The Old Spot pig originated centuries ago in Gloucestershire in the South West of England that borders Wales, where heritage breed farmers bred a pig to conform to the standards of their traditional cuisine. The Vale and surrounding areas are renowned for Gloucestershire Pie, or squab pie; Double and Single Gloucester cheeses that are rich and buttery with a flaky texture and mellow, and nutty character; Stinking Bishop cheese; and other hearty and fortifying foods. The Old Spot is a fatty breed high on sweet buttery flavor!
On a hilly dirt road in eastern Vermont stands a farm that is one of the last holdouts for two very rare breeds of sheep, the Tunis and the Horned Dorset. Tamarack Farm is a presidium, a fort of sorts, for living animals that in this case have a 100-year history on this very property. Farmers Ben Machin and Grace Bowmer are a crucial resource for professional chefs who require a diverse flavor palate for their work — not all lamb should taste the same. The farm also represents a defense for our food security, a stake in the ground for diversity in our food system as awareness slowly grows regarding the importance of preventing the extinction of livestock breeds.
At Heritage, we pay respect to New Orleans by going full-throttle Red Wattle, championing the pig breed that arrived on American shores in the 1800s through the Gulf by way of New Caledonia, and has long been a part of the Creole and Cajun cuisines that are widely represented in the flavors of this world-famous food city.
For our final entry on Heritage Breeds Week we salute the rarest breeds of all! The people who move us into action on a national and global level! We have met so many inspirational people over the years, but 5 stand out as particularly important in shaping our mission.
The Bronze turkey is the king of turkeys and the foundation of all other breeds, varieties, lines and commercial modern turkeys of today. My Bronze turkeys have been here on the Kansas prairie for over 103 years and we must not lose them.
In the early 1800s millions of Bison roamed the plains of the United States. Less than 100 years later their numbers had been reduced to a mere 541 animals. While early conservation efforts helped raise this figure modestly, it was only when American farmers began raising Bison for their meat that their population grew into the hundreds of thousands. Much like the early Bison, the millions of healthy Standardbred chickens and turkeys which used to occupy the American landscape are now on the brink of extinction.
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