![\"\"](\"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/IMG_6780A.jpg\" "\\"Pushy\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nInstead of a piglet that needs a heat lamp and some coddling.<\/p>\n
A pig that makes use of the food available.<\/p>\n Versus a pig that keeps the feed store in business.<\/p>\n But sometimes it’s not the practical reasons that make you really admire the heritage breeds.\u00a0 Sometimes it’s the thing that makes you laugh out loud.\u00a0 The thing that gives your heart the warm fuzzies.\u00a0 The thing that makes you smile every time your American guinea pig strolls past.<\/p>\n You see, Papa Noel<\/a>, came to us with his tail clipped.<\/p>\n After all, commercial breeds of pigs are usually penned together in large numbers and small lots and they often bite each other’s tails.\u00a0 So the breeders cut the tails to prevent injuries.\u00a0 Which meant our first experience raising a pig was missing something.\u00a0 A little something.\u00a0 A little something that I didn’t even realize was so important or enjoyable until I was down with the pigs and suddenly noticed it.<\/p>\n That’s right, Pushy and Penny are grown enough now that they have developed curly tails.<\/p>\n Adorable….<\/p>\n ….precious….<\/p>\n ….delightful curly tails.<\/p>\n Oh, I’m pretty sure I know how it happened.\u00a0 Once the pigs finished tilling the garden, they were moved to the pond.\u00a0 The dirty, dried up, desolate pond that they have been charged with sealing so that it can recover.<\/p>\n Since the rich forage that they had in the garden is no longer available, we’ve been feeding them with farm scraps.\u00a0 You know what I mean—the extras, the cast offs, the garbage of the farm.\u00a0 Like the last of the frozen squash and zucchini that we don’t need now that we’ve got fresh veggies coming out of the garden.<\/p>\n Creamy raw goat milk and free range eggs from the farm fridge that is overflowing with the abundance from the hens and goats.<\/p>\n The carcasses of older free range ducks from several years ago.\u00a0 We’ve been saving them to cut off the breast meat as the rest was probably too tough to eat.<\/p>\n But we don’t need them now that we’ve got fresh young duck breast on the ground.<\/p>\n And to top all that off, the pigs get the bread heels and the extra salad greens, too.<\/p>\n I believe those kind of scraps are what they mean when they say you’re eating high on the hog.\u00a0 I think.\u00a0 Probably.\u00a0 Maybe.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n