A paternity mystery
Here at BOTL Farm, we’ve experimented with different pig breeds and breed crosses to arrive at our ideal mix: Mangalitsa, Large Black, and Berkshire. This mix is cold-tolerant, heat-tolerant, hardy on pasture, friendly enough that we want to deal with them when there’s 25 of them and they’re all 300 lbs, but above all, have great-tasting meat and fat. All the pigs we raise for harvest are this mix of breeds. However, not all of our sows (mom-pigs) are the same breed: some are Manga-Berk mixes and some are purebred Large Black. So do we need to have multiple boars (dad-pigs) to end up with the same breed mix in the offspring?
Nope, we don’t have any boars. But this isn't an immaculate conception, it’s AI. Not that AI, but artificial insemination. We find it convenient to order boar semen from a semen supply company and not deal with stinky boars. There are a variety of different boars so no matter what sows we’re inseminating, we end up with that ideal mix of breeds in the litter. The semen is ‘harvested’ the day we call and shipped overnight, so we get it the following day and it has a shelf life of a few days.
Last year we were having a bit of trouble getting one of our purebred Large Black sows bred and we had used up all the semen we ordered for her and were worried she needed another ‘dose’ or two. Luckily we were breeding one of our Manga/Berk sows at the same time and had extra semen leftover. We ended up using the leftover semen (from a Large Black boar) for the Large Black sow and she did settle (patriarchal farmer jargon for ‘get pregnant’). When she farrowed (gave birth), we didn’t know if the piglets were our ideal mix or purebred Large Black since we’d used both types of semen.
The litter of pigs is growing great and wildly, ridiculously friendly and happy. Large Blacks are known for being happy-go-lucky, docile pigs, so we think they ended up being purebreds, but nobody knows for sure. A mystery ensues!
A reminder that farming is a regulated industry
A new-to-us thing that happened this month is both the CT Department of Agriculture and USDA sent representatives out to our farm, unannounced! Both were routine inspections. Farmers, like other small business owners, quickly learn that operating a business means talking to the government and filling out paperwork. We’re used to talking to local health departments, as we are registered not only with the health department that covers where we farm/live, but also in each town where we vend at a farmer’s market, as well as in the town where the cooperative commercial kitchen we use is located.
That said, it was a little bit of a different experience to have state and federal inspectors show up at the farm. Hilariously (in the bad way), one of us mistook the USDA inspector for a customer showing up outside our store hours, and was politely telling him to go away and return when we were open, when he finally introduced himself and showed his card. Oh boy.
We must have answered all their questions just right and they saw what they needed to see, because we haven’t heard from either of them since their site visits. One more story for the books.
Lamb and goat meat incoming shortly here now!
If you’ve joined the BOTL Farm fan club this year, you may find it hard to believe that we actually sell lamb and goat because we’ve been sold out of both for what seems like forever. Don’t despair, we do actually sell lamb and goat, it’s just wildly seasonal. The animals are born in the spring, eat grass during the warm months, and then are harvested in the fall. Because they’re certified Grass Fed (yes, a third-party auditor visits our farm to confirm that they only eat grass for their entire lives), it doesn’t make sense to grow them at any other time of year or do multiple harvests a year.
That being said, we took this year’s sheep and goats to harvest this month and are patiently/anxiously awaiting the call from the slaughterhouse that the meat is ready to pick up. We’re hoping it comes within the next week. are planning on picking it all up this Friday!
We had a record year of births for goats (our first set of triplets!) and we’re taking in a lot of sheep, so we hope to have lamb, mutton, and goat in stock for longer this year. But we’ve also had a record number of inquiries for this, so we’ll see how it settles out.
Reminder that we will break our once-a-month email rule when we get the lamb, mutton, and goat meat back and ready to sell: we’ll send a separate email to let everyone know it’s ready, with links to order online Online ordering is now available so jump over there and place your orders (or just show up at our store hours and pick what you want out of the display freezer).
Organic animal feed: now stocking Lespedeza pellets
In an effort to be a one-stop shop for all your super-premium organic animal feed needs, we’re now stocking Lespedeza pellets. Most of our animal feed customers are ‘chicken people’ so you may be wondering what is a les-puh-dee-zuh. Honestly, one of us has no idea (maybe it’s a grass?) but the other one assures us that it’s a legume. We agree that the pellets are green and single-ingredient. But for real, lespedeza contains high levels of tannins and is a natural dewormer for sheep and goats. It’s a great way to get them added nutrition while helping protect against nasty barber pole worms.
Find us this month
On farm store: Tuesdays noon - 2pm, Saturdays 1 - 3pm. Pre-order
On farm self pickup: Everyday 8:30am - 8pm. Pre-order only
Assawaga farm market: Every Saturday from 9am to noon from now until the weekend before Thanksgiving. We’ll be there for all of the remaining markets, except we have to leave early on Nov 16: we’ll leave at 10:30am so get there early. Dates we’ll be there in November: November 02, November 09, November 16, November 23. Pre-order
Sturbridge Monthly Winter Drop Offs: For the past few years we have teamed up with Still Life Farm for their winter CSA. We love having local veg through the dark months of winter, and we can bring pre-paid meat + eggs orders to their monthly Sturbridge pickup location. You don’t need to be a veg CSA member to order from us, but if you’re interested to sign up with them, check it out here. Date for November drop-off: November 16. Pre-order
Assawaga Holiday Market: put this on your calendar now, it’s such a great yearly event! Saturday December 07 from 11am - 3pm, there will be a highly curated roster of phenomenal local farmers, artists, and makers - all inspired by and rooted in nature. Plus a taco food truck, yum.
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