New Lodgers

There's going to be a steep learning curve, but we're now custodians of two little(ish) Gloucester Old Spot lads. They're in a halfway house stable / sty just now, moving out into the field in a couple of weeks (I need to get an electric fence laid out and put in place before that).

Once out they'll be put to work clearing ground which next year we can start turning into a wildflower meadow, to try and entice in more bees and other pollinators, which is beside the very very young orchard, such meaning more apples and pears which... the next set of pigs will get some of the benefit of.

There's no getting away from the fact that we have this pair to fatten up over the next 8 months or so, to then stock up a freezer. So no names. And instead thinking of being able to make our own sausages, cure our own bacon, maybe even trying salami for the first time in a number of years.

We eat a lot of pork, partly because it's a big thing in Asian cuisine, which forms a large part of our diet, and I absolutely love pork belly (that would be my last meal choice, with crackling of course). This gives us a source that we know has been looked after well, and we know what the pigs have been fed, how they've been treated...

And fortunately by the time the inevitable comes, they'll be ruddy great big brutes, and not these cute wee things that I've enjoyed sitting watching this afternoon (we were advised to spend time with them so they got to know is, which makes them easier to manage).

It's feeling like a farm around here today (couple more shots in the extras, plus the tractor).