One of the most popular uses for goats is milk. Goat milk is nutritious, delicious, and easy to digest. You can use it to make other foods like butter and cheese, or just drink it straight. Getting milk from your goats isn’t complicated, but it does require consistency. In order to keep your goats producing milk they must be milked at the same time every day – no breaks allowed.

Before you can start getting milk from your goats, though, you must breed them. Goats begin making milk to feed their children (called kids). We’ll talk more about mating goats in another section, but for now just know that your goat will start making milk as soon as she has kids. It’s best to let her give all of her milk to her kids for two weeks, but after that you can begin milking.

Once the kids are two weeks old you can begin separating them from their mother for the night. That way she’ll have some time to build up extra milk. You can milk her first thing in the morning and allow her kids to drink as they please for the rest of the day. This way there will be plenty of milk available for both of you.

There’s not a lot of equipment necessary for milking. Your main tool will be a seamless stainless steel pail. When you’re ready to milk, bring your pail out to your goat shed and tether your goat. It’s not a bad idea to feed her some grain while you’re milking to distract her. An errant foot in a pail of milk is enough to ruin the whole thing, so do your best to keep her still while you’re milking.

Immediately before you begin to milk you should clean off her udders. You can get cleaning solution from most farm stores. This keeps both her and your milk healthy. Once she’s clean you can begin milking. Milk out both udders in the same period, and do your best to get all the milk out that you can. The better you milk her the more milk she’ll end up making.

Once you’re done, cover your pail and let you goat free. It’s important to store your milk immediately after milking. Bring your pail back to the house, strain the milk, and separate it into containers. Glass jars work well for this since they’re easy to clean, but if you find something else that works better there’s no reason not to use it. Seal your milk well and keep it cool.

Finally, make sure you wash all of your equipment thoroughly. Letting dirty equipment sit out is a great way to form milk stone, a deposit that can be very difficult to wash off. Wash everything thoroughly with hot water and then sterilize to prevent disease.

You can milk a doe for about ten months after she gives birth. You can breed her again during those ten months, but try to time things so she can have a two month dry period before her next set of kids is born. Remember, a milking doe also needs to be fed more than a dry one, so make sure she’s getting two to three pounds of grain a day and plenty of time to browse.

As long as you keep a steady schedule of milking, your goats will provide you with all the milk you can handle!

Pic by BryanAlexander.

• Raising Goats: How to Slaughter
• Raising Goats: Simple Guidelines for Raising Great Food at Home
• Goats: The Perfect Backyard Animal

Article Sources: Goat Milk: Sinfully Awesome!

Shipping and Transportation Shipping is available on the items in this auction. Purple Wave has partnered with MachineryLink Transport to provide shipping and transportation services to winning bidders. MachineryLink Transport generally does not facilitate shipment for items weighing less then 150lbs. Unless otherwise stated on the item shipment for items weighing less then 150lbs, shipping is not available. See MachineryLink Transport details for more information.

To obtain a quote from MachineryLink Transport contact Kevin Myers at or or call 866.459.0579.

In order to provide accurate shipping quotes, please supply the following information.

• Origin city, state and zip code
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MachineryLink Transport will recommend the safest, most reliable and cost effective transportation options.

Any shipping/transportation arrangements are ultimately between the buyer and the shipping company and not Purple Wave.

Winning bidders may choose to make transportation arrangements themselves, provided that all removal terms and conditions are met. Purple Wave does not provide packing or rigging services.

Article Sources: Purple Wave, Inc.

We continue our Olympic countdown with the lowdown on Hadleigh Farm, which will host the mountain biking competition.

Where is it?: Castle Lane, Benfleet, Essex.

How do you get there?: By National Rail or road. The closest railway station to Hadleigh Farm is Leigh-on-Sea, which is around a 45-minute trip east from London’s Fenchurch Street station. You are then faced either with a 30-minute uphill walk on rough farm tracks to get to the venue or a shuttle-bus journey. If you wish to drive to Hadleigh Farm, it is about 35 miles east of London and can be reached via the A13. You then follow the signs for Hadleigh Castle and the park-and-ride service.

What events will be held there and when?: Mountain biking (August 11-12).

Public facilities: There are tea rooms and a shop at the farm’s training centre.

History: The challenging, hilly course has largely been constructed out of grassland and woodland within the 800-acre Hadleigh Farm. The farm is run by The Salvation Army for educational purposes and includes a centre for rare breeds of animals. The site overlooks the Thames Estuary and is a short walk away from the ruins of the 700-year-old Hadleigh Castle. The course also takes in the neighbouring 390-acre Hadleigh Country Park, one of the largest parks in Essex, which is managed by the county council. It has yet to be decided what will happen to the course when the temporary seating structures are taken down after the Games, but the council is keen to have the course adapted for public use.

Eurosport

Article Sources: London 2012 – Olympic venue guide: Hadleigh Farm

It’s no secret that Maine has some world-class food, and with the explosion of highly-rated restaurants up and down the coast, the state now has a dining scene that’s the toast of the nation.

From the crab, oysters, scallops and lobsters plucked from the sea and shipped from Down East Maine to the kitchens of chefs such as Thomas Keller and Jean-Georges Vongerichten, to the humble whoopie pie’s elevation as a trendy dessert on par with the ubiquitous cupcake, Maine food now enjoys a higher profile than ever before.

In recent years some chefs and purveyors — some from Maine, some with fond memories of visiting Maine — have put their own take on Maine food on the map.

Matthew Lief; The Islesford Dock Restaurant, Little Cranberry Island, and Landhaus, Brooklyn, New York

Matthew Lief spent a number of summers cooking with his family at the Islesford Dock Restaurant — the only restaurant on Little Cranberry Island, and a favorite of everyone, from local lobstermen to Martha Stewart. While at the Islesford Dock he started and maintained an organic vegetable garden, which provided the restaurant with produce, herbs and flowers, and he expanded on the idea of farm-to-table while cooking at L’Arpege in Paris, France. Now set up in New York, Lief has a booming business, Landhaus, making big, meaty, high equality sandwiches using the recipes he refined in Islesford to charm the tastebuds of hip Brooklynites.

“The traditional clam chowder we refined at The Dock is still part of my repertoire,” said Lief, a University of Maine graduate. “I [also] do catering around the city under the name Islesford Dock NYC. I work with my connections on Islesford and in Maine to bring the best lobster, crab, and oysters to my customers. In particular, our classic lobster rolls and clam chowders have been a huge hit with our customers here in New York. Simple recipes that let the quality of the product shine through.”

Landhaus last year received an important accolade from the Village Voice: Best Bacon in NYC, for its house-cured bacon. At the Landhaus’ permanent Saturday residency at the weekly Smorgasburg food bazaar in Brooklyn, you can buy bacon on a stick — a thick, smoky slice of pork goodness.

Doug Quint, Pittsfield native and co-founder, the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck, New York City

Growing up in Pittsfield, Doug Quint would walk up the hill in the summer — past the chicken coop, but before the cow pasture — to the Tastee Freeze, where he would purchase a vanilla soft serve ice cream cone with chocolate jimmies. Now, as an adult living in New York City, he’s still into soft serve ice cream — but he’s selling it from a truck and, now, a storefront called Big Gay Ice Cream.

If you’ve seen the New York City episode of Anthony Bourdain’s new show, “The Layover,” on the Travel Channel, then you’ve seen Quint, his partner Bryan Petroff, and their mouthwatering array of soft serve ice cream, topped with a variety of things ranging from Dulce de Leche and Nilla Wafers to toasted curried coconut and bacon marmalade.

Quint, who is also a professional bassoonist, was finishing up doctoral work at City University of New York when the opportunity came up to buy a food truck.

“I thought, ‘Maybe I’ll do a weird job this summer.’ I ended up loving it, and the soft serve made me have fond memories of home,” said Quint. “Food trucks are such an urban thing, of course, and I wanted to combine the kind of friendliness of a smaller town with the food truck idea. I wanted to get to know my customers.”

That combination of friendliness and seriously delicious ice cream has made Quint and Petroff a wildly popular attraction in and around Manhattan, and on a hot summer day, the line can stretch for blocks for a chance to try a Salty Pimp (vanilla ice cream with caramel, sea salt and chocolate dip) or a Choinkwich (chocolate ice cream and bacon marmalade between two chocolate cookies). It’s an homage to the classic Dairy Bar that anyone who grew up in a small town — Maine or not — remembers.

“I’m a Maine boy at heart, and this comes from that,” he said.

Ryan McCaskey, chef, Acadia, Chicago, and lifelong summer resident of Deer Isle

Though he’s not a Maine native, Ryan McCaskey is a lifelong visitor of Deer Isle and Stonington and grew up accompanying his parents to Down East Maine each year. At age 19 the young chef took a position as sous and pastry chef at the prestigious Goose Cove Lodge in Deer Isle, and later went on to work with food luminaries such as Thomas Keller and Grand Achatz. The luscious seafood and garden fresh produce of Maine had a huge impact on the burgeoning chef and now that he’s got his own restaurant in Chicago, he named it — what else? — Acadia.

Acadia is focused on recreating some of the hallmarks of Maine cuisine in a fine dining atmosphere, with beautiful presentation and fine ingredients. Shrimp, lobster, scallops and oysters are shipped in from Stonington, lobster rolls and Maine potato chips make the bar menu, and for dessert? An artisan whoopie pie. It’s a unique taste of Maine, a few thousand miles from home.

Do you have other suggestions for Maine foodies making it in the rest of the country, or the world? Please leave a comment so we can add them to our list.

Article Sources: Maine inspires chefs and foodies nationwide

Potter Valley FFA

What do you get when you combine top agriculture colleges, experts from across the state, and some of the top professionals in their fields? A whole lot of cutting edge information!

On Saturday, Feb. 4, over 500 people attended the 2012 Hands On Junior Livestock Expo at the Redwood Empire Fairgrounds. Participants came from Mendocino, Lake, Humboldt, and Del Norte counties.

Expo Chairwoman Shanna Braught commented, “We held this event three years ago and I was first in line to be the chairwoman for this year. It is amazing to be able to provide such a fantastic educational experience to the youth livestock exhibitors of the North Coast. We had really educated and experienced presenters from all market species (poultry, rabbit, goat, sheep, swine and beef) as well as feed experts, butchers, veterinarians, farm equipment manufacturers, a farrier and jewelry makers. It was a great day for the kids and their parents as well as all of our volunteers who put on the Expo.”

Every second of the day long event was packed with activities designed to teach knowledge of animal production, care, selection, and most importantly, ethical treatment of animals. The main goal of this event was to ensure that animals being raised for fairs by 4-H, FFA, and Independent youth exhibitors are fed, exercised, housed, and kept healthy using methods that are humane and allow the animals to reach their full potential.

Dr. Celina Johnson of CSU Chico gave a state-certified quality assurance and ethics training for all exhibitors 9 years old and older, while 4-H program representative Linda Edgington ran a fun-filled ethics training for exhibitors 5 to 8 years old. In addition, experts from across the state were brought in to teach sessions about raising and showing beef, goats, sheep, swine, rabbits, and poultry.

Forty-five minute Learning Labs included: Biosecurity by a UC Davis specialist, animal feed nutrition by a feed specialist, a dissection lab by the UC Davis Vet Center, and collegiate livestock judging by the CSU Chico Judging Team.

In addition, there were sessions on preparing for a horse show, tractor safety and maintenance, veterinary practices, and horseshoeing.

“The Expo was a blast. I learned about tractor safety and the internal organs of lambs and piglets. The workshops were very informative,” enthused Becca Pierachini of Potter Valley FFA.

Besides informational sessions there were also plenty of fun and delicious activities available throughout the day.

A livestock “Wheel of Knowledge” designed and run by Lake County 4-H All Star candidate Asia Jones was extremely popular. Food booths that supported local non-profit organizations served a variety of tasty and healthy foods. Vendors ranging from local feed stores to handmade glass jewelry were on hand to provide the youth and their families with a wide variety of products. All of these vendors generously donated door prizes, and local, state, and national organizations also donated prizes.

Overall the Expo was a rare opportunity for youth to gain new knowledge, be reminded of ethical treatment of animals, win awesome prizes, and shop from a large variety of vendors. Both youth and adult volunteers from Mendocino and Lake County prepared for seven months for this opportunity filled event. They would like to thank the generous sponsors who made this event possible. Bronze sponsors: Geiger’s Long Valley Market in Laytonville, Jay Epstein State Farm Insurance, Mendocino County Cattlewomen’s Association and Olive Knoll Ranch in Angels Camp; Silver sponsors: Lake County 4-H Council, Savings Bank of Mendocino and Sons of Italy; Gold sponsors: The George and Ruth Bradford Foundation and American Ag Credit. Thank you to everyone who helped make it possible to put on this amazing event which will benefit youth and their animals for years to come!

Article Sources: 4-H, FFA Expo a blast

Pigs are confined in these crates for almost their whole lives. Photo credit: The Humane Society Of The United States

The Humane Society of The United States, Wayne Pacelle

The HSUS went undercover again to record what’s happening at factory farms, and today we released our latest findings. We announced them this morning at a press conference in Oklahoma City, not far from the pig production facilities we examined.

For four months while pregnant, pigs are confined in gestation crates―two-foot by seven-foot metal cages. They’re moved to another crate to give birth, after which they’re impregnated again and put back into a gestation crate to repeat the cycle. This happens again and again, until the animals either die in their crates or can no longer breed at a profitable rate and are sent to slaughter. Each animal may spend up to three years locked in a crate, virtually immobilized for nearly her entire life.

Living inside a cage barely larger than your body isn’t humane and it is not right. Yet this is precisely how the majority of pigs used for breeding by the U.S. pork industry are kept.

The HSUS put a spotlight on this abuse today by releasing the details of undercover investigations we recently conducted at Oklahoma pig breeding facilities owned by two of the nation’s largest pork producers: Seaboard Foods and Prestage Farms. Seaboard is the nation’s third-largest pork company (and a supplier to Walmart), and Prestage is the nation’s fifth-largest.

Seaboard’s own animal welfare advisor―the renowned Dr. Temple Grandin―is unequivocal on this issue: “We’ve got to treat animals right, and the gestation stalls have got to go.”

In addition to documenting the chronic mental anguish suffered by pigs confined in this extreme way, our investigation also found workers hitting pigs in their genitals and pulling their hair to move them from one crate to another; injured piglets with their hind legs duct-taped to their bodies; and more.

Because our findings are in stark contrast to claims Seaboard makes about animal welfare (such as that it uses “the most humane practices”), we’ve filed legal complaints with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Federal Trade Commission urging the agencies to put an end to Seaboard’s deceptive statements.

No one in the pig industry should be surprised that there’s a growing drumbeat of opposition to extreme confinement of sows in gestation crates. After all, eight U.S. states have passed laws to phase in bans on gestation crates. And just last month, Smithfield Foods (the nation’s largest pork producer) announced that it will stop using gestation crates in its company-owned breeding facilities by 2017. Cargill is 50 percent gestation crate-free.

Unfortunately, as our investigation reveals, Seaboard and Prestage have made little progress on the issue, and they keep sows in these crates every day of the year. Please encourage both companies to develop a plan for getting gestation crates out of their operations by contacting them today, and urge the companies that buy from these suppliers to stop doing so until the companies make changes.

Due to the graphic nature of this video, Global Animal will not be featuring it. To see the video please click here. 

More The Humane Society Of The United States: hsus.typepad.com

Article Sources: The Truth About Pork (TAKE ACTION)

Most children like animals. Even toddlers, being pushed in their strollers on the street, barely able to walk or form words, will start giggling wildly and trying to pet a dog walked by them. Most children live in a world where pets are all perfect and have perfect homes with perfect families.

Few children are aware that it’s all very far from reality, that millions of pets are not only homeless and desperate, but are killed at municipal pounds every year, all over the United States.

Olivia Jean Pedrick lives in the state of New York and while she is only 10 years-old, she’s already dedicating her life to helping animals in need. Olivia is a very talented young artist, and she sells her artwork to benefit small rescues.  She paints and draws dogs, cats, horses, penguins, and she even takes requests from pet owners. Her art is not only a visual pleasure, but it’s also the chicken soup for the rescue soul: whether it’s a gift for a friend or a gift for oneself, those who own one of her pieces, will always know that they helped a little girl help animals.

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Her artwork is sold for $10 a piece, including shipping (that is less than the price of a movie ticket in New York,) and – among others – she has already raised hundreds of dollars for rescues and sanctuaries like AmsterDog, Friends of the Feathered and Furry Wildlife Center, and Rosemary Farm.

To see her art currently for sale, or to submit a request, please, check out her Facebook page.

Article Sources: Young girl raises money for animal rescues

MIDDLEBURY – The Department of Natural Resources claimed two feral pigs were shot and killed near Middlebury Friday when a woman found the pigs in her back yard. Turns out, the pigs weren’t feral at all, they were family pets: potbellied pigs.

Feral pigs can be dangerous and can also do a lot of damage to farmland. But the DNR has never received a report of a feral pig in the area before. Still, the Department of Natural Resources gave permission over the phone for the pigs to be shot.

Standing inside the barn where the two pigs would sleep, their owner Chad Troyer talked about his two family pets.

“Oscar was my wedding gift to my wife nine years ago, Arnold was a pig that we rescued,” Troyer said. “Nice animals, my 4-year-old granddaughter could walk up and pet them if she wanted to.”

On Monday, Chad read a story about two wild hogs being shot to death near his home. Attached were pictures, not of wild animals, but of his dead pets.

“As soon as I saw the photo, I knew that was Arnold, the white one. And Oscar, the one you could see in the background, was the black one.” Troyer said.

The pigs have an acre and a half of fenced in area to roam. Troyer believes they managed to get out through a gap sometime on Friday.  He says they had escaped a couple of times before, but always came back, so he put some food out and was waiting for them to return.

But how were two potbellied pigs confused as wild hogs? According to the DNR, officers received a call about the pigs on Friday. They were described as shaggy, aggressive and having three-inch-tusks. The DNR gave permission for the pigs to be killed over the phone. That’s a decision Troyer doesn’t agree with.

“It’s not automatically a feral pig, it’s just like calling a poodle a wolf, or a coyote.” Troyer said.

But according to Indiana code, nearly any pig that’s not confined can be considered feral. And the only action someone can take when dealing with a feral pig is killing it.

Troyer says the pigs were not wearing collars or tags. He says it’s impossible to put a collar on a potbellied pig because of their body types, collars would just slide off.  He had considered putting on ear tags, but he didn’t want them to be ripped out while the pigs were playing. 

Troyer says all he wants right now is to get his pigs’ bodies back so he can bury them at home.

The DNR says they believe the appropriate action was taken and they wouldn’t change how the situation was handled.

Article Sources: ‘Feral’ pigs killed in Elkhart County were family pets

 The New Hampshire House of Representatives has passed a bill that would make it easier for the smallest farmers to break even. If it becomes law it would allow residents to sell some home-made baked-goods, preserves, and cheese at home or at farmers’ markets.  

When the homemade foods bill came out of a House committee, it had unanimous support.

It sits in a political sweet spot: both Democrats who want to support local foods and Republicans who want smaller government like the idea of deregulating small farmers.

It lets people sell less than $10,000 a year in home-made food and produce less than twenty pounds a day of hard cheese, without a license.  

The bill was modified before being sent to the house floor to say unlicensed cheeses must be labeled as such, and they must be aged 60-days before selling. These rules were 

 Barnstead Republican Guy Comtois, the bill’s sponsor, says it’s aimed at giving new farmers a running start before they have to pay for a license.

“It’s tough to start off at 100 miles an hour,” Comtois says, “so it does not do away with licensing, it just gives somebody that’s coming out of the gate the chance to find out is this going to be doable or am I just gonna stay with the 20 gallons a day.”

Kathy and Joel Wotton from Ossipee are one family who have been watching the bill’s progress closely. They keep a small homestead, where they produce most of their own food: vegetables, baked goods, pigs, rabbits, chickens, and cows. They sell un-pasteurized milk from their two cows, who put out a little less than ten gallons a day.

It’s already legal to sell less than 20 gallons a day of raw milk in New Hampshire; it isn’t legal is to turn that milk into cheese, which the Wottons found out last summer.

“We received a cease and desist in the mail,” says Kathy Wotton, “We had seen the part of the bill that had said we could sell aged cheese made from raw milk, we missed the part that said you needed the dairy sanitation license.”

The Wotton’s farm was one of several  in the state the department of Health and Human services told to cut-it-out. Kathy says she doesn’t want to name names, but after the letters went out, some unlicensed cheese-makers tried to get around the rules by labeling their cheese as “not for human consumption.”

The Wottons say they don’t make enough off cheese to warrant spending a lot of money to build the sterile cheese room they would need to get a license.

So, if the home-made foods bill becomes law it will be a make a big difference for the family’s checkbook.  

“That’s huge for us,” Kathy Wotton says, “Milk has a short shelf life anyway, and if you don’t do something with it and you don’t have enough customers that day to buy it, you either pour it out or feed it to the pigs.”

But not everyone is a fan of this bill. Licensed cheese-makers have been vocal in their disapproval, and say it’s dangerous to let people sell cheese made in possibly unsanitary conditions.

Just a few miles down the road from the Wotton Farm, in Wolfeboro, is the Via Lactea Dairy, a small, but licensed, goat cheese farm. Owners Jenny and Andy Tapper say they started out just like the Wottons, making cheese in their kitchen, before they became licensed and started getting their milk tested for pathogens.

When she thinks back on that time, Jenny Tapper says she never realized the risks she was taking.

“Just knowing how we did it, I think it’d be pretty risky, now that we’re set up to run a clean operation, we would never go back to doing it the other way.” Tapper says, “Hand-milking, not being able to cool the milk quickly, and then just not being able to keep things clean enough, is just kind of a recipe for disaster… eventually.”

Tapper says getting licensed was the smartest thing she ever did. It let her sell to restaurants and grocery stores, and actually produce enough cheese to make a decent living.

She says her goats produce barely more than the 20-gallon-a-day limit, so if this bill becomes law their farm would be as small as a dairy could be and still require a license.  The idea of a farm around the same size as theirs selling cheese totally unsupervised is a little scary to her.

She says, “that’s quite a lot of cheese to be putting out in the market, and if they’re only marketing to farmers markets and from their homes, I’m not sure they’d be able to get rid of that amount of cheese.”

But the bill’s promoters point out that contaminated cheese has come out of licensed facilities, and that knowing your farmer is really the only way to be sure that your product is safe.

Kathey Wotton says she has the best quality control team around: her own family.

“We eat, we taste every batch that we make, I never know is this gonna be a wheel that we’re gonna use when we have company over at our house or when the law goes through will it be a wheel that we’ll be selling,” Wotton says.

The bill still must pass the Senate, but is unlikely to face stiff opposition. .

Article Sources: Home Made Foods Bill Stirs Cheese Makers

It seems like it would be appropriate at this moment, having concluded with deer and goats, and considering the dawning of the spring season….to address the subject of boars and pigs. Pigs are animals that have something of a bad rap that have become almost synonymous with poor health. I have my husband on one hand saying that people shouldn’t eat swine because it is unclean, and on the other hand there is another group counting how much fat content pork has….gods save you if you like bacon, ham or ribs! Or sausage for that matter (which seems to be a big part of much Italian and Greek cousine from what I can see). The word pig is even given as insult if you have a bit more girth about you. The pig has become synonymous with being fat, ugly, unhealthy, dirty (because obviously the fact that the animal is smart enough to protect its skin from sunburn by applying mud is just too ewwww for modern tastes), and altogether destructive to local ecology (as we understand from importations of pigs into environments where they are not native and the destructive of native habitats and wildlife in places such as Australia and in the southeastern United States where wild boars roam). In short, any noble or redeeming character the animal has once possessed has all but disappeared in this era. There have been some attempts to save the image of pigs by indication of their intelligence…often through popular children’s tales…but these have barely made a dint. Granted this is from an American perspective, and it may be that the reputation of pigs is not quite so dismal in other parts of the world, but it is in this kind of environment (at least in the USA) that people are discovering the beauty of Hellenismos….in which the pig/boar does have important significance.

Now I classify pigs and wild boars together because it seems the biggest distinction between them is that pigs are nothing more than domesticated boars (of which there are various types). Here is a good description of them from a website called Hog Stoppers:

“The difference between the wild and domestic animals is largely a matter of perception; both are usually described as Sus scrofa, and domestic pigs quite readily become feral. The characterization of populations as wild, feral or domestic and pig or boar is usually decided by where the animals are encountered and what is known of their history. In New Zealand for example, wild pigs are known as “Captain Cookers” from their supposed descent from liberations and gifts to Māori by explorer Captain James Cook in the 1770s.The term boar is used to denote an adult male of certain species, including, confusingly, domestic pigs. In the case of wild pigs only, it is correct to say “female boar” or “infant wild boar”, since boar or wild boar refers to the species itself.One characteristic by which domestic breed and wild animals are differentiated is coats. Wild animals almost always have thick, short bristly coats ranging in colour from brown through grey to black. A prominent ridge of hair matching the spine is also common, giving rise to the name razorback in the southern United States. The tail is usually short and straight. Wild animals tend also to have longer legs than domestic breeds and a longer and narrower head and snout. European adult males can be up to 200 kg (sometimes up to 300 kg in certain areas, particularly Eastern Europe) and have both upper and lower tusks; females do not have tusks and are around a third smaller on average. “

So apparently it doesn’t take very long to go from pig back to boar. Differences appear to more or less superficial. Likewise in myth they do same to take different roles, in which the pig is connected agricultural goddesses such as Demeter and Persephone, and the boar has links to Ares, Apollon and Artemis who harness its more aggressive features. However, despite the form of these roles, there is no difference between them. So it is appropriate to consider them more or less together.

In Hellenismos the pig is identified specifically with the cult of Demeter and Persephone. This takes into consideration that the pig is appropriately representative of the earth and its procreative nature. This may relate in some degree to the girth of the pig, but perhaps has more to do with the nature of the pig itself. Among domesticated pigs, as described above, there is a tendency to wallow in mud in order to protect their sensitive skin. Domesticated pigs, for whatever reason, have lost their tougher bristly coats, and therefore submerge themselves within the earth. Of course wild pigs are mostly nocturnal animals by habit anyway, and are, suprisingly, a borrowing species of animal.

“The animals are usually nocturnal, foraging from dusk until dawn but with resting periods during both night and day. They eat almost anything they come across, including nuts, berries, carrion, roots, tubers, refuse, insects, small reptiles–even young deer and lambs.Boars are the only hoofed animals known to dig burrows, a habit which can be explained by the fact that they are the only known mammals lacking brown adipose tissue. Therefore, they need to find other ways to protect themselves from the cold. For the same reason, piglets often shiver to produce heat themselves.”

This presents us with an image of a borrowing animal which is sensitive to the elements/environment, takes some refuge within the earth, that takes all things with into itself without distinction, that is a female-community social animal (living in female groups called sounders, during which males only enter for breeding season after which they leave), and produces multiple offspring (like many other animals connected with fertility such as rabbits, dogs, etc).

Therefore, one level we have an animal of which the female members represent and are closely linked to earth and agricultural goddesses (agriculture also being the seeds of civilization and community). If the soul is also considered one symbolic level to be feminine (via the mythic representation of Psykhe) it may infer something in regards the initiation process in which the individual offers a sacrifice of a piglet  in order to enter into the mysteries. I would hazzard to suggest that this piglet is representative of the human soul. I have talked before about associations that can be made with young animals and the immature youthful identity of the human soul in which humanity can be referred to in association with young animals (which nursed and cared for by the gods) and the adult animals are generally directly associated with the gods. So the initiates make a symbolic sacrifice of themself, a kind of mock death which they perform right beside the temple of Artemis Prothyrea (of the portal) as a symbol of passing the first gate of Eleusis before they can enter deeper within sacred citadel which possesses a second smaller gate into the Telesterion where the initiation rites were carried out.

It should not surprise us to see Artemis associated at all with the area in which the piglets were sacrificed. Though we more often see boars directly associated with her in myth, she is a femme-centric deity through which we can appreciate her association not only with lionesses (an animal which she can be seen holding in images characterized as Potnia Theron type images that seemed to have remained fairly common representations of her in the Peloponnese) but also with wild pigs that also connect her with her earthly domain. Thus the dangerous wild male boar becomes a natural tool of destruction rendered by her. We can see three cases which are connected with Artemis.

One of which I will mention first because it is the most indirect association, and that is the boar which slew Adonis. Now there are two distinct versions that we see here, and they are dinstinguished by the male god participating. One one version, that is perhaps the most commonly recognized, it was Ares who either took the form, or sent, the boar spurred by his own jealousy of Aphrodite’s lover. In the other version, which is elluded to in Euripedes’ play Hippolytus (and by that reference we can assume that it was a pretty well known version) was that Apollon sent/took the form of the boar to slay Aphrodite’s lover on the part of his twin Artemis, as well for his own reasons which are stated more explicitly below. For at the end of the play we see Artemis address Hippolytus that in return for Aphrodite’s offense she too will slay the one whom Aphrodite loves. Of course in the end it turns out that both Hippolytus and Adonis become deified from this exchange, but it does pose an interesting medium in which again we are presented with an image of the boar symbolizing death and a kind of blessed rebirth. This is not to say of course that the two versions of the myth are incompatible either…it could be Ares and Apollon both got in on it and featured a duel representation of the destructive component of the myth as they are referred together also in war (which I have spoken of at length before in regards to Apollon’s association with war and his relationship with Ares). This earthly end/destruction that rises to a new birth can also be viewed in the context in which I was informed that it is common for offerings of pig to be given to Apollon Noumenios, who is honored at the Noumenia as the new month manifests. Similarly we can see offerings of pig to Apollon (and Zeus..probably in his Cthonic character) in autumnal festivals of Demeter such as the Proerosia.

The boar naturally then has become a subject of specific heroic feats. Perhaps one of the better known examples wold be the Erymanthian Boar (which may very well have been the same boar which slew Adonis, since the version of the tale in which Apollon sent the boar it is said to for his part to have been for the purpose because Aphrodite blinded his son Erymanthius…from whom logically the boar would have taken the name as it would from the place in which the boar roamed. It hardly seems as coincidence in any case, and the mountain itself may be associated with the myth of Apollon’s son who was blinded for seeing Aphrodite bathing…a common punishment for mortal men who transgress in this manner). It is perhaps then on the sacred mountain of Artemis, Erymanthos, in which these whole drama is contrived that appropriately sets up the setting for the fourth labor of Herakles (following up from the labor in which the hero has persued her hind that may further establish a link between Artemis and the hero). From the myth of this labor we learn that the mountain is the home of the centaur Chiron, whom Herakles is visiting and ends up poisoning with one of his arrows (which leads in later as a reason why Chiron agreed to give up his immortality…and so end the pain of the poison arrow… in exchange for Prometheus’ freedom whether that be figuratively by giving Herakles his strength or making a more literal bargain with Zeus that aids Herakles’ when he frees the Titan). So we see this grounds to be a focal point as a kind doorway between death and life, which is quite appropriate given the nature of Artemis. And likewise appropriate to whatever links it has with Ares and Apollon who are also connected to death and destruction. For whatever reason Eurystheus wanted it, and Herakles captured it by driving it into the snow via the advice of Chiron, but the king was so terrified of it when it was brought to him that by his wish Herakles disposed of it. In Cumae there was displayed a set of boars tusks in the temple of Apollon that were said to have been from this animal, on the belief that Herakles threw it into the sea and the boar swam to Italy where it later died and was there perserved.

Therefore if we take the labors of Herakles as a totality of parts in his deification (rather like the “toys” of Zagreus that Clement of Alexandria spoke of from the last post) we can see an important idea of each labor myth, as far as I see it anyway. So whereas he chased down the horned hind that I spoke of before, he is now confronting an animal directly associated with the seemingly very strong and near unbreakable cycle of death and rebirth of which he gains mastery of. Sounds like an important component in any case of being deified if we consider that his labors are the processes of his deification as per the instructions of Apollon that only once he has committed these labors would he be a god, all of which incurs as the result of his madness-inspired sacrifice of the self symbolized by the death of his two sons from the influence of Hera. It is interesting that Artemis figures in some manner in several of these labors, which insinuates her role in propelling foreward her “prey.” She is closely connected with the Amazons in myth from whom Herakles takes the girdle (which has its own symbolism), there is the hind of which we already spoke, and the boar.

But the most well known boar connection with Artemis is the myth of the Calydonian Boar (which was sent by Artemis in anger for being forgotten during the harvest sacrifices)..but Apollon again is not far away as we are told that Meleager’s spear was later dedicated to Apollon’s temple. This presents us another interrelated image of the boar in association with the relationship between Apollon and Artemis. What is remarkable about this tell, however, is that brings together an entire cast of heroes (a cast which we see much of in the tale of the Argonautika in pursuit of the golden fleece…and like the quest for the fleece ends up being minus Herakles which sets apart the journey of the son of Zeus from that of the other Heroes). The implications seem to be similar in the arrangement of the myth of the Calydonian Boar and the Erymanthian Boar in which we have a dangerous creature, a bringer of destruction, of which each hero is participating for the distinction of wishing to kill the animal. In myth it is the spear of Atalanta who delivers the fatal wound to the animal, which is finished off by the spear of Meleager. In recognition of this fact Meleager awards the remains of the boar to her, which causes a huge uprising that ultimately ends in Meleager’s death in that the firebrand (the fragile symbol of human life) that had been in safe keeping of his mother is snuffed out in retaliation for the consequential death of her brothers (which insidentally also led to her and Meleager’s wife to hang themselves). And yet the spear of the hero was perserved in the temple of Apollon which speaks of certain greatness of the hero. Therefore we see a richness in death symbolism here directly related to the hunt of the boar. That the hide of the boar was believed to have preserved in the temple of Athena seems to attribute not the boar to her, but rather the process in which the hero (who is usually attended by her) has become victorious over that which the boar represents. Or so it seems.

In any case, whether we have the pigs of Demeter and Persephone, or the boars associated with Artemis, Apollon and Ares, we have an animal that is deeply connected with the mortal state and its connection directly with the earth. The earth brings us into being, in an environment against which we have little protection, and in which offers certain death to us in our mortal forms of flesh and blood, but is also receives us kindly and by the mysteries of nature we progress and are reborn….with the hope that eventually we will take the boar by the tusks and be reborn into a greater blessed state.

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