It has been an incredibly busy but rewarding week on the farm. This truly is one of my favorite times of the year, as everything we do right now is focused on preparing and thinking ahead for the winter months.
We started the week with a rush to dig up all the potatoes before the weather turned. We could see and feel the shift coming, and it felt like a race against the clock. Thankfully, we managed to get them all out of the ground just in time! We had originally planned to do this earlier in the summer, but we only recently got our Ford tractor running again. We were blessed with a potato digger this spring, which allowed us to mechanical-harvest instead of digging everything by hand.
Right after we finished, the weather shifted into a cooler, damp, and cloudy stretch. Honestly, the change has made being inside the house feel so cozy—which is perfect, because we are doing a lot of preserving right now. The kitchen has been a hub of non-stop action as we put things up for the colder months ahead. We have been cleaning and freezing the cut potatoes, making salsa and summer sausage, freezing raspberries, and drying more herbs.
Because several people have reached out recently to ask if we have pigs for sale, I wanted to share a quick update on where we are at. Over the last few years, we have been experimenting with heritage pigs. Our goal is to develop a line that can truly thrive on pasture and the farm’s natural abundance rather than relying heavily on grain. We have completely cut out corn from their diet. Because alternative grains like peas and barley are much more expensive, finding the right nutritional balance is key.
To help build up our herd, we bought two Gloucestershire Old Spot breeding pigs from a conventional farmer a few years ago, as we couldn’t find any organic stock at the time. We hope to continue breeding them to bring back those hardy, old-fashioned traits so our animals can thrive naturally on what the land produces. Because of these long-term breeding goals and our current focus on raising this young litter, we don’t have any pigs available for sale quite yet, but we will definitely keep everyone posted as the herd grows!
On a bittersweet note, we initially had quite a bit of trouble getting our sow pregnant for the second time. However, after working closely with her on her nutrition and Asher’s diligent and faithful compliance, she was able to conceive. Sadly, just three days after giving birth, she died. It has been a tough loss for us, but we are so grateful that the piglets are thriving right now on fresh milk from our dairy herd. Our plan is to keep a female piglet from this bunch, and we are hoping to find a male piglet soon to help diversify our herd’s genetics.