A Change in Appearance and A Change of Direction

Large Black Hogs

East of Eden Farms and Our Edible Suburb are going through changes.  We’re growing up.  You should expect to see some of those changes in the very near future.

First, our website is undergoing a makeover.  We have enjoyed our site and I know many of you have complimented us on it, but it’s time to kick things up a notch or two.  We have been working with a web designer and really like what we’ve seen so far.  We think you will like it, too.

Secondly, we’re cutting way back on our rabbit population.  Georgia just doesn’t have the market we hoped for, so we are only going to keep our two pair of American Chinchilla rabbits. The Am Chins are a heritage breed and are rather rare.  We will have two or three litters a year and sell as many as we can as pets and to show people.  We will still have a few for meat for our personal consumption and certainly we’ll get plenty of great fertilizer.

Thirdly, we’re making a substitution in the pig department.  While we have loved our Vietnamese Pot Belly Pigs very much, they are just too destructive and frankly, too small. We have 4 to process next month and a litter of piglets due in March.  We will make the piglets available as pets or as feeder pigs once they are weaned.

Pot Bellies have amazing personalities and they make us smile every day.  I never tire of watching them leap up from their hiding places under the straw in the barn, but I’m beyond tired of the craters they’ve created in their pasture.  We’ll have to reseed it this spring at the same time we reseed the mule pasture.

We are replacing our mini porkers with a rare, heritage breed called, Large Black.  I wish I’d done this earlier, but I wasn’t paying attention.  Large Black Hogs do not root like other pigs.  They can graze along side our goats and cows.  They will still gobble up our excess milk and whey, but they will produce serious quantities of meat.  Large Blacks are processed at 200 lbs, whereas a Pot Belly is large at 90 lbs.  A full grown Large Black will tip the scales at 700 lbs plus.  They are docile, attention loving animals, with poor eyesight and big floppy ears (a trait that B is especially excited about).  When full grown, our breeder pigs weigh more than our donkeys and almost as much as our Dexter Cows. We pick up our new pigs on Feb. 12.

Speaking of Dexters.  We are forging ahead with our plans to add a couple more to our herd.  Dexters are our breed of choice as they can supply us with dairy as well as meat.

The sheep are gone. We won’t be raising broiler chickens anymore, but we will sell the occasional stewing hen.  We will keep laying hens and will have turkeys at least one more year.  Our livestock focus will be our goats, both meat and dairy, with some pork and beef as a supplement.

Keep your eyes peeled for the changes in the website.

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