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small beer
@hillcountry. That article on hybrids is kind of mind blowing! Wowza if true. Thank you for the link. You are so well read!
I did not hear of that guy or the ranch you referrenced but read the link when I get a chance. Thank you again!
I just wanted to chime in on the pig thing.
If you come from ancestry that didn't eat pigs, maybe avoid those foods. Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, African, Arctic, Native American, Native Australian.
But MANY cultures did, including Europe stretching across Asia all the way into Polynesia.
Really, a pig is an efficient way keep your family fed if you are a farmer. It takes what you don't want (extra garden and orchard foods and skim milk) and turns it into meat and fat and bones and ligaments for soup...at a high rate of return.
Pantries in the olden days were called larders because everyone used lard. Chinese (just one of many Asian examples) cooking might not seem high in meat, but I'm betting that the wok was filled with veggies and LARD. The broth in the soup was probably pork broth, which is considered the best (I have been told).
Now that we (on Grant's site) know that butter probably adds up to too much vitamin A (in the long run) we can (if we let ourselves) see that using lard might have been a wise choice (Plus it is a natural source of D for winter keeping)
Sometimes I wonder if people who are against keeping pigs have ever taken care of pigs? Personally, I don't think I'd have trouble sending them to the butcher. In fact, I find them scary, non-cuddly and dull. (And I've only encountered backyard and small-farm pigs, I've never been to a factory farm) (sure, piglets are cute).
I think on butchering day I'd feel proud of myself that I worked so hard and lucky that now I can feed my family.
If there was one farm animal that I've ever worked around that I would never want to butcher it would be a goat. To me, they are much more pet-like, canny and sociable.
My grandmothers family (first generation German) ate loads of pork, the entire pig, the lard, feet meat etc. There were 12 children. One died of an ear infection as a baby (before antibiotics). The other 11 were strong and successful. My grandmother and her younger sister lived until their late nineties (they were the two youngest girls) The two oldest girls lived to be 100.
Our Acadian ancestors competed to raise the best pig in town. It was like a sport. Acadian cookbooks show that almost every dish began with pig fat, even the desserts. They also raised all the other farm animals. But they didn't slaughter their chickens, cows or female sheep as often because they wanted the milk, eggs and wool. And it was said they didn't like mutton anyways. Of course, there are always going to be the roosters and extra male steer to eat as well.
Pigs were part of my ancestral diet.
Maybe all these people cited who ate pigs would have been more healthy had they not. I think it very unwise to eat pork when one is sick. Even if not widely accepted, I believe lard to have very high amounts of retinoids. I grew up on a farm. We didn't have pigs but visited other farms with them and county fairs. I think pigs have an awesome personality.
Editing to add that I don't think it a good thing to take vitamin D by mount either. I know that is highly contentious also.
Quote from romaine on January 13, 2020, 8:32 amMaybe all these people cited who ate pigs would have been more healthy had they not. I think it very unwise to eat pork when one is sick. Even if not widely accepted, I believe lard to have very high amounts of retinoids. I grew up on a farm. We didn't have pigs but visited other farms with them and county fairs. I think pigs have an awesome personality.
Editing to add that I don't think it a good thing to take vitamin D by mount either. I know that is highly contentious also.
Do you want to live longer than 100 years? 🙂
It could be that pigs are getting poisoned by retinoids along with all of us. (because of corn feeds and roundup) But as I am often fond of saying: There may not be a better second choice (especially if your genes are expecting a certain menu).
Even if we are not a pig/chimp hybrid, the article hillcountry linked does a great job describing all the traits humans and pigs have in common. It is the macroevolution human origins article and is a very interesting read. For ME it seems wrong to eat an animal that is so similar to us. Sadly (to say the least) most people who eat pork are going to be getting it from factory farms.
Here is an article that wraps my impression of pigs. https://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/phenomenal-reasons-to-love-pigs/
I was thinking about the health of my two most long-lived aunts (the two eldest girls). My grandmother would, very occasionally, go over to help them when they were in their nineties.
My grandmother said that they had all their own teeth and neither of them ever entered the hospital until they were in their nineties.
My grandmother once said she was helping one of them in and out of the tub, and that she still had the legs of a 16-year old.
My grandmother and her little sister had slightly less good health, but still made it pretty far into their nineties.
I actually think it might be that humans and pigs evolved under similar circumstances and so do have lots in common.
I see hawks eating other wild birds. They have lots in common. A wildcat would eat a small dog and they have lots in common... etc
Personally, what the stories from my grandmother tell me is that there isn't anything wrong with the traditions we have been handed down.
What is wrong is how we have changed away from those traditions.
The solution isn't to come up with new traditions, but to return to the ones that worked.
I once took care of my friend's pigs and was too scared to ever do it again. I've crossed paths with the wife mentioned in this video. She's a nice lady, and a chicken breeder active in local meets etc. And I can't imagine that they were mistreating their boar. I think boars are just scary. I wouldn't be surprised if animal feeds are making animals crankier than they ever were.