Welcoming New Animals to the Farm

Good morning, friends and farmers! Have you noticed anything new at Historic Wagner Farm lately? I'll give you a hint... we have three new animals with us that like to roll in the mud and sometimes make friends with spiders. Can you guess what they are?

Pigs! Three little pigs are visiting us from Volkening Heritage Farm in Schaumberg. These little gals are called Berkshire pigs. They're about one month old and already they weigh almost 50 pounds each. They just arrived on the farm yesterday, so we haven't had a chance to pick names for them yet.

Pigs played a very important role on a dairy farm in the 1920s. After a farmer milked his cows, he would let the milk settle and it would separate. The cream of the milk would rise to the top of his bucket, while the skim milk would fall to the bottom. Today we can find both of these items at the store, but in the 1920s no one liked skim milk and the farmer needed a way to get rid of it.

Pigs aren't very picky eaters, in fact they like to eat almost anything. So, the pigs ate up all of the skim milk for the farmer, and he took the leftover cream to sell. What kind of milk do you drink at your house today?