Cape Cod markets feature locally grown pork - Cape Cod Times

Piglets are cute, but some become pork. That is the way of the world on a farm, and as spring perks up, the action oinks up on Cape Cod.

PHOTO/ CAPE COD TIMES/STEVE HEASLIP

Tim Friary's Cape Cod Organic Farm's latest crop are six piglets born three weeks ago to their 700-pound mom.

BARNSTABLE — Piglets are cute, but some become pork. That is the way of the world on a farm, and as spring perks up, the action oinks up on Cape Cod.

Fresh pork is hitting farm stands and the next generation of bacon is coming into this world. Round and round it goes.

"I try to be very good to all the pigs; I get in there and pet them and scratch them," said Tim Friary at Cape Cod Organic Farm in Barnstable. "I'm very grateful that they are there to provide food for everybody."

Friary has pork for sale (about $10 per pound) at his farm stand for the first time ever this spring. That is a meaty bonanza for Marilyn Fuller, of Barnstable, who bought some chops Tuesday for a special dinner.



"We watched the pigs grow from little to big, so we were waiting," Fuller said. "We were ready."

A growing number of Cape Codders are ready to dig into locally grown pork, Leo Cakounes, president of the Cape and Islands Farm Bureau, said, but he is not sure there is enough demand yet to make it profitable for farmers.

"The romance of farming is certainly there, with a lot of people getting interested where their dinner comes from and supporting local agriculture," Cakounes said. "But sometimes people overlook the business aspect of it."

Cakounes hopes to sell more than 1,600 pounds of pork this year at his Harwich farm, Cape Farm Supply & Cranberry Co. He said the cost of taking pigs to an off-Cape processing facility and storing the meat is a real challenge to the bottom line.

He estimated that eight local farms offer pork products for sale.

Robert Flynn of Tenofus Farm in Bourne said spring is when money starts to come into the farm after the lean winter. He sells live piglets, and pigs for pig roasts and sends pigs to market in Pennsylvania.

Flynn estimated that he currently has 250 market hogs, each weighing between 100 and 200 pounds, plus plenty of piglets. Tenofus Farm is also trying out the local retail market this year, planning to sell pork products at the Buzzards Bay Farmers Market.