I’m dreaming of pigs these days — over the holidays, a friend and I got talking about starting a pig business. We’d see if we can get my butter-and-egg lady to raise them for us (she raises great pigs) and then we’d do charcuterie — prosciutto, guanciale, lard (leaf lard! from good pigs!), sausages — or as my friend said in an email: “We’ll smoke’em, dry’em, stuff’em, hang’em, and sell’em.”

Our original plan was to get some investors and just go for it, but I think approaching it like a grown up 4H project might make more sense. Get a few weaners this year, see if Isabelle will raise them for us, track the costs and see if we can make a decent product before going off to find investors and jumping in the deep end.

And so, I’ve been surfing sites like the Gloucestershire Old Spots Pig Breeders Club looking at pigs. If we’re going to raise some pigs, why not raise interesting pigs? If we’re not going to raise factory pork, then lets really not raise factory pork.

But like I said, we’re still in the dreaming phase. My friend and potential porcine partner is nursing a broken heart, and I firmly believe that nothing helps one through heartbreak like a new project. Pigs for a broken heart anyone?