Animals

Our babies are growing up! The little piglets that we purchased in July are now pigs in every sense of the word. Check out the earlier picture of Diane with the piggies and take a look at them now!
There are pigs on the Iberian peninsula in both Spain and Portugal (called Iberian Blacks) that are raised on acorns in the oak forests of northern Portugal and Western Spain and produce a really special meat referred to as Jamon Iberico or Pata Negra. When Diane and I were in Portugal for a month in the summer of 2004 we made it a point to find a special little restaurant in the little town of Evora that had been recommended to whose owner prepared Pata Negra pork. The owner, Ze Diaz, treated us like family and served us crusty breads and assorted olives along with a local red wine that was, like so many of the Portuguese wines we had tried, excellent! And then came the pork - I was just looking at the journal we kept from the trip and my comment was "... finished with lemon and herbs, totally tender and without a doubt the best pork I have ever tasted!" I still remember that wonderful meal and and have even checked into getting some but at $20+ per pound it is beyond our budget. Why have I told this tale of eating pork in Portugal? Our land has many White, Red, Burr, and Pin Oaks and the White and Red Oaks have been producing tons of acorns, and our pigs love them! I give them a pint each twice a day with their regular rations and they eat the acorns before anything else. I have to be careful to put them on top or they will root out the rest of their food to get to the acorns! We'll see how this goes but the acorns have certainly cut into our feed bill.







We also now have 15 guinea fowl and they are a hoot! We didn't get these little weirdos until late August so they are still very young but they are really cool and have a sweet, if not cacophonous, sound. They are supposed to be great at keeping ticks and chiggers in check and are said to taste like pheasant. In any case they are another delightful addition to Little Ditty Farm!




The geese are having a blast!

















The pooches are growing up!