trust the spirit
her and i took the newborn piglet’s back to our house this week, while the ivy’s are out of town, so we can keep a close eye on the lil’ oinkers. when the ivy’s first pulled the piglet’s, the day before oprah passed, they started emergency bottle feeding with a generic livestock milk replacement—baby formula. the piglet’s have gone from scrawny, starving, guinea pig looking little creatures to pudgy, happy piglets. the formula saved their lives.
yesterday i walked out to pork chop hill and found oprah dead. lying in the shade, same place she’s been, with a bit of blood drying in the dirt by her nose. my heart sank.
in two groups over the last two weeks the staff of farm burger, farm255’s sister in decatur, made the mini trek out to athens to learn more about our operation and lend a hand in the fields. on a side note, fb also started posting on their new blog today (with a state of the bun address from owner george), and i will be guest writing for them on occasion as well. i must be one of the only writers in the nation who will happily be paid in hamburgers.
when i first contacted farmer jason, looking to work for full moon farms, it was just before this past christmas, i was working on the floor of the new york stock exchange, and i had never set foot into georgia, or much of the south for that matter. i was, however, a man on a mission, and my mind had been made: athens, ga it was, and a month later we drove south.
the piglet’s first few days on pork chop hill, my first birthing experience period, and it feels as if it’s off to a rough start. after the first few hours four were living, and four and a half were dead (four squashed, one stillborn). when raised in factories, mother pigs—sows—are kept apart from their piglets by a tightly packed crate. these farrowing crates allow the hog to barely roll on her side so the piglets locked next door can access the teets. a sow can be held in the crate for her entire gestation period.
I'm High On Cooking