Cow Pies, Horse Apples, and Other Swine Dining

Here on the farm, I've found myself spending the greater balance of my time wrapped up in the same activities as a new mother: cleaning up poop and preparing food. Far be it from me to disparage the importance of a mother's work, but I have to say that perpetually being knee deep in excrement has swiftly lost its sheen. Particularly in midwinter. Still, I never did expect the life of a farmer to be all beer and skittles...one has to do what one has to do.

And one thing I've ended up doing, unexpected though it might be, is cooking. A lot of the food I've been able to grub of for the pigs has been less than appetizing in its normal form. Raw pumpkin, for instance. Now, when I threw a pumpkin into the pig pen (before they all froze, at least), the pigs would wolf down the innards, but leave the vast majority of the rind gnawed perhaps but uneaten. Cut that self-same gourd up and stew it for half an hour and suddenly the swine go wild, and a snack becomes a meal.

Cooking for more than four little piggies would probably be unfeasible, but for the time being a little more culinary attention has its benefits. Cooked food, more easily digestible, has big caloric payoffs. Bad for you and me, good for fattening up a hog. Plus, I think the pigs just enjoy roasted veggies more than pig pellets. They like squash, and potatoes; asparagus not so much. Which is fine, since their pee smells enough already.

Yet even though I slave away over a hot stove for those porkers, the little ingrates love nothing more than to drop everything and go rooting through fresh horse crap. They hear the sound of the quad driving to the manure pile and they come racing along the fence-line, hell-bent on digging around in the droppings. It's gross, of course, but who am I to judge. I appreciate the help composting.

And so it goes, poop and food, poop and food...a mother's work is never done.