Event Location
Avid Bookshop presents Cathy R. Payne for her book, Saving the Guinea Hogs: the Recovery of an American Homestead Breed. This event will take place on Saturday, June 20, 2019, from 6:30-7:30 pm at our Prince Avenue location and is free and open to the public. We encourage you to purchase a copy of the book to get it signed by the author!
You can purchase this event book online from Avid Bookshop here: https://www.avidbookshop.com/book/9781733593205
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Saving the Guinea Hogs, a narrative nonfiction book, is the first definitive history of the Guinea Hog breed. Rich in historically accurate information, it is easy to read and full of colorful characters. It is a comprehensive overview of the people who raised Guinea Hogs from 1940 to 1995, told in their own words and enlightening stories. These first-person stories reveal the subjects' deep fondness for and attachment to the amiable Guinea Hogs. Some recall a time when their families did not have access to electricity or indoor plumbing. The Guinea Hog was utilized head to tail, providing meat, lard, and grease to meet crucial family needs.
The Guinea Hog is a small, black, hairy, sturdy, and gentle breed of hog kept in the Southeastern United States prior to the Civil War. The Guinea Hog has long been a part of America's cultural history. Due to a confluence of factors, it was nearly extinct by the 1990s. The loss of any breed's unique genetic material can leave the future of a species in peril. Saving the Guinea Hogs will bring the characteristics of the hogs to life, including what is known of their history and genetics, their unique characteristics, their temperament and personality, and how they benefitted generations of small landholders.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Cathy R. Payne, EdD, was raised in cities and suburbs. She retired from a 33 year career in elementary education and began farming late in life in a small town agricultural community in Northeast Georgia. Her sustainable farm, Broad River Pastures, specialized in nutrient dense food and heritage breed livestock. She raised breeding stock of American blue and white rabbits, Gulf Coast Sheep, and American Guinea Hogs. Cathy’s skills from working in special education and research helped her with her new passion and business.
When Cathy first learned about Guinea Hogs in 2013, she became discouraged with the dearth of information regarding the breed and its history. She discovered that nobody had written a book about this intriguing breed or documented how it was saved after near extinction. She set out to discover this for herself. After 2 years of asking questions, interviewing elders, and interviewing over a dozen major players who worked to preserve the breed from the early 1990s to 2009, she discovered bloodlines of the hogs that had not been well documented up to that point. Her first book, Guinea Hogs Lost and Found: the Amazing Grace of Breed Recovery, pieces together what she learned and how she worked with a network of breeders to document and preserve the historical bloodlines and become an activist for including them in the breed registry (American Guinea Hog Association). The Livestock Conservancy opened its Guinea Hog archives to her and encouraged her recovery work
