7/29/2024: We’re getting in touch with current customers. If you’d like to be on this year’s waiting list, please email us at sweetlandorchard@gmail.com.

The pigs arrived in the middle of JUne and hopefully they’ll be pork by Christmas.

Since before we bought the orchard in 2010, we’ve wanted to raise hogs among our apple trees, which is a traditional way of orcharding in England. In 2018, that dream came true and we got to operate our “swinery” for the first time. We had such a great experience that we’ve made hogs a regular, seasonal part of our operation.

We provide a pretty great life for our pigs. They eat a varied diet composed of mash (corn and soy), table scraps, and lots of apples. In 2019, we moved them to a new spot behind the house with plenty of room for roaming, exploring, and eating.

When we butchered our hogs for the first time, we realized that a good death is as important as a good life and though we wanted to expand our hog operation, we didn’t want to load them up into a trailer and truck them to a butcher shop for their final hours. Stress also makes for inferior meat quality, so there are many reasons that it’s important for our hogs to have a quiet, peaceful end at home. To that end, we’ve enlisted Mobile Meats for on-farm butchering.

These hogs are Hampshire/Duroc/Yorkshire crosses. They are hardy in the field and have a good balance of muscle and fat. Your cost is $4.25/pound hanging weight payable to us and about $1.85/pound hanging weight payable to Mobile Meats, which includes bacon, ham and sausage. If you want more fresh cuts that aren’t smoked and cured, your processing cost will be about $1.55/pound hanging weight. Brian, the butcher, will call you up to talk you through the cuts he’ll make like, for example, how thick you want your chops and how many you want per package.

The hanging weight of hogs like ours is usually about 230 pounds but depending on how they grow and when they’re ultimately butchered, they could get up to more than 300 pounds. You’ll be able to pick up your packaged meat here at the orchard on a date to be determined or we’ll bring it to you. Choose a half-hog for a deposit of $200 or a whole hog for a deposit of $400. Please Venmo your deposit to sweetland-orchard. Zelle and checks work too!