SC - sc: piggie raison d'etre

[LrdRas at aol.com]

In a message dated 9/16/98 12:52:36 AM Eastern Daylight Time, stefan at texas.net
writes:

<< Wouldn't the taste of the pig depend more on how it was raised and what it
was
 fed than just the type of pig? >>

This is somewhat accurate. However, I would refer you to the study that I sent
to the list which specifically staes that one of the problems of modern pig
breeding is a noticeable deterioration in the quality of the meat. You can
only compensate so much when dealing with gentic traits.
 
 <<Medieval pigs fed on whatever was available, slop, garbage, acorns, perhaps
 agricultural refuse etc. They also appear to have ranged free or be herded
 by swineherds...>>

Again this is only part of the story. I would point out that modern
perceptions of agricultural practices are a bit skewed. Remember that
apriculture was the basis of medieval culture. It was not the  sidelie that
our industrial society has pushed agriculture into.

I am sure that pigs that roamed the streets of Paris ate as you describe. but
pigs raised by pig farmers and your average joe who maybe had a pig or two to
put down in the fall would have taken considerable care in feeding
appropriately, IMO.
 
<< Do these old-style pigs get raised this way or on grain for fast growth and
sale?>>

We always had 6  t0m10mpigs on the farm and although they were 'free'range in
that they had a pasture to themselves. We always filled their feedihng trough
with a measured amount of sour milk and grain everyday along with the kitchen
slop bucket. This is not to say that the farmers of the MA did this BUT since
we had neither running water nor electricity until 1971, I would suspect that
not a few of our farming practices were about as close to medieval as one
could get. At least that is the impression I get from the various period
descriptions that I have occasionally come across :-)
 
<< Thanks.
   Stefan li Rous >>

No problem,
Ras 
(Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and your cities will spring up
again as if
 by magic, but destroy our farms and the grass will grow in the streets )
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