Step aside, free-range chickens: Here come kosher-fed pigs.
While the porkers are not about to be declared edible by any kashrut board any time soon, there are nonetheless some pretty happy pigs in the vicinity of Johannesburg that are enjoying their fair share of kosher food.
For years Sandringham Gardens, a Jewish old-age home, has been turning over its scrapings to thankful snouts.
The tradition has been around for so long that the current catering manager, Roy Levinson, is unsure as to how it got started in the first place.
But, he said, if the pigs can feast on “stuff that is going to be thrown out anyway, they can use it with pleasure.”
The scrapings that find their way to the pig farm come straight from diners’ plates, said Levinson, who emphasized that once something is sent out on a plate, it does not go back to the kitchen.
When questioned about the quality of the food at Sandringham Gardens, he said the residents consider it “very good.”
If the residents aren’t complaining, one can safely assume that there can’t be much for the pigs to snort about.
Each day a big black rubbish bag is filled with leftovers that are then fetched by a driver from the pig farm.
A recent day, when Sandringham Gardens served chicken a la king, must have been pig heaven for the residents of the farm because the garbage bag was stuffed with chicken bones.
And Sandringham’s menu for the coming week must certainly have been enough to set any porcine salivary gland going — lasagne, steak, chicken casserole, curry, hot beef on rye, brisket and hot dogs.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
