Now, two generations later, those piglets are multiplying and producing the best pork in Alabama.
With insight given to him through much prayer, our founder knew God was showing him to begin to live an agrarian life. Where the animals would come from, or which animals he would get, he left in God's hands. In time, God brought the horses, the cattle, the pigs and the chickens, not as in the days of Noah, but we can say for certain that we are blessed that He has filled our little "ark" right where we are. In the beginning, each animal arrived in a unique way, seemingly insignificant at the time, but slowly leading to our full fledged agrarian system. The pigs were a gift to our founder...
One morning in the early 1990's, awakened to the audio story of "The 3 Little Pigs," he walked into his side yard to see a "gift" from his wife and kids: 3 Little Pigs. The piglets' squealing was intermixed with the laughter of his children and the community children who gathered to experience the new arrivals. Those 3 pigs were the beginning of our pastured pork and though we have improved the selection of our breeds since then and learned many life (and death) lessons through it all, we are grateful for the first "fun" gift that slowly turned into a way of life that puts food from our pastures to our (your) table.
If changing to an agrarian way of life seems like too big of a pill to swallow, take baby steps...but a least start moving. In the last months, America has awakened to some frightening realities, but at least we are awakening. Many of you have already purchased your first chicks. Good job. Some of you have at least bought a whole or half steer's worth of meat to keep in your freezer until you can raise your own. Smart decision. And others know they need to do something but are frozen and cannot act. Maybe you just need to buy a pig for a papa and see where it leads you.
And, for those of you who know you need to be connected to the soil but your life circumstances prevent you from acting immediately, you can rely on Old Century Meats to be that connection.
Surely 2020 has not been the year most of us were expecting, but if we pray and look closely at what God is doing amidst all of the chaos, maybe He is truly giving us the 20/20 vision He wants us to have.
(For a spiritual look at what the coronavirus should be teaching us, click here: https://www.medjugorje.com/medjugorje-today/medjugorje-headlines/the-corona-vision.html)