A sty or pigsty is a small-scale outdoor enclosure for raising pigs. It is sometimes referred to as a pigpen or pig parlor. Pigsties are generally fenced areas of bare dirt and/or mud. Both "sty" and "pigpen" are used as derogatory descriptions of dirty, messy areas. There are three contributing reasons that pigs, generally clean animals, create such a living environment: This article is about the pig genus. ...

• Pigs are voracious eaters and will eat all the plants in the enclosure until there is nothing left to control erosion.
• The pig is a rooting animal and will dig for food in the enclosure, further disturbing the soil.
• Pigs have no sweat glands which means that they must be provided with water or mud in which they can control their own body temperature.

A large-scale enclosure for raising pigs is generally called a hog lot. Unlike a sty which would be found on a mixed farm, a hog lot is usually a dedicated facility. Hog lots are large-scale confinement areas for hogs. ...

Family farm hog pen

The family hog pen was a small-scale system of pig farming which is vastly different to the modern American hog farm. Modern intensive hog farms in the United States have an average of about 2,000 hogs, and large farms raise tens of thousands of hogs. This article deals with the hog pens found on family farms of the early 1900’s, although backyard pig farming may still occur. In this article the words “hogs” and “pigs” are used interchangeably. These female brood sows are confined most of their lives in gestation crates too small to enable them to turn around. ... Hog is a domestic or feral adult swine. ... The family farm is a farm owned and operated by a family. ... Binomial name Sus scrofa Linnaeus, 1758 The domestic pig is usually given the scientific name Sus scrofa, though some authors call it , reserving for the wild boar. ...

Reasons for Family Farming of Hogs

Family hog pens enclosed just a few hogs to provide year-round meat for the table. Prior to refrigeration, some family farms depended on pigs as a primary source of meat and shortening (lard) for year-round food. Farms which had tenant families might have several hog pens. Lard refers to pig fat in both its rendered and unrendered forms. ... A tenant (from the Latin tenere, to hold), in legal contexts, holds real property by some form of title from a landlord. ...

The hog pen

Farming pigs outdoors poses a number of problems but the small scale of family farming made it possible to manage these problems. In particular, hogs suffer 'heat stress' in high temperatures and have no sweat glands to naturally cool themselves. To cool themselves hogs require access to water or a 'wallow', which is an area of mud. Although pigs avoid their own excrement, without access to water or mud, pigs are forced to wallow in their own excrement. Mud also serves to protect pink pigs from sunburn and heat stress, although more pigmented varieties were used on the family farm. Alternatively, shade may be provided for the animals. Sweat redirects here. ...

Many family farm hog pens were improvised enclosures made of any material that is handy and free. The size of the pen is often kept small to conserve building material and effort.

Family farm hog pen

Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...

Slopping the Hogs

Historically, these farms fed hogs grain, fruit and vegetables that are not fit for sale or family use. Overage produce from the farmer’s market and table and restaurant scraps were often diet elements as well. This practice of 'swill feeding' (feeding table scraps) is considered a disease risk today and is banned in many countries. Hogs were also fed “slops” made from middlings or corn meal stirred with milk and water.

Historically, hogs were also allowed to forage in gardens and orchards after the harvest is over. Such foraging can cause erosion and runoff, but the small scale of these operations allowed this to occur.

Hog killing time

Historically, hog killing was done on cold days. One method of hog killing is to cut their throats and let them bleed to death. Alternatively, the hog may have been shot first and then the throat cut.

After killing, the animals were scalded and their skin scraped bare with sharp knives. They were then eviscerated (gutted) and strung up on an A-frame scaffold by inserting a strong sharp stick through the tendons of their rear legs. The carcasses were allowed to chill overnight, ready for butchering the following day. A tendon (or sinew) is a tough band of fibrous connective tissue that connects muscle to bone or muscle to muscle and is built to withstand tension. ... Butcher shop in Valencia A butcher is someone who prepares various meats and other related goods for sale. ...

Butchering the carcass

Very sharp knives and a cleaver are required for butchering. Butchering was a trade passed from father to son. The carcass was cut into hams, shoulders, bacon sides, pork belly, ham hocks, loins, pork chops, and other cuts of lesser importance. The word cleaver has a number of uses: Cleaver (knife) is a large form of knife. ... Ham with cloves Technically, ham is the thigh and buttock of any animal that is slaughtered for meat, but the term is usually restricted to a cut of pork, the haunch of a pig or boar. ... Look up bacon in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

The lard is rendered, and the chitlins stripped. Lard is made by heating fragments of fat in a large iron pot over a wood fire until it is reduced to simmering grease which congeals when cooled. Lard is then stored in five-gallon lard tins with tin covers. Lard refers to pig fat in both its rendered and unrendered forms. ... In the kitchen, rendering can mean clarifying butter into ghee, suet into tallow and bacon fat into lard. ... Chitlins in broth. ...

The intestines are then stripped by drawing them through a clenched fist. The intestines are washed, cut into short pieces, and fried to make chitlins.

The "pièce de résistance" is the pork loin which is often eaten the first night. For days after fresh sage-flavored sausage graces the breakfast table. Pièce de résistance is a French term (circa 1839), translated into English literally as piece of resistance, referring to the best part or feature of something (as in a meal), a showpiece, or highlight. ... Binomial name Salvia officinalis L. Sage leaves Common sage (Salvia officinalis) is a small evergreen subshrub, with woody stems, grayish leaves, and blue to purplish flowers native to southern Europe and the Mediterranean region. ... Plate with German Wurst (liver-, blood- and hamsausage) A sausage consists of ground meat, animal fat, herbs and spices, and sometimes other ingredients, usually packed in a casing (historically the intestines of the animal, though now generally synthetic), and sometimes preserved in some way, often by curing or smoking. ...

The smoke house

The smoke house is essential for the preservation and long term storage of hams, shoulders, bacon sides, and pork bellies. Salt is rubbed thoroughly into each piece of meat and all surfaces are covered. Some formulas included lots of black pepper. The meat was hung on racks and hooks in the smokehouse; and later smoked. Fragrant hardwood, such as hickory, beech, or cherry is allowed to smolder slowly in a pit below the hanging meat. This gives added flavor and color to the meat as well as serving to dry cure the pork. Species See text Comparison of Carya nuts Ripe hickory nuts ready to fall, Andrews, SC Hickory is a tree of the genus Carya, including 17-19 species of deciduous trees with pinnately compound leaves and large nuts. ... Species Fagus crenata - Japanese Beech Fagus engleriana - Chinese Beech Fagus grandifolia - American Beech Fagus hayatae - Taiwan Beech Fagus japonica - Japanese Blue Beech Fagus longipetiolata - South Chinese Beech Fagus lucida - Shining Beech Fagus mexicana - Mexican Beech or Haya Fagus orientalis - Oriental Beech Fagus sylvatica - European Beech Beech (Fagus) is a genus... Cherry tree redirects here. ...

See also

• Slaughter house

Wall Ball is one name of a type of group-game played throughout the U.S. and Canada, primarily by elementary and junior high school children, (usually boys). ...

External links

• Modern day hog farm
• Virginia cured ham and pork
• Chitterlings or Chitlins