The holidays are over, it’s a new year and pigs are back at Deep Roots Farm in Southold.
The 10 piglets are almost half-grown now, having filled up on grains, vegetables and grassy fields ever since arriving from upstate New York last November.
Farmers Thomas and Brianne Hart had taken a break from pig farming last year to prepare for the birth of their son, Thomas, but they’re now back on schedule.
“We didn’t do a batch because he was coming, so we held off and took a few months off,” Ms. Hart said.
“We don’t have any pork right now, but we’ll have some in March or April,” he added. “We’re going to try to do three batches a year. Every four months we’ll have another batch of pork.”
All of the pigs come from the same litter, which is a mix of two breeds: the red Tamworth and the Gloucestershire Old Spots, which are white with black spots. Both breeds originated in England.
The Harts sells pretty much every part of the pig you can think of, from heads, hearts and livers to more conventional parts like pork chops, ham and sausage. As Mr. Hart says, you get a lot out of a pig.
Deep Roots Farm doesn’t process the animals on the premises. Instead, the animals are taken upstate to a U.S. Department of Agriculture facility in Hartwick, which is northeast of Oneonta.
“It’s a bit of a haul, but he’s a real quality butcher,” said Mr. Hart. “We bring back about 2,000 pounds of pork.”
While they don’t mind the drive, a recent effort by Suffolk County to spearhead the creation of an animal processing facility in Yaphank would be a welcome change.
“If it happened it would be great. It would save us a lot of stress and gas from having to drive upstate and would be a lot better on the animals,” Mr. Hart said. “Not only do we have to take them upstate for processing, but it takes about a month for everything to come back. The smoking process and the curing of the bacon — that all takes time. If that facility was in Yaphank we could bring a pig back in two weeks and always have fresh pork for sale.”
For now, the pigs and the Harts’ chickens will feed off the farm’s fields, which will eventually rotate over to vegetable crops in the spring.
“That’s the plan,” Mr. Hart said. “We’re trying to get the rotation down as tight as we can so we’re able to scale up and have more things.”
Deep Roots Farm is located at 57685 Main Road in Southold.
