Apr 8, 2018
Lauren and Brandon discuss the landscape of heritage breed pork
production in the U.S. on the small scale. You'll see that
for being heritage breed enthusiasts they hesitate to encourage
everyone to go get the first heritage animals you can get your
hands on.
For the sustainability and long term conservation of these
breeds we need to expand the focus from only the 1) breeding and 2)
raising (the first two links in the chain of their lifespan) of
these pigs, and start 3) processing, 4) marketing and 5) eating
(the latter 3 links in the chain) these pigs as they should
be....which is very different from how lean pigs ought to be
processed, marketed and eaten.
Topics Discussed
Introduction and Announcements:
- Join us on Instagram! We do stories several times a week
on what Brandon's doing in the shop and on the field.
- Meatsmith Mangalitza Pork Share partnership with Westland
Distillery; you can sample our pork paired with their whiskey at
Cochon 555 competitions throughout the country in 2018. Come taste
it out in Seattle April 22nd, Austin in May, as well as Miami and
Denver in June.
- One more Mangalitza share is available for purchase now!...and
more to come this summer, so email us to reserve one:
harvest@farmsteadmeatsmith.com
- Membership will be open through April 11th!.... (extended from
the original April 8th deadline.)
- Come to the Feast of Divine Mercy! April 8th, 2018, or
any 2nd Sunday of Easter in the future (the Sunday after Easter
Sunday). Check out the Vimeo film below and email us for
details.
Content: Making heritage breed livestock sustainable; a
straight-shooting conversation on the pork heritage breed landscape
in America.
- 'Heritage' is a confusing term; 'lard pig,' 'bacon pig,' and
'lean pig' might be better to indicate the actual physiology of the
pigs you're growing, processing and eating.
- Pastured Pork? This can be a misleading term.
- The allure of taking 'free' heritage/rare breeds (or any
livestock!) before you're ready.
- Lauren's 5 step (another phase outline :) narrative for the
heritage livestock you're supposed to breed, raise, process, sell
and eat.
- Breeding (often the only step small agriculture wants to
promote and improve).
- Husbandry
- Processing
- Selling
- Eating
- Hardships exist at each stage of the heritage animal's
biological and economic lifespan. For the sustainability of
small farmers growing them, butchers harvesting them, and consumers
purchasing them, we must raise the bar at each of these
phases.
- Tangent on Pig Psychology...which is especially important to
consider when slaughtering non-heritage breeds.
- Discerning lard pigs from bacon pigs from lean pigs to help you
in your husbandry plan.
- Economic realities of the custom processor in America: they are
all setup (infrastructure, personnel, work flow, etc.) to process
all pigs as if they are lean pigs....thereby rendering much of the
hard-won/husbanded fat on the lard or bacon heritage breed.
This can mess with the financial expectations of the farmer,
or (if a processor does grant the customer all the fat that the
farmer asked for) many times a consumer may be--at best--confused
or--at worst--frustrated, and forego purchasing a heritage breed
again: this creates a vicious cycle that is hard to extract oneself
from, no matter where you stand in the narrative.
- No more blaming the Heritage breed for problems that are a
result of monkey wrenches in the system between farmer, processor
and consumer!
- Where the rubber meets the road is setting the price...farmers
must charge properly, and consumers must pay properly. This
is the beginning of real value and real economy; no one is getting
exploited.
- We must also think of heritage breed fat as treasure, rather
than burden....which will help the economic sustainability of the
consumer in the long run.
Links for Episode 10
-Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/farmsteadmeatsmith/
-Maynard Davies: https://www.amazon.com/Maynard-Adventures-Bacon-Curer-Davies/dp/1873674643
& https://www.amazon.com/Manual-Traditional-Bacon-Maynard-Davies/dp/1906122083
-Meatsmith Mangalitza and Gloucester Old Spot Pork Shares
for Sale: https://farmsteadmeatsmith.com/pork-shares/
-Westland Distillery: http://www.westlanddistillery.com
-Cochon 555 nation-wide events: http://cochon555.com
-Meatsmith Membership: https://farmsteadmeatsmith.com/membership/
-Divine Mercy Feast lamb roast: https://vimeo.com/23298413
-Canlis; Seattle's landmark fine-dining
restaurant: https://canlis.com
Support A Meatsmith Harvest podcast on
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/meatsmith