They splash around Farmer Joe's pigsty for a time, before they're steamed, split, bathed in vinegar, salt and red dye #40, then shipped to Wal-Marts across the state to take their place among other savory snack foods.

They're SW Red Smith's famous Pickled Pigs Feet, brought to you by the Foster brothers of Davie.

At first blush, one might assume the popularity of pickled pigs feet -- a sour, bony, gelatinous food -- has waned in recent decades as the array of munchies has grown. Unlike chips, dips and buffalo wings, they have yet to earn a space on the traditional Super Bowl party platter.

But Jonathan Foster, 31, and Timothy Foster, 28, who moved to South Florida last summer, know better. The clean-cut pair traded in their respective jobs as a financial analyst and investment advisor to take over the family business for a good reason.

SW Red Smith has been been pickling sausages, eggs, pickles, pig knuckles and feet at a profit, or close to it, for more than 60 years. Shoppers throughout Florida and southern Georgia, where the products are principally sold, will recognize the company's blue and red labeled products, which depict a smiling, seemingly inebriated sausage dressed in tux and top hat.

''Pigs feet is a static market, but sausage and eggs year over year have been a growth area,'' said Jonathan Foster, 31, who just wrapped up an MBA at George Washington University.

The brothers' plan is to infuse new life into the operation they've adopted from their father and their uncle, leveraging a sense of humor and apparent curiosity in their product to spur sales. But just how to get people eating more pickled meat snacks could prove challenging.

The brothers admit they must battle an often potent aversion to their products -- especially when it comes to the feet, also known as ``trotters.''

''If you didn't grow up eating them, say as a child, you probably won't become a customer,'' Jonathan Foster said, adding emphatically that pigs feet are not an ethnic food, but a regional delicacy favored in the southeastern United States.

In fact, the brothers themselves haven't sampled the product.

''We keep telling each other that late one Saturday night we might dare each other to do it,'' Foster said.

Instead, the brothers plan to focus heavily on the brand's sausage products, which appeal to more consumers and make up about 75 percent of total sales. Among their new initiatives will be packaging single-serve sausages -- the idea being that consumers might be more willing to try the product if they don't have to commit to gallon or half-gallon purchases. Some vendors have expressed interest in single-serve feet as well, Foster said.

The Fosters asked that their exact sales figures not be disclosed, but meat snacks posted $2.6 billion in retail sales in 2005, according to the industry group Snack Food Association and Information Resources.

Long the company's best seller, SW Red Smith's pickled sausages are processed in their Davie facility under the owners' careful watch, while the pigs feet, eggs and knuckles are made in Pinellas Park and trucked to Davie's distribution facility once a week.

Pickling sausage is a rather simple process. The company outsources the sausage production, though the mixture of chicken, pork and spices is a family recipe.

It arrives at the SW Red Smith plant in 16-inch links, which are cut into four-inch pieces before being stacked log-cabin style into gallon and half-gallon jars by four women on an assembly line. The jars are filled with the reddish vinegar solution, mixed on site. The product is packed and distributed for sale around the state at grocery and convenient stores, bars and sales clubs, like BJ's Wholesale Club.

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