About a week ago my wife and I picked up about 8 Walmart bags full of apples from her grandmothers yard. Nearly all of these apples would have gone to waste but now they are helping to add weight and flavor to our Red Wattle hogs.

We are blessed with numerous pecan trees and 2 large persimmon trees on our farm and hope to use these to help finish the hogs each year. This past week the first persimmons started to ripen and finally the hogs realized that these were good after all. It’s amazing how nasty something can taste until it is “ripe”! I’ve got high hopes for persimmons being a great hog feed. I’ve read that in Europe people used to finish hogs by pasturing them in persimmon groves. I tried a few of these little squishy fruits but can’t see them haveing a large presence in our kitchen because so much of the fruit is it’s large seeds. All the better for the hogs though, those guys love to munch on nuts! 

After the hurricane sent strong winds through on Sunday there were loads of persimmons and still green pecans on the ground so I’ve been gathering these and putting them in a trough for the hogs. They root through the fruit and find anything that’s ripe to gobble up. I’m hoping that like a tomato, these persimmons will ripen with time, after they’ve fallen from the tree.

Next I’m trying to get the hogs to try some Black Walnuts that are starting to fall, and even a few pawpaws that I was able to get from a neighbor. 

What kind of free wholesome foods have you found for your critters or yourself?