A vegetarian pig farmer.
If your first reaction is along the lines, oh, a Portlandia type, some organic guru heavy on branding, light on running a business, don't worry.
We met the farmer at a get together, a potluck style event with the informal atmosphere typical for potlucks everywhere. Having been given a one sentence introduction on each of the guests, the farmer was described as "she's the mother of Hannah, they have a farm in" <several towns over>.
As the guests filled their plates, taking more from the promising looking dishes than others, adding large slices of roast, it became obvious that the lady farmer was one of only three or four vegetarians that night.
What made this unusual was the fact that during subsequent dinner conversation, others asked her about the farm, and we learned that she ran a commercial pig farm with a head count of about 300 pigs at any time. Given the economic pressures on farmers in a country as small and as industrialized as Germany, running a financially viable farm takes substantial skills and hard work in addition to several hundred acres of land. She had taken over the farm from her parents in the absence of a male heir after having studied to become a teacher, but you would not have guessed that when you saw her on the huge combine or in the cabin of the climate controlled tractor.
As she passed the platter of pork roast, one of the male guests teased: "still not eating your little ones?", which she acknowledged with a brief smile, indicating that the joke was old and stale.
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