the pink ladies

We love pork. Especially Christine. Last fall she bartered a photography session for a box of home grown pork with our good friends Barry and Camille and it was amazing. We knew the time was near for us to get pigs. When the aforementioned Barry and Camille proposed sharing on a small flock (what is a group like ours called?), we said “Yes! For sure!”

This was when they arrived two weeks ago. Barry and I whacked together a little 4×8′ house for them to hide from the sun and burrow in some straw on cold nights.

Pigs are odd. They every so often seem to have “bad days”. One day they looked like they all had pinkeye, so I fretted around trying to decide the appropriate course of action. After consulting with the local and internet “experts” the consensus seemed to be to do nothing. Which turned out to be the perfect response to the crisis. Likewise when one developed a little cough following a cold night, or one or the other seems to hang back for a day before chomping right in with the flock(?). The best summary was one online: “Pigs are like people. Sometimes they just have bad days.”

With Barry and Camille as partners, the pigs have access to some great looking slop. I’ve even looked at the pig food and thought about diverting some straight to my plate. With our own vegetable peels, apple cores, surplus apples and misfit crops in the fall we should be able to provide a good mix of calories and supplement with purchased grain. Pigs do eat everything except the kitchen sink.

I love this portrait.