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In the Kitchen with Mother Linda At the Movies with Mother Linda Seeking Health with Mother Linda
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The First Farm and the First Pigs Text and photos by Linda Joyce Forristal, CCP, MTA
The Ossabaw pig is named for Ossabaw island off the coast of Georgia. This was one of the many islands were pigs were dropped off five centuries ago when the Spanish were first coming to the New World. The first record of pigs coming to the New World was with the second voyage of Christopher Columbus. Pigs were a mobile fresh food supply and the Spanish routinely dropped them off on big and large islands all over Caribbean, from Cuba to Ossabaw, in hopes they would procreate and populate the islands. That way, when they returned, there would be fresh meat. At one point, it was thought the Spanish pig, also referred to as the iberico or black pig, was extinct in the United States. But they have been rediscovered on Ossabaw and now are in breeding programs at several universities and Mount Vernon. I grew up on a pig farm and the pigs I knew, mostly breeds of white pigs, are much larger. I was surprised to see an Ossabaw sow that looked like a young pig--about half size. There she was with her babies. Instead of the 600 lb. white-breed sow, she was a modest 250 lb. with curly black hair. Behind the scenes at Mount Vernon is an small agricultural breeding program which is not open to the public. What you can see are the public pig pens. Presently, the summer of 2005, they are stocked with two sows and their litters of piglets. One mother had three pigs and the other, older more experienced eleven. Due to its very limited supply, I have only been able to track down one quart of Ossabaw lard. It is delicious, white, clean. But I hope availability grows. If you want to know more about the iberico, read Pig Perfect by Peter Kaminsky. It is a fabulous book and I highly recommend it. First posted July 2005.
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