After two years of searching, Past Thyme Farm has acquired a breeding pair (Boar & Sow) of a rare breed of hog called Guinea Hogs.
 

American Guinea Hogs are a critically rare breed of pig that is unique to North America. The original stock for the breed came from West Africa, and over the last 200-300 years developed through adaptation and crossbreeding with Appalachian English pigs to create an American original

Guineas are one of the smaller breeds of pigs, ranging from 150 to 250 pounds at maturity, with a carcass of 50 to 100 pounds.

With a docile disposition, they make an excellent homestead pig, able to forage for much of their diet; which includes snakes, nuts, rodents, grass and roots.

American Guinea hogs have upright ears, a hairy coat and curly tail. They are usually black, but occasionally a Guinea hog will have some reddish tinting, white socks, or even some white or gray on the body.

American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (ALBC) classifies Guinea Hogs as critical on the Conservation Priority List. The American Guinea Hog Association was formed to preserve this rare breed for future generations of farmers and ranchers wanting a smaller pig to produce pork for the family on farmettes and homesteads.

Yesterday, April 23^rd both Maggie and Mimi gave birth to rams. 

What’s interesting about these two births is . . .well a couple things. 

Maggie and Mimi just happen to be the first lambs born at PTF!  They were also the first ewes born at PTF and they were the first twins born at PTF.  So when Maggie decided yesterday (9:30 am) to give birth to her first baby, Mimi wasn’t going to be out done, so she proceeded to give birth (5:00 pm) to her first baby.  And of course I already told you that they both gave birth to baby boys.  We named them Savory and Salt & Pepper. 

So far this lambing season we have had four of our five ewes give birth and two of those four have twined.  We have received one ewe and five “fence bangers” (rams)!!

Lambing Season started at Past Thyme Farm sometime early morning on Sunday, April 11^th.  We had anticipated that lambing season could start anytime after April 3^rd so we had been keeping close watch on our flock, but its always a surprise when the newborn lambs first appear.  Yes, I did say lambs.  Just like last year our lambing season started with twins, a boy and a girl (ram & ewe).  Proud mother (Taylor) had them all cleaned up and was feeding them by the time we realized lambing season had started.

We are expecting four more ewes to lamb this season. Devon currently looks like a heavily loaded boxcar so we’re expecting twins from her again.  As far as when, it’s anybody’s guess!
 

I have attached a picture of Rosemary, Basil and Mother.


APRIL 20th -- 3:15 pm -- MORE TWINS AT PTF!!

Our second set of “Soay Sheep” twins!!  Devon, a three year old Soay, gave us a set of rams that we named Rue and Fennel. 

We have three more pregnant ewes . . .so stay tuned!

The new ewes will join our farms breeding flock and the new rams will be given all the fresh pasture and supplemental grain needed to fatten them up.  Hopefully we will be able to harvest our first ram lambs this fall.

Pictures of Rue & Fennel will be coming soon.

 

Breeding season has started for the Soay Sheep at Past Thyme Farm.

We have five ewes and three rams which we separated in three breeding groups.  In order to do this properly you must have the ability to separate them into three pastures, which must all have "predator secure" fencing, shelters and both frost free water buckets and feeding troughs.  This utilizes a lot of area and on a five-acre rotational farm, requires some planning. Everything must be portable. 

Remember we also have 2 Donks, 20 laying hens, 4 roosters and 3 turkeys that need all of the above also.

It’s taken some time to design and build-out our farm but every year we seem to take a couple steps further toward our dream of subsistence.  I guess this is where I remind myself that Rome was not built in one day!

Back to the Soay’s . . . if everything goes as planned we should grow our flock by eight (4 ewes / 4 rams) come spring.  Lambing should start at the end of April early May.

 

I believe it is . . .but it depends on how much you need to produce “vs” how much land you have to work with.  So let me break down Past Thyme Farms dynamics.

 

To start with, there is only Nancy and I, so we base what we grow on the needs of two.  This is a very important factor because on limited land you can’t grow excess. 

 

Past Thyme Farm is about five acres in size but after you take out the land that our houses (3 houses plus a shop), landscape and hillsides utilize, we have about 2.75 acres left to farm.  Now take out the non-rotational plantings where we have our fruit trees, berries and grapes and you’re down to about 2 acres of land that we rotate our pastures and garden thru.   This is plenty of land to meet the needs of two consumers.

 

Rotational Land (2 acres)

This season on just two acres we tended a flock of 13 Soay sheep from which we harvested five rams (150 lbs of meat).  We raised and harvested 75 pastured meat birds (chickens) and 4 turkeys.  We kept our 20 laying hens in a chicken tractor on these pastures and still had plenty of room for our garden from which we grew a years supply of broccoli, cauliflower, peas, green beans, peppers, sweet corn, squash (many varieties), cucumbers (pickles), potatoes and tomatoes.  We also grew leaf vegetables, cabbage, celery, radishes, green onions and artichokes.

 

Non-Rotational Land (.75 acres)

A lot of this production is just coming on but the plan is to have enough peaches (8 trees), sweet cherries (4 trees), tart cherries (2 trees), plums (2 trees), apples (2 trees), blueberries (50 tall bush), raspberries (25 canes), huckleberries (25 bushes), strawberries (100 plants), table grapes (25 vines) and wine grapes (100 vines) to process into various forms for our yearly needs.  This year we processed a years supply of strawberries, peaches, applesauce and pears but had to purchase a lot of the product since our trees and vines are not in full production yet.

 

So we have our meat, chicken, fruits, veggies and eggs in place.  Still to come is pork, hops and maybe a dairy cow??   Anybody know where I can find a cheap pasteurizer??

 

Is it sustainable?  Time will tell . . .it really comes down to how you define sustainable.