Timatanga Moana the KuneKune Pig walks about the house squeaking like a badly oiled door. You know the one. The Hitchcock Door. The Virginia Wolf Door. The elongated Footsteps Man squeak as it opens and the bad guy creeps through. Accompany that with the pitter patter of four little hoofy feet on the wood floors and then a small purry noise, a crikk, crikk, crikk when she finds my bouncing foot. A woodish sound like a tree in a wind. This is a noisy baby. She wants food – lots of it , So far she eats apples, peanut butter, peas, broccoli, yoghurt, milk, rabbit food and hay. You can imagine the state of the snug.
There is absolute silence when she finds the wood stove because she is laid in front of it; fast asleep. There is no way I can describe to you a pig sleeping in front of the fire in my sitting room. At no time in my life did I wake up and think to myself, “You know what? I want a pig who will lay down and sleep in front of the fire.”
But she is like a two year old in the kitchen. Everything is upturned, pushed about, investigated, tasted and played in. And the moment the dishwasher opens she is running from wherever she is to the kitchen. It is her favourite thing. (Other than smashing down her dog gate). But she is too short to climb inside the dishwasher and spends some considerable time squealing in frustration trying to haul her fat little body up onto the door, until I lift her fat ront feet back off the door and shut it. There now I say, Off you go. No babies in the dishwasher.
Here; I will show you 5 minutes in the kitchen.
Oh speaking of kitchens! At the beginning of every month our friend Celia hosts a page called In My Kitchen. I am almost never organised enough to show what is in my kitchen at the beginning of every month. But this month! I am! In my kitchen is a pig!
This is not a set up. I was on the phone talking to the man about feeder pigs and there was a crashing noise and Tima had knocked over the bucket of milk.
There was not much in the bucket so only a lick of milk spilt..
so she crept into the bucket to get the last drop.
Then she tried to climb into the dishwasher for a spot of clean-up.
Marmalade, sittiing at the kitchen table, made sure we all knew that he was absolutely not involved in any way with these piggie antics in the kitchen! At all, thank you very much.
Celia keeps her In The Kitchen Column open until the 10th if you want to join in.
We had torrential downpours and high winds yesterday which was fine with us barn animals as it was sheltered and lovely in there and I got heaps of work done. I even found a sitting hen in the peacock palace! Speaking of peacocks we will be going to that animal market place again (we go the first Sunday of every April) this Sunday to see if we can find a peacock for Tui and Pania. We will never forget Kupa, but I would like these girls to have a mate. I will try very hard to ONLY come home with a peacock. Of course last year I came home with Boo. The year before it was Kupa.
Sunday will be busy because the feeder pigs arrive that day too. These are two pigs that I will raise for the family freezers. This year it is hard to find piglets to raise, they are very expensive, due to the virus that is running rampant through American and Canadian piggeries. And I am a working farm. I raise food here. I feed people. I like to feed people. If I could not grow my own meat I would not eat it. Especially now. For me it is very important to know where my food comes from. This is why I have this little farm. This is why I do what I do.
Have a lovely day.
Your friend on the farmy
celi
c
The Kitchen's Garden 
64 responses to “In my Kitchen”
Gosh that’s a scary report. Just read it to Chloe and we both are not surprised. Corn and soy meal with probably Monsanto products, pig plasma, probably antibiotics and the sort. No wonder the food supply is crashing. No harm to the human population…Oh don’t get me started. Ok, off the soap box now. Also, now C is convinced there will be a Petunia in our future next year…and a road trip to visit you as a bonus! 🙂
How absolutely wonderful! I should start her breeding for late next spring. Fingers crossed.. Petunia! wonderful. and you can come and stay in the Coupe. wow.. c
Oh, the cuteness just caused my heart to thump harder!
That piglet is very nearly as adorable as Marmelade (I’m biased).
So … just where is John watching the rugby these days 🙂 In my Kitchen is never going to be able to top this post! 🙂 🙂 Laura
Today my DH and I laughed so loud that our Lobo actually opened his eyes from his nap. The best post ever, Celi.
Onyx, my Mom’s formerly feral cat was mad about the dishwasher — always wanted to get in it and was never so pleased with herself as when someone left the door open and she could walk around inside. Animals are odd.
I LOVE that you have a pig in your kitchen! Tima is the cutest thing ever, but how long will you be able to keep her in the house? And what a smart thing she is. Thanks for sharing her with all the IMK friends – we’ve had ladyredspecs with a seal colony outside her kitchen window, and Judy with a bear in her backyard, but this is the first time we’ve had a pig in the kitchen! 😀
This weekend she will start spending her days in the barn sunroom while I am working out there, but she is so small i might keep bringing her in at night.. her plan keeps changing.. the weather is still so horrible.. c
You could get one of those dog/cat ramps so she could get on your bed and sleep with you. Bet she would love to snuggle. (smile)
Just read that newspaper article about pigs and I am very disturbed and disgusted. I had no idea that this was going on. We raise our own beef and chickens and now it looks that if we want pork we will have to raise it ourselves, also.
I thought it was quite a well balanced article too.. no madness or hype, just the facts .. and that kind of informed impassionate reporting makes it even more disturbing.. c
Ive read a number of In My Kitchen posts and have enjoyed them all. I think it safe to say, Celi, that yours is the first one that featured a pig on the dishwasher door, trying to get in. Just like the farmy, this post and pig are one of a kind.
I sent it right to you know who. I’m sure she loved it. Have a great evening. 🙂
I love the Farmy version of an IMK post 🙂
The ‘virus’ article alerts without being too alarming but it does open the door to much need investigation and regulation… Will people never get that shortcuts in food processing just don’t work?
You could not ask for a better clean up crew – ha! Happy Weekend on the Farmy:)
I am an ardent lover of Celia’s column and the IMK posts. I am sorry to be so undiplomatic, but this IMK ‘takes the cake’! I have laughed till I had happy tears in my eyes . . . . I am just looking forwards when there are going to be families of kunekunes wandering around [in the kitchen?] just asking for us to say ‘aww’!!!!!!
All I can say is that if I had Tima she would be sleeping with me by now! tiny and exquisite… she’d be the love of my life…
she will get bigger, but I am going to be breeding them in NZ too, just as soon as my son buys some land! When I come home in October my son and i are going to do a recce! So … careful what you wish for.. c
C, I read an article about KuneKune’s digestion………the conversion of protein to fat is unbelievable; no wonder they’re rotund.
yikes.. please send me that article.. she is already on a strict diet, I need that grass to grow..!
C, I can’t find the article I read about the protein conversion to fat. The New Zealand society has good information on basic feeding rates for ages. Most sites suggest 14% protein a day being the optimum amount. Milk to be diluted and some suggest no eggs or eggshells. I think this is probably information you know already. E
Just needed to pop in and say how much I enjoyed this. What a time you have in your kitchen!
One of my granddaughters loves pigs. You have a new blog reader in our family. 🙂