This Little Piggy...
by Kurt Epps—The PubScout
I first became acquainted with Ben Pollak while I was living and writing in NJ. I met him through a motorcycle club we belonged to. He rode a 1998 Kawasaki—all year long. That alone should tell you something.
But a brief chat with this “biker” made me realize I wasn’t dealing with a Sons of Anarchy stereotype. Articulate, intelligent and personable, Ben had a decidedly interesting and diverse background, and, in the realm of beer, we found common ground.
As the former organizer of a series of beer and food outings for our local MC club, I was contacted by Ben way back when with an idea for a beer-food get-together. He allowed that he had a special, some might say symbiotic, relationship with the Harvest Moon Brewpub in New Brunswick, NJ.
His work at the time with various animals on a large local farm led him to contact the brewers at The Moon to see what, if anything, they were doing with their spent grains.
Normally, the grain is considered as a waste product and would have been disposed of—usually and eventually in a landfill—and at a cost.
But Ben had other ideas.
If we are what we eat, and if we eat cattle and pork, then we are also what THEY eat. Most of those creatures are fed an “industrial” diet, meaning one which includes a range of chemicals. Ben’s animals, however, ate better.
He had an arrangement with the brewer at Harvest Moon that included the removal of all the brewer’s spent grains, and he fed those grains to his animals.
“It’s just a completely efficient way of dealing with a ‘waste’ product that would eventually wind up in a landfill doing nothing,” Pollak told me. “It’s a win-win for everyone, including the animals. No waste removal costs for the brewpub, free food for my animals and it’s far healthier for them than what they might get industrially.”
He specializes in the paringkeratin outgrowths of peoples’ pet pigs. I know lots of folks with pets, but I don’t know ANY that have pet pigs. Ben Pollak, apparently, knows enough of them to keep him him in business.m in business. in business.in business.n business. business.business.usiness.siness.iness.ness.ess.ss.s..
His animals. The guy really loves his animals.
Pollak has extensive experience with all kinds of animals, not just those of the farm variety. He once worked in the Australian Outback with feral horses called “Brumbies.”
But now he has discovered a niche market. And if you told me such a market ever existed, I’d have laughed out loud. Because what Ben Pollak is doing now stretches credulity.
He gives pigs pedicures.
I’ll repeat that: he gives pigs pedicures, among other salon-type treatments.
He specializes in the keratin paring of peoples’ pet pigs. I know lots of folks with pets, but I don’t know ANY that have pet pigs. Ben Pollak, apparently, knows enough of them to keep him him in business.
Because beer buddies are forever, he reached out to me recently after a nearly-decade lapse to inform me as to his current mode of gainful employment. To get the most out of this article, head over to thefarriergroup.com to check out Ben’s business. And Ben Pollak on Tik-Tok is even more fun. Search @thepighooftrimmer to access it.
Naturally, he has an Instagram account as well. Go to IG and input benpollak, and watch him trim down the tusks of one of his porcine pals to keep the pig's tusks from growing into his face.
“What I’m doing is really magical work,” Ben offers. He’ll get no argument from me, though I confess the noises his “patients” make are enough to make me disappear—quickly. The massive number of followers he has on those social media accounts and the hits they get testify that not everyone is as squeamish as yours truly, who was blissfully unaware that pigs got blackheads.
Given the wealth of farms, farmers, farm animals and pigs here in NC, Pollak’s services could be in demand. And since he travels as far as Canada to ply his nail-paring trade, NC would be just a hop, skip and a grunt away from Jersey. He might even pass by the monster pig farms of Nahunta on the way down and find enough work to move here permanently, though, judging by the photos, I don’t think Nahunta keeps them as pets for long.
That way we might get together for a beer so we can further discuss the arcane art of farriering. I thought I knew what a farrier was—a “horse doctor” that wasn’t quite a veterinarian, but could fill in for one in a pinch. And since all the other animals could use some help from time to time, I suppose you can never have too many farriers. I apparently limited their skill sets unfairly.
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