the accidental smallholder :: diary archives

Goodbye Egypt, hello Greece

We were due to go to Egypt on holiday in October. We'd booked into a plush hotel in Sharm El Sheikh and were looking forward to a week of pampering, sun, sea and good food.

Then the Egyptian government responded to the outbreak of H1N1 in the worst possible way, ordering the completely unnecessary destruction of over 300,000 pigs, and carried it out in the worst possible away, inflicting unbelievable suffering on these animals.

So we cancelled our holiday to Egypt, rebooked for Kefalonia, and donated some of the money we saved to Compassion in World Farming who are presuring the Egyptian government to introduce animal welfare legislation.

I've written more about this over on my other blog, which includes some video of the barbaric cull.

If you feel strongly about this please visit the Compassion in World Farming website, and read about their campaign.

L'Oreal, Strawberry and Gertrude

We picked up this year's weaners yesterday; three gilts this time as the litter available only had two boys and we prefer to have all the same sex. These are 7/8th Tamworth and the last cross-breeds that Sue and Mike are doing; it's all pure Tamworth now.

We got them loaded, home and into the pen without incident. Then I did a really stupid thing. Our dog, Tess, loves the pigs so I took her to see them. The pigs were less than happy and two of them wriggled through a gap in the fence into the second pig pen. The second pen has bigger gauge netting, so they wriggled through that as well, into the next field and then set off along the riverbank. Fortunately, one didn't get out and was calling frantically so when the other two discovered they were one down and didn't know where they were going, they were fairly easy to get back to the correct pen. Sigh of relief!

Then one found a weak spot and wriggled through into the garden! Anyway, all were finally where they should be and settled. The fence has now been properly secured and a couple of lessons learned. I think it was a case of familiarity breeding contempt - we've never had an escapee, so we were a bit slack about securing the fences.

This morning, they didn't surface until 10am. I started to get a bit worried about them but eventually, three heads appeared out of the straw nest and the exploration of the pen was resumed. They had a bite of breakfast and I sat with them for a while. After about 20 minutes, they were happy to sniff me all over, but I didn't attempt to touch them at all. I may be losing it, but I think that if I "grunted" when they grunted, they relaxed a bit and were more willing to approach me. Apple slices will help even more, I'm sure. One of the escapees has a graze along one side but it's dry and healing so I'll leave it be.

By 11.30am, they were back in bed. Some friends came to see them but the most we could see were three heads - after looking us over, the pigs decided that sleep was more attractive and snuggled down again. Actually, it's so cold and windy here today, I don't blame them one little bit!

Pigs away!

Well, the pigs went off yesterday without incident. We set up a race from the pen to the trailer - it was a bit Heath Robinson, comprising sheep hurdles, bits of shed, a patio table and a couple of hen houses - but it worked.

The three pigs loaded like a dream - followed the bucket then got the scent of the sliced apples hidden in the straw in the trailer and in they popped.When I left for work, they were asleep in the trailer. Dan said they were a bit reluctant to come out at the other end but all went pretty well. We'll get them back from the butcher on 4th October, jointed, cured and minced.

If it stays dryish, we'll get the pig pens resown at the weekend, fences repaired, hut cleaned out and maybe painted - ready for next year. I've cleaned the snak-a-ball already.

Pigs and Snak-a-ball

When we first got pigs we soon discovered that feeding time was over very quickly. Rosemary had the great idea of using a horse toy, a Snak-a-ball, to keep them interested after their trough was empty, and to give them some exercise. We've always introduced new pigs to the ball since then, and as you can see from the video they love it:

Pigs with Snak-a-ball from asmallholder on Vimeo.

The ball is made of very thick plastic, so it's pig-proof. The only problems are when the ground is very wet, and the ball gets clogged with mud, and the rare occasion that they get it wedged into a corner and can't get it out. If you've got pigs we'd recommend getting one, your pigs will thank you for it.

Poorly pig

In the five years or so that we've kept pigs, it has been pretty trouble free. Today, I thought we might be in for a downturn. One of our three boars didn't eat this morning. He was slavering a bit, but his breathing was normal, his "digestive transit" seemed to be in order, but you don't like to see pig off its grub. I have to confess, I did check his feet for blisters or lesions, and inside his mouth but there were none. I sat with him for a bit - he'd gone back to bed - and offered scratches and sympathy. We decided to wait and see.

Before I went off to bring Smokey in, I had another look and again sat with the three of them - they really are canny pigs. It was then that I noticed that one of the pigs, not the "sick" one, had no ear tag. I THINK that our sick pig may have swallowed it - I checked the pen and can't find it (the pen's not THAT big and it's pretty bare). They do play and rough and tumble with each other , so it's not impossible that he's worked it loose and swallowed it. Let's just say, I'm not looking for it any more!!

The good news is that he's back to normal now and ate his tea just fine, so things must be working out, so to speak!

Pig shower

It was hot here last weekend so we rigged up a shower for the pigs. They like it a lot, as you can see!

A shower for the pigs from asmallholder on Vimeo.

The shower also gives them the chance to make a wallow - they will sometimes cover themselves in wet mud to keep cool.

Settling pigs

Our pigs have been with us for just over a week now, and are settling in nicely. For those of you who are getting pigs for the first time, here are a few tips on getting them accustomed to your presence:

• Talk to them all the time. Pigs respond well to voice, so if you use a consistent call with them before feeding they will learn to come when you use that call. Rosemary uses a slightly high-pitched 'pig-pig-pig' to call them.
• Feed them around you. We feed our pigs on the ground by simply scattering their nuts - if you scatter them around yourself and crouch or stand still the pigs' desire to reach their food will trump their nervousness of your presence every time. This is a great opportunity to get a hand on their back or head so they can learn how nice it is to be scratched.
• Scratch them. Pigs love to be scratched - start with the back of the head and the back. If you work around to under their bellies they will topple over and just lie on their sides.
• Feed them treats. We hand-feed them apple slices (see vid below, apologies for the wind on the sound again, it is very windy here!) which they love.

Tamworth weaners getting apples from asmallholder on Vimeo.

As you can see there's one bold character, number 170, who is already totally at ease with us.

If I've missed anything or you've had a different experience please let us know here or in the forums.

New arrivals

Yesterday we popped up to Crieff to pick up this year's weaners - 3 8-week old Tamworth boars. Everything went very smoothly, they have settled in very quickly and found their ark within an hour of arrival. (They like the ark so much they stayed in it until nearly midday today!)

We introduced the dogs to them and then left them to their own devices. Tess will be obsessed with them for a month or two, Meg is indifferent.

We made a little video of the day for your enjoyment.

New Tamworth weaners from asmallholder on Vimeo.

Pig preparation. Now with added video.

I can't believe it's over four years since my last post titled 'Pig Preparation'. A lot has changed since then, as the photo on that entry shows compared to this video.

Anyway, we've got 3 Tamworth boars coming at the weekend, 8 weeks old and depending on us to provide them with a nice home. As you can see we've been busy getting the pens ready, painting the ark and making sure they're secure.

Pig preparation from asmallholder on Vimeo.

When they arrive we'll get them on camera and follow their progress through the year, to the abattoir, the butcher and eventually our plates.

Kune Kune looking for a new home

A work colleague of mine is looking to rehome two, one-year old Kune Kune gilts. They are ginger and black. Currently they are living near Port of Menteith.

If anyone is interested, can you contact me asap and I'll put you in touch.

Now the pigs are gone...

we've started clearing down the pens and the hut. And washing the "snak-a-ball", which always makes me a bit sad.

Anyway, it was a nice day yesterday, so Dan and I spent a few hours clearing down the pig pens. I cleaned out the hut - a dusty but not unpleasant job. Although the pigs don't dirty in the hut, they do trail in a lot of mud, so I like to get this cleaned off now, rather than having damp mud lie on the wood all winter. All the straw was swept out into one of the pens - a combination of weather, hens and other wildlife will soon see it gone into the soil.

Dan cleared all the rubble that the pigs excavated over the summer and dealt with the emerging docks. He's now sown a mix of herbal grass mix and phacelia in one pen. The scientific reason for this is that we had these seeds in the garage and I'm too tight to buy any more - "waste not, want not", as my old Ma used to say. The pen that had grazing rye in it last year is already regrowing, so we'll leave it alone and see how it does.

The fencing needs a bit of attention - a couple of spars have fallen down and the gate ( the beautifulest gate) into the field has disintegrated completely. We were going to do away with it, but it's a shortcut to the river from the garden. Once we get these bits done, we'll be ready for next year!

Oxford Sandy and Black weaners for sale

Ready three weeks or so; £40 each. Contact Peter on 01360 440480 (Ballat Crossroads, by Balfron)

Yummy apple slices

It's important that you get your pigs tame, so that they can be relatively easily handled. We've found that the easiest way to do this is to bribe them with food. And the best food is apple slices. Pigs seem to have a natural affinity for apples!!

So here we are tempting the pigs with apple slices and reassuring them that we're not so bad.

Actually, one is quite bold; the other is much less so, but he'll come round.

New Tamworth weaners

Rosemary headed off to Crieff this morning to collect our new Tamworth weaners. While she was away I secured their pen, fixing the chicken wire that last year's pigs lifted. We had an escapee last year, and wanted to prevent a repeat performance.

They arrived safely, and were soon rooting around their new home. We have two pens - the eastern pen, where they are now, has pretty good ground cover and excellent fencing with chicken wire; the western pen has good fencing, but with sheep netting, which pigs of this age can get through. Once they are too big to squeeze through the sheep netting they will be moved west, onto ground which was sown with grazing rye in the autumn: it's already thigh-high, so they will have great fun when they get in.

The dogs are as excited as ever to see new pigs. Tess especially so: she will more or less live with them for the next few months.

Although it's been a lovely day here today it got very chilly as the sun descended. The pigs hadn't managed to find their ark, and were huddled together shivering. I tried to lure them in by demonstrating what a lovely place it would be to sleep (it would be actually, it's really cosy - I'll need to remember that next time I'm thrown out) but they weren't having any of it. In the end we herded them into it, to much protest, but they soon bedded down in the straw and will hopefully be sound asleep by now.

Tess & the pigs

A video of Tess having fun with the pigs back in 2003 which I came across yesterday while going through old photos. Apologies for the poor quality, I'll try to improve it.

Pig processing

On Thursday we got our latest pigs back from the butcher, having taken them to the abattoir for slaughter on the previous Tuesday. So for the past 5 days I've been chopping, mincing and salting pork from dawn to dusk. Well, not quite, but at times it's seemed that way.

This year we decided to make our own sausages, so the butcher provided us with all of the trimmings fresh and unfrozen. I prepared the trimmings on Friday night and minced up a pound for us to test some recipes. I fried up small patties of each, and we had them on rolls. We tried plain pork, pork and chive, white pepper and hot and spicy. The clear winners were pork and chive and white pepper.

So on Saturday R and I spent the best part of the day in the kitchen making the pork and chive and white pepper sausages, and we also made boudin blanc. This is a large pudding made with chicken, pork (lean and fat), breadcrumbs, cream, onions, white pepper and all spice. The puddings are gently poached for about 20 minutes, allowed to cool for 24 hours, then fried and traditionally served with fried apple rings. We've frozen ours and will try them later this week, but they smelled very appetising when poaching.

We also had two fresh whole bellies, weighing about 16lb each, for bacon (the picture below shows two quarters of a single belly). These have been prepared over the past 5 days with a very simple dry cure of salt and saltpetre, and are currently hung drying in our garage. Later this week I'll fire up the smoker and they will get at least 24 hours over oak smoke, producing (we hope) the most wonderful bacon.

I'll be updating the pig articles over the coming weeks with details of the sausages, boudin blanc and bacon, and the results of some planned smoking experiments, including eggs.

Tamworth Breeders Club

The Tamworth Breeders Club, established in 2004, now has a website. If you're interested in the breed, or are a breeder it's well worth checking out. It's a new site so there isn't an awful lot there yet, but there's a stock for sale section which should prove to be very useful in time.

It can be found at: http://www.tamworthbreedersclub.co.uk/

The grass is always greener

Despite what you might have heard, sometimes the grass really is greener on the other side. At the weekend we moved the pigs into the second pen, which was full of lush grass and succulent docks.

They had a brief mad moment, overcome with excitement, but soon settled down to some serious eating. We'll probably keep them in this pen until they go to slaughter, giving me time to sow something in the vacant pen which is now almost devoid of foliage and well-manured. That way it should be ready for next spring's weaners.

New pigs

It's Dan's birthday today. As his birthday treat, he was allowed to go to pick up our new pigs and drive back from Ayrshire in the rain with the car window open (sensitive nose).

This time, we have two Tamworth boars from Thomson and Arlene McKenzie, who farm near Dunlop. Thomson and Arlene breed Tamworth pigs and produce pork, bacon and sausages for retail. They've only been at their current site for a year but Dan says their set-up is pretty impressive.

The boys look pretty settled and are rooting away like mad. They've had a look in the shed but it was much more exciting outdoors. I'm sure they'll find their way in as it gets dark. I have to confess, as I was looking at them, I was thinking about Bath Chaps, which is a dish made from pigs cheeks.

That's what comes of watching "Jimmy's Farm"!!

TAS in print

We're delighted that a couple of our photographs have found their way into print, in the fine new book "A Guide to Traditional Pig Keeping" by Carol Harris. It's always nice when someone want to use our photos, but even better when they feature in such a high quality book.

If you're new to pig-keeping, or want to increase your knowledge, the book is an excellent resource. There's really nothing else like it out there, and we wish we'd had a copy when we started out. It concentrates on traditional breeds, and caters for the smallholder wishing to keep a small number of pigs, as well as those who might be looking to get into breeding pigs.

More info on the Farming Books and Videos site, and there's even a special offer if you order by 20th July. And no, we don't get a commission! We're just very impressed with all the sensible, practical advice the book contains.

Thirty pieces of silver

Well, the pigs have gone. It's very quiet without them and I haven't yet got out of the habit of looking at tired bread or cooked pasta and thinking "oh, the pigs will eat it".

People ask "do you get upset when the pigs are killed?" The roughty toughty answer is "not at all". But the truth is "yes, I do".

The process of loading the pigs was very smooth - they would happily follow a feed bucket. At the abbatoir, they happily followed the bucket into the holding area. They weren't going to be there long. When I got back into the Landrover, I bawled my eyes out, muttering incoherently about "just pay me in 30 pieces of silver".

However, not much later, I was thinking about roast pork, and sausages, and crisp smoked streaky bacon. And I wasn't crying.

Yes, I do get upset, for a while. But I reckon that's OK. Unless I want to be a vegetarian, I'll have to put up with it because I can't go back to buying supermarket pork and all the welfare concerns that go with it.

So if you're thinking of raising some pigs, don't be put off by the last step. Raising them well, giving them a good life and being upset when they die is part of being humane.

And that's what this is about.

Pig processing

Yesterday we had an unexpectedly early telephone call from our butcher to tell us that the largest pig had been prepared and was ready to go, some 36 hours before we had expected. Last night saw some feverish activity preparing the basic brine to make bacon with the belly pork, and finding a suitable vessel in which to do the curing. After a moment's panic a rummage through the cupboard revealed a cool box which should be just the thing.

This morning at 7.30am I popped up the street to collect the pork, and delivered half (60lb) of it to friends near Saline, who kindly supplied us with saltpetre (since Rosemary had 'tidied' ours away...). A gift of some raspberries in return kept us all square!

Immodest as it may be I have to say the pork this year is fantastic. Just the right amount of fat and very, very tasty (we had a couple of chops for tea tonight). We seem to have learned from last year's experience not to overfeed the pigs even if they do look hungry!

A lot of the pork has gone straight into the freezer, but some choice cuts are getting special treatment. Apart from the belly, which will hopefully make fine bacon, we're going to cure a couple of pieces of leg and a shoulder. We're using a wiltshire wet cure, consisting of beer, salt, black treacle, black peppercorns, juniper berries and saltpetre (according to HFW's recipe). The odour while it was boiling was wonderful, so hopefully the end product will be equally good. IT'll soak for 3 days in the cure, then be hung to dry for a day.

I'm hopeful that we'll have our smoker ready for the middle of next week, in time to smoke the belly and the cured hams. It's based on a single boiling ring and is being built by my dad to his own design. I'll post pictures and plans here once it's completed. Our friends in Saline have once again come to our rescue, this time with the promise of oak sawdust for the smoking.

The other bit of processing we're preparing for is sausage-making, probably tomorrow but maybe Sunday. We've got the pork looked out, casings soaking in water (they come packed in salt and need a good soak and rinse before they can be used) and the Kenwood chef all primed and ready to mince. We'll try to learn from our first sausage-making exploit, when we used far too much lean meat and not enough fat. They were a tad dry, but tasty nonetheless!

We'll get the other 4 halves back from the butcher next week, this time frozen and boxed for our other customers. If anyone wants to pre-order for next year let us know!

Deed done

This morning as planned we took the pigs to the abattoir in Dunblane. Everything went extremely smoothly, thanks to some help with loading up from our friend Brian, and the benefit of experience having done this once already last year.

Rosemary shed a few tears, but to me they've been dead since the day they arrived - we looked after them and kept them safe but their fate was sealed back in March. It is kind of quiet around the place now without them, but there'll be more next year no doubt.

We should get the biggest pig back from the butcher on Saturday, so I'll be looking out some curing recipes over the next few days.

PS: Sorry for the lack of updates, we've both been laid low with the cold and Rosemary's done her back in!

Like pigs to slaughter

Our pigs are booked into the abattoir for Tuesday 13th July. As before we're borrowing a trailer from a friend - we couldn't justify the expense of a livestock trailer of our own at the moment. The butcher is also sorted, with instructions for what is to happen to which pig.

The largest pig we will keep half of and sell half of, and the belly will remain intact for bacon-making. I'm planning on building a smoker in the next couple of weeks so we can produce smoked bacon and ham, and experiment with cheese, eggs and fish. The smoker will probably be based on HFW's description in his first book - basically 2 inverted metal dustbins, the top one slighter smaller than the bottom one, on top of a heat source (I'm hoping to find a gas burner or an electric hot plate which will do the job rather than a bbq or similar), on top of which sits a tray with the wood chips. Progress (success or disaster!) will be reported here.

We've sold 4 half pigs and will be keeping a whole pig ourselves this year. It is economic - we'll make a small profit and will have a whole pig in the freezer which should do us a year.

The Weigh-In

Our 3 Tamworth boars will be 25 weeks old on Monday, which means they should be approaching their optimum weight for slaughter. With this in mind I weighed them this morning.

How do you weigh a pig? No, not with a big set of scales, but with a piece of string. Measure, in inches, from between the pig's ears along its back to the base of its tail. Call this measurement A. Next, measure around the pig's girth tight behind its front legs, and call this measurement B. Calculate A x B. Divide by 10 for a fat pig, 11 for a medium-built pig, and 12 for a lean pig. This will give you the approximate weight in pounds.

Our largest boy is about 185 lb, and the smaller two about 160 lb. So we've decided to take them to slaughter about the 2nd week in July, when the big one should be around 200 lb and the other 2 about 180 lb, good bacon and pork weight respectively. They are definitely leaner than last year's, and we're looking forward to tasting the pork.

I also popped into the butcher this morning to pre-warn him of the date of slaughter. Unfortunately he told me that they won't have time to butcher them for us this year because of pressure of work - understandable considering that last year he had to take his Sunday to process them for us. Anyway, he suggested we try another local butcher, and he has agreed to do the job for us. The abattoir will deliver direct to the butcher, so after dropping them off the next time we see them they'll be boxed ready for delivery to our customers. Orders now being taken for 2005!

Pig articles

I finally got around to adding the pig articles to the site. Next up will be some more vegetable growing guides. We're going to add a book review section soon, if anyone wants to contribute please let us know.

Plans are nothing, planning is everything

So said some famous military man, I forget who, but it's a sound observation. On Sunday we had about 2 1/2 tonne of screened soil sitting on our drive and nowhere to put it. It was the leftovers of the 3 tonne I had ordered to fill in the pond to make the bog garden - okay, so I overestimated just a tad how much we'd need!

What to do? Well, we had a quick review of what was what and decided to restrict the pig rotation to the two westerly pens (more a back-and-forth than a rotation then), and keep the third, east-most pen for a permanent vegetable garden. Going a step further we decided it would be a good use of the available space to remove the fence separating the east-most pen and the existing vegetable garden, and to extend the raised veg beds to the full length of the new-to-be-united vegetable garden. This will have a number of benefits - the pig ark never needs to be moved again, since it sits on the fence line between the two pens and has a door into each pen; I'll need to do a lot less digging each year; and we'll have a lot more space to grow vegetables, all in permanent raised beds.

So Monday I ordered the 91 metres of 2x8 inch board needed for the job, and a variety of other timber for the courtyard garden we're also building this week. Yesterday I started the deconstruction of the fence, enough to get a single bed extended (the rest will be done in the autumn) and got to digging the margins for the boards. Last night the timber arrived, so today I made the new bed which is now full of about 2 tonne of the screened soil, a good bit of compost and some well-rotted manure, which the hens have already done a pretty good job of incorporating into the somewhat sterile soil. The rest of the soil will be used in the courtyard and for filling in a few dips and divots around the field.

Games and activities for pigs

Today the pigs got a new toy! It's called a "Snak a Ball". It's actually a horse toy, but the pigs haven't read the box and seem to like it. Basically, it's a big red ball that you fill with pig nuts. As the pigs roll it around, the pig nuts fall out and get eaten.

They're really getting the hang of it. If they'd had it a couple of weeks ago they might have made Sven's squad. The dogs think it's pretty neat too. It we had a third dog, they could play three a side. They won't let Dan play because he's not good enough and eats too many of the nuts.

It keeps them happy and I'm sure the exercise will do them good.

Tamworth Breeders' Group

We've had a number of enquiries lately from people looking to buy Tamworth weaners, or looking for more information about the breed. The best first point of contact is the Tamworth Breeder's Group:

Tamworth Breeders' Group, Broad Leaze, Boyton, Warminster, Wiltshire, BA12 0SS. Tel: 01985 850208.

In the short term, if anyone is looking for weaners we know of a breeder in Biggar who has piglets available which were born last weekend. Contact us or leave your details in a comment and we'll put you in touch with him.

Sausage-tastic

The last of the pork from last year's Tamworths was defrosted overnight, in readiness for the weekend's main event - sausauge making. Over the past few weeks we've gathered together everything we needed: 2 sizes of casings, from the Natural Casing Company; a nozzle attachment for our Kenwood Chef; acidophilus from the health food shop in Stirling; and finally a good sized gigot and rolled shoulder from the freezer. We'd also identified our recipes, one for pork sausages and one for salami, both from the River Cottage Cookbook.

In the end it was easier than expected to get reasonable results, once we'd mastered the mincer attachment for the food processor (the trick was to keep it at a high enough speed for it not to clog with stray sinew). Although a bit uneven we're proud of the kilo of pork sausages we made, one of which is shown here. The small amount of sausage meat left over was fried and tasted superb, so hopefully the sausages will prove to be as tasty tomorrow - they need to sit for a day or so to let some of the moisture leech out.

Tomorrow will also see the salami made. The process is similar, but the end result should be quite different. We'll post photos of any spectacular moulds!

Pig & Hen in perfect harmony

The pigs are doing just fine. They sleep a lot more than last year's, but make up for lost time when they're awake. The pen is already well-turned, and by July should be pretty clean, ready for sowing a green manure and maybe some spuds. The main worry when planting potatoes on newly cultivated grassland is usually wire worm, but we should be okay - the hens, canny creatures that they are - have taken to following the ploughs that are the pigs, snatching any beasties that are unfortunate enough to be exposed by those powerful snouts. It's inevitable that some beneficial worms and insects will also suffer this fate, but many will also survive, and from what I've seen the brightly coloured wire worms are more attractive to the hens' eyes than the less conspicuous night crawlers.

Tonight while watering the vegetable beds, in the biting easterly wind, I noticed that the early peas are just starting to show through the soil. The tomatoes, aubergines and peppers are coming along in the greenhouse, as are the herbs Rosemary sowed about 10 days ago - thyme, sweet basil, chives and parsley. The established comfrey plants seem to swell daily, and might be large enough for a few leaves to be had to line the trench for the early spuds next weekend, and the dozen or so offshoots I planted weekend before last are showing signs of rooting strongly already.

Pig planning

It's nice to have pigs around the place again. Apart from the satisfaction of watching them turn over a large piece of ground where we can grow veg next year, saving me a sore back and blistered hands, they are such friendly, lively animals. This lot, being a good bit older than our two last year, and used to dogs thanks to Holly, already follow us around inquisitively and love a good scratch.

Now we've got them we need to start thinking about the when, how, and who of their eventual departure. That means seeking out those potential customers who last year expressed an interest in buying pork from us but for whatever reason missed out, and offering more to those who did buy last year (but who might still have half a freezer full!), and giving the butcher an early warning of the likely date for the carcasses to arrive.

These three are 3 months older than the Tamworths we had last year, which means that they will most likely go to slaughter in late July. That provides much more scope for cultivating and planting up the vacated bed before autumn, and while there's no solid plan evolved yet we're thinking around spuds and a good over-wintering green manure such as grazing rye, phacelia or winter tares. That way come the spring the soil will hopefully be much more workable than this year, when the bed vacated by the pigs was quite badly panned and took a lot of effort to open up.

Meet the gang 'cos the boys are here

Here are our new arrivals, the 3 Tamworth boar weaners we picked up from Dumfries today. Everything went very smoothly, and we had a great time at the breeder's farm meeting their animals, including some gorgeous Golden Guernsey goats, Ryland sheep and of course Tamworth pigs.

Our pigs have settled in already - after a quick scout around the perimeter of their new home looking for potential weaknesses in our defences they set to rooting and grazing, met the dogs, had a feed and eventually found their way into their ark shortly after dusk.

A big thank you to Pauline, Steve and John for making us so welcome, for the soup, the honey and the pigs. We hope the wee lamb pulls through, and that the salami is less scary than it looked.

A date with 3 pigs

No, not a Saturday night out in Alloa, but confirmation that next Saturday we'll be tootling down to Dumfries to collect our 3 tamworth weaners. They are all boars, and have been described bythe breeder as a huge fat one, a normal one and a wee skinny one (who is skinny because he spends feeding time sucking the ears of the other pigs). Sounds like they will fit in with our other disfunctional animals just fine.

The gender isn't terribly important since they won't be reaching sexual maturity. We had 2 gilts (females) last year, so it will be nice to bolster the number of males around the place this year - what with a dozen hens, 2 border collie bitches, a female cat and a wife and daughter us men (myself and 2 of the cats) need all the support we can get...

Weekend past

Well, another glorious but cold weekend passes, and we're a little closer to being ready for our new pigs which we collect in 3 weeks. On Saturday we finished the fencing, stapling sheep netting to the rails, and on Sunday gave the pig ark and the old chook ark a coat of water-based preservative. They'll get at least one more coat in the next few weeks, and if we have the time and will another before the autumn.

Although the ground remains too hard to sow direct, meaning the parsnips still aren't in, the aubergines (Long Purple) were sown yesterday in soil blocks in the greenhouse. This morning the temperature in the greenhouse was -3.5 degrees C, the lowest it's been this winter, so everythign tender is on a heated pad, which doesn't really effect the ambient temperature but does provide sufficient bottom heat to prevent damage to seedlings.

Finally we detected a few common poultry louse on a couple of hens, so all were treated with powder on Saturday, to be repeated every week for the next month. We had a similar problem last year, which we're certain was imported on 3 new hens we bought, but it's not serious and does mean the hens get used to being handled, which is no bad thing.

Roast pork

One of the reasons we keep pigs is of course to eat their meat. It's hard to describe how much better than your average, intensively farmed supermarket pork our own organic, free range Tamworth pork tastes. So rather than try here's a snap of the rolled shoulder we had earlier this week - as good cold the next day with pickled shallots and beetroot as it was hot with the juices running and the crackling crisp and light.

As you can see it's a little fat, so this year we've resolved to go easier on the feed. The excess fat was put out for the birds who seemed to appreciate it greatly in this cold snap we're having. So they may be long gone but our first pigs are still giving pleasure to many.

Pig fencing & chook ark

The weather has been kind to us lately considering the time of year, so today I've managed to dig holes for the 20 fence posts for the extended pig pens. The ground was easy to dig - not so wet as to be a quagmire, but soft enough that the only problems were the odd stone, piece of wire and a couple of boulders. Tomorrow I'll set the posts in concrete, making sure that the bottoms are surrounded with gravel to assist drainage - the last thing you want with wooden stobs is the bottom encased in concrete, since rainwater will have nowhere to escape to and the post will rot. Next weekend if they have set well we'll hire a nailgun and attach the rails, build and hang the gates and staple the sheep netting.

As previously mentioned we've decided to buy a bigger Forsham ark to accommodate our planned additional hens. We've been offered one from McCash's Country Store in Perth at a bargain price, so the other job next weekend will be to hire a van from Arnold Clark in Stirling to collect the ark in Perth - 22 quid plus petrol is a lot less than the delivery charge.

While we're in Perth we'll probably pop to Hugh Grierson's too to collect a beef and lamb pack. We bought one of each in the autumn and can honestly say Hugh's is the best lamb we've ever tasted. His beef isn't bad either...

Pig preparation

On Friday we returned from a short break in the Lake District to find an email from a farm in Dumfries which has Tamworth weaners available. As previously mentioned our source of last year's weaners had told us before Christmas that they would have no litters this year, and we were struggling to find another source close enough to be practical. So Rosemary placed a wanted ad in the Smallholders Online newsletter and lo and behold it looks to have done the job. Dumfries isn't exactly local, but the 3 hour journey each way in our old Land Rover will be well worth it.

This morning we reassembled the pig ark in preparation for our spring arrivals. It needs to dry out a bit before we can recoat it with a water-based wood preservative. We're creating 2 more pens the same size as the one we used last year for our first pair of Tamworths (about 40x30 feet), and plan to implement a 3 year rotation. So this year (2004) the original pen will be cultivated with vegetables (mostly potatoes), next year (2005) we'll sow some sort of ground cover / fodder and the year after (2006) it will be back to pigs again who will clear the ground cover / fodder.

The photo above shows the corner of the existing pig pen in the bottom right hand corner, the reassembled ark and the planned new fencing. Since the ark has a door at either end we've located it on the fence line so we only have to move it every other year. The fencing will begin in earnest in a couple of weeks...