Oh Natural

On Labour Day, we drove out to a farm near Carleton Place to pick up a side of pork. Or, as we've been calling him, Our Happy Pig.

I didn't get any pictures of the fairly cute and gregarious Yorkshires, from which herd Our Happy Pig was culled. Nor did I get any pictures of the beef cattle roaming in the open fields behind the barn (whom we will revisit with less innocent intention next year.)

But we all enjoyed getting a tour of the farm, seeing the other animals, and chatting with Farmer Dave (who left Nortel half a dozen years ago to take up farming on his fantastic 150 year old farm.)

So the pork? Is amazing. We've only dug into a couple packages of loin chops, but they are just amazing. tender, juicy, flavourful. And guilt-free. This pig, it lived the way pigs are meant to. In a big open pen, running around in the mud and grass, being fed delicious real-food-slops.  

We'd been avoiding grocery store meat for some time, and even alternating meating-eating and vegetarian/vegan-eating dinners in order to minimize the amount of unhealthy (in the broadest sense). Now we have a freezer full of loin chops, smoked hams, sausages (the guy from the Sausage Kitchen makes the sausages!), bacon, and ground pork, which we can enjoy knowing we are supporting natural agriculture.

Next year, beef.

Also! I had my first taste of fresh, unpasteurized milk the other night. Not at the farm; at bookclub. (Bookclub is made up of many midwives - there was bound to be a granola or two in the bunch.) OMG, fresh milk tastes amazing, AND I got the contact info for the farmer who supplies it. We'll see where this leads...