As with everything we do, we spent a fair amount of time reserching before we chose our breedstock.  We looked for breeds with superior meat quality, good temperament, hardiness in cold weather, good mothering qualities, and tendancy to forage and pasture.

Our animals are pastured with lots of room to roam.  They have a nice, warm "den" for the winter, but even on the coldest days they like to take a walk around the pasture.  In the summer, they eat grass, roots, acorns and whatever they can find supplemented by high quality grain and whatever we don't eat from our garden.  In winter, their diet moves more toward grain.

Our breeding sows are Tamworths. 

"The Tamworth is an English breed of hog that was of distinctly bacon-type. The first Tamworths were brought to the United States in 1882 by Thomas Bennett of Rossville, Illinois. The Tamworth was slower in becoming as popular with the American hog producer as the thicker breeds, although there have been some strong advocates of the breed. Tamworth are very deep-sided hogs and are uniform in their depth of side. They have a muscular top and long rump. The ham is muscular with a firm lean rump. Trim jowl,trim underline and depth of side."  Tamworth Swine Association  

 

Boris is our breeding boar.  He is a Large Black Pig.  Large Blacks are a rare breed known for their tender, moist meat and docile temperament.  You can read more about them here.

Boris was not old enough to breed this fall so we borrowed a "traditional" boar from a friend.  This spring, we will have Tamworth-cross piglets and are hopeful that the Tamworth-Large Black cross will be our future.

We sell pork by the half or whole animal and have recently begun selling individual packages of pork when available.