Back in the Great Depression, people in cities often raised what we consider farm animals.

This short essay by my dad, Chuck Paska, is about raising pigs.

Dad wouldn’t touch the meat from the pigs he bottle fed from birth. Rabbits were also off his menu.

Grandma couldn’t understand her son. She was giving him good, healthy food to eat, but my dad would rather go hungry.

I raised ducks and chickens in my youth. When it came time to harvest some of my ducks — Grandma Jo wanted to make czarina, which is a soup made from duck blood — those ill-fated ducks left our home alive. I tried to block the rest from my thoughts. I would never eat that soup. I guess I took after my dad.

Copyright © 2021 by Susan Manzke, all rights reserved