Saturday, May 5, 2012

Our Tour of Mosefund Farm

After getting our 5 pigs safely aboard our transport, Jeff (the farm manager) gave us a tour of their operations.  Our first stop was the nursery.


Above, Carrie is holding a newborn.  I love this photo because the piglet looks like it is mugging for the camera.  

It ain't easy being a mama.  



Mangalitsa Mash-up!



Thursday, May 3, 2012

Maiden Voyage...Picking Up Our Hogs








On Sunday, Carrie and I headed down to Mosefund Farm in New Jersey to retrieve our piggies.   We left late on Saturday night, for Carrie was putting the finishing touches onto the pigs' new Vermont home (their leant-to shelter).  We were both pretty tired and loopy as we drove but the excitement of our new farming adventure kept us awake.







Our borrowed stock trailer.  Carrie's very gracious friend loaned us her trailer and her dad gave us his truck for the journey.







Backing up our trailer.  Reverse is an art, and fortunately Carrie is more skilled than I in this maneuver.





As the official photographer of Snake Mountain Farm, it was my job to document our big day.  Thank god because I was not up to the difficult task of loading hundreds of pounds of pig into our trailer.   Even though Carrie is 5' 2" and maybe 110 pounds, she is strong and tough.  Here she is loading our two piglets into the stock trailer.








Once the two piglets were safely on board, the big job of loading the sows and boar began.  There was a small gap between the two trailers but the pigs refused to bridge the chasm.







Finally, by employing plastic panels, Carrie cornered and pushed the pigs into our trailer.





Wednesday, May 2, 2012

What are Mangalitsas?

Mangalitsa Sow
According to Wikipedia:



“Mangalitsa is a name for three breeds of pig grown especially in Hungary and the Balkans known also as a curly-hair hog.  It belongs to European unimproved lard-type breeds that are descended directly from wild boar populations.  The Mangalitsa was formerly bred as a lard pig, and the animals were large and round.  Because of the drop in demand for lard, the breed’s popularity has declined and is now regarded as a “rare breed”.