood Bistro in Sequim) and Sean (one of his cooks) to begin the process of butchering the hogs. The Bistro is closed every January, affording the crew there a much-needed and definitely well-deserved vacation. Although Gabriel was just buying one of the two pigs, he kindly allowed us to use his cooler to store both carcasses for a few days while we cut it up and made decisions about how to use it all. This was a huge help to us, and we're very grateful for the use of his kitchen space and his knowledgeable help in butchering the pigs.

As I mentioned, the pigs were much bigger than we'd expected. They had been broken down into the large primal cuts: Head, back leg (ham), front leg (shoulder), loin, and side (belly). When we heaved one of the 35-pound loins onto the work table, we weren't too surprised to see a good thick layer of beautiful back fat under the skin. Once the guys had taken out the tenderloin, which lies against the baby back ribs parallel to the spine, they began dividing the gorgeous loin into thick chops. I was so interested in this process (which I'd only been involved in once before, when we slaughtered our first two pigs last year) that it was a few minutes before I noticed something: not only was the meat much darker red than is usual with pork, the meat was beautifully marbled and, to my eye at least, looked more like beef than pork.

Gabriel and Sean worked away at boning and cutting up the pork for several hours. Later in the afternoon, everyone took a break and Gabriel cooked up some of the meat for us. He took some boneless pieces from three different cuts, seasoned them with a little truffle salt, and grilled them quickly. Sliced thinly and served with a mixed-greens salad, the pork was (as my visiting sister Lindy said) "a revelation." The appearance, texture and flavor was actually reminiscent of a good steak. I don't think I had ever had pork cooked this way, and it was truly delicious.

So there you go, folks. Tamworth pork is the new beef, at least while it lasts at the Alder Wood Bistro. If you're within a few hours' drive of Sequim, believe me, it's worth the trip to eat here. The Bistro is open Tuesday through Saturday, 11 AM till 3 PM for lunch, and 5 PM to 9 PM for dinner. Reservations are a good idea if you're coming for dinner; call (360) 683-4321.

By the way, if you get out here to the Bistro soon, they might still have some of the fantastic pates that Gabriel made using the Tamworth livers. Just sayin'.

Happy New Year! I am back....

Hi there! I hope you all enjoyed the holiday season. After being down with a nasty 'flu for a couple of weeks (during which I couldn't be bothered even to check my e-mail, never mind find the energy to write on this blog), I am back! I've got a lot to talk about, too, so look out for more posts than usual this month.

You might think that January is some kind of off-season for farmers, full of short days and long winter naps. The days are certainly short (although already noticeably longer), so we need to maximize our daylight-hour efforts. We've had some cold weather lately, with several days in a row last week where the daytime high temperature didn't even reach freezing. On those days we spend a lot of time just making sure the animals' drinkers are kept thawed. Luckily we haven't had much snow lately, as that adds another degree of difficulty to the daily chores.

We also are racing the clock to get firewood in every day. Some recent high-wind activity brought down some trees on our property, and my husband David has been keeping quite busy locating, cutting up, and hauling them out of the woods. It's nice when the trees come down right next to the road, but more often we end up having to haul the rounds out by wheelbarrow (sometimes a sled), so it can get to be time-consuming. The payoff, besides the extra exercise, is that our house stays nice and cozy even when the temperatures drop down into the teens or lower.

Today the big project is getting the pigs moved into new paddocks. Even the newest pigs (the Three Little Pigs) are big enough at 4 months old that they have reduced their current paddock to mud in a short time. It's helped that lately the ground has been, for the most part, frozen; it's easier to walk around in their yard without getting stuck. The downside is that the pigs can't do much rooting, which is pretty much their favorite thing to do. They also do better when they have the variety in their diet that pasture crops provide. Part of their new paddock will include access to a wooded area. I'm hoping they'll find some truffles....

Speaking of pasture crops, I've spent the better part of the last two days doing some intensive planning and research about various grains, grasses and legumes. Since it seems that we will be continuing to raise pigs, it's becoming necessary for us to develop a good plan for sustainable rotation of grazing pastures. It's a lot of work because I'm relatively new to this, but at the same time it's exciting; the "big picture" of the future of our farm is starting to take shape, on paper at least. It will be up to us to make it a reality, starting this winter.

The egg production is up dramatically over the past couple of weeks, and we should be easily able to keep up with the Alder Wood Bistro's needs when they re-open the first week of February (they close for vacation every year in January). Our two older pigs are scheduled to be slaughtered on January 21, and we will be teaching several people how to break down the pigs into chops and roasts. We will also be starting another round of curing prosciutto, pancetta, lardo, culatello, guanciale, and several kinds of sausage (all without nitrates, of course).

Other stuff coming up: Before long, I will be starting some seedlings in the greenhouse, a task that I look forward to every year. Recently I have been learning to hand-hew logs, and I have hewn a number of cedar logs, from which I will soon be building a grape arbor. There is split-rail fence to repair where a tree came down on it during a windstorm, and a drainage ditch culvert that needs attention. This is also the time of year when we realize the need to repair the half-mile of road between the house and the gate; in the low areas especially, holes seem to develop quickly with the fall rains.

So... plenty to do. Lots to look forward to and daydream about. I'm excited, aren't you? All the best to you in 2011.

Small farm new math: If (chicken tractor), then (pig plow)

A couple of weeks ago, I drove to Sedro Woolley, a small town north of Seattle. It's beautiful farm country there, literally at the foot of the Cascade Mountains. I visited Woolley Farms, a lovely organic farm, to buy some Tamworth pigs to add to the two we've been raising this year. The 11-week-old pigs were somewhat bigger than I expected; it was a challenge getting the three of them into the two dog carriers I had brought, but finally they were tucked in and settled for the three hour drive home. Like the first two times I've brought home Tamworth piglets, these cuties slept pretty much all the way home.

Last year we decided to diversify our small farm by adding two pigs. Although I had done quite a bit of reading on the subject, I felt just about as ignorant as I had prior to starting with poultry. I was also excited, though; it was something new and different.

I had heard that the Tamworth breed was particularly noted for its rooting ability. Never having been in close proximity to pigs, other than at the county fair, I had only a hazy idea of what that actually meant in real life. Well, as far as the Tamworth is concerned, it means they will plow up pretty much everything in reach of their long, strong snouts. Watching our first two weaners, we were amazed at how quickly and efficiently such little pigs turned a grassy pasture into loose soil.

We haven't had our rototiller out of the shed since.

You might be wondering what pigs have to do with poultry. Well, as I said, our first motivation in getting pigs was to diversify our farm operations, a major factor in the success of small farms. (I also love to cure prosciutto, pancetta, bacon and other cured pork products, and at least in our area, there aren't many choices in commercially available pork.) We figured, if chicken tractors, why not pig plows? 

David and I decided that, since these pigs wanted to root all day long, by golly, we'd put them to work doing what they love. There is a large area to the east of our main house, between the shooting range and the large peat bog; in the summer, this area is 7 feet deep in reed canary grass. It is also the largest plot on our property that could potentially be turned into good pasture. The water table is high there, making it essentially self-watering. It's flat, gets good sun in summer, and unlike most of our 40 acres, it has no trees. As we watched the piglets happily tossing large clumps of sod in the air, the wheels started turning. What if we could transform this previously unused acre or so into prime grazing land?

We just moved our two older pigs off of this area, as it has gotten fairly wet down there with the rain and snow we've had lately. They have done their job beautifully, though, and have left behind an expanse of thoroughly tilled, peat-rich soil' all it needs is a bit of leveling and it will be ready to plant. With the water table being high there, I will probably opt to plant ladino clover and possibly timothy, both crops that can deal with having wet feet at least some of the time. We are looking forward to seeing that field transformed into lush pasture over the next season or two.

In the meantime, the pigs are happily plowing up their new yard. The three little pigs (I know, I know) are in a separate yard temporarily, while we train them on the electric fence; they also are enthusiastically rooting and grazing. They all look happy and healthy, and appear to be enjoying their typical routine: Eating, rooting, grazing, and napping.

Such is the cycle of Tamworth life.