Chapter 24
Every September the Amish slaughter part of their herd and put up the meat in a smokehouse to keep through the winter. That is where the grain the Ghuraba couldn't find all went. It went to feed the pigs.
And the pigs, in turn, feed the Amish and the rebels.
"So this year you have to slaughter all of them?" I ask.
"We don't have a choice," Caleb says. "They don't need a lot in the summer because they can forage, but once the ground freezes, they will starve. We have to thin the herd so the strongest—" he points at the enormous Iron Age boar and several plump breeding sows "—survive to give us piglets next summer."
"But what about these ones?" I sweep my hand at the pigs that were born just last month. "Your father said we would keep them until next year?"
Caleb scowls.
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