Archive for October, 2012

Raising Backyard Pigs: Saying Goodbye

Posted on October 24th, 2012 by Tonia 31 Comments

We gave our sweet Piggy-pig her last back-scratch and her last meal this morning. We told her how pretty she is one last time. We thanked her for being such a good pig, and for feeding us with her body.

It was a sad day. We’re really going to miss her.

I’d like to share the butchering process with you all. I took pictures of each step, except for when we shot her. It was fascinating to me; seeing the inside of her body {bodies are amazing!} and learning where all the different cuts of meat come from {bacon is the belly!}, but I realize that not everyone is psyched about looking at photos of a dead animal…So, please tell me what you think, readers- do you want to see the process?

October Harvest

Posted on October 9th, 2012 by Tonia 5 Comments

The forecast was threatening a hard frost over the weekend, so we hustled up to the garden to pick the rest of the tomatoes, squashes, pie pumpkins and anything else that can’t handle temps below 25 degrees. The frost never ended up hitting, but it was good to get this massive task out of the way anyway.

It took several wheel-barrel trips to wipe the garden clean. I hadn’t realized how much was left up there until we had to harvest it all in one fell swoop! The plucked veggies are curing in the greenhouse and will soon find their winter resting place in the root cellar where they’ll wait to be fetched, one by one over many months, for soups and stews and pizzas and the like.

See you next spring, garden. Thanks for all the delicious food! Have a good sleep.