We have the pigs and Doug is currently working out at current rate of progress when they are likely to reach slaugher weight. A few months is likely. It will be a wrench sending them off as we are fond of them and they are great fun, but we are looking forward to the resulting pork and other pig products such as bacon, ham, sausages, saucisson etc and it is not part of the plan to end up with expensive pets.
We plan on getting some other animals too. Ideally things that can turn grass in to meat. The pigs should result in a great product, but they will have been fed almost exclusively on bought food to achieve this.
We will get chickens and hopefully if they free range they will manage to feed themselves a lot of what they need from insects and plants (ideally not the veg patch) and avoid becoming themselves food for the fox.
Rabbits are a good animal for turning grass in to meat (apparently) so we are considering them. However I have some qualms about whether I could look Thumper in his fluffy cute little face and kill him. Doug thinks he can, so that is the first bit dealt with - but then Thumper needs to be gutted, skinned and chopped in to pieces. I like to think I can do this, as it seems a bit hypocritical being able to eat meat but being squeamish when you consider some of the process of preparing it. In the supermarket here they sell a lot of whole but skinned rabbit, I was going to buy one but the eyes are still there and they were freakishly boggling out of the packet at me, so I wimped out and bought the deheaded and chopped in to pieces one.
Oh no! I am not cut out to be a country folk who can kill animals with a twist of my wrist etc - I will progress next time to the one with the boggly eyes and from there to one that needs gutting and skinning perhaps.
The resulting stew was very tasty and I don't want to turn vegetarian!
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