Hello reader,
Happy New Year!
Do you make New Year’s resolutions?
I don’t…really….but I do try to make little goals for daily, weekly, monthly things. My thought is that there’s a better chance of succeeding if I break up big goals into littler, more achievable, and less overwhelming goals. It works out pretty well, as I easily get myself into massive and overwhelming goals all the time.
Perhaps I need to make a goal to make smaller goals. 🤔
One of my goals to send out delicious recipes out to you more often. There are so many yummy things and only so many meals in a day.
Sad, really. 😂
The most recent recipe is probably one of my favorites so far.
(I may say that with each new recipe…)
As a matter of fact, the 4.5 year old in our house proclaimed (with his mouth full of pork chop) that this recipe was the “goodest”.
I think that pretty much says it! 😂
| I have been doing research on what makes pork taste the best that it can be.
One thing is breed of the animal, which is why I chose the Berkshire/Mangalitsa breed.
(On a tangent, I read not long ago that the Mangalitsa breed was only introduced to the US in 2007. Before that, they were native mostly just to Hungary. This was surprising as I thought there were no “new” breeds to the US in the last 75 years ago since moving from continent to continent had gotten so much easier. Wow really…we have a child who was born in 2007!)
Here’s a picture of a pure breed…aren’t they kind of funny looking?
Put one of those in with our sheep and you might not be able to tell the difference.😂 |
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| (Our pigs don’t look quite that wooly, but one of them is fuzzier and sometimes looks like she has “bedhead’. 😂 Ignore the orange highlights…I had marked her for something and it hadn’t rubbed off yet…) |
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| Anyway…..the other thing that makes tasty pork is what they are fed.
Typically pigs are fed corn and soybean meal (pork typically found in the grocery store.) While soybean meal has a lot of great nutrients for the animal, and it is generally very affordable, it doesn’t make high quality fat or flavor.
Things like apples and alternative small grains are known to improve flavor.
Since our one spindly apple tree we planted 10ish years ago has only produced 1 apple, 🙄 we decided to go with growing grains, which we are much better suited for anyway.
This past year we grew 8 acres of alternative grains, including wheat, barley, lentils, and field peas.
(Special thanks to my husband and his love of tractors and other farm machinery and planting small grains. 😘) |
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| And after a couple months, it grew tall, and green, and delicious looking! |
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| But as many of you remember…then this happened: |
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| Not only did we lose part of the field under water, but by the time it was dry enough to harvest the rest of the field, the field peas were all well past their prime harvest time and had most had fallen to the ground.
The peas, in particular, was what I was excited mostly for since they are high in protein and they would flavor the meat exceptionally well. 😑
In the end, thankfully, we were able to get a nice wagon box full of the rest of the grain (with a few peas sprinkled in). And we could take the stalks of the harvested plants and bale into straw bedding for winter. |
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| However, I still am missing those peas. 😣
Over the last few months, I have been looking everywhere for some (they aren’t grown very much in our area).
And as of the last week, I finally found a large supply of them!
The pigs are currently eating a flax and corn mix (to up those Omega 3s!) And in a month or two, we’ll be adding the peas as well.
Just in time for summer tasty grilling and smoking of your pork! |
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| The next pork harvest date is in the beginning of June, and I’ll definitely be keeping you in the loop for more details as that comes closer!
I, for one, am super excited to taste these field pea finished pork…it’s been a long time in the planning and I’m excited to see what you think of them as well.
They just might be better than “goodest”. 😋😊😉 |
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From all of us here at Piggery Run Farm, with 2 feet or 4 feet,
we wish you a happy warm week of January! 😘
Naomi and the gang
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