Steve Burger raises happy pigs. At Winter Hill Farm in Freeport, he feeds them whey from the farm’s cheese-making operation and allows them to forage during the growing season. He has developed a regular customer base of butcher shops, markets and restaurants, and demand is strong – almost too strong. Even though he has grown and winterized his operation so that he now harvests between six and 10 pigs a month, year-round, he can’t fill every request for local pork that comes in.
“Everything about growing meat is harder than growing veggies,” Burger said. “There’s a lot of value in an individual carcass, and you’ve got to move it quick. You have more money invested in animals than you do in veggies.”
Maine produces just 1 percent of pork consumed in the state, and the figure is not much higher for beef, according to the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics. Yet, unquestionably, the demand for local meat is growing.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: Portland Press Herald
