[Sca-cooks] Rotten meat and spices...

[Huette von Ahrens]

--- "Laura C. Minnick" <lcm at jeffnet.org> wrote:
> At 07:03 PM 4/12/2005, you wrote:

> Three pigs. That's very few pigs. The farm next
> door when I was growing up 
> never had fewer than eight. You have to
> remember, William, that this widow 
> is most likely relying on the pigs for
> _income_, not just food. Three pigs 
> is barely enough to have a breeding group. When
> you have that few, you 
> don't butcher them out- you breed them for a
> couple of years to build up 
> the stock. If you're smart, you'll trade a
> couple out with the farm down 
> the lane,so they don't get too inbred. But when
> you've only three, you 
> don't eat them.
> 
> 'Lainie

I can't believe we are arguing over a piece
of fiction.  That is right ... _fiction_.
Even if it does open up a small window to those
days, it is fiction.

'Lainie, have you ever read any of the James
Herriot books?  He frequently talks about 
visiting poor farmers in the Yorkshire Dales
in the 1930s and 1940s who have only three
pigs.  Usually sows, as Chauser writes.  The
farmer arranges for a boar to visit the sows,
who usually have 8 to 10 piglets, sometimes
more.  The boar owner gets some of the piglets.
Several are set aside to fatten up for family
eating and the rest are sold at market.  Just
as the farmers don't eat their cows who provide
fresh milk and chickens who provide fresh eggs.
Occasionally, when the farmer figures that
the sow, or cow, or chicken is beginning to
get long in the tooth, they will keep a baby
to replace said animal.  The old animal will
then be slaughtered and all parts used to
feed the family.  It is when an animal gets
a disease and dies that the farmer and his/her
family will have a crisis.

Huette

Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves for 
they shall never cease to be amused.


		
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