...but I like the pigs

As I work on closing the deal for the new farm, I've talked to a lot of people about various things that can be done with the space, and it's funny, but most of the people seem to think that I'd like to get out of the pig business.    Nothing could be farther from the truth.  

 I've had pigs since I started farming; initially because I wanted to experiment with charcuterie (making salamis and other cured meats) and because I really didn't have any experience with them.  I had kept chickens at my city house for years, and the first year had a couple of hundred, but pigs were new, and I didn't know how I'd like them, or they me.  They've grown on me.

 From the little weaner pigs that end up in the living room cuddling with a stuffed animal because their sow rejected them...

 To the sows that adopt piglets that aren't theirs

and raise them in batches, with endless patience, I really do like pigs.

It would be hard for me to consider my place a farm without them.  Having owned all sorts of poultry, sheep and cattle now, I can say that the pigs are by far the most intelligent of all livestock.  They do not think in the way that we do -- sharing really isn't a big pig concept, for instance -- but you can see the wheels turning, and they are absolutely as smart as a smart dog, or even a bit more.

The ability to recycle otherwise-wasted food, turn compost, and provide pretty endless entertainment is why I kept them.  Sure, I make a profit off of it, but even if they weren't both delicious and profitable, I think I'd have a few around just because their presence really makes the farm complete.  Much in the same way I keep a barnyard flock of poultry.

I sincerely respect them and they bring me joy every day.  Here's to pigs!

Wages...

Did you know that the minimum wage in Australia is $15.50/hour, USD? 

We have the highest minimum wage in the country here in Washington State, at $9.19/hour, USD. 

Australia has an unemployment rate of 4.9%, compared to the current US rate of around 9%. 

This comes into play with farm labor.  Many farm jobs, particularly piece work, don't pay well at all.  It's odd that a country like australia can pay so much when that sort of wage would, according to many people in the US, kill jobs and collapse businesses. 

Henry Ford, who did quite well, said this about wages: 

"There is one rule for the industrialist and that is: Make the best quality of goods possible at the lowest cost possible, paying the highest wages possible. "
Henry Ford
We seem to have forgotten the last sentence in our rush to the bottom of the wage scale.   Corporate profits are at an all-time high right now.  Perhaps we shouldn't be arguing about tax rates so much as profit rates, and perhaps even sending some of those profits to the folks who are doing the work. 

Check your states minimum wage here. 
Article about Australias minimum wage here. 

Milk taste test

I'm always interested in good food, and how things taste.   Andrea and I did a taste taste of 4 different brands of milk tonight.  Each of us poured four glasses of milk for the other, and we each tasted and then rated the taste of the milk without knowing which brand was which. 

If you drink just one milk you really don't see the difference.  When  you set them side-by-side, you can immediately tell the difference between them. 

I'm interested in what tastes the best.   We chose whole milk, pasteurized, and when we could get it, unhomogenized.  We were not able to find a conventional brand of milk that wasn't homogenized. 

Pasteurized means that the milk was heated for a length of time and to a temperature that is calculated to kill harmful bacteria. 

Homogenized means that the cream in the milk has been broken up so that it no longer separates from the milk. 

Our number one pick for taste was:

Best tasting, $13.40/gallon

 This is a very tasty milk.  It is smooth and rich and is clearly a better milk than any of the others that we tasted in this batch.  Part of that is due to the guernsey cows producing a milk that is richer in butterfat, but the bottom line is that if we were going to buy milk to drink based on taste alone, this is the stuff we'd go for.    Grace Harbor farms blog

Close second, $11.58/gallon

 The taste of the pure eire milk was good, a very close second to the grace harbor farms, but it had milk solids that distracted from the taste.  It may have been lumps of cream, but it was distracting when you expected fluid milk.  The taste was very good.  Pure eire's website

Third, $10.92/gallon

 This milk was ok, but had nothing to set it aside from the pack.  It was an OK milk, but it wasn't as good as the first two.  It was much better than number four. 

distant fourth, $7.40/gallon

Watery, bland, just not worth drinking, in our opinion.  We gave the remainder to the dogs. 

Why so much difference? 

Fat is why ice cream tastes good.  The first two milks in this sample were from breeds of cows (Guernsey, Jersey) that produce a richer, fattier milk.  The last two samples are probably primarily from holstein cows, who are industry favorites because of the volume of milk that they produce, but produce less butterfat per gallon than the other two breeds.