You have an excellent idea. I've raised a lot of pigs. Pigs get large - very large. I would not, personally, consider raising a pig that I intended to keep for the long term, especially a potbellied. Believe me, a 400 (or much more) pound pig eats a lot, the vet bills could be astronomical as they age and they need care and attention at least twice a day, every day. Plus they tell me the potbellied is not a good meat animal. That said, the idea is wonderful. You got good advice about fencing if you can sort out a solution that'll work for you. Pigs are a blast to raise. Get yourself two feeder pigs, raise them together and have them slaughtered when they hit about 225 to 250. Unless you have a large family, I'd suggest finding someone to buy the extra pig and maybe pay the feed bills for both in return for your work raising them. Myself, I like at least a 10'x20' area for the pigs with 1/2 that in shade. Remember to give them water at ALL times and a place to wallow in the heat - pigs don't sweat and so must be kept cool. You'll be surprised at how clean and smart pigs are. And tasty, too. If you do it, have fun and feel free to email me for help - we really enjoyed our pigs and we're always happy to help other pig farmers get started.

We have eaten quite a few already. I love to go cherry picking, but the season where we usually go will be over by the time we can get there. The season here is just getting into full swing. Bought some sweet cherries and sour cherries this week-end at the market. The sweet ones got eaten as-is, but the tart ones I made jam, froze some, and made pie filling/sauce with the rest. That became cherry hand pies (cookie size, really too small and fiddly but look adorable), and cherry bars (same recipe, using the re-rolls of dough). There was way too much juice before thickening, so I drained some off....mmmmmmm - cherry syrup! Want a taste of heaven? A splash of this syrup over ice, then pour over some soda. Yummy. As soon as I saw the sour cherries I had to get some to make the filling, although I hate cherry pie. I thought "maybe I just always hated canned pie filling". So I tasted the cherry bars. Very good.....I still don't like cherry pie ROFL! But the taste hit the spot. And they won't go to waste. Dh and DD won't touch them, but the guys at work will be eating them out of the container before I even sit down tomorrow! Best way to pit tart cherries? Hold a cherry over a strainer in a bowl. Pull off the stem and discard. Push the straw through where the stem was until the pit pops out the other end. Drop the pit into the strainer. This way you catch all the juices that run off your fingers, and drip from the pits.

Oh my - did not intend to offend so many with something that I merely found funny. In re food safety, I am very concientious about it but I think that most of our mothers or grandmothers had not nearly the knowledge that we have and did things very differently. My husband's mother (this would have been in the 60's - early 70's) would cover the leftover Christmas Turkey or Easter Ham with a tea towel and leave it on the counter for a day or two until the kids had picked it clean! My post was just really about my sudden recollection of a funny, very unprofessional cook whom I had forgotten all about. I guess I shouldn't have mentioned the soup...

Thanks for the responses so far folks :) I don't know how big the pig will be, but she said they are inviting 75ish guests. I do know from attending many pig roasts in the past in that part of Wi that it's usually a whole pig on a spit or sometimes shelf in an enclosed rig/trailer kind of thing, and the only stuffing Ive seen of those is an apple in the mouth. And the pig is usually around me size or a bit smaller, so they have been 100-150 pound pigs maybe? I've never been to a half pig roast, but sometimes if it's a smaller pig there's also been chickens in the roaster rig. I don't know how true of a potluck it will be, but she said by name several of our mutual friends she would be having bring something- I don't know if she will be asking everyone to bring a dish or how she's handling that. There will for sure be deviled eggs, one of our friends has famously good ones, lol. Me, I'm making a big container of pickled Italian antipasto veggies and yesterday I grilled off 4 dozen cobs of corn and stripped them- the resulting 5 quarts of corn is going to get frozen today and then I'll do them up in a batch of buttered, and a batch of Mexican street corn style on the day. The corn is really good and sweet right now, and I know it won't be by September, so I wanted to take advantage of the fresh farmers market stuff now. She might hit me up to make other stuff to bring over to her state too, lol. Will probably depend on how much space I got in the car for the trip there. I don't know when the pig and roaster is supposed to be brought out to her house, or when it's supposed to be set up to start roasting, or how it will be dressed, or even how it's going to be set up. She said on Saturday she is planning on ordering it this week, so hopefully I'll find out the company or what they do sometime soon. I will have someone else helping with the pig- or rather one of the friends husbands is a keen griller/BBQ guy. He's never done a whole pig before either, but is happy and confidant he can tackle this with me.