what should I not feed my pigs?

[secuono]

Ice Cream.... Raw Eggs.... Interesting. Are you supposed to do that?

LOL! Our bodies actually need some raw food every day - full of good enzymes. Cooked food has most of the enzymes depleted & we are only born with so many in our body - once they are gone, that is it! Of course the government would have us all believe that everything should be processed to the hilt. Hence the "scare" on drinking raw milk.

NOW saying that, would I use raw eggs from the grocery store? NO! The eggs we use are freshly laid here on the farm. And yes we drink raw milk here all the time from our own cows - absolutely delicious. When I make ice cream it is made with raw eggs & raw cream. Yum! Yum!

Some foods are better for you cooked. It has been proven that alfalfa sprouts are actually not good for you raw so do your research.

Liz

I love raw bacon.
Are there plants or home grown veggies/fruits that are a no-no for pigs?
I've been tossing my trio all the tomatoes and cukes from my garden, they go nuts for them. They had some cottage cheese the other day, I thought they would learn to fly, that's how much they were loving it!

 

[Cornish Heritage]

I love raw bacon. big_smile

HaHa! Just in case there is someone here reading this that doesn't realize you are joking you should not feed raw pork to anything. We even cook up the pork left over from butchering - all the icky bits - for our dogs. We do not feed it raw.

Pigs are pretty smart. A long time ago, before I knew better, I threw some pigs all the tops of the potato plants. They would not eat them. Now move forward to the future, when we should have known better we lost nearly a whole litter of piglets to cyanide poisoning! They ate some berries from the wild cherry tree. We knew the leaves were poisonous when falling in the fall but didn't even think of the berries! (The berries made great jam this year.) SO if you have a wild cherry tree on your farm make sure it is well fenced from the critters.

Liz

 

[secuono]

I love raw bacon. big_smile

HaHa! Just in case there is someone here reading this that doesn't realize you are joking you should not feed raw pork to anything. We even cook up the pork left over from butchering - all the icky bits - for our dogs. We do not feed it raw.

Why is that?
"smoked" bacon, is that technically raw or cooked?

 

[Cornish Heritage]

Smoked bacon is normally smoked cold BUT you then cook it when you want to eat it. At least when we smoked it, we did a cold smoke. It would not be very palatable to eat raw - yuk!

Pork was known in the past to cause Trichinosis if undercooked. As it says below in an article I found on the internet, it has declined but I have heard of cases in recent years so it is definitely not eliminated.

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/factsheets/Pork_From_Farm_to_Table/index.asp Pork must be adequately cooked to eliminate disease-causing parasites and bacteria that may be present. Humans may contract trichinosis (caused by the parasite, Trichinella spiralis) by eating undercooked pork. Much progress has been made in reducing trichinosis in grain-fed hogs and human cases have greatly declined since 1950. Today's pork can be enjoyed when cooked to an internal temperature of 145 F as measured with a food thermometer before removing meat from the heat source. For safety and quality, allow meat to rest for at least three minutes before carving or consuming. For reasons of personal preference, consumers may choose to cook meat to higher temperatures.

Some other foodborne micro-organisms that can be found in pork, as well as other meats and poultry, are Escherichia coli, Salmonella, Staphylococcus aureus and Listeria monocytogenes. They are all destroyed by proper handling and thorough cooking.

If you want to be totally grossed out read this Wikipedia article - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichinella_spiralis

For that reason we always cook pork well. In fact we cook all our meat well as Richard cannot stomach seeing blood ooze out as he cuts his meat!

Liz

 

[secuono]

My family has been eating raw smoked bacon forever, never had any issues because of it. And it tastes great, plus a hell of a lot less fat if eaten raw. We give all the white fat to the dogs.

 

[PFSfarmer]

Ice Cream.... Raw Eggs.... Interesting. Are you supposed to do that?

LOL! Our bodies actually need some raw food every day - full of good enzymes. Cooked food has most of the enzymes depleted & we are only born with so many in our body - once they are gone, that is it! Of course the government would have us all believe that everything should be processed to the hilt. Hence the "scare" on drinking raw milk.

NOW saying that, would I use raw eggs from the grocery store? NO! The eggs we use are freshly laid here on the farm. And yes we drink raw milk here all the time from our own cows - absolutely delicious. When I make ice cream it is made with raw eggs & raw cream. Yum! Yum!

Some foods are better for you cooked. It has been proven that alfalfa sprouts are actually not good for you raw so do your research.

Liz

OMG I bout fell out the chair! Alfalfa sprouts? Alfalfa HAY sprouts?

 

[Cornish Heritage]

My family has been eating raw smoked bacon forever,

Are you serious? We must be talking about two different things here. Smoked bacon to me looks exactly the same as regular bacon - completely raw meat just with a smoked flavor ready to be cooked. Are you sure yours is absolutely "fresh from the pig raw?"

Alfalfa sprouts? Alfalfa HAY sprouts?

Please note that I am talking about when you sprout your own seeds so buy them already sprouted for you in the grocery store. Here is a quote from the book Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon:

"There is only one seed we do not recommend in the sprouted form (or in any form) & that is surprisingly - Alfalfa! After mung beans (bean sprouts) alfalfa is the variety of sprout that has caught on in the health food world. Unfortunately it seems that all the praise heaped on the alfalfa sprout was ill advised. Tests have shown that alfalfa sprouts inhibit the immune system and can contribute to inflammatory arthritis & lupus. Alfalfa seeds contain an amino acid called canavanine that can be toxic to man & animals when taken in quantity. (Canavanine is not found in mature alfalfa plants - it is apparently metabolized during growth." )

Liz

 

[secuono]

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Eckrich-Sweet-Smoked-Bacon-16-oz/20934733
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Oscar-Mayer-Smoked-Uncured-Bacon-12-oz/20512749
http://www.walmart.com/ip/John-Morrell-Hardwood-Smoked-Bacon-12-oz/20692164

And the such. Some do taste terrible and end up fried, but I forget which brands those are, oppsies.

 

[Nathan Sampson]

All of these are a cold smoked product for flavor and the oscar myer uncured one is just un american uncured bacon I thought in order to be real bacon it had to be cured pork belly.

 

[PFSfarmer]

My family has been eating raw smoked bacon forever,

Are you serious? We must be talking about two different things here. Smoked bacon to me looks exactly the same as regular bacon - completely raw meat just with a smoked flavor ready to be cooked. Are you sure yours is absolutely "fresh from the pig raw?"

Alfalfa sprouts? Alfalfa HAY sprouts?

Please note that I am talking about when you sprout your own seeds so buy them already sprouted for you in the grocery store. Here is a quote from the book Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon:

"There is only one seed we do not recommend in the sprouted form (or in any form) & that is surprisingly - Alfalfa! After mung beans (bean sprouts) alfalfa is the variety of sprout that has caught on in the health food world. Unfortunately it seems that all the praise heaped on the alfalfa sprout was ill advised. Tests have shown that alfalfa sprouts inhibit the immune system and can contribute to inflammatory arthritis & lupus. Alfalfa seeds contain an amino acid called canavanine that can be toxic to man & animals when taken in quantity. (Canavanine is not found in mature alfalfa plants - it is apparently metabolized during growth." )

Liz

Very Inteesting.