A couple of weeks ago, I was watching a new episode of Around the Farm Table. The episode profiled a farm advocacy and support group in southwestern Wisconsin, the Soil Sisters. The group is a network of women dedicated to providing support to women in agriculture and women who are considering the occupation of farming. One of the members profiled was a woman raising fallow to fork pigs.
Afterwards, I Googled the group, and saw they would be hosting a weekend of classes in early August. One of the classes was 'Prepping for Pigs', to be run by the farmer featured in the episode. We do not plan to have a lot of livestock, but we have talked about raising pigs for meat. I offered to buy Maggie a ticket to the class for her birthday, but she wanted both of us to go.
This weekend, we traveled to Blanchardville for a morning with pigs. We arrived a little early to find the farmer dealing with a pig that was ill. She had called one of her fellow Soil Sisters/farmers in to talk with the class while she took care of her pig. The farmer also operates Driftless Tannery, and so we got to learn about her leathermaking operation. Our instructor returned as the rest of our classmates arrived. We were then treated to 3 hours of learning about her operation, walking her farm, and meeting the pigs. She specializes in Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, which is a heritage breed that are hardy and do well on pasture. They are also used to clean up dropped apples in orchards. Her partner owns a prairie restoration business, so their land, managed as oak savannah, was covered with a beautiful variety of plants in bloom. Our instructor sold pork, feeder pigs, and breeding stock as part of her business, and was helping to establish a meat processing cooperative.
The class ended with a trip to her freezer, where we got to pick a pair of pork chops to take home. The chops should go well with some fresh garden vegetables. We are a few years away from pigs, but the class made it less daunting to consider.
Comments