Oh baby !

Last night was an eeire and weird sort of night. Rolling clouds, bright full moon, breezes too warm causing the midlife farmwife to swoon. Sorry.  The last time I "swooned"  was 1975 and I'm pretty sure it was not romance related.

So, the sky was very Fall like, but last I looked it was still February in Central Illinois. Something is up, I thought.

This morning when Keith did chores he found this wonderful sight

Our crossbred sow Dot with her FOURTEEN piglets ! She looks very comfy and satisfied doesn't she ? I always had my babies just ONE at a time and I know I never looked this good after delivery. She farrowed in one of the custom made hutches Keith custom made this past summer. Its a great design with plenty of room for mom and babes and an area in the back that babies can snuggle into but remain safe from mom accidentally lying on them.

See the boards (two 2x4's nailed together) behind Dot ? And the way the hutch roof angles towards to bottom of the hutch.? Both these measures help decrease losses due to crushing. Those and the fact that mom can come in and out of the hutch as she pleases with lots of room to roam outside. Ideally we would have them farrowing in the woods, if we had any woods, but we do not so we do the best we can with the pasture and the hutches we have. With each version of this farrowing hutch Keith tweaks a part of the design and our survival rates improve. Another decade or so and we'll have this hog raising thing licked...chewed ? Smoked ?

Ooops. I forgot to thank Mad Maxx our Red Wattle Boar and daddy to these piglets. What a great job he did of passing down his Red Wattle coloring. Tomorrow we'll count wattles.

Days of Blunder

November. Cool. Bright. Gorgeous. Purple beams of light. Serene dairy herd still on what remains of our pasture.

And the slightly anxious feeling of  "OH DEAR GOD WINTER IS COMING !"
So much to get done and always so little time. Yeah, I hear ya.
"If you have so little time and so much to do than why are you wasting it writing, huh ?"
"Well "  I said to myself,  "Writing centers me, helps me prioritize, and gives me the opportunity to drink another pot of cafe' La Folgers before I hit the ground running, OK walking a little fast"

Not sure why I put a conversation in my head in quotes but lets just move on, shall we ?

Any farmer/homesteader AKA Eejit type who works primarily outside in areas where bananas do not flourish,  goes through this last minute panic. Barns to be secured for high winds and blowing snow, windows to caulk, doors to fix, fences to strengthen, bedding to be obtained, hay to stack , waterers to install etc ...etc... etc. You would think after so many years of doing this we would learn to just do the best we can and pray about the rest but still my faith wavers.

Today for example Keith is taking a load of hogs to the locker for tomorrows Chicago deliveries. Our biggest delivery ever.  6 hogs in our little Ford Wagon.  I'm sure thats not such a big deal to you large hog producers, but to us, a huge deal. This means invoices to complete, morning chores to finish, grocery store orders to pack . While at the locker Keith will pick up the beef and hog we dropped off two weeks ago which means we play the "meat relocation" game as we move meat in and out of the freezers. We also have several last minute things to finish on our Farm Store which will open for business Nov. 27.

I also must allocate time to WORRY that the wagon can hold all that meat without its bottom scraping the ground, generating sparks all the way up Route 55. I mean really don't you just HATE IT when your bottom scrapes the ground ?



Post note: I really, truly am very grateful for the fact that our farm business is going well and that we have been graced with work. Work is good. But still, bottom , scraping,  sparks...

Preschool at Yaya's

I love Mondays and Tuesdays best. Those are grandchildren days. Three year old Wesley is with me all day and we do the usual grandma stuff like bake cookies, take long walks, read stories and deliver dead pigs to chefs.

Today Wes and I took 1/2 of a Red Wattle hog to Manny at Desthil Restaurant in Normal, Illinois. 
http://www.destihl.com/  Manny is one of the 10 expert chefs who will be preparing food for the Harvest Feast at Spence Farms in Fairbury this Sunday. http://www.spencefarmfoundation.org/ Where is the other 1/2 of that pig you astute people might ask ? Well, it went to Jared VanCamp at Old Town Social in Chicago. He is another of the fine chefs preparing great dishes for the Feast. We can't wait to see all the different dishes these guys are going to present to  a very large rural crowd in just a few days.

Back to Manny. A gentleman with a big smile who took a few seconds out of his busy day to greet  a three year old AND THEN took even more time to show him the really COOL walk- in refrigerator. Our killed and chiiled hog just laid there pretending not to be impressed, but we were.

Pied Piper of Pigs

Once again, because the demand for our product is growing so fast, we recently bought a "few"  feeder pigs from a neighboring farmer. Soon our breeding stock will be in full production but as our growth has been so wonderfully rapid, we have had  to "outsource" some of our pork chop crop. All hogs are still raised here but only about 75% are born here. (We believe this will be our LAST group not born on South Pork Ranch.)

So we buy piglets as young as we can and then we move them OUTSIDE. It is often the first time these piggies have ever felt dirt or been able to chew grass or bask in the sunshine.

In the beginning,  confinement hogs are very wary of people. They are used to being indoors, in tight quarters. They are often fed by automated means. They don't get the kind of behind the ear scratches and shoulder rubs our animals are accustomed to receiving. Then they come to South Pork Ranch and their lives change.

We get them on pasture as soon as we can get them acclimated to an electric fence. The REAL fun happens very quickly as Keith begins to feed them raw milk from our certified organic dairy. The pigs love it and of course fall deeply in love with Pied Piper Keith.

Bi-polar farmwife meets Rick Bayless

I was born in Rock Island Illinois and my first home was a shack of a farmhouse my parents were renting. My fathers first attempt at farming. It lasted 12 months. We returned to Chicago , home of my best childhood memories. Fast foward and I am now 17 yrs married to a dairy farmer turned dairy-hog-peacock-goat-chicken -bee farmer. I tell you this to explain why I love both the city and the country. Bi-polar in the best sense.

Recently we had the opportunity to spend the whole day in Chicago as we attended the Frontera Farmers Foundation Benefit. As recent recipients of one of their grants, the foundation asked us to participate in their day long Farmers Market and grand fund raising dinner. We donated pork shoulder which was made into the most tasty BBQ I have ever tasted. Executuve Chef Richard James developed the recipe ( "I know Baaaar-B-Que !" ) and chef Bill Otis AKA "Grill Bill" was assigned to dish up the BBQ sandwiches.

For 3 hours we stood side by side with Grill Bill  (wearing the cap) while he not only served up our meat but then told the hundreds of Famer Market attendees all about our pork. Keith had spend about 10 seconds telling Bill about our product BUT Bill listened with both ears and by the end of the event he could inform the long long line of people how the Red Wattle was rediscovered in Texas, how it was being raised by us, the exact amount of milk it gets every day and why the meat was superior in taste. Some folks came back to our station 4 and 5 times.

Richard James, Frontera Chef who turned our pork into little pieces of heaven.

(And taught me how not to shake hands like a nerd)

We also got to meet the 14 other famers picked by the Frontera Foundation, (Hello Samantha , Greg and Renee !) sample their wares, learn about their farms and their ways. So valuable. In the midst of the activity I noticed a woman going very quietly from table to table making sure all the details were being tended too. Such as removing each dead blossom from the gorgeous floral arrangements on the wall and replacing them with fresh blooms. Turns out it was Deann Bayless herself. Gotta love those detail oriented people. Events like this one would never happen without them .

Myself, Deann Bayless of Frontera Restaurant and Samantha Sexton of Natures Choice Farm

Towards the end, as the crowd started to thin, Rick Bayless, award winning Chef-Restauranteur, cookbook author and TV celebrity came to our booth to sample our pork. He pronounced it "Fabulous". Keith stood still and just beemed. I collapsed on the beautiful Terra Cotta floor in fit of giggles and peed myself. (not to worry, Attends were in place).

Later, after the Farmers Market debri was cleared, all of Ricks staff who VOLUNTEER all their time for this fund raiser, set up the restaurants for a very formal dinner and silect auction. Other staff took "the farmers" outside for a special meal of bacon and bean cassolet (satisfying, so satisfying) and even more special, time together as farmers and chefs to talk about food in general, the loss of family farms in particular.

       Keith (on right) discussing pasture raised pork with Frontera Farmers Benefit attendees

But, it still wasn't over. After watching a couple hundred MORE people arrive at Frontera for the final sit down dinner, we were led back into the dining room. Rick Bayless stood in front of us farmers, spoke of his love for fresh, honest, non-mass produced food and then introduced EACH of us by name and farm, thanking US for what we had done to promote the family farm. It was very humbling

Thank you again to Rick Bayless, all his staff, chefs Bill Otis and Richard James for their part in making our pork shine. To Deb Silverstein for her many communcations back and forth with me and  to the Frontera Farmers Foundation for believing in our farm and granting us the funds we needed to save the Critically Endangered Red Wattle Hog     http://www.rickbayless.com/foundation/about.html

And very special thanks to Marty and Kris Travis of Spence Farms  http://thespencefarm.com/
 who introduced us to this special movement of producing chemical free, local food for those talented chefs and restaurant owners who really care about what they serve and how it is grown. The line between city and country blurs more and more each day.

South Pork Ranch is proud to announce...

the arrival of our first Red Wattle litter. I told you a little about it yesterday but without pics what is the point ? The bambinos are doing well this am. Mama Debbie is not being bothered by the other 3 sows and in fact when she gets up to go outside the hogcienda to eat, the little ones are smart enough to find their way over to Lady Anna's wide bottom. They snuggle up against her hide end until real comes back. Then Debbie  makes this little bark noise and they all get up and come back to her.

Debbie had no problem with me being in  her space this morning. I went slowly with my back to the open doorway (just like they teach  us nurses to do with psych patients) but she was totally OK with me being next to her. I scratched her ears, rubbed her neck and she fell back asleep.Suddenly, she lifted her head and growled this low, deep, alien coming out between her udders , menacing growl. I thought "here we go, she is going to make an HLT (that would be Human-Lettuce-Tomato )  sandwich out of me !  Then I noticed from behind me, one of cats sneaking in for a closer look at the new arrivals. The cat got Debbies hint very quickly and RAN out of reach.

The piglets remind me quite a bit of human babies with their delicate see-through  skin, their little wrinkles, the fine hair on their back. But those crazy ears ! Never seen those on a humanoid. Good thing.  

And check out that nest Debbie made ! Keith put in three big bales of straw on Wednesday but did she use that ? Nope. Obviously that building material was too common for her. Instead, she tore away at the big bales of organic hay just in front of the hogcienda and used it for the king size mattress she built with JUST HER MOUTH. If I had to rely on just my mouth to make a bed, well it would still be unmade. In fact it is still unmade now at 10 am. So what was the point of that comparison ? I have no idea. I have flights of ideas lately but no real solid ones. I blame it on the plaster dust from our recently sanded , lead painted windows, walls and trim.

What was I talking about ? Oh yeah, global warming . There is no such thing.
Oh, I almost forgot , we have Red Wattle babies and we like them.

Hello, my name is...

South Pork Ranch.  A cross between the humor of South Park TV,  the drama of South Fork Ranch in Dallas, we are the new and improved dramatically fun South Pork Ranch LLC. We have been known as Green Acres Farm since our first cow Kiki graced us with our first glass of fresh milk but times "they are a changin'" and we need to change a little to keep up.

Our primary reason for the name change was confusion. NO, NOT MINE !! Seems Green Acres Farm is a name others had thought of and had been using. Not so much here in Livingston County but as we moved (literally, in the back of our pickup) our product a little farther away from the protective fencing of our farm, we ran into more folks with our name. Some of these similar named farms even recieved our payment checks from some of our customers. Not to worry, all folks with the name "Green Acres" were good folks and returned the checks, but it cinched our decision for a name change.

Son Colton, is working on the new website, with a very similar appearance and links from old site to new site. Our LLC (limited liability company paperwork is complete and being filed with the state of Illinois) and a professional artist has been hired to take our niece Micahs new farm logo, to a print -ready status. In the meantime...the sows and cows could care less what the sign at the end of our lane says, as long as the great quality organic hay keeps on coming until spring brings back the fresh green grass we are all missing. Hmmm "sows and cows" now THAT is a great name for a new reality show.

Little Debbie update: Udder fuller, teats hanging lower, UPS delivered a huge box of Huggies to the pig condo last night. Seems we're getting closer to birth of South Pork Ranch's first litter of Red Wattle babies.  Keep those hooves crossed.

Four chefs and a side of beef

Now THAT would be a great title for a new book. Mystery ? Horror ? Romance ? Too creepy. Cookbook ? Too predictable. Sci-fi ? Maybe.

For now four chefs and a side of beef is exactly what it says. Look to the left and you will see the beef, to the right is our hog. Well, it was our hog . Now it belongs to Jared Van Camp and Yoni Levi at Old Town Social to be turned into something truly tasty.  .www.oldtownsocial.com  Jared is on the far right and Yoni is next to him. Then you have Ray , then Sam. Or was it Sam then Ray ? Sorry guys. My Aricept had not yet kicked in when we met you at the crack of noon. But I do remember how sharp you 4 looked in your black and whites.

Twas a cold cold day for deliveries in Chicago  but the sun was out and the traffic was good. My morning started at 4:30. I woke, splashed some coffee down my throat, (ow and OW !) then picked up youngest son Kyle in Fairbury. He traveled with me to the Bittners Eureka Locker 60 miles away to help load the 400 plus pounds of beef. Half for us and half for Jared. This is the first beef we've processed at Eureka and they were grrreat ! I'm sure we'll use them again in the future.Then we back tracked to Chenoa to pick up the hog. Since the freezer was already full of beef we wrapped the hog very nicely in a brand new tarp tied with a pretty little rope bow. Kinda like a big bacon bouquet..Onto Fairbury again where I pushed Kyle out of the truck with our share of the beef and chore instructions back at the farm. I then met Keith in Forrest and we headed up Route 47 to the big city.

Halfway up Ashland Ave., a cop, who was traveling to the left of me, suddenly swooped in behind me. I suspected he noticed the nicely wrapped body bag in the back of the truck "Here we go"  I thought. I looked for his flashing lights. Never happened. Guess I finally reached the age where I and my actions no longer look suspicious. Probably that ridiculous cow brooch I was wearing on my lapel. It made me a little sad.