Pig Farming in the Middle Ages

We need to talk about pig farming in the Early Middle Ages. Pigs weren’t usually the most important domesticated animal for folks living in Western Europe between 500-1000 CE, but they shaped the lives of almost everyone. In a Michael Pollan “who’s-dominating-whom,” sort of vibe, historian Jamie Kreiner’s research demonstrates that although Medieval folks of all social strata found pigs to be a good source of meat to cultivate, the pigs in return shaped people’s lives, determining how they kept their farms, paid their rents, ate meat throughout the year, and even healed themselves medicinally.

Pigs were the only domesticated animal whose body was used solely for meat: they didn’t give eggs, nor milk and cheese. Furthermore, they were smart and wily, constantly breaking out of their pens and damaging crops — a lot of Early Medieval laws dealt with deciding whose fault pig damage was and how to pay for it. From law codes, we also learn that it took one pig herder and an assistant to care for 40 pigs. In the Early Middle Ages, pig herders were often unfree (servants, slaves, or farmers under personal obligation) adults, so their status was low. However, like their pigs, herders had to have subtle knowledge of the woodlands and scrub areas, and that made their labor specialized. Two of the above images show adult pigs — the one with the white stripe might have marked it as a truffle-hunter (one of the few non-meat uses for pigs).

Pigs were incredibly adaptable and could live off of foods they foraged, and a single adult pig could provide between 100-175 lbs of meat. Pigs were less susceptible to disease than other domesticated animals, since they were bread locally. The usual season for pig farming had them foraging acorns and other woodland consumables in the fall, and being slaughtered in the winter. You can see two of the images above dealing with this. The Medieval Irish had a saying: “a pig that dies before the acorn crop” meant a wasted opportunity. Pigs meat was prepared in different ways, from grilled to roasted, smoked or dry-salted. Last pig-fact for today: many medicine books used pig parts to cure maladies ranging from sexual impotence to epilepsy.