Pork

RED WATTLE PIGS:

We chose to raise Red Wattle pigs because…..
1.  The females have no trouble birthing (we had no experience with pig farrowing)
2.  They require no shelter (we bought our farm “as-is” and there was no pig shelter)  
3.  They are friendly (except when I tried to come pick up the NEWborn piglet)

Red Wattle is a large, red hog which has a fleshy wattle (which has no known function) attached to each side of the neck.  History points to the recordings of the breed in the 1970s and 1980s in the wooded areas of Eastern Texas.  However, there is a story that floats amongst the Red Wattle owners that a wealthy Texan who like to big game hunt had them shipped to the U.S., but the market never took off because they are so very lean and at that time in history, lard was important to society.  

LEAN PORK???  We were sold.

We planned to keep all of our first batch of Red Wattles for breeding stock and butcher the next generation, but we found ourselves with one heavy adventurous gal who loved to escape….like a few miles from the farm!!!  She earned a trip to the butcher…all 321 pounds of her…. and the meat is fantastic.  The experts weren’t kidding about lean.  The meat sold very quickly in this order…bacon was gone….pork roasts were gone…..Italian sausage was gone.

Our Red Wattles are happy foraging in our pasture, wallowing in their water hole and munching on the wholesome local mixture of organic/non-GMO feed we keep at their “all you can eat buffet”.  They have so much room to roam they don’t realize they are contained and they greet you at the fence where you can either crawl in with them or pet them with a stick from the other side of the electric fence.