Dave tilled the garden under yesterday. He loves his tiller. He's like a kid with a favourite toy. We still have the corn to harvest and the pumpkins. The pumpkins are in another garden.
I started going through my herb garden. A few years ago a friend gave me a few iris bulbs. I had no place to plant them so I stuck them in the herb garden. Well fast forward a few years and they have taken over my herb garden and I WANT IT BACK!!!! So I started digging them up. I'm giving some to a friend of mine and the rest I'm moving to a new location. I cannot believe how much they've multiplied! I've only done a third of the garden and I've got 3 times the amount that I started with 3 years ago.
Well Part deux of the tour. Charlotte is mom to all the piglets. She's a registered Berkshire pig. They're a heritage breed and there's only about 120 purebred sows in Canada.
The piglets are growing fast. They now eat the fruit and veggies that Dave puts for Charlotte. They are so cute running all over their yard.
We get alot of our veggies from the grocery stores. It's alot of work but it's better for them, since that's what pigs ate back in the day and not that processed stuff. It also cuts on the feed bill and makes them tastier. So Dave has built shelves in the barn to store all this extra food. It lasts for a while in the winter, but the summer you have to get rid of it quick because it goes bad fast.
The pigs will eat most anything, but some things we need to chop up in our fancy shmacy turnip chopper. Our friend sold it to us for 50$. It was in bad shape but another friend of ours fixed it for nothing. Nice friends!!! These are usually sold for around 250$ as antiques in worse condition than ours was. We usually have to chop up any hard root vegetable. Potatoes HAVE to be cooked. We couldn't figure out why they wouldn't eat the taters. The vet said it's because they cannot digest the starch. So we have to cook those. Usually if Dave has to cook the taters he also cooks the turnips also since they like it cooked better. Fussy pigs!
Well I hope that you liked this little tour.
Have a Blessed Day.
Lisa
Nice pigs you have. We get a lot of our pig food from the local food pantry. Lots of veggies and bread on the edge of being bad, but good enough for the pigs. I didn't know that you needed to cook the taters first. I always wondered why they didn't care for them much.
ReplyDeleteI have to ask... What in the world are ketchup chips? I've never heard of them and why are they only sold in Canada?
Nice tour. Do you have all your little pigs sold? Or are you going to keep a few? I like that chopper that you have. Regd past post of your...Canada sure sounds like that want a finger in your pie when it comes to farm animals.
ReplyDeleteI get "Hobby Farm" magazine and they are always promoting heritage breeds. sounds like they are healthier and hardier than other commercial type breeds. Thanks for the tour - it's nice to have a visual when you are telling something about the farm!
ReplyDeleteKellie- Ketchup chips are Potato chips flavoured with ketchup. Like BBQ potato chips. Why only in Canada? Don't know, but it's worth the effort to come and get them. Yummmm!! Especially if it's Lays that makes them. Some other companies are not that great. It's like Coffee Crisp chocolate bars. Only in Canada,they are one of my faves.
ReplyDeleteAunt Krissy- All our piglets are sold except for 2. Those we are keeping for meat. Canada is very strict on things like food and agriculture. Sometimes you're happy that they are, but sometimes it's enough to drive you nuts.
ReplyDeleteJust for an example. Last summer we went to Ontario and we drive through the USA. We stopped at a little convenience/ gas bar in Maine. I needed to go to the bathroom. As I was waiting in line I just browsed the milk cooler and noticed that in the same cooler they had milk , cheese eggs etc.. they also had dew worms, night crawlers etc... I couldn't beleive it! In Canada the store would have been closed so fast it would have made your head spin.
Little piggies are just the cutest. Didn't know pigs couldn't digest raw potatoes. How do you have to cook up potatoes for them?
ReplyDeleteWe have a propane burner outside with a very large pot that we just use for the pig food. We just cook them till it's cooked like for humans.
ReplyDelete