{"title":"Heritage Bacon \u0026 Ham","description":"\u003ch2 style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003eTop Selling Heritage Bacon \u0026amp; Ham\u003c\/h2\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"cured-ham-shanks-four-pieces-3lb-total","title":"CURED HERITAGE HOCKS","description":"[TABS]\n\u003ch5\u003eProduct\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCured and Smoked Heritage Hocks\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e3-4 lb total\u003cbr\u003e2-4 pieces per package, may vary in size\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eBerkshire or Red Wattle\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOur signature maple sugar cure can be applied to all cuts including these ready to eat hocks which are delicious added to any soup or pulled and added to a salad!\u003ci\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eYou will find no better, juicier, more delicious shank than the heritage maple-cured classic. Cured with sugar and maple by Paradise Locker Meats, these shanks are the ultimate non-fussy food and perfect for adding exceptional flavor to dishes like pea soup, but the meat is so good they are perfect on their own!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe secret to great pork is to start off with great ingredients, and nothing beats our storied heritage breeds — Berkshire, Red Wattle, Duroc, Gloucestershire Old Spot, and Tamworth. Each breed comes from a different culinary tradition, and boasts a distinctive, nuanced flavor.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIngredients: pork cured with water, less than 2% of the following: salt, cane sugar, maple sugar, and brown sugar, spice extractives, sodium phosphate, sodium erythorbate, vinegar, sodium nitrite.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHumanely raised on pasture \u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e100% antibiotic free\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRaised by independent family farmers\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHeritage pork has more marbling resulting in more tender and \u003cbr\u003ejuicy meat\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAlready cured and ready to eat\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHeritage cured meats lasts for 3 weeks in the fridge\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eFarms\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen Heritage Foods started in 2001 we set out to sell heritage Thanksgiving turkeys. For three years our turkey project grew, but naturally mating turkey is a seasonal food and two of the three farmers we worked with to raise birds were looking for a more regular source of income if they were to continue working with us. So we committed to selling pork, which can be produced year round, as long as the breeds came from historic genetic lines, just like the turkeys. Now, 24 years later, Heritage Foods still works with those two original farms who together introduced the word “heritage pork” to hundreds of America’s best restaurants from coast-to-coast as well as thousands of homes through the Heritage Foods retail website.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNewman Farm Berkshire Pork\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eMyrtle, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn 2006 we got a handwritten letter from farmer Mark Newman asking us if Heritage Foods would ever consider selling his pasture raised old school Berkshire pigs. We said yes and a relationship grew that still continues today, now through his son David who has maintained the genetic line of Berkshires which can be traced back to the 17th and 18th century lines that came to these shores by way of the Berkshire region of England.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFrom the air, Newman Farm Berkshire Pork, in south central Missouri, in the heart of the Ozarks, looks more like a pioneer settlement or a holiday camp than any sort of pig farm. Wooden huts are scattered across green fields like bungalows, where contented Berkshire pigs live their lives, happily on-pasture.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePigs on Newman Farm are raised 100% on-pasture. The sows raise their piglets in huts that dot the fields of the farm. The babies live inside the huts until they are old enough to jump over the 6-inch wooden board that blocks the entrance. Once they make the great leap, they have an entire field to run on and they can mingle with the other piglets from the other huts.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid Newman is both a farmer and scientist. “The farmer came first,” he laughs. His degrees are in animal science, and he holds a Ph.D in meat science and muscle biology, focused on meat quality. “As I became a scientist and got involved in education, I applied what I was learning to understand what we could do better.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBerkshires were the favorite breed of British royalty and were first introduced to the New World in 1823. Since then, Berkshire bloodlines have remained exceptionally pure and have become a mainstay favorite of chefs and diners, legendary for their exceptionally bright pork flavor and thick, delicious fat cap. And if anyone were to question their excellence, just ask David. “It’s not a matter of opinion!” he insists, passionately. “It’s a scientific fact, Berkshires are the most marbled hog on the market today.” David is a master breeder and works hard to keep the lines on his farm separate and he is always working to improve the Berkshire breed on his farm.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid lives on the farm with his wife, Kristin, his mom Rita, and his two kids. “I got my start through my family. My parents were hog farmers, but primarily in the commercial pig business. In the 1980s my parents raised pigs in confinement. There were some very challenging economic times for everyone in production, and we realized we were going to have to do something differently. Kristin came from a family farming background also and is a major part of the operations success today, working for the farm along with their team of employees.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“In the 1990s my parents decided they wanted to go back to their roots. We were going to have to be very large to be successful in the commercial sector, and my father decided we should focus on quality. We changed our genetic program and our nutrition program. We became Certified Humane®, and we chose to focus on Berkshire pigs for their quality.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid and his family are the future of American farming! They are young, energetic and very passionate about the future of agriculture. David and Kristin work with a team of farmers who raise their Berkshires to supply Heritage Foods and the national network of chefs who rely on his product for their menus.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLazy Red Wattle Ranch\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eLa Plata, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWe met Larry and Madonna Sorell in 2002, as growers for Frank Reese and the Heritage Turkey Project. As their turkey flock grew in size, so did the Sorell’s importance to Heritage Foods.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen you see Red Wattle pork on a menu, what you are seeing is a five-state, twelve farm network founded by Larry and Madonna, dedicated to raising a storied breed that was once upon a time nearly extinct. Larry and Madonna are the heroes of this story, avatars of the heritage food movement, true believers who were destined to become the Guardians of the Red Wattle. They are proof positive of the ethos that when it comes to endangered livestock, “you have to eat them to save them.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn the beginning, back in 2004 when the Heritage Foods wholesale business began selling pigs, a market for the Red Wattle pig was built on a handshake agreement with chefs Zach Allen and Mark Ladner, then at Lupa Restaurant in NYC. They recognized the high-quality and undiminished taste that came from a Red Wattle pig humanely raised on-pasture and antibiotic free, using traditional farming methods. The deal with Ladner, and the partnership with Larry and his Lazy Red Wattle Ranch, were part of the origins of Heritage Foods.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“We traveled 18,000 miles to get started,” Larry says matter-of-factly about a Heritage Foods Odyssey whose mission was to search out rare Red Wattle sows and collect a viable genetic lineage of this incredible pig whose American legacy goes back to 18th century New Orleans. \"When we began, we had two Red Wattle gilts and a boar, and we had to travel all over the United States to start a herd.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Now I’ve kinda retired from raising animals, but we have a dozen Amish growers working with us, and I pick up the hogs and pay for them, and then bring them to the processor, Paradise Locker. I drive a tractor trailer and go around picking up three hundred pounders, fifty to eighty head a week. We have farms in Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa... that’s a lot of traveling. We may have four or five pick-ups every week. You wear out a truck pretty fast.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLarry, now over eighty, does less of the driving, but he still keeps all the relationships going, which isn’t easy considering the Amish don’t have phones inside their homes! “I’ll have to quit sometime but right now it’s going pretty good. The driving is easy. The hard job is you gotta keep Amish families happy, picking up their hogs, coordinating, monitoring the size of the animals, and making sure we have the right amount — each week we round up 50 to 100 pigs. And we’ve been doing it for almost 20 years now.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThanks to Larry and Madonna’s work, the Red Wattle was upgraded to Threatened status from Critical on The Livestock Conservancy’s watch list, a great achievement for the cause of biodiversity, one of the most important issues of our time.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMetzger Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eSeneca, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug Metzger's Tamworth and Berkshire genetics are now being shepherded by Robert Funk. Doug sadly passed away in 2023. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug Metzger was truly at the ground zero of our business and the heritage food movement. He was the magic man that first introduced us to our processor Paradise Locker Meats, with whom we have worked and grown ever since and he worked together with Frank Reese raising heritage turkeys from about 2002 to 2013.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAt 83-years-old, Doug raises purebred, certified Berkshire and Tamworth pigs on his 1,500 acre farm in Seneca, Kansas, with his wife Betty.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn an era of specialization Doug is an anomaly. Doug is famous for adapting to any moment. In 2001 he took our call and agreed to raise heritage turkeys for us with Frank because he believed that the growing food movement would appreciate the flavor of the birds his grandfather raised. As demand grew for quality meat, Doug got into heritage pigs and transitioned his commodity farm to a pastured farm and haven for the rare Tamworth breed.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug has been farming since 1951. As a kid he raised chickens but gave them up when he got into turkeys. As he got older, he broke into the milk cattle game. Then he tried sheep, but he says he couldn’t get them to breed right. He also raised Aylesbury ducks — a rare heritage breed. Over the years the acres on his sprawling farm have been used to grow wheat, corn, oats, barley, sorghum, alfalfa, and rye. He even grew flax one year because he heard it was supposed to help the immune system of the cattle, which he thought it did. “It certainly made their coats look wonderful,” Doug says.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eToday farmers are incentivized to grow monocrops of corn and soybean — “that’s all they want us to grow,” Doug explains, “and farmers haul their crops to town instead of using it for something on their own farm.” Doug remembers fondly the days when a diversified farm would grow corn and turn it into whiskey, or when soybeans were grown for the purpose of feeding milk cattle — as Doug did on his farm. “Keep your grain,” Doug insists, “and use it to grow a truly sustainable farm.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug was never one to use chemicals to grow food. He believes any talk of sustainability is not real when you raise only one crop or when you use chemicals to do it. “My buddy and I could clear 100 acres of weeds in a day if we worked through the night, and we did not need any additives to do it. All those chemicals are part of the reason there are so many cancers around, if you ask me.” Doug has amassed generations of farming secrets having grown so many foods naturally, often calling upon experiences from decades ago to solve a problem that presents itself today.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug comes from a truly great American farming family — Life Magazine once wrote that Doug’s father, who lived to be 104, had more living descendants than any American – many of them farmers. His is part of the story of immigrants who came to the New World and made good through old-fashioned values, tradition, and hard work.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“We’re here today to save these breeds,” says Doug, who is as down-home as the farm he still works on as he approaches his 84th birthday. “Save the breeds and make a little money. We got a lot of things going on, we have a lot of land. But it’s getting hard to keep up with it all… I need more young people! When I was young, we raised turkeys in spring and sold ‘em all by Christmas. We milked cattle all year round. I want to keep working — my dad was helping me when he was 84!”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHis conversational style always brings insight and interesting thoughts to bear. We hope Doug and Betty work with us for many years to come and that their beliefs of diversified farming continue. Today, his farm is supported through the work of his daughter Marilyn and her husband Stan, and their children Simon and Joel.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGood Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eOlsburg, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eGood Farms' Old Spot, Duroc, and Tamworth genetics are now being shepherded by Dustin and Maria Torneden since Craig and his wife Amy retired in 2024. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWe met the Goods through a connection at Kansas State University where Craig’s father was a distinguished professor. Craig spent his life in agriculture growing up in the Flint Hills of Kansas, some of the best agricultural land in the world, perfectly adapted to free ranging livestock, which feed on the perennial grasses that grow there naturally.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Good’s hog operation began in earnest in 1981, and they have continuously raised hogs there for the past 37 years. Their Duroc herd started with a few sows from Craig’s former employer who started raising Duroc pigs in the 1940s — with females obtained through Sears and Roebucks! As Craig explains, “I took a job in 1975 working with an outstanding stockman who raised purebred Duroc pigs here in Kansas. His name was Fred Germann, and he was one of the oldest and best Duroc breeders in the U.S. Things sure have changed since then, but the Durocs that we now raise have ancestry that goes back to those Sears females, approximately 85 years ago.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDuroc is an American breed that was used as the foundational genetics for the entire pig industry in the United States because of their good growth rate, body type, and mothering instincts. But big agriculture continued to overbreed the Duroc for certain traits related to higher profits and they crossed it with other pig breeds. Soon the industrial pig became utterly unrecognizable, and it became almost impossible to tell that it had originally derived from Duroc genetics.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig, on the other hand, continued to breed his Durocs to improve their genetics with traits particular to Craig’s preferences, while staying true to the original healthy and hearty breed. Craig always put a lot of thought into which sows he would breed with which boars as he worked to improve meat quality and edibility, as opposed to faster growth. He also selected pigs for the demeanor of the animals, who he treats like members of his own family. Craig bred for strong animals and sought out leaner carcasses (although the Duroc is supremely marbled). He also bred for skeletal size – Craig likes good length of body, for better loin eye size and fat distribution.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOver the years, the Durocs on Good Farm became his own breed, even though they looked like and acted like true old school Durocs. The Goods continue to bring in new lines to avoid inbreeding, but they work with the lines to continue improving their particular version of the Duroc.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig and Amy also raise Gloucestershire Old Spots and Tamworths, both considered rare breeds.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig's father, Don, was a meat scientist and would eventually have a division of Kansas State University named after him. Together they raised purebred Angus cattle and crops on the farm. “I have had a passion for raising pigs,” says Craig, since taking pigs on as a 4-H project in 1965. Craig studied Animal Science at Kansas State University. “Amy and I were married in 1976 and 5 years later we made the decision to move to the farm that my father and mother had owned since 1961, near Olsburg, Kansas, on 1000 acres of Flint Hills pasture.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eBreed\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRed Wattle\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 18th Century Louisiana by way of New Caledonia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a cross between pork and beef, Red Wattle is floral and robust, concentrated and bold.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: A consortium of 18 Amish families in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: French colonists brought these hogs to New Orleans as a favored meat breed. The Red Wattle eventually would populate the forests of Texas where they were rounded up and brought to the great slaughterhouses of Chicago. Recognized by their signature wattles that hang from the jowl, the Red Wattle resembles Kunekune pigs of New Zealand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGloucestershire Old Spot\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 19th Century Indiana by way of Berkeley Valley of Gloucestershire, England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a charcuterie pig with a delicious milky fat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside of Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: Descended from the native old English pigs of western England, this pig was mentioned as early as the 1780's. The spotted pig forages on fallen orchard fruits and other farm by products. Despite their signature oversized floppy ears which hang over their eyes, this gentle pig is hearty and self-reliant.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTamworth\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 2,500 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Rossville, Illinois by way of Staffordshire, England by way of Ireland.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: A premiere bacon producer, Tamworth meat is fruity, earthy, clean, mineral, root, sweet and tender.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Doug Metzger and Craig and Amy Good in Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The only native red breed to England, its heritage traces back to the wild pigs of Middle Age Europe. A slow growing breed, the Tamworth is active and hearty. Traditionally raised in the woods, the pig's long angular snout makes it an excellent forager — Tamworth pigs do not conform to industrial agriculture needs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBerkshire\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 1823 Kentucky\/ Illinois by way of Western England and outside London.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Sweet with depth of flavor, Berkshire pork is balanced and the most universally loved of all the Heritage breeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: David Newman and a consortium of 12 family farms in Kansas, Missouri and Iowa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: For years the Royal Family kept a large Berkshire herd at Windsor Castle — our Berkshire pigs are traceable back to these old English genetics. This would eventually become the most popular Heritage breed of pig in the United States because of its supreme marbling. Prized by the Japanese who imported it as \"Kurobuta\" pork, the Berkshire is recognized by 6 white spots at the tip of its feet, nose and tail.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDuroc\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Eastern United States and corn belt by way of the Guinea coast of Africa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Duroc meat is crisp and clean — known for great marbling and polished texture its taste is approachable on the palate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The Duroc is an older breed of American domestic pig that has become one of the most popular breeds because of its great taste and strong genetics, but pure Duroc is very hard to find. Durocs are a red pig strain developed around 1800 in New England and reputed to trace their ancestry back to the early red pigs of Africa. Durocs are especially valued by farmers for their hardiness and quick but thorough muscle growth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eCooking\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHow to Prepare\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTry these heritage cured hocks along with Benton's Bacon in \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/heritagefoods.com\/blogs\/in-celebration-of-feast\/robertas-split-pea-soup\" title=\"Roberta's Split Pea Soup\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eRoberta's Split Pea Soup Recipe\u003c\/a\u003e, courtesy of Roberta's:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIngredients:\u003cbr\u003e12⁄3 cups green split peas\u003cbr\u003e6 slices Benton’s bacon, diced\u003cbr\u003e1-2lb cured hock pieces\u003cbr\u003e1 large carrot, finely chopped\u003cbr\u003e1 medium onion, finely chopped\u003cbr\u003e1 can Miller High Life or any lager\u003cbr\u003eKosher salt\u003cbr\u003eFreshly ground black pepper\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePreparation:\u003cbr\u003eSet a large heavy-bottomed pot over medium-low heat and add the bacon. Sweat the bacon on low until it begins to soften, 5 to 10 minutes. Add the carrot and onion to the pot and cook until they soften and the onion is translucent, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the hocks with 3 quarts of water to the pot and increase heat until it boils. Turn it down and simmer for approximately 30 minutes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePut the split peas in a strainer and rinse them very thoroughly with cold water. To the pot, add the split peas, beer, and additional water as needed to fully cover the peas. Add the beer to the pot along with a couple of pinches of salt and a few grindings of black pepper. Bring to a gentle simmer, cover, and let cook on low for 2 hours, stirring regularly and adding water as needed to keep the peas covered. The consistency should be like a thick puree. If it’s not, continue cooking and stirring. It’s not possible to overcook this soup. When it’s done, remove the skin from the hocks, pull the hock meat from the bone, and add\u0026amp;nbsp;it back to the soup. Check the seasoning and serve.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[\/TABS]\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heritage Foods USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41632579223610,"sku":"254 (3-4lb total)","price":57.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/products\/hf_ecomm_cured_hocks.jpg?v=1602084557"},{"product_id":"bacon-subscription","title":"BACON OF THE MONTH CLUB","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBacon of the Month Club\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThree 12-16 oz packs of bacon per month\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eIf you share your recipient's email address with us in the Notes Box at checkout, we will contact them to let them know their gift will be shipping soon.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eYour first order will ship on the next available ship date or, let us know if there is a specific delivery date you'd prefer. If this is a gift, you can also include any gift note text you'd like us to send to your giftee in the Notes Box as you are checking out.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eReceive a different variety of Heritage breed bacon on the first of every month or on the date you choose\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWe will send you an email reminder before each shipment\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSubscriptions can be cancelled at any time \u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e100% \u003cspan\u003eantibiotic free, 100% Heritage breed\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRaised by independent family farmers\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen it comes to bacon, each great artisan has his own style, and a Heritage Bacon Subscription means that flavor comes to your door in a timely fashion without ever having to think twice. Each month experience the most mouth-watering, flavorful bacon from America’s greatest curemasters, both old and new, using product from our very own pasture-raised rare breeds.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBeing a Heritage subscriber is like joining the most wonderful club in the world. We love to forage for new treats, and to share everything we find! With each of our subscriptions you are guaranteed monthly deliveries of Heritage favorites. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eEach box includes details on the history of the breed and farm to share with family and friends!\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/279514159\" width=\"480\" height=\"270\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heritage Foods USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":12492192940074,"sku":"","price":69.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/products\/subscription671.jpg?v=1556302379"},{"product_id":"bacon-sampler","title":"BACON SAMPLER","description":"[TABS]\n\u003ch5\u003eProduct\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBacon Sampler\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eEleven heritage bacon styles from six American curemasters made from 100% heritage breed, pasture raised pork\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e12-16 oz packs each\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eEach of our bacon has its own particular style as each one is produced by a different master artisan. Try them all and SAVE!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eListed from heavy to light!\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBenton's,\u003c\/strong\u003e extra hickory smoked in Madisonville, TN.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBroadbent,\u003c\/strong\u003e a sweet honey bacon and one smoked with applewood in \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eKuttawa, KY.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e \u003cb\u003eSmoking Goose\u003c\/b\u003e, a sweet and addictive bacon, like candy, smoked in Indianapolis, IN.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFarmstead, \u003c\/strong\u003edry cured, mild and mellow from Long Meadow Ranch in Napa Valley, CA.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTempesta, \u003c\/strong\u003elightly cured with maple sugar and maple wood smoke by Tempesta Artisans in Chicago, IL.\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSignature Heritage Bacon,\u003c\/strong\u003e a satisfying and easy to eat maple sugar cure, available in \u003cstrong\u003eJowl, Peppered,\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eGround, Original, and Uncured.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHumanely raised on pasture\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e100% \u003cspan\u003eantibiotic free\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRaised by independent family farmers\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHeritage pork has more marbling resulting in more tender and  juicy meat\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003ciframe height=\"270\" width=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/279514159\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eFarms\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen Heritage Foods started in 2001 we set out to sell heritage Thanksgiving turkeys. For three years our turkey project grew, but naturally mating turkey is a seasonal food and two of the three farmers we worked with to raise birds were looking for a more regular source of income if they were to continue working with us. So we committed to selling pork, which can be produced year round, as long as the breeds came from historic genetic lines, just like the turkeys. Now, 24 years later, Heritage Foods still works with those two original farms who together introduced the word “heritage pork” to hundreds of America’s best restaurants from coast-to-coast as well as thousands of homes through the Heritage Foods retail website.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNewman Farm Berkshire Pork\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eMyrtle, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 2006 we got a handwritten letter from farmer Mark Newman asking us if Heritage Foods would ever consider selling his pasture raised old school Berkshire pigs. We said yes and a relationship grew that still continues today, now through his son David who has maintained the genetic line of Berkshires which can be traced back to the 17th and 18th century lines that came to these shores by way of the Berkshire region of England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom the air, Newman Farm Berkshire Pork, in south central Missouri, in the heart of the Ozarks, looks more like a pioneer settlement or a holiday camp than any sort of pig farm. Wooden huts are scattered across green fields like bungalows, where contented Berkshire pigs live their lives, happily on-pasture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePigs on Newman Farm are raised 100% on-pasture. The sows raise their piglets in huts that dot the fields of the farm. The babies live inside the huts until they are old enough to jump over the 6-inch wooden board that blocks the entrance. Once they make the great leap, they have an entire field to run on and they can mingle with the other piglets from the other huts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDavid Newman is both a farmer and scientist. “The farmer came first,” he laughs. His degrees are in animal science, and he holds a Ph.D in meat science and muscle biology, focused on meat quality. “As I became a scientist and got involved in education, I applied what I was learning to understand what we could do better.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBerkshires were the favorite breed of British royalty and were first introduced to the New World in 1823. Since then, Berkshire bloodlines have remained exceptionally pure and have become a mainstay favorite of chefs and diners, legendary for their exceptionally bright pork flavor and thick, delicious fat cap. And if anyone were to question their excellence, just ask David. “It’s not a matter of opinion!” he insists, passionately. “It’s a scientific fact, Berkshires are the most marbled hog on the market today.” David is a master breeder and works hard to keep the lines on his farm separate and he is always working to improve the Berkshire breed on his farm.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDavid lives on the farm with his wife, Kristin, his mom Rita, and his two kids. “I got my start through my family. My parents were hog farmers, but primarily in the commercial pig business. In the 1980s my parents raised pigs in confinement. There were some very challenging economic times for everyone in production, and we realized we were going to have to do something differently. Kristin came from a family farming background also and is a major part of the operations success today, working for the farm along with their team of employees.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“In the 1990s my parents decided they wanted to go back to their roots. We were going to have to be very large to be successful in the commercial sector, and my father decided we should focus on quality. We changed our genetic program and our nutrition program. We became Certified Humane®, and we chose to focus on Berkshire pigs for their quality.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDavid and his family are the future of American farming! They are young, energetic and very passionate about the future of agriculture. David and Kristin work with a team of farmers who raise their Berkshires to supply Heritage Foods and the national network of chefs who rely on his product for their menus.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLazy Red Wattle Ranch\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eLa Plata, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe met Larry and Madonna Sorell in 2002, as growers for Frank Reese and the Heritage Turkey Project. As their turkey flock grew in size, so did the Sorell’s importance to Heritage Foods.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen you see Red Wattle pork on a menu, what you are seeing is a five-state, twelve farm network founded by Larry and Madonna, dedicated to raising a storied breed that was once upon a time nearly extinct. Larry and Madonna are the heroes of this story, avatars of the heritage food movement, true believers who were destined to become the Guardians of the Red Wattle. They are proof positive of the ethos that when it comes to endangered livestock, “you have to eat them to save them.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the beginning, back in 2004 when the Heritage Foods wholesale business began selling pigs, a market for the Red Wattle pig was built on a handshake agreement with chefs Zach Allen and Mark Ladner, then at Lupa Restaurant in NYC. They recognized the high-quality and undiminished taste that came from a Red Wattle pig humanely raised on-pasture and antibiotic free, using traditional farming methods. The deal with Ladner, and the partnership with Larry and his Lazy Red Wattle Ranch, were part of the origins of Heritage Foods.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“We traveled 18,000 miles to get started,” Larry says matter-of-factly about a Heritage Foods Odyssey whose mission was to search out rare Red Wattle sows and collect a viable genetic lineage of this incredible pig whose American legacy goes back to 18th century New Orleans. \"When we began, we had two Red Wattle gilts and a boar, and we had to travel all over the United States to start a herd.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Now I’ve kinda retired from raising animals, but we have a dozen Amish growers working with us, and I pick up the hogs and pay for them, and then bring them to the processor, Paradise Locker. I drive a tractor trailer and go around picking up three hundred pounders, fifty to eighty head a week. We have farms in Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa... that’s a lot of traveling. We may have four or five pick-ups every week. You wear out a truck pretty fast.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLarry, now over eighty, does less of the driving, but he still keeps all the relationships going, which isn’t easy considering the Amish don’t have phones inside their homes! “I’ll have to quit sometime but right now it’s going pretty good. The driving is easy. The hard job is you gotta keep Amish families happy, picking up their hogs, coordinating, monitoring the size of the animals, and making sure we have the right amount — each week we round up 50 to 100 pigs. And we’ve been doing it for almost 20 years now.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThanks to Larry and Madonna’s work, the Red Wattle was upgraded to Threatened status from Critical on The Livestock Conservancy’s watch list, a great achievement for the cause of biodiversity, one of the most important issues of our time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMetzger Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eSeneca, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug Metzger's Tamworth and Berkshire genetics are now being shepherded by Robert Funk. Doug sadly passed away in 2023. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug Metzger was truly at the ground zero of our business and the heritage food movement. He was the magic man that first introduced us to our processor Paradise Locker Meats, with whom we have worked and grown ever since and he worked together with Frank Reese raising heritage turkeys from about 2002 to 2013.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt 83-years-old, Doug raises purebred, certified Berkshire and Tamworth pigs on his 1,500 acre farm in Seneca, Kansas, with his wife Betty.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn an era of specialization Doug is an anomaly. Doug is famous for adapting to any moment. In 2001 he took our call and agreed to raise heritage turkeys for us with Frank because he believed that the growing food movement would appreciate the flavor of the birds his grandfather raised. As demand grew for quality meat, Doug got into heritage pigs and transitioned his commodity farm to a pastured farm and haven for the rare Tamworth breed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug has been farming since 1951. As a kid he raised chickens but gave them up when he got into turkeys. As he got older, he broke into the milk cattle game. Then he tried sheep, but he says he couldn’t get them to breed right. He also raised Aylesbury ducks — a rare heritage breed. Over the years the acres on his sprawling farm have been used to grow wheat, corn, oats, barley, sorghum, alfalfa, and rye. He even grew flax one year because he heard it was supposed to help the immune system of the cattle, which he thought it did. “It certainly made their coats look wonderful,” Doug says.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eToday farmers are incentivized to grow monocrops of corn and soybean — “that’s all they want us to grow,” Doug explains, “and farmers haul their crops to town instead of using it for something on their own farm.” Doug remembers fondly the days when a diversified farm would grow corn and turn it into whiskey, or when soybeans were grown for the purpose of feeding milk cattle — as Doug did on his farm. “Keep your grain,” Doug insists, “and use it to grow a truly sustainable farm.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug was never one to use chemicals to grow food. He believes any talk of sustainability is not real when you raise only one crop or when you use chemicals to do it. “My buddy and I could clear 100 acres of weeds in a day if we worked through the night, and we did not need any additives to do it. All those chemicals are part of the reason there are so many cancers around, if you ask me.” Doug has amassed generations of farming secrets having grown so many foods naturally, often calling upon experiences from decades ago to solve a problem that presents itself today.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug comes from a truly great American farming family — Life Magazine once wrote that Doug’s father, who lived to be 104, had more living descendants than any American – many of them farmers. His is part of the story of immigrants who came to the New World and made good through old-fashioned values, tradition, and hard work.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“We’re here today to save these breeds,” says Doug, who is as down-home as the farm he still works on as he approaches his 84th birthday. “Save the breeds and make a little money. We got a lot of things going on, we have a lot of land. But it’s getting hard to keep up with it all… I need more young people! When I was young, we raised turkeys in spring and sold ‘em all by Christmas. We milked cattle all year round. I want to keep working — my dad was helping me when he was 84!”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis conversational style always brings insight and interesting thoughts to bear. We hope Doug and Betty work with us for many years to come and that their beliefs of diversified farming continue. Today, his farm is supported through the work of his daughter Marilyn and her husband Stan, and their children Simon and Joel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGood Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eOlsburg, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGood Farms' Old Spot, Duroc, and Tamworth genetics are now being shepherded by Dustin and Maria Torneden since Craig and his wife Amy retired in 2024. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe met the Goods through a connection at Kansas State University where Craig’s father was a distinguished professor. Craig spent his life in agriculture growing up in the Flint Hills of Kansas, some of the best agricultural land in the world, perfectly adapted to free ranging livestock, which feed on the perennial grasses that grow there naturally.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Good’s hog operation began in earnest in 1981, and they have continuously raised hogs there for the past 37 years. Their Duroc herd started with a few sows from Craig’s former employer who started raising Duroc pigs in the 1940s — with females obtained through Sears and Roebucks! As Craig explains, “I took a job in 1975 working with an outstanding stockman who raised purebred Duroc pigs here in Kansas. His name was Fred Germann, and he was one of the oldest and best Duroc breeders in the U.S. Things sure have changed since then, but the Durocs that we now raise have ancestry that goes back to those Sears females, approximately 85 years ago.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDuroc is an American breed that was used as the foundational genetics for the entire pig industry in the United States because of their good growth rate, body type, and mothering instincts. But big agriculture continued to overbreed the Duroc for certain traits related to higher profits and they crossed it with other pig breeds. Soon the industrial pig became utterly unrecognizable, and it became almost impossible to tell that it had originally derived from Duroc genetics.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCraig, on the other hand, continued to breed his Durocs to improve their genetics with traits particular to Craig’s preferences, while staying true to the original healthy and hearty breed. Craig always put a lot of thought into which sows he would breed with which boars as he worked to improve meat quality and edibility, as opposed to faster growth. He also selected pigs for the demeanor of the animals, who he treats like members of his own family. Craig bred for strong animals and sought out leaner carcasses (although the Duroc is supremely marbled). He also bred for skeletal size – Craig likes good length of body, for better loin eye size and fat distribution.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOver the years, the Durocs on Good Farm became his own breed, even though they looked like and acted like true old school Durocs. The Goods continue to bring in new lines to avoid inbreeding, but they work with the lines to continue improving their particular version of the Duroc.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCraig and Amy also raise Gloucestershire Old Spots and Tamworths, both considered rare breeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCraig's father, Don, was a meat scientist and would eventually have a division of Kansas State University named after him. Together they raised purebred Angus cattle and crops on the farm. “I have had a passion for raising pigs,” says Craig, since taking pigs on as a 4-H project in 1965. Craig studied Animal Science at Kansas State University. “Amy and I were married in 1976 and 5 years later we made the decision to move to the farm that my father and mother had owned since 1961, near Olsburg, Kansas, on 1000 acres of Flint Hills pasture.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eBreed\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRed Wattle\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 18th Century Louisiana by way of New Caledonia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a cross between pork and beef, Red Wattle is floral and robust, concentrated and bold.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: A consortium of 18 Amish families in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: French colonists brought these hogs to New Orleans as a favored meat breed. The Red Wattle eventually would populate the forests of Texas where they were rounded up and brought to the great slaughterhouses of Chicago. Recognized by their signature wattles that hang from the jowl, the Red Wattle resembles Kunekune pigs of New Zealand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGloucestershire Old Spots\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 19th Century Indiana by way of Berkeley Valley of Gloucestershire, England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a charcuterie pig with a delicious milky fat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside of Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: Descended from the native old English pigs of western England, this pig was mentioned as early as the 1780's. The spotted pig forages on fallen orchard fruits and other farm by products. Despite their signature oversized floppy ears which hang over their eyes, this gentle pig is hearty and self-reliant.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTamworth\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 2,500 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Rossville, Illinois by way of Staffordshire, England by way of Ireland.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: A premiere bacon producer, Tamworth meat is fruity, earthy, clean, mineral, root, sweet and tender.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Doug Metzger and Craig and Amy Good in Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The only native red breed to England, its heritage traces back to the wild pigs of Middle Age Europe. A slow growing breed, the Tamworth is active and hearty. Traditionally raised in the woods, the pig's long angular snout makes it an excellent forager — Tamworth pigs do not conform to industrial agriculture needs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBerkshire\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 1823 Kentucky\/ Illinois by way of Western England and outside London.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Sweet with depth of flavor, Berkshire pork is balanced and the most universally loved of all the Heritage breeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: David Newman and a consortium of 12 family farms in Kansas, Missouri and Iowa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: For years the Royal Family kept a large Berkshire herd at Windsor Castle — our Berkshire pigs are traceable back to these old English genetics. This would eventually become the most popular Heritage breed of pig in the United States because of its supreme marbling. Prized by the Japanese who imported it as \"Kurobuta\" pork, the Berkshire is recognized by 6 white spots at the tip of its feet, nose and tail.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDuroc\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Eastern United States and corn belt by way of the Guinea coast of Africa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Duroc meat is crisp and clean — known for great marbling and polished texture its taste is approachable on the palate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The Duroc is an older breed of American domestic pig that has become one of the most popular breeds because of its great taste and strong genetics, but pure Duroc is very hard to find. Durocs are a red pig strain developed around 1800 in New England and reputed to trace their ancestry back to the early red pigs of Africa. Durocs are especially valued by farmers for their hardiness and quick but thorough muscle growth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eCooking\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHow to Prepare\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the oven: preheat oven to 325°F. Place bacon on a foil lined sheet tray and bake, rotating the tray every 10 minutes until you reach the desired crispiness.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn the stovetop: heat skillet over medium-high heat, almost to smoking. No oil is needed! Place bacon strips, one at a time, into the skillet. We recommend flipping once and using a bacon press to prevent curling. When you reach the desired crispiness, transfer bacon onto a plate lined with paper towels and pour off fat from the pan after each round.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[\/TABS]\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heritage Foods USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":12535644258346,"sku":"(1pk each 11 styles) SIG, Pepper, Broadbent honey, Broadbent applewood, Jowl, Farmstead, Benton's, Tempesta, Uncured, smoking goose, ground bacon","price":220.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/files\/new_bacon_sampler_shopify.jpg?v=1783089977"},{"product_id":"broadbent-bacon","title":"BROADBENT APPLEWOOD SMOKED HERITAGE BACON","description":"[TABS]\n\u003ch5\u003eProduct\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBroadbent Applewood \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSmoked Heritage Bacon\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThree 14 oz packs, sliced\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eBerkshire\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA Kentucky Institution, Broadbent produces some of the most respected bacon in the US. It can be found on menus throughout the south and at many fine dining establishments. In 2009, Broadbent's celebrated 100 years of making old-fashioned country ham, bacon, and sausage. We are proud to ship them our 100% heritage pork bellies which they cure in their signature style. This is a lighter, sweeter bacon, smoked with applewood.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe secret to great pork is to start off with great ingredients, and nothing beats our storied Heritage breeds —  Berkshire, Red Wattle, Duroc, Gloucestershire Old Spot, and Tamworth. Each breed comes from a different culinary tradition, and boasts a distinctive, nuanced flavor.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cem\u003eIngredients: pork, salt, sugar, sodium nitrite.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHumanely raised on pasture \u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e100% \u003cspan\u003eantibiotic-free\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRaised by independent family farmers\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHeritage pork has more marbling resulting in more tender and  juicy meat\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ciframe height=\"270\" width=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/279514159\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eArtisan\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe story of Broadbent is one of preservation. Preservation that goes beyond the salt and smoke used on the heritage pork that hangs in Kuttawa. As regional foods and traditions continue to vanish, Broadbent, with their delicious line of products, is working to keep a piece of Kentucky’s culinary history alive, now using exclusively Lazy Red Wattle Ranch and Newman Berkshire Farm pork.  \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFounded in 1909 by Smith Broadbent, the company grew with the help of his sons, eventually  moving the business into a USDA facility in 1965. In 1999 the Broadbents sold the company to Ronny and Beth Drennan. Under their direction, Broadbent’s country hams have been named Grand Champion 19 times at the Kentucky State Fair — judged on their aroma, shape, color, and ratio of lean-to-fat. In addition they raised over 33 million dollars for charity by auctioning their award winning hams. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 2024, The Drennans were ready to retire and looking to pass the torch. As the story goes, buyers dressed in suits made generous offers, but none of them felt quite right. That is, until Josh Poling, Kentucky chef and restauranteur made the two hour drive from Bowling Green to Kuttawa. Still wearing his kitchen shoes, the Drennans saw a young man ready to continue the work of preserving hams and a Kentucky tradition. \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eFarms\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen Heritage Foods started in 2001 we set out to sell heritage Thanksgiving turkeys. For three years our turkey project grew, but naturally mating turkey is a seasonal food and two of the three farmers we worked with to raise birds were looking for a more regular source of income if they were to continue working with us. So we committed to selling pork, which can be produced year round, as long as the breeds came from historic genetic lines, just like the turkeys. Now, 24 years later, Heritage Foods still works with those two original farms who together introduced the word “heritage pork” to hundreds of America’s best restaurants from coast-to-coast as well as thousands of homes through the Heritage Foods retail website.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNewman Farm Berkshire Pork\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eMyrtle, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn 2006 we got a handwritten letter from farmer Mark Newman asking us if Heritage Foods would ever consider selling his pasture raised old school Berkshire pigs. We said yes and a relationship grew that still continues today, now through his son David who has maintained the genetic line of Berkshires which can be traced back to the 17th and 18th century lines that came to these shores by way of the Berkshire region of England.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFrom the air, Newman Farm Berkshire Pork, in south central Missouri, in the heart of the Ozarks, looks more like a pioneer settlement or a holiday camp than any sort of pig farm. Wooden huts are scattered across green fields like bungalows, where contented Berkshire pigs live their lives, happily on-pasture.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePigs on Newman Farm are raised 100% on-pasture. The sows raise their piglets in huts that dot the fields of the farm. The babies live inside the huts until they are old enough to jump over the 6-inch wooden board that blocks the entrance. Once they make the great leap, they have an entire field to run on and they can mingle with the other piglets from the other huts.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid Newman is both a farmer and scientist. “The farmer came first,” he laughs. His degrees are in animal science, and he holds a Ph.D in meat science and muscle biology, focused on meat quality. “As I became a scientist and got involved in education, I applied what I was learning to understand what we could do better.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBerkshires were the favorite breed of British royalty and were first introduced to the New World in 1823. Since then, Berkshire bloodlines have remained exceptionally pure and have become a mainstay favorite of chefs and diners, legendary for their exceptionally bright pork flavor and thick, delicious fat cap. And if anyone were to question their excellence, just ask David. “It’s not a matter of opinion!” he insists, passionately. “It’s a scientific fact, Berkshires are the most marbled hog on the market today.” David is a master breeder and works hard to keep the lines on his farm separate and he is always working to improve the Berkshire breed on his farm.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid lives on the farm with his wife, Kristin, his mom Rita, and his two kids. “I got my start through my family. My parents were hog farmers, but primarily in the commercial pig business. In the 1980s my parents raised pigs in confinement. There were some very challenging economic times for everyone in production, and we realized we were going to have to do something differently. Kristin came from a family farming background also and is a major part of the operations success today, working for the farm along with their team of employees.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“In the 1990s my parents decided they wanted to go back to their roots. We were going to have to be very large to be successful in the commercial sector, and my father decided we should focus on quality. We changed our genetic program and our nutrition program. We became Certified Humane®, and we chose to focus on Berkshire pigs for their quality.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid and his family are the future of American farming! They are young, energetic and very passionate about the future of agriculture. David and Kristin work with a team of farmers who raise their Berkshires to supply Heritage Foods and the national network of chefs who rely on his product for their menus.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLazy Red Wattle Ranch\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eLa Plata, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWe met Larry and Madonna Sorell in 2002, as growers for Frank Reese and the Heritage Turkey Project. As their turkey flock grew in size, so did the Sorell’s importance to Heritage Foods.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen you see Red Wattle pork on a menu, what you are seeing is a five-state, twelve farm network founded by Larry and Madonna, dedicated to raising a storied breed that was once upon a time nearly extinct. Larry and Madonna are the heroes of this story, avatars of the heritage food movement, true believers who were destined to become the Guardians of the Red Wattle. They are proof positive of the ethos that when it comes to endangered livestock, “you have to eat them to save them.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn the beginning, back in 2004 when the Heritage Foods wholesale business began selling pigs, a market for the Red Wattle pig was built on a handshake agreement with chefs Zach Allen and Mark Ladner, then at Lupa Restaurant in NYC. They recognized the high-quality and undiminished taste that came from a Red Wattle pig humanely raised on-pasture and antibiotic free, using traditional farming methods. The deal with Ladner, and the partnership with Larry and his Lazy Red Wattle Ranch, were part of the origins of Heritage Foods.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“We traveled 18,000 miles to get started,” Larry says matter-of-factly about a Heritage Foods Odyssey whose mission was to search out rare Red Wattle sows and collect a viable genetic lineage of this incredible pig whose American legacy goes back to 18th century New Orleans. \"When we began, we had two Red Wattle gilts and a boar, and we had to travel all over the United States to start a herd.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Now I’ve kinda retired from raising animals, but we have a dozen Amish growers working with us, and I pick up the hogs and pay for them, and then bring them to the processor, Paradise Locker. I drive a tractor trailer and go around picking up three hundred pounders, fifty to eighty head a week. We have farms in Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa... that’s a lot of traveling. We may have four or five pick-ups every week. You wear out a truck pretty fast.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLarry, now over eighty, does less of the driving, but he still keeps all the relationships going, which isn’t easy considering the Amish don’t have phones inside their homes! “I’ll have to quit sometime but right now it’s going pretty good. The driving is easy. The hard job is you gotta keep Amish families happy, picking up their hogs, coordinating, monitoring the size of the animals, and making sure we have the right amount — each week we round up 50 to 100 pigs. And we’ve been doing it for almost 20 years now.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThanks to Larry and Madonna’s work, the Red Wattle was upgraded to Threatened status from Critical on The Livestock Conservancy’s watch list, a great achievement for the cause of biodiversity, one of the most important issues of our time.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMetzger Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eSeneca, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug Metzger's Tamworth and Berkshire genetics are now being shepherded by Robert Funk. Doug sadly passed away in 2023. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug Metzger was truly at the ground zero of our business and the heritage food movement. He was the magic man that first introduced us to our processor Paradise Locker Meats, with whom we have worked and grown ever since and he worked together with Frank Reese raising heritage turkeys from about 2002 to 2013.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAt 83-years-old, Doug raises purebred, certified Berkshire and Tamworth pigs on his 1,500 acre farm in Seneca, Kansas, with his wife Betty.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn an era of specialization Doug is an anomaly. Doug is famous for adapting to any moment. In 2001 he took our call and agreed to raise heritage turkeys for us with Frank because he believed that the growing food movement would appreciate the flavor of the birds his grandfather raised. As demand grew for quality meat, Doug got into heritage pigs and transitioned his commodity farm to a pastured farm and haven for the rare Tamworth breed.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug has been farming since 1951. As a kid he raised chickens but gave them up when he got into turkeys. As he got older, he broke into the milk cattle game. Then he tried sheep, but he says he couldn’t get them to breed right. He also raised Aylesbury ducks — a rare heritage breed. Over the years the acres on his sprawling farm have been used to grow wheat, corn, oats, barley, sorghum, alfalfa, and rye. He even grew flax one year because he heard it was supposed to help the immune system of the cattle, which he thought it did. “It certainly made their coats look wonderful,” Doug says.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eToday farmers are incentivized to grow monocrops of corn and soybean — “that’s all they want us to grow,” Doug explains, “and farmers haul their crops to town instead of using it for something on their own farm.” Doug remembers fondly the days when a diversified farm would grow corn and turn it into whiskey, or when soybeans were grown for the purpose of feeding milk cattle — as Doug did on his farm. “Keep your grain,” Doug insists, “and use it to grow a truly sustainable farm.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug was never one to use chemicals to grow food. He believes any talk of sustainability is not real when you raise only one crop or when you use chemicals to do it. “My buddy and I could clear 100 acres of weeds in a day if we worked through the night, and we did not need any additives to do it. All those chemicals are part of the reason there are so many cancers around, if you ask me.” Doug has amassed generations of farming secrets having grown so many foods naturally, often calling upon experiences from decades ago to solve a problem that presents itself today.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug comes from a truly great American farming family — Life Magazine once wrote that Doug’s father, who lived to be 104, had more living descendants than any American – many of them farmers. His is part of the story of immigrants who came to the New World and made good through old-fashioned values, tradition, and hard work.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“We’re here today to save these breeds,” says Doug, who is as down-home as the farm he still works on as he approaches his 84th birthday. “Save the breeds and make a little money. We got a lot of things going on, we have a lot of land. But it’s getting hard to keep up with it all… I need more young people! When I was young, we raised turkeys in spring and sold ‘em all by Christmas. We milked cattle all year round. I want to keep working — my dad was helping me when he was 84!”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHis conversational style always brings insight and interesting thoughts to bear. We hope Doug and Betty work with us for many years to come and that their beliefs of diversified farming continue. Today, his farm is supported through the work of his daughter Marilyn and her husband Stan, and their children Simon and Joel.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGood Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eOlsburg, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eGood Farms' Old Spot, Duroc, and Tamworth genetics are now being shepherded by Dustin and Maria Torneden since Craig and his wife Amy retired in 2024. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWe met the Goods through a connection at Kansas State University where Craig’s father was a distinguished professor. Craig spent his life in agriculture growing up in the Flint Hills of Kansas, some of the best agricultural land in the world, perfectly adapted to free ranging livestock, which feed on the perennial grasses that grow there naturally.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Good’s hog operation began in earnest in 1981, and they have continuously raised hogs there for the past 37 years. Their Duroc herd started with a few sows from Craig’s former employer who started raising Duroc pigs in the 1940s — with females obtained through Sears and Roebucks! As Craig explains, “I took a job in 1975 working with an outstanding stockman who raised purebred Duroc pigs here in Kansas. His name was Fred Germann, and he was one of the oldest and best Duroc breeders in the U.S. Things sure have changed since then, but the Durocs that we now raise have ancestry that goes back to those Sears females, approximately 85 years ago.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDuroc is an American breed that was used as the foundational genetics for the entire pig industry in the United States because of their good growth rate, body type, and mothering instincts. But big agriculture continued to overbreed the Duroc for certain traits related to higher profits and they crossed it with other pig breeds. Soon the industrial pig became utterly unrecognizable, and it became almost impossible to tell that it had originally derived from Duroc genetics.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig, on the other hand, continued to breed his Durocs to improve their genetics with traits particular to Craig’s preferences, while staying true to the original healthy and hearty breed. Craig always put a lot of thought into which sows he would breed with which boars as he worked to improve meat quality and edibility, as opposed to faster growth. He also selected pigs for the demeanor of the animals, who he treats like members of his own family. Craig bred for strong animals and sought out leaner carcasses (although the Duroc is supremely marbled). He also bred for skeletal size – Craig likes good length of body, for better loin eye size and fat distribution.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOver the years, the Durocs on Good Farm became his own breed, even though they looked like and acted like true old school Durocs. The Goods continue to bring in new lines to avoid inbreeding, but they work with the lines to continue improving their particular version of the Duroc.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig and Amy also raise Gloucestershire Old Spots and Tamworths, both considered rare breeds.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig's father, Don, was a meat scientist and would eventually have a division of Kansas State University named after him. Together they raised purebred Angus cattle and crops on the farm. “I have had a passion for raising pigs,” says Craig, since taking pigs on as a 4-H project in 1965. Craig studied Animal Science at Kansas State University. “Amy and I were married in 1976 and 5 years later we made the decision to move to the farm that my father and mother had owned since 1961, near Olsburg, Kansas, on 1000 acres of Flint Hills pasture.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eBreed\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRed Wattle\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 18th Century Louisiana by way of New Caledonia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a cross between pork and beef, Red Wattle is floral and robust, concentrated and bold.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: A consortium of 18 Amish families in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: French colonists brought these hogs to New Orleans as a favored meat breed. The Red Wattle eventually would populate the forests of Texas where they were rounded up and brought to the great slaughterhouses of Chicago. Recognized by their signature wattles that hang from the jowl, the Red Wattle resembles Kunekune pigs of New Zealand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGloucestershire Old Spots\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 19th Century Indiana by way of Berkeley Valley of Gloucestershire, England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a charcuterie pig with a delicious milky fat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside of Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: Descended from the native old English pigs of western England, this pig was mentioned as early as the 1780's. The spotted pig forages on fallen orchard fruits and other farm by products. Despite their signature oversized floppy ears which hang over their eyes, this gentle pig is hearty and self-reliant.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTamworth\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 2,500 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Rossville, Illinois by way of Staffordshire, England by way of Ireland.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: A premiere bacon producer, Tamworth meat is fruity, earthy, clean, mineral, root, sweet and tender.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Doug Metzger and Craig and Amy Good in Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The only native red breed to England, its heritage traces back to the wild pigs of Middle Age Europe. A slow growing breed, the Tamworth is active and hearty. Traditionally raised in the woods, the pig's long angular snout makes it an excellent forager — Tamworth pigs do not conform to industrial agriculture needs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBerkshire\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 1823 Kentucky\/ Illinois by way of Western England and outside London.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Sweet with depth of flavor, Berkshire pork is balanced and the most universally loved of all the Heritage breeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: David Newman and a consortium of 12 family farms in Kansas, Missouri and Iowa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: For years the Royal Family kept a large Berkshire herd at Windsor Castle — our Berkshire pigs are traceable back to these old English genetics. This would eventually become the most popular Heritage breed of pig in the United States because of its supreme marbling. Prized by the Japanese who imported it as \"Kurobuta\" pork, the Berkshire is recognized by 6 white spots at the tip of its feet, nose and tail.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDuroc\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Eastern United States and corn belt by way of the Guinea coast of Africa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Duroc meat is crisp and clean — known for great marbling and polished texture its taste is approachable on the palate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The Duroc is an older breed of American domestic pig that has become one of the most popular breeds because of its great taste and strong genetics, but pure Duroc is very hard to find. Durocs are a red pig strain developed around 1800 in New England and reputed to trace their ancestry back to the early red pigs of Africa. Durocs are especially valued by farmers for their hardiness and quick but thorough muscle growth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[\/TABS]\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heritage Foods USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":12535649697834,"sku":"90 (3pk) Broadbent applewood","price":72.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/products\/broadbent670.jpg?v=1744829917"},{"product_id":"fatted-calf-bacon-three-12oz-packs-sliced-brown-sugar-sea-salt-cayenne","title":"FATTED CALF HERITAGE BACON","description":"[TABS]\n\u003ch5\u003eProduct\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFatted Calf Heritage Bacon\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThree 12 oz packs, sliced\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eBerkshire\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is old-fashioned bacon at its very finest, beginning with superior Heritage pigs, and then dry cured with an old-world salt-box method — including brown sugar, sea salt, and a bit of cayenne. It’s not too spicy and very well-balanced, and it is smoked over four kinds of wood, two fruit woods and two hardwoods — cherry, apple, mesquite and alderwood — to further balance the smoky flavor. The cayenne keeps the sweet and salty at bay, accentuating the rich flavor of the pork belly. This is a true milestone in the art of bacon and only available at Heritage Foods.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e The secret to great pork is to start off with great ingredients, and nothing beats our storied Heritage breeds —  Berkshire, Red Wattle, Duroc, Gloucestershire Old Spot, Large Black, and Tamworth. Each breed comes from a different culinary tradition, and boasts a distinctive, nuanced flavor.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eIngredients: p\u003cspan\u003eork cured with brown sugar, salt, spices, and sodium nitrite.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHumanely raised on pasture \u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e100% \u003cspan\u003eantibiotic-free\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRaised by independent family farmers\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHeritage pork has more marbling resulting in more tender and juicy meat\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003ciframe height=\"270\" width=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/279514159\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eArtisan\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Fatted Calf was one of Heritage Foods’ first customers on the West Coast. We met them back in 2004 when Patrick Martins was traveling, and they talked about responsible, traditional, humane farming, and reaching out to the community of those passionate about sustainable agriculture and delicious food. “It was an East Bay Connection,” recalls Taylor. “Alice Waters may have introduced us, and we immediately knew the pigs were better than anything we could find. At the time we were still doing just one farmer’s market every week, and then we were doing a few, and it just blew up...”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eFarms\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen Heritage Foods started in 2001 we set out to sell heritage Thanksgiving turkeys. For three years our turkey project grew, but naturally mating turkey is a seasonal food and two of the three farmers we worked with to raise birds were looking for a more regular source of income if they were to continue working with us. So we committed to selling pork, which can be produced year round, as long as the breeds came from historic genetic lines, just like the turkeys. Now, 24 years later, Heritage Foods still works with those two original farms who together introduced the word “heritage pork” to hundreds of America’s best restaurants from coast-to-coast as well as thousands of homes through the Heritage Foods retail website.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNewman Farm Berkshire Pork\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eMyrtle, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn 2006 we got a handwritten letter from farmer Mark Newman asking us if Heritage Foods would ever consider selling his pasture raised old school Berkshire pigs. We said yes and a relationship grew that still continues today, now through his son David who has maintained the genetic line of Berkshires which can be traced back to the 17th and 18th century lines that came to these shores by way of the Berkshire region of England.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFrom the air, Newman Farm Berkshire Pork, in south central Missouri, in the heart of the Ozarks, looks more like a pioneer settlement or a holiday camp than any sort of pig farm. Wooden huts are scattered across green fields like bungalows, where contented Berkshire pigs live their lives, happily on-pasture.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePigs on Newman Farm are raised 100% on-pasture. The sows raise their piglets in huts that dot the fields of the farm. The babies live inside the huts until they are old enough to jump over the 6-inch wooden board that blocks the entrance. Once they make the great leap, they have an entire field to run on and they can mingle with the other piglets from the other huts.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid Newman is both a farmer and scientist. “The farmer came first,” he laughs. His degrees are in animal science, and he holds a Ph.D in meat science and muscle biology, focused on meat quality. “As I became a scientist and got involved in education, I applied what I was learning to understand what we could do better.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBerkshires were the favorite breed of British royalty and were first introduced to the New World in 1823. Since then, Berkshire bloodlines have remained exceptionally pure and have become a mainstay favorite of chefs and diners, legendary for their exceptionally bright pork flavor and thick, delicious fat cap. And if anyone were to question their excellence, just ask David. “It’s not a matter of opinion!” he insists, passionately. “It’s a scientific fact, Berkshires are the most marbled hog on the market today.” David is a master breeder and works hard to keep the lines on his farm separate and he is always working to improve the Berkshire breed on his farm.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid lives on the farm with his wife, Kristin, his mom Rita, and his two kids. “I got my start through my family. My parents were hog farmers, but primarily in the commercial pig business. In the 1980s my parents raised pigs in confinement. There were some very challenging economic times for everyone in production, and we realized we were going to have to do something differently. Kristin came from a family farming background also and is a major part of the operations success today, working for the farm along with their team of employees.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“In the 1990s my parents decided they wanted to go back to their roots. We were going to have to be very large to be successful in the commercial sector, and my father decided we should focus on quality. We changed our genetic program and our nutrition program. We became Certified Humane®, and we chose to focus on Berkshire pigs for their quality.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid and his family are the future of American farming! They are young, energetic and very passionate about the future of agriculture. David and Kristin work with a team of farmers who raise their Berkshires to supply Heritage Foods and the national network of chefs who rely on his product for their menus.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLazy Red Wattle Ranch\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eLa Plata, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWe met Larry and Madonna Sorell in 2002, as growers for Frank Reese and the Heritage Turkey Project. As their turkey flock grew in size, so did the Sorell’s importance to Heritage Foods.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen you see Red Wattle pork on a menu, what you are seeing is a five-state, twelve farm network founded by Larry and Madonna, dedicated to raising a storied breed that was once upon a time nearly extinct. Larry and Madonna are the heroes of this story, avatars of the heritage food movement, true believers who were destined to become the Guardians of the Red Wattle. They are proof positive of the ethos that when it comes to endangered livestock, “you have to eat them to save them.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn the beginning, back in 2004 when the Heritage Foods wholesale business began selling pigs, a market for the Red Wattle pig was built on a handshake agreement with chefs Zach Allen and Mark Ladner, then at Lupa Restaurant in NYC. They recognized the high-quality and undiminished taste that came from a Red Wattle pig humanely raised on-pasture and antibiotic free, using traditional farming methods. The deal with Ladner, and the partnership with Larry and his Lazy Red Wattle Ranch, were part of the origins of Heritage Foods.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“We traveled 18,000 miles to get started,” Larry says matter-of-factly about a Heritage Foods Odyssey whose mission was to search out rare Red Wattle sows and collect a viable genetic lineage of this incredible pig whose American legacy goes back to 18th century New Orleans. \"When we began, we had two Red Wattle gilts and a boar, and we had to travel all over the United States to start a herd.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Now I’ve kinda retired from raising animals, but we have a dozen Amish growers working with us, and I pick up the hogs and pay for them, and then bring them to the processor, Paradise Locker. I drive a tractor trailer and go around picking up three hundred pounders, fifty to eighty head a week. We have farms in Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa... that’s a lot of traveling. We may have four or five pick-ups every week. You wear out a truck pretty fast.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLarry, now over eighty, does less of the driving, but he still keeps all the relationships going, which isn’t easy considering the Amish don’t have phones inside their homes! “I’ll have to quit sometime but right now it’s going pretty good. The driving is easy. The hard job is you gotta keep Amish families happy, picking up their hogs, coordinating, monitoring the size of the animals, and making sure we have the right amount — each week we round up 50 to 100 pigs. And we’ve been doing it for almost 20 years now.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThanks to Larry and Madonna’s work, the Red Wattle was upgraded to Threatened status from Critical on The Livestock Conservancy’s watch list, a great achievement for the cause of biodiversity, one of the most important issues of our time.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMetzger Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eSeneca, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug Metzger's Tamworth and Berkshire genetics are now being shepherded by Robert Funk. Doug sadly passed away in 2023. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug Metzger was truly at the ground zero of our business and the heritage food movement. He was the magic man that first introduced us to our processor Paradise Locker Meats, with whom we have worked and grown ever since and he worked together with Frank Reese raising heritage turkeys from about 2002 to 2013.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAt 83-years-old, Doug raises purebred, certified Berkshire and Tamworth pigs on his 1,500 acre farm in Seneca, Kansas, with his wife Betty.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn an era of specialization Doug is an anomaly. Doug is famous for adapting to any moment. In 2001 he took our call and agreed to raise heritage turkeys for us with Frank because he believed that the growing food movement would appreciate the flavor of the birds his grandfather raised. As demand grew for quality meat, Doug got into heritage pigs and transitioned his commodity farm to a pastured farm and haven for the rare Tamworth breed.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug has been farming since 1951. As a kid he raised chickens but gave them up when he got into turkeys. As he got older, he broke into the milk cattle game. Then he tried sheep, but he says he couldn’t get them to breed right. He also raised Aylesbury ducks — a rare heritage breed. Over the years the acres on his sprawling farm have been used to grow wheat, corn, oats, barley, sorghum, alfalfa, and rye. He even grew flax one year because he heard it was supposed to help the immune system of the cattle, which he thought it did. “It certainly made their coats look wonderful,” Doug says.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eToday farmers are incentivized to grow monocrops of corn and soybean — “that’s all they want us to grow,” Doug explains, “and farmers haul their crops to town instead of using it for something on their own farm.” Doug remembers fondly the days when a diversified farm would grow corn and turn it into whiskey, or when soybeans were grown for the purpose of feeding milk cattle — as Doug did on his farm. “Keep your grain,” Doug insists, “and use it to grow a truly sustainable farm.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug was never one to use chemicals to grow food. He believes any talk of sustainability is not real when you raise only one crop or when you use chemicals to do it. “My buddy and I could clear 100 acres of weeds in a day if we worked through the night, and we did not need any additives to do it. All those chemicals are part of the reason there are so many cancers around, if you ask me.” Doug has amassed generations of farming secrets having grown so many foods naturally, often calling upon experiences from decades ago to solve a problem that presents itself today.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug comes from a truly great American farming family — Life Magazine once wrote that Doug’s father, who lived to be 104, had more living descendants than any American – many of them farmers. His is part of the story of immigrants who came to the New World and made good through old-fashioned values, tradition, and hard work.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“We’re here today to save these breeds,” says Doug, who is as down-home as the farm he still works on as he approaches his 84th birthday. “Save the breeds and make a little money. We got a lot of things going on, we have a lot of land. But it’s getting hard to keep up with it all… I need more young people! When I was young, we raised turkeys in spring and sold ‘em all by Christmas. We milked cattle all year round. I want to keep working — my dad was helping me when he was 84!”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHis conversational style always brings insight and interesting thoughts to bear. We hope Doug and Betty work with us for many years to come and that their beliefs of diversified farming continue. Today, his farm is supported through the work of his daughter Marilyn and her husband Stan, and their children Simon and Joel.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGood Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eOlsburg, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eGood Farms' Old Spot, Duroc, and Tamworth genetics are now being shepherded by Dustin and Maria Torneden since Craig and his wife Amy retired in 2024. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWe met the Goods through a connection at Kansas State University where Craig’s father was a distinguished professor. Craig spent his life in agriculture growing up in the Flint Hills of Kansas, some of the best agricultural land in the world, perfectly adapted to free ranging livestock, which feed on the perennial grasses that grow there naturally.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Good’s hog operation began in earnest in 1981, and they have continuously raised hogs there for the past 37 years. Their Duroc herd started with a few sows from Craig’s former employer who started raising Duroc pigs in the 1940s — with females obtained through Sears and Roebucks! As Craig explains, “I took a job in 1975 working with an outstanding stockman who raised purebred Duroc pigs here in Kansas. His name was Fred Germann, and he was one of the oldest and best Duroc breeders in the U.S. Things sure have changed since then, but the Durocs that we now raise have ancestry that goes back to those Sears females, approximately 85 years ago.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDuroc is an American breed that was used as the foundational genetics for the entire pig industry in the United States because of their good growth rate, body type, and mothering instincts. But big agriculture continued to overbreed the Duroc for certain traits related to higher profits and they crossed it with other pig breeds. Soon the industrial pig became utterly unrecognizable, and it became almost impossible to tell that it had originally derived from Duroc genetics.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig, on the other hand, continued to breed his Durocs to improve their genetics with traits particular to Craig’s preferences, while staying true to the original healthy and hearty breed. Craig always put a lot of thought into which sows he would breed with which boars as he worked to improve meat quality and edibility, as opposed to faster growth. He also selected pigs for the demeanor of the animals, who he treats like members of his own family. Craig bred for strong animals and sought out leaner carcasses (although the Duroc is supremely marbled). He also bred for skeletal size – Craig likes good length of body, for better loin eye size and fat distribution.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOver the years, the Durocs on Good Farm became his own breed, even though they looked like and acted like true old school Durocs. The Goods continue to bring in new lines to avoid inbreeding, but they work with the lines to continue improving their particular version of the Duroc.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig and Amy also raise Gloucestershire Old Spots and Tamworths, both considered rare breeds.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig's father, Don, was a meat scientist and would eventually have a division of Kansas State University named after him. Together they raised purebred Angus cattle and crops on the farm. “I have had a passion for raising pigs,” says Craig, since taking pigs on as a 4-H project in 1965. Craig studied Animal Science at Kansas State University. “Amy and I were married in 1976 and 5 years later we made the decision to move to the farm that my father and mother had owned since 1961, near Olsburg, Kansas, on 1000 acres of Flint Hills pasture.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eBreed\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRed Wattle\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 18th Century Louisiana by way of New Caledonia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a cross between pork and beef, Red Wattle is floral and robust, concentrated and bold.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: A consortium of 18 Amish families in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: French colonists brought these hogs to New Orleans as a favored meat breed. The Red Wattle eventually would populate the forests of Texas where they were rounded up and brought to the great slaughterhouses of Chicago. Recognized by their signature wattles that hang from the jowl, the Red Wattle resembles Kunekune pigs of New Zealand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGloucestershire Old Spots\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 19th Century Indiana by way of Berkeley Valley of Gloucestershire, England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a charcuterie pig with a delicious milky fat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside of Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: Descended from the native old English pigs of western England, this pig was mentioned as early as the 1780's. The spotted pig forages on fallen orchard fruits and other farm by products. Despite their signature oversized floppy ears which hang over their eyes, this gentle pig is hearty and self-reliant.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTamworth\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 2,500 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Rossville, Illinois by way of Staffordshire, England by way of Ireland.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: A premiere bacon producer, Tamworth meat is fruity, earthy, clean, mineral, root, sweet and tender.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Doug Metzger and Craig and Amy Good in Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The only native red breed to England, its heritage traces back to the wild pigs of Middle Age Europe. A slow growing breed, the Tamworth is active and hearty. Traditionally raised in the woods, the pig's long angular snout makes it an excellent forager — Tamworth pigs do not conform to industrial agriculture needs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBerkshire\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 1823 Kentucky\/ Illinois by way of Western England and outside London.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Sweet with depth of flavor, Berkshire pork is balanced and the most universally loved of all the Heritage breeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: David Newman and a consortium of 12 family farms in Kansas, Missouri and Iowa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: For years the Royal Family kept a large Berkshire herd at Windsor Castle — our Berkshire pigs are traceable back to these old English genetics. This would eventually become the most popular Heritage breed of pig in the United States because of its supreme marbling. Prized by the Japanese who imported it as \"Kurobuta\" pork, the Berkshire is recognized by 6 white spots at the tip of its feet, nose and tail.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDuroc\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Eastern United States and corn belt by way of the Guinea coast of Africa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Duroc meat is crisp and clean — known for great marbling and polished texture its taste is approachable on the palate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The Duroc is an older breed of American domestic pig that has become one of the most popular breeds because of its great taste and strong genetics, but pure Duroc is very hard to find. Durocs are a red pig strain developed around 1800 in New England and reputed to trace their ancestry back to the early red pigs of Africa. Durocs are especially valued by farmers for their hardiness and quick but thorough muscle growth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[\/TABS]\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heritage Foods USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":12543918997546,"sku":"92 (3pk)","price":69.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/products\/fatted668.jpg?v=1558023393"},{"product_id":"pepper-crusted-bacon-sliced-three-1lb-packs","title":"PEPPER-CRUSTED SIGNATURE HERITAGE BACON","description":"[TABS]\n\u003ch5\u003eProduct\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePepper-Crusted Signature Heritage Bacon\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThree 1lb packs, sliced\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eBerkshire\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis is our spectacular signature bacon, with the added spice of pepper. The pepper crust adds an unexpected kick while still delivering the famous Heritage goods. This is a perfect everyday bacon that can be the soulful heart of a beautiful BLT, with eggs, or to hit the pan anytime the bacon craving hits. We have many customers who have tried the pepper-crusted bacon and have never looked back.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe secret to great pork is to start off with great ingredients, and nothing beats our storied Heritage breeds —  Berkshire, Red Wattle, Duroc, Gloucestershire Old Spot, Large Black, and Tamworth. Each breed comes from a different culinary tradition, and boasts a distinctive, nuanced flavor.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eIngredients: pork cured with water, salt, coated with black pepper, and less than 2% of the following, cane sugar, maple sugar, and brown sugar, spice extractives, sodium erythorbate, sodium nitrite\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHumanely raised on pasture \u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e100% antibiotic free\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRaised by independent family farmers\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHeritage pork has more marbling resulting in more tender and  juicy meat\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ciframe height=\"270\" width=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/279514159\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eFarms\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen Heritage Foods started in 2001 we set out to sell heritage Thanksgiving turkeys. For three years our turkey project grew, but naturally mating turkey is a seasonal food and two of the three farmers we worked with to raise birds were looking for a more regular source of income if they were to continue working with us. So we committed to selling pork, which can be produced year round, as long as the breeds came from historic genetic lines, just like the turkeys. Now, 24 years later, Heritage Foods still works with those two original farms who together introduced the word “heritage pork” to hundreds of America’s best restaurants from coast-to-coast as well as thousands of homes through the Heritage Foods retail website.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNewman Farm Berkshire Pork\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eMyrtle, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 2006 we got a handwritten letter from farmer Mark Newman asking us if Heritage Foods would ever consider selling his pasture raised old school Berkshire pigs. We said yes and a relationship grew that still continues today, now through his son David who has maintained the genetic line of Berkshires which can be traced back to the 17th and 18th century lines that came to these shores by way of the Berkshire region of England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom the air, Newman Farm Berkshire Pork, in south central Missouri, in the heart of the Ozarks, looks more like a pioneer settlement or a holiday camp than any sort of pig farm. Wooden huts are scattered across green fields like bungalows, where contented Berkshire pigs live their lives, happily on-pasture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePigs on Newman Farm are raised 100% on-pasture. The sows raise their piglets in huts that dot the fields of the farm. The babies live inside the huts until they are old enough to jump over the 6-inch wooden board that blocks the entrance. Once they make the great leap, they have an entire field to run on and they can mingle with the other piglets from the other huts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDavid Newman is both a farmer and scientist. “The farmer came first,” he laughs. His degrees are in animal science, and he holds a Ph.D in meat science and muscle biology, focused on meat quality. “As I became a scientist and got involved in education, I applied what I was learning to understand what we could do better.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBerkshires were the favorite breed of British royalty and were first introduced to the New World in 1823. Since then, Berkshire bloodlines have remained exceptionally pure and have become a mainstay favorite of chefs and diners, legendary for their exceptionally bright pork flavor and thick, delicious fat cap. And if anyone were to question their excellence, just ask David. “It’s not a matter of opinion!” he insists, passionately. “It’s a scientific fact, Berkshires are the most marbled hog on the market today.” David is a master breeder and works hard to keep the lines on his farm separate and he is always working to improve the Berkshire breed on his farm.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDavid lives on the farm with his wife, Kristin, his mom Rita, and his two kids. “I got my start through my family. My parents were hog farmers, but primarily in the commercial pig business. In the 1980s my parents raised pigs in confinement. There were some very challenging economic times for everyone in production, and we realized we were going to have to do something differently. Kristin came from a family farming background also and is a major part of the operations success today, working for the farm along with their team of employees.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“In the 1990s my parents decided they wanted to go back to their roots. We were going to have to be very large to be successful in the commercial sector, and my father decided we should focus on quality. We changed our genetic program and our nutrition program. We became Certified Humane®, and we chose to focus on Berkshire pigs for their quality.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDavid and his family are the future of American farming! They are young, energetic and very passionate about the future of agriculture. David and Kristin work with a team of farmers who raise their Berkshires to supply Heritage Foods and the national network of chefs who rely on his product for their menus.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLazy Red Wattle Ranch\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eLa Plata, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe met Larry and Madonna Sorell in 2002, as growers for Frank Reese and the Heritage Turkey Project. As their turkey flock grew in size, so did the Sorell’s importance to Heritage Foods.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen you see Red Wattle pork on a menu, what you are seeing is a five-state, twelve farm network founded by Larry and Madonna, dedicated to raising a storied breed that was once upon a time nearly extinct. Larry and Madonna are the heroes of this story, avatars of the heritage food movement, true believers who were destined to become the Guardians of the Red Wattle. They are proof positive of the ethos that when it comes to endangered livestock, “you have to eat them to save them.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the beginning, back in 2004 when the Heritage Foods wholesale business began selling pigs, a market for the Red Wattle pig was built on a handshake agreement with chefs Zach Allen and Mark Ladner, then at Lupa Restaurant in NYC. They recognized the high-quality and undiminished taste that came from a Red Wattle pig humanely raised on-pasture and antibiotic free, using traditional farming methods. The deal with Ladner, and the partnership with Larry and his Lazy Red Wattle Ranch, were part of the origins of Heritage Foods.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“We traveled 18,000 miles to get started,” Larry says matter-of-factly about a Heritage Foods Odyssey whose mission was to search out rare Red Wattle sows and collect a viable genetic lineage of this incredible pig whose American legacy goes back to 18th century New Orleans. \"When we began, we had two Red Wattle gilts and a boar, and we had to travel all over the United States to start a herd.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Now I’ve kinda retired from raising animals, but we have a dozen Amish growers working with us, and I pick up the hogs and pay for them, and then bring them to the processor, Paradise Locker. I drive a tractor trailer and go around picking up three hundred pounders, fifty to eighty head a week. We have farms in Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa... that’s a lot of traveling. We may have four or five pick-ups every week. You wear out a truck pretty fast.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLarry, now over eighty, does less of the driving, but he still keeps all the relationships going, which isn’t easy considering the Amish don’t have phones inside their homes! “I’ll have to quit sometime but right now it’s going pretty good. The driving is easy. The hard job is you gotta keep Amish families happy, picking up their hogs, coordinating, monitoring the size of the animals, and making sure we have the right amount — each week we round up 50 to 100 pigs. And we’ve been doing it for almost 20 years now.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThanks to Larry and Madonna’s work, the Red Wattle was upgraded to Threatened status from Critical on The Livestock Conservancy’s watch list, a great achievement for the cause of biodiversity, one of the most important issues of our time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMetzger Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eSeneca, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug Metzger's Tamworth and Berkshire genetics are now being shepherded by Robert Funk. Doug sadly passed away in 2023. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug Metzger was truly at the ground zero of our business and the heritage food movement. He was the magic man that first introduced us to our processor Paradise Locker Meats, with whom we have worked and grown ever since and he worked together with Frank Reese raising heritage turkeys from about 2002 to 2013.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt 83-years-old, Doug raises purebred, certified Berkshire and Tamworth pigs on his 1,500 acre farm in Seneca, Kansas, with his wife Betty.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn an era of specialization Doug is an anomaly. Doug is famous for adapting to any moment. In 2001 he took our call and agreed to raise heritage turkeys for us with Frank because he believed that the growing food movement would appreciate the flavor of the birds his grandfather raised. As demand grew for quality meat, Doug got into heritage pigs and transitioned his commodity farm to a pastured farm and haven for the rare Tamworth breed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug has been farming since 1951. As a kid he raised chickens but gave them up when he got into turkeys. As he got older, he broke into the milk cattle game. Then he tried sheep, but he says he couldn’t get them to breed right. He also raised Aylesbury ducks — a rare heritage breed. Over the years the acres on his sprawling farm have been used to grow wheat, corn, oats, barley, sorghum, alfalfa, and rye. He even grew flax one year because he heard it was supposed to help the immune system of the cattle, which he thought it did. “It certainly made their coats look wonderful,” Doug says.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eToday farmers are incentivized to grow monocrops of corn and soybean — “that’s all they want us to grow,” Doug explains, “and farmers haul their crops to town instead of using it for something on their own farm.” Doug remembers fondly the days when a diversified farm would grow corn and turn it into whiskey, or when soybeans were grown for the purpose of feeding milk cattle — as Doug did on his farm. “Keep your grain,” Doug insists, “and use it to grow a truly sustainable farm.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug was never one to use chemicals to grow food. He believes any talk of sustainability is not real when you raise only one crop or when you use chemicals to do it. “My buddy and I could clear 100 acres of weeds in a day if we worked through the night, and we did not need any additives to do it. All those chemicals are part of the reason there are so many cancers around, if you ask me.” Doug has amassed generations of farming secrets having grown so many foods naturally, often calling upon experiences from decades ago to solve a problem that presents itself today.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug comes from a truly great American farming family — Life Magazine once wrote that Doug’s father, who lived to be 104, had more living descendants than any American – many of them farmers. His is part of the story of immigrants who came to the New World and made good through old-fashioned values, tradition, and hard work.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“We’re here today to save these breeds,” says Doug, who is as down-home as the farm he still works on as he approaches his 84th birthday. “Save the breeds and make a little money. We got a lot of things going on, we have a lot of land. But it’s getting hard to keep up with it all… I need more young people! When I was young, we raised turkeys in spring and sold ‘em all by Christmas. We milked cattle all year round. I want to keep working — my dad was helping me when he was 84!”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis conversational style always brings insight and interesting thoughts to bear. We hope Doug and Betty work with us for many years to come and that their beliefs of diversified farming continue. Today, his farm is supported through the work of his daughter Marilyn and her husband Stan, and their children Simon and Joel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGood Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eOlsburg, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGood Farms' Old Spot, Duroc, and Tamworth genetics are now being shepherded by Dustin and Maria Torneden since Craig and his wife Amy retired in 2024. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe met the Goods through a connection at Kansas State University where Craig’s father was a distinguished professor. Craig spent his life in agriculture growing up in the Flint Hills of Kansas, some of the best agricultural land in the world, perfectly adapted to free ranging livestock, which feed on the perennial grasses that grow there naturally.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Good’s hog operation began in earnest in 1981, and they have continuously raised hogs there for the past 37 years. Their Duroc herd started with a few sows from Craig’s former employer who started raising Duroc pigs in the 1940s — with females obtained through Sears and Roebucks! As Craig explains, “I took a job in 1975 working with an outstanding stockman who raised purebred Duroc pigs here in Kansas. His name was Fred Germann, and he was one of the oldest and best Duroc breeders in the U.S. Things sure have changed since then, but the Durocs that we now raise have ancestry that goes back to those Sears females, approximately 85 years ago.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDuroc is an American breed that was used as the foundational genetics for the entire pig industry in the United States because of their good growth rate, body type, and mothering instincts. But big agriculture continued to overbreed the Duroc for certain traits related to higher profits and they crossed it with other pig breeds. Soon the industrial pig became utterly unrecognizable, and it became almost impossible to tell that it had originally derived from Duroc genetics.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCraig, on the other hand, continued to breed his Durocs to improve their genetics with traits particular to Craig’s preferences, while staying true to the original healthy and hearty breed. Craig always put a lot of thought into which sows he would breed with which boars as he worked to improve meat quality and edibility, as opposed to faster growth. He also selected pigs for the demeanor of the animals, who he treats like members of his own family. Craig bred for strong animals and sought out leaner carcasses (although the Duroc is supremely marbled). He also bred for skeletal size – Craig likes good length of body, for better loin eye size and fat distribution.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOver the years, the Durocs on Good Farm became his own breed, even though they looked like and acted like true old school Durocs. The Goods continue to bring in new lines to avoid inbreeding, but they work with the lines to continue improving their particular version of the Duroc.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCraig and Amy also raise Gloucestershire Old Spots and Tamworths, both considered rare breeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCraig's father, Don, was a meat scientist and would eventually have a division of Kansas State University named after him. Together they raised purebred Angus cattle and crops on the farm. “I have had a passion for raising pigs,” says Craig, since taking pigs on as a 4-H project in 1965. Craig studied Animal Science at Kansas State University. “Amy and I were married in 1976 and 5 years later we made the decision to move to the farm that my father and mother had owned since 1961, near Olsburg, Kansas, on 1000 acres of Flint Hills pasture.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eBreed\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRed Wattle\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 18th Century Louisiana by way of New Caledonia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a cross between pork and beef, Red Wattle is floral and robust, concentrated and bold.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: A consortium of 18 Amish families in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: French colonists brought these hogs to New Orleans as a favored meat breed. The Red Wattle eventually would populate the forests of Texas where they were rounded up and brought to the great slaughterhouses of Chicago. Recognized by their signature wattles that hang from the jowl, the Red Wattle resembles Kunekune pigs of New Zealand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGloucestershire Old Spots\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 19th Century Indiana by way of Berkeley Valley of Gloucestershire, England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a charcuterie pig with a delicious milky fat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside of Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: Descended from the native old English pigs of western England, this pig was mentioned as early as the 1780's. The spotted pig forages on fallen orchard fruits and other farm by products. Despite their signature oversized floppy ears which hang over their eyes, this gentle pig is hearty and self-reliant.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTamworth\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 2,500 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Rossville, Illinois by way of Staffordshire, England by way of Ireland.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: A premiere bacon producer, Tamworth meat is fruity, earthy, clean, mineral, root, sweet and tender.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Doug Metzger and Craig and Amy Good in Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The only native red breed to England, its heritage traces back to the wild pigs of Middle Age Europe. A slow growing breed, the Tamworth is active and hearty. Traditionally raised in the woods, the pig's long angular snout makes it an excellent forager — Tamworth pigs do not conform to industrial agriculture needs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBerkshire\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 1823 Kentucky\/ Illinois by way of Western England and outside London.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Sweet with depth of flavor, Berkshire pork is balanced and the most universally loved of all the Heritage breeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: David Newman and a consortium of 12 family farms in Kansas, Missouri and Iowa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: For years the Royal Family kept a large Berkshire herd at Windsor Castle — our Berkshire pigs are traceable back to these old English genetics. This would eventually become the most popular Heritage breed of pig in the United States because of its supreme marbling. Prized by the Japanese who imported it as \"Kurobuta\" pork, the Berkshire is recognized by 6 white spots at the tip of its feet, nose and tail.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDuroc\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Eastern United States and corn belt by way of the Guinea coast of Africa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Duroc meat is crisp and clean — known for great marbling and polished texture its taste is approachable on the palate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The Duroc is an older breed of American domestic pig that has become one of the most popular breeds because of its great taste and strong genetics, but pure Duroc is very hard to find. Durocs are a red pig strain developed around 1800 in New England and reputed to trace their ancestry back to the early red pigs of Africa. Durocs are especially valued by farmers for their hardiness and quick but thorough muscle growth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eCooking\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHow to Prepare\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the oven: preheat oven to 325°F. Place bacon on a foil lined sheet tray and bake, rotating the tray every 10 minutes until you reach the desired crispiness.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn the stovetop: heat skillet over medium-high heat, almost to smoking. No oil is needed! Place bacon strips, one at a time, into the skillet. We recommend flipping once and using a bacon press to prevent curling. When you reach the desired crispiness, transfer bacon onto a plate lined with paper towels and pour off fat from the pan after each round.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[\/TABS]\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heritage Foods USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":12543938428970,"sku":"87 (3pks)","price":69.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/products\/edwards667.jpg?v=1558126464"},{"product_id":"signature-jowl-bacon-sliced","title":"SIGNATURE HERITAGE JOWL BACON","description":"[TABS]\n\u003ch5\u003eProduct\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSignature Heritage Jowl Bacon\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThree 1lb packs, sliced \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cem\u003eBerkshire\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSome would say that jowl bacon is the final frontier — others have known about it’s sweet pleasure for years. One thing is for sure, it is suddenly popping up on menus across the country. Similar to traditional bacon cut from pork belly, the jowl has its own wonderful character and its tasty fat is even more delicate. Our signature jowl bacon is maple sugar cured by Paradise Locker Meats in Trimble, Missouri, and is perfect for every occasion.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe secret to great pork is to start off with great ingredients, and nothing beats our storied Heritage breeds —  Berkshire, Red Wattle, Duroc, Gloucestershire Old Spot, and Tamworth. Each breed comes from a different culinary tradition, and boasts a distinctive, nuanced flavor.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eIngredients: p\u003cspan\u003eork Jowl cured with water, and less than 2% of the following: salt, cane sugar, maple sugar, and brown sugar, spice extractives, sodium erthorbate, sodium nitrite.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHumanely raised on pasture \u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e100% antibiotic-free\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRaised by independent family farmers\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHeritage pork has more marbling resulting in more tender and juicy meat\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/279514159\" width=\"480\" height=\"270\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eFarms\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen Heritage Foods started in 2001 we set out to sell heritage Thanksgiving turkeys. For three years our turkey project grew, but naturally mating turkey is a seasonal food and two of the three farmers we worked with to raise birds were looking for a more regular source of income if they were to continue working with us. So we committed to selling pork, which can be produced year round, as long as the breeds came from historic genetic lines, just like the turkeys. Now, 24 years later, Heritage Foods still works with those two original farms who together introduced the word “heritage pork” to hundreds of America’s best restaurants from coast-to-coast as well as thousands of homes through the Heritage Foods retail website.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNewman Farm Berkshire Pork\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eMyrtle, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 2006 we got a handwritten letter from farmer Mark Newman asking us if Heritage Foods would ever consider selling his pasture raised old school Berkshire pigs. We said yes and a relationship grew that still continues today, now through his son David who has maintained the genetic line of Berkshires which can be traced back to the 17th and 18th century lines that came to these shores by way of the Berkshire region of England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom the air, Newman Farm Berkshire Pork, in south central Missouri, in the heart of the Ozarks, looks more like a pioneer settlement or a holiday camp than any sort of pig farm. Wooden huts are scattered across green fields like bungalows, where contented Berkshire pigs live their lives, happily on-pasture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePigs on Newman Farm are raised 100% on-pasture. The sows raise their piglets in huts that dot the fields of the farm. The babies live inside the huts until they are old enough to jump over the 6-inch wooden board that blocks the entrance. Once they make the great leap, they have an entire field to run on and they can mingle with the other piglets from the other huts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDavid Newman is both a farmer and scientist. “The farmer came first,” he laughs. His degrees are in animal science, and he holds a Ph.D in meat science and muscle biology, focused on meat quality. “As I became a scientist and got involved in education, I applied what I was learning to understand what we could do better.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBerkshires were the favorite breed of British royalty and were first introduced to the New World in 1823. Since then, Berkshire bloodlines have remained exceptionally pure and have become a mainstay favorite of chefs and diners, legendary for their exceptionally bright pork flavor and thick, delicious fat cap. And if anyone were to question their excellence, just ask David. “It’s not a matter of opinion!” he insists, passionately. “It’s a scientific fact, Berkshires are the most marbled hog on the market today.” David is a master breeder and works hard to keep the lines on his farm separate and he is always working to improve the Berkshire breed on his farm.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDavid lives on the farm with his wife, Kristin, his mom Rita, and his two kids. “I got my start through my family. My parents were hog farmers, but primarily in the commercial pig business. In the 1980s my parents raised pigs in confinement. There were some very challenging economic times for everyone in production, and we realized we were going to have to do something differently. Kristin came from a family farming background also and is a major part of the operations success today, working for the farm along with their team of employees.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“In the 1990s my parents decided they wanted to go back to their roots. We were going to have to be very large to be successful in the commercial sector, and my father decided we should focus on quality. We changed our genetic program and our nutrition program. We became Certified Humane®, and we chose to focus on Berkshire pigs for their quality.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDavid and his family are the future of American farming! They are young, energetic and very passionate about the future of agriculture. David and Kristin work with a team of farmers who raise their Berkshires to supply Heritage Foods and the national network of chefs who rely on his product for their menus.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLazy Red Wattle Ranch\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eLa Plata, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe met Larry and Madonna Sorell in 2002, as growers for Frank Reese and the Heritage Turkey Project. As their turkey flock grew in size, so did the Sorell’s importance to Heritage Foods.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen you see Red Wattle pork on a menu, what you are seeing is a five-state, twelve farm network founded by Larry and Madonna, dedicated to raising a storied breed that was once upon a time nearly extinct. Larry and Madonna are the heroes of this story, avatars of the heritage food movement, true believers who were destined to become the Guardians of the Red Wattle. They are proof positive of the ethos that when it comes to endangered livestock, “you have to eat them to save them.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the beginning, back in 2004 when the Heritage Foods wholesale business began selling pigs, a market for the Red Wattle pig was built on a handshake agreement with chefs Zach Allen and Mark Ladner, then at Lupa Restaurant in NYC. They recognized the high-quality and undiminished taste that came from a Red Wattle pig humanely raised on-pasture and antibiotic free, using traditional farming methods. The deal with Ladner, and the partnership with Larry and his Lazy Red Wattle Ranch, were part of the origins of Heritage Foods.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“We traveled 18,000 miles to get started,” Larry says matter-of-factly about a Heritage Foods Odyssey whose mission was to search out rare Red Wattle sows and collect a viable genetic lineage of this incredible pig whose American legacy goes back to 18th century New Orleans. \"When we began, we had two Red Wattle gilts and a boar, and we had to travel all over the United States to start a herd.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Now I’ve kinda retired from raising animals, but we have a dozen Amish growers working with us, and I pick up the hogs and pay for them, and then bring them to the processor, Paradise Locker. I drive a tractor trailer and go around picking up three hundred pounders, fifty to eighty head a week. We have farms in Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa... that’s a lot of traveling. We may have four or five pick-ups every week. You wear out a truck pretty fast.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLarry, now over eighty, does less of the driving, but he still keeps all the relationships going, which isn’t easy considering the Amish don’t have phones inside their homes! “I’ll have to quit sometime but right now it’s going pretty good. The driving is easy. The hard job is you gotta keep Amish families happy, picking up their hogs, coordinating, monitoring the size of the animals, and making sure we have the right amount — each week we round up 50 to 100 pigs. And we’ve been doing it for almost 20 years now.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThanks to Larry and Madonna’s work, the Red Wattle was upgraded to Threatened status from Critical on The Livestock Conservancy’s watch list, a great achievement for the cause of biodiversity, one of the most important issues of our time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMetzger Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eSeneca, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug Metzger's Tamworth and Berkshire genetics are now being shepherded by Robert Funk. Doug sadly passed away in 2023. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug Metzger was truly at the ground zero of our business and the heritage food movement. He was the magic man that first introduced us to our processor Paradise Locker Meats, with whom we have worked and grown ever since and he worked together with Frank Reese raising heritage turkeys from about 2002 to 2013.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt 83-years-old, Doug raises purebred, certified Berkshire and Tamworth pigs on his 1,500 acre farm in Seneca, Kansas, with his wife Betty.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn an era of specialization Doug is an anomaly. Doug is famous for adapting to any moment. In 2001 he took our call and agreed to raise heritage turkeys for us with Frank because he believed that the growing food movement would appreciate the flavor of the birds his grandfather raised. As demand grew for quality meat, Doug got into heritage pigs and transitioned his commodity farm to a pastured farm and haven for the rare Tamworth breed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug has been farming since 1951. As a kid he raised chickens but gave them up when he got into turkeys. As he got older, he broke into the milk cattle game. Then he tried sheep, but he says he couldn’t get them to breed right. He also raised Aylesbury ducks — a rare heritage breed. Over the years the acres on his sprawling farm have been used to grow wheat, corn, oats, barley, sorghum, alfalfa, and rye. He even grew flax one year because he heard it was supposed to help the immune system of the cattle, which he thought it did. “It certainly made their coats look wonderful,” Doug says.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eToday farmers are incentivized to grow monocrops of corn and soybean — “that’s all they want us to grow,” Doug explains, “and farmers haul their crops to town instead of using it for something on their own farm.” Doug remembers fondly the days when a diversified farm would grow corn and turn it into whiskey, or when soybeans were grown for the purpose of feeding milk cattle — as Doug did on his farm. “Keep your grain,” Doug insists, “and use it to grow a truly sustainable farm.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug was never one to use chemicals to grow food. He believes any talk of sustainability is not real when you raise only one crop or when you use chemicals to do it. “My buddy and I could clear 100 acres of weeds in a day if we worked through the night, and we did not need any additives to do it. All those chemicals are part of the reason there are so many cancers around, if you ask me.” Doug has amassed generations of farming secrets having grown so many foods naturally, often calling upon experiences from decades ago to solve a problem that presents itself today.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug comes from a truly great American farming family — Life Magazine once wrote that Doug’s father, who lived to be 104, had more living descendants than any American – many of them farmers. His is part of the story of immigrants who came to the New World and made good through old-fashioned values, tradition, and hard work.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“We’re here today to save these breeds,” says Doug, who is as down-home as the farm he still works on as he approaches his 84th birthday. “Save the breeds and make a little money. We got a lot of things going on, we have a lot of land. But it’s getting hard to keep up with it all… I need more young people! When I was young, we raised turkeys in spring and sold ‘em all by Christmas. We milked cattle all year round. I want to keep working — my dad was helping me when he was 84!”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis conversational style always brings insight and interesting thoughts to bear. We hope Doug and Betty work with us for many years to come and that their beliefs of diversified farming continue. Today, his farm is supported through the work of his daughter Marilyn and her husband Stan, and their children Simon and Joel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGood Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eOlsburg, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGood Farms' Old Spot, Duroc, and Tamworth genetics are now being shepherded by Dustin and Maria Torneden since Craig and his wife Amy retired in 2024. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe met the Goods through a connection at Kansas State University where Craig’s father was a distinguished professor. Craig spent his life in agriculture growing up in the Flint Hills of Kansas, some of the best agricultural land in the world, perfectly adapted to free ranging livestock, which feed on the perennial grasses that grow there naturally.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Good’s hog operation began in earnest in 1981, and they have continuously raised hogs there for the past 37 years. Their Duroc herd started with a few sows from Craig’s former employer who started raising Duroc pigs in the 1940s — with females obtained through Sears and Roebucks! As Craig explains, “I took a job in 1975 working with an outstanding stockman who raised purebred Duroc pigs here in Kansas. His name was Fred Germann, and he was one of the oldest and best Duroc breeders in the U.S. Things sure have changed since then, but the Durocs that we now raise have ancestry that goes back to those Sears females, approximately 85 years ago.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDuroc is an American breed that was used as the foundational genetics for the entire pig industry in the United States because of their good growth rate, body type, and mothering instincts. But big agriculture continued to overbreed the Duroc for certain traits related to higher profits and they crossed it with other pig breeds. Soon the industrial pig became utterly unrecognizable, and it became almost impossible to tell that it had originally derived from Duroc genetics.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCraig, on the other hand, continued to breed his Durocs to improve their genetics with traits particular to Craig’s preferences, while staying true to the original healthy and hearty breed. Craig always put a lot of thought into which sows he would breed with which boars as he worked to improve meat quality and edibility, as opposed to faster growth. He also selected pigs for the demeanor of the animals, who he treats like members of his own family. Craig bred for strong animals and sought out leaner carcasses (although the Duroc is supremely marbled). He also bred for skeletal size – Craig likes good length of body, for better loin eye size and fat distribution.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOver the years, the Durocs on Good Farm became his own breed, even though they looked like and acted like true old school Durocs. The Goods continue to bring in new lines to avoid inbreeding, but they work with the lines to continue improving their particular version of the Duroc.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCraig and Amy also raise Gloucestershire Old Spots and Tamworths, both considered rare breeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCraig's father, Don, was a meat scientist and would eventually have a division of Kansas State University named after him. Together they raised purebred Angus cattle and crops on the farm. “I have had a passion for raising pigs,” says Craig, since taking pigs on as a 4-H project in 1965. Craig studied Animal Science at Kansas State University. “Amy and I were married in 1976 and 5 years later we made the decision to move to the farm that my father and mother had owned since 1961, near Olsburg, Kansas, on 1000 acres of Flint Hills pasture.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eBreed\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRed Wattle\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 18th Century Louisiana by way of New Caledonia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a cross between pork and beef, Red Wattle is floral and robust, concentrated and bold.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: A consortium of 18 Amish families in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: French colonists brought these hogs to New Orleans as a favored meat breed. The Red Wattle eventually would populate the forests of Texas where they were rounded up and brought to the great slaughterhouses of Chicago. Recognized by their signature wattles that hang from the jowl, the Red Wattle resembles Kunekune pigs of New Zealand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGloucestershire Old Spot\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 19th Century Indiana by way of Berkeley Valley of Gloucestershire, England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a charcuterie pig with a delicious milky fat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside of Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: Descended from the native old English pigs of western England, this pig was mentioned as early as the 1780's. The spotted pig forages on fallen orchard fruits and other farm by products. Despite their signature oversized floppy ears which hang over their eyes, this gentle pig is hearty and self-reliant.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTamworth\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 2,500 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Rossville, Illinois by way of Staffordshire, England by way of Ireland.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: A premiere bacon producer, Tamworth meat is fruity, earthy, clean, mineral, root, sweet and tender.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Doug Metzger and Craig and Amy Good in Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The only native red breed to England, its heritage traces back to the wild pigs of Middle Age Europe. A slow growing breed, the Tamworth is active and hearty. Traditionally raised in the woods, the pig's long angular snout makes it an excellent forager — Tamworth pigs do not conform to industrial agriculture needs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBerkshire\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 1823 Kentucky\/ Illinois by way of Western England and outside London.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Sweet with depth of flavor, Berkshire pork is balanced and the most universally loved of all the Heritage breeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: David Newman and a consortium of 12 family farms in Kansas, Missouri and Iowa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: For years the Royal Family kept a large Berkshire herd at Windsor Castle — our Berkshire pigs are traceable back to these old English genetics. This would eventually become the most popular Heritage breed of pig in the United States because of its supreme marbling. Prized by the Japanese who imported it as \"Kurobuta\" pork, the Berkshire is recognized by 6 white spots at the tip of its feet, nose and tail.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDuroc\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Eastern United States and corn belt by way of the Guinea coast of Africa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Duroc meat is crisp and clean — known for great marbling and polished texture its taste is approachable on the palate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The Duroc is an older breed of American domestic pig that has become one of the most popular breeds because of its great taste and strong genetics, but pure Duroc is very hard to find. Durocs are a red pig strain developed around 1800 in New England and reputed to trace their ancestry back to the early red pigs of Africa. Durocs are especially valued by farmers for their hardiness and quick but thorough muscle growth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eCooking\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHow to Prepare\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the oven: preheat oven to 325°F. Place bacon on a foil lined sheet tray and bake, rotating the tray every 10 minutes until you reach the desired crispiness.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn the stovetop: heat skillet over medium-high heat, almost to smoking. No oil is needed! Place bacon strips, one at a time, into the skillet. We recommend flipping once and using a bacon press to prevent curling. When you reach the desired crispiness, transfer bacon onto a plate lined with paper towels and pour off fat from the pan after each round.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[\/TABS]\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heritage Foods USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":12543960842282,"sku":"199 (3pks jowl bacon)","price":69.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/products\/jowl664.jpg?v=1558372810"},{"product_id":"prosciutto-style-ham-broadbent","title":"BROADBENT'S HERITAGE DRY CURED COUNTRY HAM","description":"[TABS]\n\u003ch5\u003eProduct\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBroadbent's Heritage Dry Cured Country Ham\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhole ham, boneless\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAged 18-24 months\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eReady to slice and eat!\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eChoose your preferred size on the drop down menu above.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBroadbent's American style of prosciutto is lighter, with a uniquely sweet and salty flavor.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLightly smoked, this ham is the perfect centerpiece for a party. For the real meat-lover, there is nothing like a whole leg! If you have a meat slicer, this is an obvious choice, but it can also be easily sliced with a sharp knife! Each ham comes with a cloth netting for easy storage in the refrigerator for up to a year.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is a dry-cured ham similar to Prosciutto di Parma, San Daniele or Serrano but lightly smoked. More than 100 years of tradition are behind this long-aged ham. Its perfect with summer melon or on homemade pizza!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eServe as you would any Spanish or Italian ham. Slice thin – slicing thinly is the key to enjoying and appreciating long-aged cured ham. A little bit goes a long way. Wrap and store in your refrigerator — this ham has an incredibly long shelf life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHumanely raised on pasture and 100% antibiotic-free\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRaised by independent family farmers\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHeritage pork has more marbling resulting in more tender and juicy meat\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eArtisan\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe story of Broadbent is one of preservation. Preservation that goes beyond the salt and smoke used on the heritage pork that hangs in Kuttawa. As regional foods and traditions continue to vanish, Broadbent, with their delicious line of products, is working to keep a piece of Kentucky’s culinary history alive, now using exclusively Lazy Red Wattle Ranch and Newman Berkshire Farm pork.  \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFounded in 1909 by Smith Broadbent, the company grew with the help of his sons, eventually  moving the business into a USDA facility in 1965. In 1999 the Broadbents sold the company to Ronny and Beth Drennan. Under their direction, Broadbent’s country hams have been named Grand Champion 19 times at the Kentucky State Fair — judged on their aroma, shape, color, and ratio of lean-to-fat. In addition they raised over 33 million dollars for charity by auctioning their award winning hams. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 2024, The Drennans were ready to retire and looking to pass the torch. As the story goes, buyers dressed in suits made generous offers, but none of them felt quite right. That is, until Josh Poling, Kentucky chef and restauranteur made the two hour drive from Bowling Green to Kuttawa. Still wearing his kitchen shoes, the Drennans saw a young man ready to continue the work of preserving hams and a Kentucky tradition. \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eFarms\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen Heritage Foods started in 2001 we set out to sell heritage Thanksgiving turkeys. For three years our turkey project grew, but naturally mating turkey is a seasonal food and two of the three farmers we worked with to raise birds were looking for a more regular source of income if they were to continue working with us. So we committed to selling pork, which can be produced year round, as long as the breeds came from historic genetic lines, just like the turkeys. Now, 24 years later, Heritage Foods still works with those two original farms who together introduced the word “heritage pork” to hundreds of America’s best restaurants from coast-to-coast as well as thousands of homes through the Heritage Foods retail website.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNewman Farm Berkshire Pork\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eMyrtle, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 2006 we got a handwritten letter from farmer Mark Newman asking us if Heritage Foods would ever consider selling his pasture raised old school Berkshire pigs. We said yes and a relationship grew that still continues today, now through his son David who has maintained the genetic line of Berkshires which can be traced back to the 17th and 18th century lines that came to these shores by way of the Berkshire region of England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom the air, Newman Farm Berkshire Pork, in south central Missouri, in the heart of the Ozarks, looks more like a pioneer settlement or a holiday camp than any sort of pig farm. Wooden huts are scattered across green fields like bungalows, where contented Berkshire pigs live their lives, happily on-pasture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePigs on Newman Farm are raised 100% on-pasture. The sows raise their piglets in huts that dot the fields of the farm. The babies live inside the huts until they are old enough to jump over the 6-inch wooden board that blocks the entrance. Once they make the great leap, they have an entire field to run on and they can mingle with the other piglets from the other huts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDavid Newman is both a farmer and scientist. “The farmer came first,” he laughs. His degrees are in animal science, and he holds a Ph.D in meat science and muscle biology, focused on meat quality. “As I became a scientist and got involved in education, I applied what I was learning to understand what we could do better.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBerkshires were the favorite breed of British royalty and were first introduced to the New World in 1823. Since then, Berkshire bloodlines have remained exceptionally pure and have become a mainstay favorite of chefs and diners, legendary for their exceptionally bright pork flavor and thick, delicious fat cap. And if anyone were to question their excellence, just ask David. “It’s not a matter of opinion!” he insists, passionately. “It’s a scientific fact, Berkshires are the most marbled hog on the market today.” David is a master breeder and works hard to keep the lines on his farm separate and he is always working to improve the Berkshire breed on his farm.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDavid lives on the farm with his wife, Kristin, his mom Rita, and his two kids. “I got my start through my family. My parents were hog farmers, but primarily in the commercial pig business. In the 1980s my parents raised pigs in confinement. There were some very challenging economic times for everyone in production, and we realized we were going to have to do something differently. Kristin came from a family farming background also and is a major part of the operations success today, working for the farm along with their team of employees.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“In the 1990s my parents decided they wanted to go back to their roots. We were going to have to be very large to be successful in the commercial sector, and my father decided we should focus on quality. We changed our genetic program and our nutrition program. We became Certified Humane®, and we chose to focus on Berkshire pigs for their quality.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDavid and his family are the future of American farming! They are young, energetic and very passionate about the future of agriculture. David and Kristin work with a team of farmers who raise their Berkshires to supply Heritage Foods and the national network of chefs who rely on his product for their menus.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLazy Red Wattle Ranch\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eLa Plata, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe met Larry and Madonna Sorell in 2002, as growers for Frank Reese and the Heritage Turkey Project. As their turkey flock grew in size, so did the Sorell’s importance to Heritage Foods.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen you see Red Wattle pork on a menu, what you are seeing is a five-state, twelve farm network founded by Larry and Madonna, dedicated to raising a storied breed that was once upon a time nearly extinct. Larry and Madonna are the heroes of this story, avatars of the heritage food movement, true believers who were destined to become the Guardians of the Red Wattle. They are proof positive of the ethos that when it comes to endangered livestock, “you have to eat them to save them.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the beginning, back in 2004 when the Heritage Foods wholesale business began selling pigs, a market for the Red Wattle pig was built on a handshake agreement with chefs Zach Allen and Mark Ladner, then at Lupa Restaurant in NYC. They recognized the high-quality and undiminished taste that came from a Red Wattle pig humanely raised on-pasture and antibiotic free, using traditional farming methods. The deal with Ladner, and the partnership with Larry and his Lazy Red Wattle Ranch, were part of the origins of Heritage Foods.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“We traveled 18,000 miles to get started,” Larry says matter-of-factly about a Heritage Foods Odyssey whose mission was to search out rare Red Wattle sows and collect a viable genetic lineage of this incredible pig whose American legacy goes back to 18th century New Orleans. \"When we began, we had two Red Wattle gilts and a boar, and we had to travel all over the United States to start a herd.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Now I’ve kinda retired from raising animals, but we have a dozen Amish growers working with us, and I pick up the hogs and pay for them, and then bring them to the processor, Paradise Locker. I drive a tractor trailer and go around picking up three hundred pounders, fifty to eighty head a week. We have farms in Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa... that’s a lot of traveling. We may have four or five pick-ups every week. You wear out a truck pretty fast.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLarry, now over eighty, does less of the driving, but he still keeps all the relationships going, which isn’t easy considering the Amish don’t have phones inside their homes! “I’ll have to quit sometime but right now it’s going pretty good. The driving is easy. The hard job is you gotta keep Amish families happy, picking up their hogs, coordinating, monitoring the size of the animals, and making sure we have the right amount — each week we round up 50 to 100 pigs. And we’ve been doing it for almost 20 years now.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThanks to Larry and Madonna’s work, the Red Wattle was upgraded to Threatened status from Critical on The Livestock Conservancy’s watch list, a great achievement for the cause of biodiversity, one of the most important issues of our time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMetzger Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eSeneca, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug Metzger's Tamworth and Berkshire genetics are now being shepherded by Robert Funk. Doug sadly passed away in 2023. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug Metzger was truly at the ground zero of our business and the heritage food movement. He was the magic man that first introduced us to our processor Paradise Locker Meats, with whom we have worked and grown ever since and he worked together with Frank Reese raising heritage turkeys from about 2002 to 2013.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt 83-years-old, Doug raises purebred, certified Berkshire and Tamworth pigs on his 1,500 acre farm in Seneca, Kansas, with his wife Betty.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn an era of specialization Doug is an anomaly. Doug is famous for adapting to any moment. In 2001 he took our call and agreed to raise heritage turkeys for us with Frank because he believed that the growing food movement would appreciate the flavor of the birds his grandfather raised. As demand grew for quality meat, Doug got into heritage pigs and transitioned his commodity farm to a pastured farm and haven for the rare Tamworth breed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug has been farming since 1951. As a kid he raised chickens but gave them up when he got into turkeys. As he got older, he broke into the milk cattle game. Then he tried sheep, but he says he couldn’t get them to breed right. He also raised Aylesbury ducks — a rare heritage breed. Over the years the acres on his sprawling farm have been used to grow wheat, corn, oats, barley, sorghum, alfalfa, and rye. He even grew flax one year because he heard it was supposed to help the immune system of the cattle, which he thought it did. “It certainly made their coats look wonderful,” Doug says.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eToday farmers are incentivized to grow monocrops of corn and soybean — “that’s all they want us to grow,” Doug explains, “and farmers haul their crops to town instead of using it for something on their own farm.” Doug remembers fondly the days when a diversified farm would grow corn and turn it into whiskey, or when soybeans were grown for the purpose of feeding milk cattle — as Doug did on his farm. “Keep your grain,” Doug insists, “and use it to grow a truly sustainable farm.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug was never one to use chemicals to grow food. He believes any talk of sustainability is not real when you raise only one crop or when you use chemicals to do it. “My buddy and I could clear 100 acres of weeds in a day if we worked through the night, and we did not need any additives to do it. All those chemicals are part of the reason there are so many cancers around, if you ask me.” Doug has amassed generations of farming secrets having grown so many foods naturally, often calling upon experiences from decades ago to solve a problem that presents itself today.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug comes from a truly great American farming family — Life Magazine once wrote that Doug’s father, who lived to be 104, had more living descendants than any American – many of them farmers. His is part of the story of immigrants who came to the New World and made good through old-fashioned values, tradition, and hard work.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“We’re here today to save these breeds,” says Doug, who is as down-home as the farm he still works on as he approaches his 84th birthday. “Save the breeds and make a little money. We got a lot of things going on, we have a lot of land. But it’s getting hard to keep up with it all… I need more young people! When I was young, we raised turkeys in spring and sold ‘em all by Christmas. We milked cattle all year round. I want to keep working — my dad was helping me when he was 84!”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis conversational style always brings insight and interesting thoughts to bear. We hope Doug and Betty work with us for many years to come and that their beliefs of diversified farming continue. Today, his farm is supported through the work of his daughter Marilyn and her husband Stan, and their children Simon and Joel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGood Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eOlsburg, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGood Farms' Old Spot, Duroc, and Tamworth genetics are now being shepherded by Dustin and Maria Torneden since Craig and his wife Amy retired in 2024. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe met the Goods through a connection at Kansas State University where Craig’s father was a distinguished professor. Craig spent his life in agriculture growing up in the Flint Hills of Kansas, some of the best agricultural land in the world, perfectly adapted to free ranging livestock, which feed on the perennial grasses that grow there naturally.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Good’s hog operation began in earnest in 1981, and they have continuously raised hogs there for the past 37 years. Their Duroc herd started with a few sows from Craig’s former employer who started raising Duroc pigs in the 1940s — with females obtained through Sears and Roebucks! As Craig explains, “I took a job in 1975 working with an outstanding stockman who raised purebred Duroc pigs here in Kansas. His name was Fred Germann, and he was one of the oldest and best Duroc breeders in the U.S. Things sure have changed since then, but the Durocs that we now raise have ancestry that goes back to those Sears females, approximately 85 years ago.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDuroc is an American breed that was used as the foundational genetics for the entire pig industry in the United States because of their good growth rate, body type, and mothering instincts. But big agriculture continued to overbreed the Duroc for certain traits related to higher profits and they crossed it with other pig breeds. Soon the industrial pig became utterly unrecognizable, and it became almost impossible to tell that it had originally derived from Duroc genetics.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCraig, on the other hand, continued to breed his Durocs to improve their genetics with traits particular to Craig’s preferences, while staying true to the original healthy and hearty breed. Craig always put a lot of thought into which sows he would breed with which boars as he worked to improve meat quality and edibility, as opposed to faster growth. He also selected pigs for the demeanor of the animals, who he treats like members of his own family. Craig bred for strong animals and sought out leaner carcasses (although the Duroc is supremely marbled). He also bred for skeletal size – Craig likes good length of body, for better loin eye size and fat distribution.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOver the years, the Durocs on Good Farm became his own breed, even though they looked like and acted like true old school Durocs. The Goods continue to bring in new lines to avoid inbreeding, but they work with the lines to continue improving their particular version of the Duroc.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCraig and Amy also raise Gloucestershire Old Spots and Tamworths, both considered rare breeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCraig's father, Don, was a meat scientist and would eventually have a division of Kansas State University named after him. Together they raised purebred Angus cattle and crops on the farm. “I have had a passion for raising pigs,” says Craig, since taking pigs on as a 4-H project in 1965. Craig studied Animal Science at Kansas State University. “Amy and I were married in 1976 and 5 years later we made the decision to move to the farm that my father and mother had owned since 1961, near Olsburg, Kansas, on 1000 acres of Flint Hills pasture.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eBreed\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRed Wattle\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 18th Century Louisiana by way of New Caledonia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a cross between pork and beef, Red Wattle is floral and robust, concentrated and bold.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: A consortium of 18 Amish families in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: French colonists brought these hogs to New Orleans as a favored meat breed. The Red Wattle eventually would populate the forests of Texas where they were rounded up and brought to the great slaughterhouses of Chicago. Recognized by their signature wattles that hang from the jowl, the Red Wattle resembles Kunekune pigs of New Zealand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGloucestershire Old Spots\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 19th Century Indiana by way of Berkeley Valley of Gloucestershire, England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a charcuterie pig with a delicious milky fat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside of Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: Descended from the native old English pigs of western England, this pig was mentioned as early as the 1780's. The spotted pig forages on fallen orchard fruits and other farm by products. Despite their signature oversized floppy ears which hang over their eyes, this gentle pig is hearty and self-reliant.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTamworth\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 2,500 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Rossville, Illinois by way of Staffordshire, England by way of Ireland.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: A premiere bacon producer, Tamworth meat is fruity, earthy, clean, mineral, root, sweet and tender.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Doug Metzger and Craig and Amy Good in Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The only native red breed to England, its heritage traces back to the wild pigs of Middle Age Europe. A slow growing breed, the Tamworth is active and hearty. Traditionally raised in the woods, the pig's long angular snout makes it an excellent forager — Tamworth pigs do not conform to industrial agriculture needs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBerkshire\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 1823 Kentucky\/ Illinois by way of Western England and outside London.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Sweet with depth of flavor, Berkshire pork is balanced and the most universally loved of all the Heritage breeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: David Newman and a consortium of 12 family farms in Kansas, Missouri and Iowa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: For years the Royal Family kept a large Berkshire herd at Windsor Castle — our Berkshire pigs are traceable back to these old English genetics. This would eventually become the most popular Heritage breed of pig in the United States because of its supreme marbling. Prized by the Japanese who imported it as \"Kurobuta\" pork, the Berkshire is recognized by 6 white spots at the tip of its feet, nose and tail.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDuroc\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Eastern United States and corn belt by way of the Guinea coast of Africa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Duroc meat is crisp and clean — known for great marbling and polished texture its taste is approachable on the palate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The Duroc is an older breed of American domestic pig that has become one of the most popular breeds because of its great taste and strong genetics, but pure Duroc is very hard to find. Durocs are a red pig strain developed around 1800 in New England and reputed to trace their ancestry back to the early red pigs of Africa. Durocs are especially valued by farmers for their hardiness and quick but thorough muscle growth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[\/TABS]\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heritage Foods USA","offers":[{"title":"5.5-6 lbs","offer_id":41645129891898,"sku":"967 (5.5-6# + bag)","price":204.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"6-6.5 lbs","offer_id":41645129924666,"sku":"967 (6-6.5# + bag)","price":222.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/products\/broadbent-whole960.jpg?v=1558018060"},{"product_id":"bentons-bacon","title":"BENTON'S HICKORY SMOKED HERITAGE BACON","description":"[TABS]\n\u003ch5\u003eProduct\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBenton's Hickory Smoked Heritage Bacon\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThree 1lb packs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eBerkshire\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAl Benton cures his meats in a tiny smokehouse in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. Established in 1947 in the town of Madisonville, and taken over by Al in 1973, the Benton operation is widely regarded as an American treasure producing the most delicious cured products in the nation. “Don’t call me Mr. Benton,” he chides, “I’m Al.” His smile is half Robert Redford and half Jimmy Carter, equal parts star power and earnest American. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThere is no secret to the Benton formula for bacon, it could not be simpler: salt, brown sugar, time and patience! And a good hickory smoke that lasts about 3 days! Bacon curing is an art Al learned growing up. His family always butchered their own hogs, always made their own sausage and bacon, and today Al will tell you that all he’s doing is what he grew up doing in his backyard so many years ago. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAl also makes amazing prosciutto style ham using our heritage hams! His smoked hams are aged for over a year and a half and the only ingredients are salt, sage, black and red pepper… as Al says he doesn't use anything he can’t pronounce! Even though Benton is a legend in the South, he is still hands-on and present in all steps of the curing process. He is another famed traditionalist who is forwarding the cause of the American charcuterie renaissance by embracing heritage breed pigs.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eIngredients: pork,\u003cspan\u003e salt, brown sugar, pepper. Nitrite free.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHumanely raised on pasture \u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e100% \u003cspan\u003eantibiotic-free\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRaised by independent family farmers\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHeritage pork has more marbling resulting in more tender and juicy meat\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/279514159\" width=\"480\" height=\"270\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eArtisan\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt was teeming rain on the way from Nashville to Madisonville, Tennessee, the kind of rain that obscures the green, Smoky Mountains of Tennessee behind sheets of steam and fog and sounds like war drums on the roof of a rented car. It didn’t take much imagination to think we were driving through Skull Island, home of King Kong, or had somehow made a detour into the Heart of Darkness, a scene from Apocalypse Now.  The truth, however, was far more comforting: We were on a mission to see a King and Queen of country ham, Al Benton and Nancy Newsom.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMaking personal visits to farms, chefs, and providers has always been one of the hallmarks of Heritage Foods USA, and as anyone who has ever been on one of these trips with ringleader Patrick Martins knows, they are magical meat tours indeed, whirlwinds of gastronomic bliss and historical culinary discovery, epicurean epics writ large in regional cuisine. And, a hell of a lot of fun.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBenton’s Country Hams was the first stop on this pilgrimage to the cathedrals of southern ham, and we were greeted by the man himself in his small, roadside storefront.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Don’t call me Mr. Benton,” he chided with a smile, “I’m Al.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAl Benton speaks with an unerring southern twang that is like catnip to New Yawkers. And even though he teases at himself for being a hillbilly, he can’t hide his business acumen or old-school good looks — his smile is half Robert Redford and half Jimmy Carter, equal parts star power and earnest American. Speaking to him about his business is a powerful lesson in pride, good taste, modesty, respect for history, and the providence of good timing — both Al and his Kentucky counterpart, Nancy Newsom were lucky enough to catch the rising tide of foodies and enlightened chefs who recognized the soaring quality of their country hams just as cosmopolitan foodie culture was exploding.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhile we spoke with Al, a steady stream of customers came in to buy bacon, ham parts, sliced country hams, and more bacon — young men wearing camo pants and trucker hats, soccer moms with their kids, a middle-aged man wearing a Grateful Dead t-shirt… ham does not discriminate. “The Southern Food Alliance,” Al mentions matter-of-factly, “is built on the idea that if you sat down at the table we are all the same. It doesn’t matter where you come from or what your ethnic background is.” Indeed, ham is the great equalizer.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTommy — Al’s plant manager and right hand man (“Sometimes he’s up to his elbows in bacon grease, sometimes he is solving problems on the phone.”) — accompanies us with Al on a tour through his facility, which from the road looks no bigger than the storefront, but turns out to be a warren of rooms filled with hams hung to dry or curing in salt, a veritable bunker of porky goodness. The smell of hickory smoke kisses you on the face at every turn.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAl tells us about running into a burning smokehouse to literally save his bacon, screaming at the firemen “DO NOT USE YOUR HOSES, THERE IS BACON IN THERE!” and ruminates on his favorite places to eat: “I love Charleston, and New Orleans, but New York City, that’s the place, you can get everything… if I had one place to go there, though, it would be one of David Chang’s restaurants.” And why not? Chang’s Momofuku empire has been one of Benton’s great champions, and in fact, our pilgrimage follows the one made by Momofuku executive chef and prime mover Matt Rudofker just a week before.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere is no secret to the Benton formula for ham, it could not be simpler: “Just salt, sage, black and red pepper… we don’t use anything you can’t pronounce. You look at some of these industrially made hams – you can’t even read the ingredients, they have so many and things you never even heard of.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThey use a wood stove in the smoke room, burning local hickory — “The wood comes in when it does. When people are running out of beer and milk and want to sell some wood, they come see me. That’s always the way it’s been.”  The hams spend three days in the smoke room to get that intense flavor. Bacon takes about five weeks to make, moving from curing (brown sugar and salt) into cooler rooms and then a heated room; hams can age up to two years. “You have to age the hams – it’s like cheese, it starts mild and when you age it the flavor becomes sharper.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBenton’s began in 1947, when dairy farmer Al Hicks cured hams for local farmers. “Ham was sustenance food for hillbillies,” Al Benton says of the very thing that has become a culinary legend.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1973, Al was a High School guidance counselor struggling to make ends meet when he decided he was going to give a go to what he knew best.  “I quit my job and then it really sunk in – it wasn’t going to be easy to make a living curing hams…. so I wrote to everyone I could think of, anyone who could help, university professors, cooks, I wanted to hear everyone’s ideas, and I studied everything I could, but I could never improve on the recipe from the old smoke house behind the house I was born in — people really seemed to like it. At the beginning I was thinking about curing quickly, maybe one hour for a twelve-lb. ham – I thought if I was going to make it in this business I had to work very fast and quick-cure, which is what the business was. But my daddy told me ‘If you play the other guy’s game, you are always going to lose. Make it the best you can. Quality is what is going to sustain you.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Blackberry Farms changed things, this was in about 1991. We had just two employees then. John Fleer was the chef at Blackberry and he was already something of a star – he had been Mary Tyler Moore’s personal chef! John is such a good man, I never even heard him raise his voice, which is very rare among chefs… and he cared so much about sourcing. He called on day, he had bought some stuff from us, and I thought he was going to complain, but he wanted to see if it was okay to put our name on his menu at Blackberry. I thought there had to be a reason why not, but I couldn’t think of one. And then the phone started ringing, he had so many great chefs coming to visit him — Tom Colicchio, Thomas Keller — I guess that’s when I saw the Promised Land. There was a market for fine dining with the aged country hams and bacon.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLater that night, dinner talk turned to moonshine, music, and professional wrestling — Tennessee, and Memphis, especially, being mecca’s of the great sport, led by it’s own King, Jerry Lawler, who’s greatest rivalry was a Jewish comedian from New York named Andy Kaufman. But mostly we talked about food, and mostly about ham. Al spoke with great admiration for his colleagues Sam Edwards and Nancy Newsom, to whom he gives great credit for bringing traditional Southern ham north.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“People are really starting to care where their food comes from — Look, when McDonald’s is talking about cage-free eggs, they’re reading the tea leaves. It gives me pride that small folks have been able to make such a ripple in food culture.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eFarms\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen Heritage Foods started in 2001 we set out to sell heritage Thanksgiving turkeys. For three years our turkey project grew, but naturally mating turkey is a seasonal food and two of the three farmers we worked with to raise birds were looking for a more regular source of income if they were to continue working with us. So we committed to selling pork, which can be produced year round, as long as the breeds came from historic genetic lines, just like the turkeys. Now, 24 years later, Heritage Foods still works with those two original farms who together introduced the word “heritage pork” to hundreds of America’s best restaurants from coast-to-coast as well as thousands of homes through the Heritage Foods retail website.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNewman Farm Berkshire Pork\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eMyrtle, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 2006 we got a handwritten letter from farmer Mark Newman asking us if Heritage Foods would ever consider selling his pasture raised old school Berkshire pigs. We said yes and a relationship grew that still continues today, now through his son David who has maintained the genetic line of Berkshires which can be traced back to the 17th and 18th century lines that came to these shores by way of the Berkshire region of England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom the air, Newman Farm Berkshire Pork, in south central Missouri, in the heart of the Ozarks, looks more like a pioneer settlement or a holiday camp than any sort of pig farm. Wooden huts are scattered across green fields like bungalows, where contented Berkshire pigs live their lives, happily on-pasture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePigs on Newman Farm are raised 100% on-pasture. The sows raise their piglets in huts that dot the fields of the farm. The babies live inside the huts until they are old enough to jump over the 6-inch wooden board that blocks the entrance. Once they make the great leap, they have an entire field to run on and they can mingle with the other piglets from the other huts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDavid Newman is both a farmer and scientist. “The farmer came first,” he laughs. His degrees are in animal science, and he holds a Ph.D in meat science and muscle biology, focused on meat quality. “As I became a scientist and got involved in education, I applied what I was learning to understand what we could do better.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBerkshires were the favorite breed of British royalty and were first introduced to the New World in 1823. Since then, Berkshire bloodlines have remained exceptionally pure and have become a mainstay favorite of chefs and diners, legendary for their exceptionally bright pork flavor and thick, delicious fat cap. And if anyone were to question their excellence, just ask David. “It’s not a matter of opinion!” he insists, passionately. “It’s a scientific fact, Berkshires are the most marbled hog on the market today.” David is a master breeder and works hard to keep the lines on his farm separate and he is always working to improve the Berkshire breed on his farm.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDavid lives on the farm with his wife, Kristin, his mom Rita, and his two kids. “I got my start through my family. My parents were hog farmers, but primarily in the commercial pig business. In the 1980s my parents raised pigs in confinement. There were some very challenging economic times for everyone in production, and we realized we were going to have to do something differently. Kristin came from a family farming background also and is a major part of the operations success today, working for the farm along with their team of employees.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“In the 1990s my parents decided they wanted to go back to their roots. We were going to have to be very large to be successful in the commercial sector, and my father decided we should focus on quality. We changed our genetic program and our nutrition program. We became Certified Humane®, and we chose to focus on Berkshire pigs for their quality.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDavid and his family are the future of American farming! They are young, energetic and very passionate about the future of agriculture. David and Kristin work with a team of farmers who raise their Berkshires to supply Heritage Foods and the national network of chefs who rely on his product for their menus.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLazy Red Wattle Ranch\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eLa Plata, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe met Larry and Madonna Sorell in 2002, as growers for Frank Reese and the Heritage Turkey Project. As their turkey flock grew in size, so did the Sorell’s importance to Heritage Foods.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen you see Red Wattle pork on a menu, what you are seeing is a five-state, twelve farm network founded by Larry and Madonna, dedicated to raising a storied breed that was once upon a time nearly extinct. Larry and Madonna are the heroes of this story, avatars of the heritage food movement, true believers who were destined to become the Guardians of the Red Wattle. They are proof positive of the ethos that when it comes to endangered livestock, “you have to eat them to save them.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the beginning, back in 2004 when the Heritage Foods wholesale business began selling pigs, a market for the Red Wattle pig was built on a handshake agreement with chefs Zach Allen and Mark Ladner, then at Lupa Restaurant in NYC. They recognized the high-quality and undiminished taste that came from a Red Wattle pig humanely raised on-pasture and antibiotic free, using traditional farming methods. The deal with Ladner, and the partnership with Larry and his Lazy Red Wattle Ranch, were part of the origins of Heritage Foods.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“We traveled 18,000 miles to get started,” Larry says matter-of-factly about a Heritage Foods Odyssey whose mission was to search out rare Red Wattle sows and collect a viable genetic lineage of this incredible pig whose American legacy goes back to 18th century New Orleans. \"When we began, we had two Red Wattle gilts and a boar, and we had to travel all over the United States to start a herd.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Now I’ve kinda retired from raising animals, but we have a dozen Amish growers working with us, and I pick up the hogs and pay for them, and then bring them to the processor, Paradise Locker. I drive a tractor trailer and go around picking up three hundred pounders, fifty to eighty head a week. We have farms in Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa... that’s a lot of traveling. We may have four or five pick-ups every week. You wear out a truck pretty fast.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLarry, now over eighty, does less of the driving, but he still keeps all the relationships going, which isn’t easy considering the Amish don’t have phones inside their homes! “I’ll have to quit sometime but right now it’s going pretty good. The driving is easy. The hard job is you gotta keep Amish families happy, picking up their hogs, coordinating, monitoring the size of the animals, and making sure we have the right amount — each week we round up 50 to 100 pigs. And we’ve been doing it for almost 20 years now.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThanks to Larry and Madonna’s work, the Red Wattle was upgraded to Threatened status from Critical on The Livestock Conservancy’s watch list, a great achievement for the cause of biodiversity, one of the most important issues of our time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMetzger Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eSeneca, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug Metzger's Tamworth and Berkshire genetics are now being shepherded by Robert Funk. Doug sadly passed away in 2023. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug Metzger was truly at the ground zero of our business and the heritage food movement. He was the magic man that first introduced us to our processor Paradise Locker Meats, with whom we have worked and grown ever since and he worked together with Frank Reese raising heritage turkeys from about 2002 to 2013.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt 83-years-old, Doug raises purebred, certified Berkshire and Tamworth pigs on his 1,500 acre farm in Seneca, Kansas, with his wife Betty.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn an era of specialization Doug is an anomaly. Doug is famous for adapting to any moment. In 2001 he took our call and agreed to raise heritage turkeys for us with Frank because he believed that the growing food movement would appreciate the flavor of the birds his grandfather raised. As demand grew for quality meat, Doug got into heritage pigs and transitioned his commodity farm to a pastured farm and haven for the rare Tamworth breed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug has been farming since 1951. As a kid he raised chickens but gave them up when he got into turkeys. As he got older, he broke into the milk cattle game. Then he tried sheep, but he says he couldn’t get them to breed right. He also raised Aylesbury ducks — a rare heritage breed. Over the years the acres on his sprawling farm have been used to grow wheat, corn, oats, barley, sorghum, alfalfa, and rye. He even grew flax one year because he heard it was supposed to help the immune system of the cattle, which he thought it did. “It certainly made their coats look wonderful,” Doug says.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eToday farmers are incentivized to grow monocrops of corn and soybean — “that’s all they want us to grow,” Doug explains, “and farmers haul their crops to town instead of using it for something on their own farm.” Doug remembers fondly the days when a diversified farm would grow corn and turn it into whiskey, or when soybeans were grown for the purpose of feeding milk cattle — as Doug did on his farm. “Keep your grain,” Doug insists, “and use it to grow a truly sustainable farm.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug was never one to use chemicals to grow food. He believes any talk of sustainability is not real when you raise only one crop or when you use chemicals to do it. “My buddy and I could clear 100 acres of weeds in a day if we worked through the night, and we did not need any additives to do it. All those chemicals are part of the reason there are so many cancers around, if you ask me.” Doug has amassed generations of farming secrets having grown so many foods naturally, often calling upon experiences from decades ago to solve a problem that presents itself today.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug comes from a truly great American farming family — Life Magazine once wrote that Doug’s father, who lived to be 104, had more living descendants than any American – many of them farmers. His is part of the story of immigrants who came to the New World and made good through old-fashioned values, tradition, and hard work.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“We’re here today to save these breeds,” says Doug, who is as down-home as the farm he still works on as he approaches his 84th birthday. “Save the breeds and make a little money. We got a lot of things going on, we have a lot of land. But it’s getting hard to keep up with it all… I need more young people! When I was young, we raised turkeys in spring and sold ‘em all by Christmas. We milked cattle all year round. I want to keep working — my dad was helping me when he was 84!”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis conversational style always brings insight and interesting thoughts to bear. We hope Doug and Betty work with us for many years to come and that their beliefs of diversified farming continue. Today, his farm is supported through the work of his daughter Marilyn and her husband Stan, and their children Simon and Joel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGood Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eOlsburg, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGood Farms' Old Spot, Duroc, and Tamworth genetics are now being shepherded by Dustin and Maria Torneden since Craig and his wife Amy retired in 2024. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe met the Goods through a connection at Kansas State University where Craig’s father was a distinguished professor. Craig spent his life in agriculture growing up in the Flint Hills of Kansas, some of the best agricultural land in the world, perfectly adapted to free ranging livestock, which feed on the perennial grasses that grow there naturally.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Good’s hog operation began in earnest in 1981, and they have continuously raised hogs there for the past 37 years. Their Duroc herd started with a few sows from Craig’s former employer who started raising Duroc pigs in the 1940s — with females obtained through Sears and Roebucks! As Craig explains, “I took a job in 1975 working with an outstanding stockman who raised purebred Duroc pigs here in Kansas. His name was Fred Germann, and he was one of the oldest and best Duroc breeders in the U.S. Things sure have changed since then, but the Durocs that we now raise have ancestry that goes back to those Sears females, approximately 85 years ago.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDuroc is an American breed that was used as the foundational genetics for the entire pig industry in the United States because of their good growth rate, body type, and mothering instincts. But big agriculture continued to overbreed the Duroc for certain traits related to higher profits and they crossed it with other pig breeds. Soon the industrial pig became utterly unrecognizable, and it became almost impossible to tell that it had originally derived from Duroc genetics.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCraig, on the other hand, continued to breed his Durocs to improve their genetics with traits particular to Craig’s preferences, while staying true to the original healthy and hearty breed. Craig always put a lot of thought into which sows he would breed with which boars as he worked to improve meat quality and edibility, as opposed to faster growth. He also selected pigs for the demeanor of the animals, who he treats like members of his own family. Craig bred for strong animals and sought out leaner carcasses (although the Duroc is supremely marbled). He also bred for skeletal size – Craig likes good length of body, for better loin eye size and fat distribution.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOver the years, the Durocs on Good Farm became his own breed, even though they looked like and acted like true old school Durocs. The Goods continue to bring in new lines to avoid inbreeding, but they work with the lines to continue improving their particular version of the Duroc.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCraig and Amy also raise Gloucestershire Old Spots and Tamworths, both considered rare breeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCraig's father, Don, was a meat scientist and would eventually have a division of Kansas State University named after him. Together they raised purebred Angus cattle and crops on the farm. “I have had a passion for raising pigs,” says Craig, since taking pigs on as a 4-H project in 1965. Craig studied Animal Science at Kansas State University. “Amy and I were married in 1976 and 5 years later we made the decision to move to the farm that my father and mother had owned since 1961, near Olsburg, Kansas, on 1000 acres of Flint Hills pasture.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eBreed\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRed Wattle\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 18th Century Louisiana by way of New Caledonia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a cross between pork and beef, Red Wattle is floral and robust, concentrated and bold.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: A consortium of 18 Amish families in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: French colonists brought these hogs to New Orleans as a favored meat breed. The Red Wattle eventually would populate the forests of Texas where they were rounded up and brought to the great slaughterhouses of Chicago. Recognized by their signature wattles that hang from the jowl, the Red Wattle resembles Kunekune pigs of New Zealand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGloucestershire Old Spots\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 19th Century Indiana by way of Berkeley Valley of Gloucestershire, England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a charcuterie pig with a delicious milky fat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside of Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: Descended from the native old English pigs of western England, this pig was mentioned as early as the 1780's. The spotted pig forages on fallen orchard fruits and other farm by products. Despite their signature oversized floppy ears which hang over their eyes, this gentle pig is hearty and self-reliant.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTamworth\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 2,500 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Rossville, Illinois by way of Staffordshire, England by way of Ireland.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: A premiere bacon producer, Tamworth meat is fruity, earthy, clean, mineral, root, sweet and tender.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Doug Metzger and Craig and Amy Good in Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The only native red breed to England, its heritage traces back to the wild pigs of Middle Age Europe. A slow growing breed, the Tamworth is active and hearty. Traditionally raised in the woods, the pig's long angular snout makes it an excellent forager — Tamworth pigs do not conform to industrial agriculture needs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBerkshire\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 1823 Kentucky\/ Illinois by way of Western England and outside London.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Sweet with depth of flavor, Berkshire pork is balanced and the most universally loved of all the Heritage breeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: David Newman and a consortium of 12 family farms in Kansas, Missouri and Iowa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: For years the Royal Family kept a large Berkshire herd at Windsor Castle — our Berkshire pigs are traceable back to these old English genetics. This would eventually become the most popular Heritage breed of pig in the United States because of its supreme marbling. Prized by the Japanese who imported it as \"Kurobuta\" pork, the Berkshire is recognized by 6 white spots at the tip of its feet, nose and tail.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDuroc\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Eastern United States and corn belt by way of the Guinea coast of Africa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Duroc meat is crisp and clean — known for great marbling and polished texture its taste is approachable on the palate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The Duroc is an older breed of American domestic pig that has become one of the most popular breeds because of its great taste and strong genetics, but pure Duroc is very hard to find. Durocs are a red pig strain developed around 1800 in New England and reputed to trace their ancestry back to the early red pigs of Africa. Durocs are especially valued by farmers for their hardiness and quick but thorough muscle growth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[\/TABS]\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heritage Foods USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":13382075318314,"sku":"89 (3pk)","price":74.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/products\/bentons_bacon_600.jpg?v=1629230904"},{"product_id":"volpi-heritage-prosciutto","title":"VOLPI HERITAGE PROSCIUTTO","description":"[TABS]\n\u003ch5\u003eProduct\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHeritage Prosciutto from Volpi Foods\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOne whole ham, boneless\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAged 18 months\u003cbr\u003eCleaned and ready to slice and eat!\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eChoose your preferred weight from the drop-down menu above.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSweet and nutty, a delicious Italian-style prosciutto. This prosciutto is the perfect centerpiece for a party. For the real meat-lover, there is nothing like a whole leg! If you have a meat slicer, this is an obvious choice, but it can also be easily sliced with a sharp knife! Each ham comes with a cloth netting for easy storage in the refrigerator for up to a year.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis prosciutto is delicious with an intense earthiness and a subtly sweet and nutty flavor. Hand-rubbed, salted, and air dried for a perfect melt-in-your-mouth texture. Volpi dries their meats by adjusting the temperature and humidity of natural airflows, just as John Volpi did back in 1902 when he opened Volpi Foods in St. Louis, Missouri. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eServe as you would any Spanish or Italian ham. Slice thin – slicing thinly is the key to enjoying and appreciating long-aged cured ham. A little bit goes a long way. Wrap and store in your refrigerator — this ham has an incredibly long shelf life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHumanely raised on pasture by independent family farmers\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e100% antibiotic-free with no nitrates or nitrites\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHeritage pork has more marbling resulting in more tender and juicy meat\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eArtisan\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1898, John Volpi arrived in America from his home in Milan, Italy, bringing with him little more than a craft and a vision. Having learned from his elders the ancient European art of dry curing, John had a dream of importing the centuries-old traditions across the ocean—thus continuing to serve his customers once they migrated to America.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1957, upon John’s passing, his nephew, Armando Pasetti, took the helm of the company, which had become a thriving business. In 1980, he continued to meet consumer demand by bringing Volpi Foods national, and enlisted his daughter to help run the manufacturing plant. An eager pupil, Lorenza studied first-hand the techniques behind Volpi’s premium meats—and supplemented her culinary expertise with an MBA from Washington University.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 2002, exactly 100 years after John Volpi opened his business, Armando passed the torch to Lorenza. Now, as president of Volpi Foods, Lorenza continues to refine her great-uncle’s craft—while adhering to the techniques he brought with him to America more than a century ago. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eFarms\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen Heritage Foods started in 2001 we set out to sell heritage Thanksgiving turkeys. For three years our turkey project grew, but naturally mating turkey is a seasonal food and two of the three farmers we worked with to raise birds were looking for a more regular source of income if they were to continue working with us. So we committed to selling pork, which can be produced year round, as long as the breeds came from historic genetic lines, just like the turkeys. Now, 24 years later, Heritage Foods still works with those two original farms who together introduced the word “heritage pork” to hundreds of America’s best restaurants from coast-to-coast as well as thousands of homes through the Heritage Foods retail website.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNewman Farm Berkshire Pork\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eMyrtle, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 2006 we got a handwritten letter from farmer Mark Newman asking us if Heritage Foods would ever consider selling his pasture raised old school Berkshire pigs. We said yes and a relationship grew that still continues today, now through his son David who has maintained the genetic line of Berkshires which can be traced back to the 17th and 18th century lines that came to these shores by way of the Berkshire region of England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom the air, Newman Farm Berkshire Pork, in south central Missouri, in the heart of the Ozarks, looks more like a pioneer settlement or a holiday camp than any sort of pig farm. Wooden huts are scattered across green fields like bungalows, where contented Berkshire pigs live their lives, happily on-pasture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePigs on Newman Farm are raised 100% on-pasture. The sows raise their piglets in huts that dot the fields of the farm. The babies live inside the huts until they are old enough to jump over the 6-inch wooden board that blocks the entrance. Once they make the great leap, they have an entire field to run on and they can mingle with the other piglets from the other huts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDavid Newman is both a farmer and scientist. “The farmer came first,” he laughs. His degrees are in animal science, and he holds a Ph.D in meat science and muscle biology, focused on meat quality. “As I became a scientist and got involved in education, I applied what I was learning to understand what we could do better.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBerkshires were the favorite breed of British royalty and were first introduced to the New World in 1823. Since then, Berkshire bloodlines have remained exceptionally pure and have become a mainstay favorite of chefs and diners, legendary for their exceptionally bright pork flavor and thick, delicious fat cap. And if anyone were to question their excellence, just ask David. “It’s not a matter of opinion!” he insists, passionately. “It’s a scientific fact, Berkshires are the most marbled hog on the market today.” David is a master breeder and works hard to keep the lines on his farm separate and he is always working to improve the Berkshire breed on his farm.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDavid lives on the farm with his wife, Kristin, his mom Rita, and his two kids. “I got my start through my family. My parents were hog farmers, but primarily in the commercial pig business. In the 1980s my parents raised pigs in confinement. There were some very challenging economic times for everyone in production, and we realized we were going to have to do something differently. Kristin came from a family farming background also and is a major part of the operations success today, working for the farm along with their team of employees.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“In the 1990s my parents decided they wanted to go back to their roots. We were going to have to be very large to be successful in the commercial sector, and my father decided we should focus on quality. We changed our genetic program and our nutrition program. We became Certified Humane®, and we chose to focus on Berkshire pigs for their quality.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDavid and his family are the future of American farming! They are young, energetic and very passionate about the future of agriculture. David and Kristin work with a team of farmers who raise their Berkshires to supply Heritage Foods and the national network of chefs who rely on his product for their menus.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLazy Red Wattle Ranch\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eLa Plata, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe met Larry and Madonna Sorell in 2002, as growers for Frank Reese and the Heritage Turkey Project. As their turkey flock grew in size, so did the Sorell’s importance to Heritage Foods.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen you see Red Wattle pork on a menu, what you are seeing is a five-state, twelve farm network founded by Larry and Madonna, dedicated to raising a storied breed that was once upon a time nearly extinct. Larry and Madonna are the heroes of this story, avatars of the heritage food movement, true believers who were destined to become the Guardians of the Red Wattle. They are proof positive of the ethos that when it comes to endangered livestock, “you have to eat them to save them.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the beginning, back in 2004 when the Heritage Foods wholesale business began selling pigs, a market for the Red Wattle pig was built on a handshake agreement with chefs Zach Allen and Mark Ladner, then at Lupa Restaurant in NYC. They recognized the high-quality and undiminished taste that came from a Red Wattle pig humanely raised on-pasture and antibiotic free, using traditional farming methods. The deal with Ladner, and the partnership with Larry and his Lazy Red Wattle Ranch, were part of the origins of Heritage Foods.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“We traveled 18,000 miles to get started,” Larry says matter-of-factly about a Heritage Foods Odyssey whose mission was to search out rare Red Wattle sows and collect a viable genetic lineage of this incredible pig whose American legacy goes back to 18th century New Orleans. \"When we began, we had two Red Wattle gilts and a boar, and we had to travel all over the United States to start a herd.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Now I’ve kinda retired from raising animals, but we have a dozen Amish growers working with us, and I pick up the hogs and pay for them, and then bring them to the processor, Paradise Locker. I drive a tractor trailer and go around picking up three hundred pounders, fifty to eighty head a week. We have farms in Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa... that’s a lot of traveling. We may have four or five pick-ups every week. You wear out a truck pretty fast.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLarry, now over eighty, does less of the driving, but he still keeps all the relationships going, which isn’t easy considering the Amish don’t have phones inside their homes! “I’ll have to quit sometime but right now it’s going pretty good. The driving is easy. The hard job is you gotta keep Amish families happy, picking up their hogs, coordinating, monitoring the size of the animals, and making sure we have the right amount — each week we round up 50 to 100 pigs. And we’ve been doing it for almost 20 years now.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThanks to Larry and Madonna’s work, the Red Wattle was upgraded to Threatened status from Critical on The Livestock Conservancy’s watch list, a great achievement for the cause of biodiversity, one of the most important issues of our time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMetzger Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eSeneca, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug Metzger's Tamworth and Berkshire genetics are now being shepherded by Robert Funk. Doug sadly passed away in 2023. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug Metzger was truly at the ground zero of our business and the heritage food movement. He was the magic man that first introduced us to our processor Paradise Locker Meats, with whom we have worked and grown ever since and he worked together with Frank Reese raising heritage turkeys from about 2002 to 2013.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt 83-years-old, Doug raises purebred, certified Berkshire and Tamworth pigs on his 1,500 acre farm in Seneca, Kansas, with his wife Betty.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn an era of specialization Doug is an anomaly. Doug is famous for adapting to any moment. In 2001 he took our call and agreed to raise heritage turkeys for us with Frank because he believed that the growing food movement would appreciate the flavor of the birds his grandfather raised. As demand grew for quality meat, Doug got into heritage pigs and transitioned his commodity farm to a pastured farm and haven for the rare Tamworth breed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug has been farming since 1951. As a kid he raised chickens but gave them up when he got into turkeys. As he got older, he broke into the milk cattle game. Then he tried sheep, but he says he couldn’t get them to breed right. He also raised Aylesbury ducks — a rare heritage breed. Over the years the acres on his sprawling farm have been used to grow wheat, corn, oats, barley, sorghum, alfalfa, and rye. He even grew flax one year because he heard it was supposed to help the immune system of the cattle, which he thought it did. “It certainly made their coats look wonderful,” Doug says.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eToday farmers are incentivized to grow monocrops of corn and soybean — “that’s all they want us to grow,” Doug explains, “and farmers haul their crops to town instead of using it for something on their own farm.” Doug remembers fondly the days when a diversified farm would grow corn and turn it into whiskey, or when soybeans were grown for the purpose of feeding milk cattle — as Doug did on his farm. “Keep your grain,” Doug insists, “and use it to grow a truly sustainable farm.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug was never one to use chemicals to grow food. He believes any talk of sustainability is not real when you raise only one crop or when you use chemicals to do it. “My buddy and I could clear 100 acres of weeds in a day if we worked through the night, and we did not need any additives to do it. All those chemicals are part of the reason there are so many cancers around, if you ask me.” Doug has amassed generations of farming secrets having grown so many foods naturally, often calling upon experiences from decades ago to solve a problem that presents itself today.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug comes from a truly great American farming family — Life Magazine once wrote that Doug’s father, who lived to be 104, had more living descendants than any American – many of them farmers. His is part of the story of immigrants who came to the New World and made good through old-fashioned values, tradition, and hard work.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“We’re here today to save these breeds,” says Doug, who is as down-home as the farm he still works on as he approaches his 84th birthday. “Save the breeds and make a little money. We got a lot of things going on, we have a lot of land. But it’s getting hard to keep up with it all… I need more young people! When I was young, we raised turkeys in spring and sold ‘em all by Christmas. We milked cattle all year round. I want to keep working — my dad was helping me when he was 84!”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis conversational style always brings insight and interesting thoughts to bear. We hope Doug and Betty work with us for many years to come and that their beliefs of diversified farming continue. Today, his farm is supported through the work of his daughter Marilyn and her husband Stan, and their children Simon and Joel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGood Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eOlsburg, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGood Farms' Old Spot, Duroc, and Tamworth genetics are now being shepherded by Dustin and Maria Torneden since Craig and his wife Amy retired in 2024. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe met the Goods through a connection at Kansas State University where Craig’s father was a distinguished professor. Craig spent his life in agriculture growing up in the Flint Hills of Kansas, some of the best agricultural land in the world, perfectly adapted to free ranging livestock, which feed on the perennial grasses that grow there naturally.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Good’s hog operation began in earnest in 1981, and they have continuously raised hogs there for the past 37 years. Their Duroc herd started with a few sows from Craig’s former employer who started raising Duroc pigs in the 1940s — with females obtained through Sears and Roebucks! As Craig explains, “I took a job in 1975 working with an outstanding stockman who raised purebred Duroc pigs here in Kansas. His name was Fred Germann, and he was one of the oldest and best Duroc breeders in the U.S. Things sure have changed since then, but the Durocs that we now raise have ancestry that goes back to those Sears females, approximately 85 years ago.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDuroc is an American breed that was used as the foundational genetics for the entire pig industry in the United States because of their good growth rate, body type, and mothering instincts. But big agriculture continued to overbreed the Duroc for certain traits related to higher profits and they crossed it with other pig breeds. Soon the industrial pig became utterly unrecognizable, and it became almost impossible to tell that it had originally derived from Duroc genetics.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCraig, on the other hand, continued to breed his Durocs to improve their genetics with traits particular to Craig’s preferences, while staying true to the original healthy and hearty breed. Craig always put a lot of thought into which sows he would breed with which boars as he worked to improve meat quality and edibility, as opposed to faster growth. He also selected pigs for the demeanor of the animals, who he treats like members of his own family. Craig bred for strong animals and sought out leaner carcasses (although the Duroc is supremely marbled). He also bred for skeletal size – Craig likes good length of body, for better loin eye size and fat distribution.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOver the years, the Durocs on Good Farm became his own breed, even though they looked like and acted like true old school Durocs. The Goods continue to bring in new lines to avoid inbreeding, but they work with the lines to continue improving their particular version of the Duroc.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCraig and Amy also raise Gloucestershire Old Spots and Tamworths, both considered rare breeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCraig's father, Don, was a meat scientist and would eventually have a division of Kansas State University named after him. Together they raised purebred Angus cattle and crops on the farm. “I have had a passion for raising pigs,” says Craig, since taking pigs on as a 4-H project in 1965. Craig studied Animal Science at Kansas State University. “Amy and I were married in 1976 and 5 years later we made the decision to move to the farm that my father and mother had owned since 1961, near Olsburg, Kansas, on 1000 acres of Flint Hills pasture.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eBreed\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRed Wattle\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 18th Century Louisiana by way of New Caledonia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a cross between pork and beef, Red Wattle is floral and robust, concentrated and bold.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: A consortium of 18 Amish families in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: French colonists brought these hogs to New Orleans as a favored meat breed. The Red Wattle eventually would populate the forests of Texas where they were rounded up and brought to the great slaughterhouses of Chicago. Recognized by their signature wattles that hang from the jowl, the Red Wattle resembles Kunekune pigs of New Zealand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGloucestershire Old Spots\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 19th Century Indiana by way of Berkeley Valley of Gloucestershire, England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a charcuterie pig with a delicious milky fat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside of Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: Descended from the native old English pigs of western England, this pig was mentioned as early as the 1780's. The spotted pig forages on fallen orchard fruits and other farm by products. Despite their signature oversized floppy ears which hang over their eyes, this gentle pig is hearty and self-reliant.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTamworth\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 2,500 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Rossville, Illinois by way of Staffordshire, England by way of Ireland.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: A premiere bacon producer, Tamworth meat is fruity, earthy, clean, mineral, root, sweet and tender.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Doug Metzger and Craig and Amy Good in Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The only native red breed to England, its heritage traces back to the wild pigs of Middle Age Europe. A slow growing breed, the Tamworth is active and hearty. Traditionally raised in the woods, the pig's long angular snout makes it an excellent forager — Tamworth pigs do not conform to industrial agriculture needs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBerkshire\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 1823 Kentucky\/ Illinois by way of Western England and outside London.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Sweet with depth of flavor, Berkshire pork is balanced and the most universally loved of all the Heritage breeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: David Newman and a consortium of 12 family farms in Kansas, Missouri and Iowa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: For years the Royal Family kept a large Berkshire herd at Windsor Castle — our Berkshire pigs are traceable back to these old English genetics. This would eventually become the most popular Heritage breed of pig in the United States because of its supreme marbling. Prized by the Japanese who imported it as \"Kurobuta\" pork, the Berkshire is recognized by 6 white spots at the tip of its feet, nose and tail.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDuroc\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Eastern United States and corn belt by way of the Guinea coast of Africa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Duroc meat is crisp and clean — known for great marbling and polished texture its taste is approachable on the palate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The Duroc is an older breed of American domestic pig that has become one of the most popular breeds because of its great taste and strong genetics, but pure Duroc is very hard to find. Durocs are a red pig strain developed around 1800 in New England and reputed to trace their ancestry back to the early red pigs of Africa. Durocs are especially valued by farmers for their hardiness and quick but thorough muscle growth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[\/TABS]\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heritage Foods USA","offers":[{"title":"8-9lb","offer_id":41503243010106,"sku":"8-9lb (1pk + bag)","price":255.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"9-10lb","offer_id":41503243042874,"sku":"9-10lb (1pk + bag)","price":286.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"10-11lb","offer_id":41503243075642,"sku":"10-11lb (1pk + bag)","price":316.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/products\/hf_volpi_whole_prosciutto.jpg?v=1630094232"},{"product_id":"farmstead-bacon","title":"LMR'S FARMSTEAD DRY CURED HERITAGE BACON","description":"[TABS]\n\u003ch5\u003eProduct\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLMR's Farmstead Dry Cured Heritage Bacon\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThree 12 oz packs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eBerkshire\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFarmstead bacon is a “California” bacon, mild mannered and mellow. Easy to eat on sandwiches or with eggs, perfect for any time of day. It is lighter in flavor with just a bit of smoke, delicate and creamy, but with its own perky profile. We love it on avocado toast, and it pairs incredibly with a light California red, like the Pinot Noir from Farmstead! As with all our bacon, it is made from the healthiest, pasture-raised heritage breed pigs, with no antibiotics.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e The secret to great pork is to start off with great ingredients, and nothing beats our storied Heritage breeds —  Berkshire, Red Wattle, Duroc, Gloucestershire Old Spot, Large Black, and Tamworth. Each breed comes from a different culinary tradition, and boasts a distinctive, nuanced flavor.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eIngredients: \u003cspan\u003epork, brown sugar, salt, spices, sodium nitrite.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHumanely raised on pasture \u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e100% \u003cspan\u003eantibiotic free\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRaised by independent family farmers\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHeritage pork has more marbling resulting in more tender  and juicy meat\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003ciframe height=\"270\" width=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/279514159\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eArtisan\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFarmstead at Long Meadow Ranch brings food directly to their spectacular but very accessible restaurant, a true model of sustainability. They make their own wine, specifically to pair with food from their ranch and orchard. They create their own olive oil and raise their own Highland cattle, which they use in their cooking. At Farmstead, every link of the food chain is literally just steps away, and now they’ve added a bacon to their mix!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFarmstead bacon is cured in a dry brine, with a little brown sugar, a little cayenne pepper, a little molasses and black pepper – “just enough salt and sweet to be balanced” — and of course it is made using the best quality pork bellies from Heritage Foods.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFarmstead Executive Chef and Director of Culinary Operations Stephen Barber, the award-winning artisan who has merged America’s great southern traditions with a fresh California outlook, has long been a hero to Team Heritage, and his new bacon cements it. “Farmstead means from our farm, we have our own eggs from our chickens and now we make our own bacon. We truly are making our own breakfast!”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eFarms\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen Heritage Foods started in 2001 we set out to sell heritage Thanksgiving turkeys. For three years our turkey project grew, but naturally mating turkey is a seasonal food and two of the three farmers we worked with to raise birds were looking for a more regular source of income if they were to continue working with us. So we committed to selling pork, which can be produced year round, as long as the breeds came from historic genetic lines, just like the turkeys. Now, 24 years later, Heritage Foods still works with those two original farms who together introduced the word “heritage pork” to hundreds of America’s best restaurants from coast-to-coast as well as thousands of homes through the Heritage Foods retail website.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNewman Farm Berkshire Pork\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eMyrtle, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn 2006 we got a handwritten letter from farmer Mark Newman asking us if Heritage Foods would ever consider selling his pasture raised old school Berkshire pigs. We said yes and a relationship grew that still continues today, now through his son David who has maintained the genetic line of Berkshires which can be traced back to the 17th and 18th century lines that came to these shores by way of the Berkshire region of England.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFrom the air, Newman Farm Berkshire Pork, in south central Missouri, in the heart of the Ozarks, looks more like a pioneer settlement or a holiday camp than any sort of pig farm. Wooden huts are scattered across green fields like bungalows, where contented Berkshire pigs live their lives, happily on-pasture.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePigs on Newman Farm are raised 100% on-pasture. The sows raise their piglets in huts that dot the fields of the farm. The babies live inside the huts until they are old enough to jump over the 6-inch wooden board that blocks the entrance. Once they make the great leap, they have an entire field to run on and they can mingle with the other piglets from the other huts.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid Newman is both a farmer and scientist. “The farmer came first,” he laughs. His degrees are in animal science, and he holds a Ph.D in meat science and muscle biology, focused on meat quality. “As I became a scientist and got involved in education, I applied what I was learning to understand what we could do better.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBerkshires were the favorite breed of British royalty and were first introduced to the New World in 1823. Since then, Berkshire bloodlines have remained exceptionally pure and have become a mainstay favorite of chefs and diners, legendary for their exceptionally bright pork flavor and thick, delicious fat cap. And if anyone were to question their excellence, just ask David. “It’s not a matter of opinion!” he insists, passionately. “It’s a scientific fact, Berkshires are the most marbled hog on the market today.” David is a master breeder and works hard to keep the lines on his farm separate and he is always working to improve the Berkshire breed on his farm.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid lives on the farm with his wife, Kristin, his mom Rita, and his two kids. “I got my start through my family. My parents were hog farmers, but primarily in the commercial pig business. In the 1980s my parents raised pigs in confinement. There were some very challenging economic times for everyone in production, and we realized we were going to have to do something differently. Kristin came from a family farming background also and is a major part of the operations success today, working for the farm along with their team of employees.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“In the 1990s my parents decided they wanted to go back to their roots. We were going to have to be very large to be successful in the commercial sector, and my father decided we should focus on quality. We changed our genetic program and our nutrition program. We became Certified Humane®, and we chose to focus on Berkshire pigs for their quality.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid and his family are the future of American farming! They are young, energetic and very passionate about the future of agriculture. David and Kristin work with a team of farmers who raise their Berkshires to supply Heritage Foods and the national network of chefs who rely on his product for their menus.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLazy Red Wattle Ranch\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eLa Plata, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWe met Larry and Madonna Sorell in 2002, as growers for Frank Reese and the Heritage Turkey Project. As their turkey flock grew in size, so did the Sorell’s importance to Heritage Foods.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen you see Red Wattle pork on a menu, what you are seeing is a five-state, twelve farm network founded by Larry and Madonna, dedicated to raising a storied breed that was once upon a time nearly extinct. Larry and Madonna are the heroes of this story, avatars of the heritage food movement, true believers who were destined to become the Guardians of the Red Wattle. They are proof positive of the ethos that when it comes to endangered livestock, “you have to eat them to save them.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn the beginning, back in 2004 when the Heritage Foods wholesale business began selling pigs, a market for the Red Wattle pig was built on a handshake agreement with chefs Zach Allen and Mark Ladner, then at Lupa Restaurant in NYC. They recognized the high-quality and undiminished taste that came from a Red Wattle pig humanely raised on-pasture and antibiotic free, using traditional farming methods. The deal with Ladner, and the partnership with Larry and his Lazy Red Wattle Ranch, were part of the origins of Heritage Foods.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“We traveled 18,000 miles to get started,” Larry says matter-of-factly about a Heritage Foods Odyssey whose mission was to search out rare Red Wattle sows and collect a viable genetic lineage of this incredible pig whose American legacy goes back to 18th century New Orleans. \"When we began, we had two Red Wattle gilts and a boar, and we had to travel all over the United States to start a herd.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Now I’ve kinda retired from raising animals, but we have a dozen Amish growers working with us, and I pick up the hogs and pay for them, and then bring them to the processor, Paradise Locker. I drive a tractor trailer and go around picking up three hundred pounders, fifty to eighty head a week. We have farms in Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa... that’s a lot of traveling. We may have four or five pick-ups every week. You wear out a truck pretty fast.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLarry, now over eighty, does less of the driving, but he still keeps all the relationships going, which isn’t easy considering the Amish don’t have phones inside their homes! “I’ll have to quit sometime but right now it’s going pretty good. The driving is easy. The hard job is you gotta keep Amish families happy, picking up their hogs, coordinating, monitoring the size of the animals, and making sure we have the right amount — each week we round up 50 to 100 pigs. And we’ve been doing it for almost 20 years now.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThanks to Larry and Madonna’s work, the Red Wattle was upgraded to Threatened status from Critical on The Livestock Conservancy’s watch list, a great achievement for the cause of biodiversity, one of the most important issues of our time.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMetzger Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eSeneca, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug Metzger's Tamworth and Berkshire genetics are now being shepherded by Robert Funk. Doug sadly passed away in 2023. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug Metzger was truly at the ground zero of our business and the heritage food movement. He was the magic man that first introduced us to our processor Paradise Locker Meats, with whom we have worked and grown ever since and he worked together with Frank Reese raising heritage turkeys from about 2002 to 2013.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAt 83-years-old, Doug raises purebred, certified Berkshire and Tamworth pigs on his 1,500 acre farm in Seneca, Kansas, with his wife Betty.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn an era of specialization Doug is an anomaly. Doug is famous for adapting to any moment. In 2001 he took our call and agreed to raise heritage turkeys for us with Frank because he believed that the growing food movement would appreciate the flavor of the birds his grandfather raised. As demand grew for quality meat, Doug got into heritage pigs and transitioned his commodity farm to a pastured farm and haven for the rare Tamworth breed.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug has been farming since 1951. As a kid he raised chickens but gave them up when he got into turkeys. As he got older, he broke into the milk cattle game. Then he tried sheep, but he says he couldn’t get them to breed right. He also raised Aylesbury ducks — a rare heritage breed. Over the years the acres on his sprawling farm have been used to grow wheat, corn, oats, barley, sorghum, alfalfa, and rye. He even grew flax one year because he heard it was supposed to help the immune system of the cattle, which he thought it did. “It certainly made their coats look wonderful,” Doug says.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eToday farmers are incentivized to grow monocrops of corn and soybean — “that’s all they want us to grow,” Doug explains, “and farmers haul their crops to town instead of using it for something on their own farm.” Doug remembers fondly the days when a diversified farm would grow corn and turn it into whiskey, or when soybeans were grown for the purpose of feeding milk cattle — as Doug did on his farm. “Keep your grain,” Doug insists, “and use it to grow a truly sustainable farm.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug was never one to use chemicals to grow food. He believes any talk of sustainability is not real when you raise only one crop or when you use chemicals to do it. “My buddy and I could clear 100 acres of weeds in a day if we worked through the night, and we did not need any additives to do it. All those chemicals are part of the reason there are so many cancers around, if you ask me.” Doug has amassed generations of farming secrets having grown so many foods naturally, often calling upon experiences from decades ago to solve a problem that presents itself today.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug comes from a truly great American farming family — Life Magazine once wrote that Doug’s father, who lived to be 104, had more living descendants than any American – many of them farmers. His is part of the story of immigrants who came to the New World and made good through old-fashioned values, tradition, and hard work.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“We’re here today to save these breeds,” says Doug, who is as down-home as the farm he still works on as he approaches his 84th birthday. “Save the breeds and make a little money. We got a lot of things going on, we have a lot of land. But it’s getting hard to keep up with it all… I need more young people! When I was young, we raised turkeys in spring and sold ‘em all by Christmas. We milked cattle all year round. I want to keep working — my dad was helping me when he was 84!”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHis conversational style always brings insight and interesting thoughts to bear. We hope Doug and Betty work with us for many years to come and that their beliefs of diversified farming continue. Today, his farm is supported through the work of his daughter Marilyn and her husband Stan, and their children Simon and Joel.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGood Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eOlsburg, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eGood Farms' Old Spot, Duroc, and Tamworth genetics are now being shepherded by Dustin and Maria Torneden since Craig and his wife Amy retired in 2024. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWe met the Goods through a connection at Kansas State University where Craig’s father was a distinguished professor. Craig spent his life in agriculture growing up in the Flint Hills of Kansas, some of the best agricultural land in the world, perfectly adapted to free ranging livestock, which feed on the perennial grasses that grow there naturally.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Good’s hog operation began in earnest in 1981, and they have continuously raised hogs there for the past 37 years. Their Duroc herd started with a few sows from Craig’s former employer who started raising Duroc pigs in the 1940s — with females obtained through Sears and Roebucks! As Craig explains, “I took a job in 1975 working with an outstanding stockman who raised purebred Duroc pigs here in Kansas. His name was Fred Germann, and he was one of the oldest and best Duroc breeders in the U.S. Things sure have changed since then, but the Durocs that we now raise have ancestry that goes back to those Sears females, approximately 85 years ago.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDuroc is an American breed that was used as the foundational genetics for the entire pig industry in the United States because of their good growth rate, body type, and mothering instincts. But big agriculture continued to overbreed the Duroc for certain traits related to higher profits and they crossed it with other pig breeds. Soon the industrial pig became utterly unrecognizable, and it became almost impossible to tell that it had originally derived from Duroc genetics.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig, on the other hand, continued to breed his Durocs to improve their genetics with traits particular to Craig’s preferences, while staying true to the original healthy and hearty breed. Craig always put a lot of thought into which sows he would breed with which boars as he worked to improve meat quality and edibility, as opposed to faster growth. He also selected pigs for the demeanor of the animals, who he treats like members of his own family. Craig bred for strong animals and sought out leaner carcasses (although the Duroc is supremely marbled). He also bred for skeletal size – Craig likes good length of body, for better loin eye size and fat distribution.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOver the years, the Durocs on Good Farm became his own breed, even though they looked like and acted like true old school Durocs. The Goods continue to bring in new lines to avoid inbreeding, but they work with the lines to continue improving their particular version of the Duroc.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig and Amy also raise Gloucestershire Old Spots and Tamworths, both considered rare breeds.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig's father, Don, was a meat scientist and would eventually have a division of Kansas State University named after him. Together they raised purebred Angus cattle and crops on the farm. “I have had a passion for raising pigs,” says Craig, since taking pigs on as a 4-H project in 1965. Craig studied Animal Science at Kansas State University. “Amy and I were married in 1976 and 5 years later we made the decision to move to the farm that my father and mother had owned since 1961, near Olsburg, Kansas, on 1000 acres of Flint Hills pasture.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eBreed\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRed Wattle\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 18th Century Louisiana by way of New Caledonia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a cross between pork and beef, Red Wattle is floral and robust, concentrated and bold.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: A consortium of 18 Amish families in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: French colonists brought these hogs to New Orleans as a favored meat breed. The Red Wattle eventually would populate the forests of Texas where they were rounded up and brought to the great slaughterhouses of Chicago. Recognized by their signature wattles that hang from the jowl, the Red Wattle resembles Kunekune pigs of New Zealand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGloucestershire Old Spots\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 19th Century Indiana by way of Berkeley Valley of Gloucestershire, England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a charcuterie pig with a delicious milky fat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside of Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: Descended from the native old English pigs of western England, this pig was mentioned as early as the 1780's. The spotted pig forages on fallen orchard fruits and other farm by products. Despite their signature oversized floppy ears which hang over their eyes, this gentle pig is hearty and self-reliant.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTamworth\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 2,500 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Rossville, Illinois by way of Staffordshire, England by way of Ireland.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: A premiere bacon producer, Tamworth meat is fruity, earthy, clean, mineral, root, sweet and tender.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Doug Metzger and Craig and Amy Good in Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The only native red breed to England, its heritage traces back to the wild pigs of Middle Age Europe. A slow growing breed, the Tamworth is active and hearty. Traditionally raised in the woods, the pig's long angular snout makes it an excellent forager — Tamworth pigs do not conform to industrial agriculture needs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBerkshire\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 1823 Kentucky\/ Illinois by way of Western England and outside London.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Sweet with depth of flavor, Berkshire pork is balanced and the most universally loved of all the Heritage breeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: David Newman and a consortium of 12 family farms in Kansas, Missouri and Iowa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: For years the Royal Family kept a large Berkshire herd at Windsor Castle — our Berkshire pigs are traceable back to these old English genetics. This would eventually become the most popular Heritage breed of pig in the United States because of its supreme marbling. Prized by the Japanese who imported it as \"Kurobuta\" pork, the Berkshire is recognized by 6 white spots at the tip of its feet, nose and tail.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDuroc\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Eastern United States and corn belt by way of the Guinea coast of Africa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Duroc meat is crisp and clean — known for great marbling and polished texture its taste is approachable on the palate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The Duroc is an older breed of American domestic pig that has become one of the most popular breeds because of its great taste and strong genetics, but pure Duroc is very hard to find. Durocs are a red pig strain developed around 1800 in New England and reputed to trace their ancestry back to the early red pigs of Africa. Durocs are especially valued by farmers for their hardiness and quick but thorough muscle growth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[\/TABS]\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heritage Foods USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":14541417021482,"sku":"93 (3pk)","price":69.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/files\/hf_lmr_farmstead_bacon_ecomm_1.jpg?v=1711040460"},{"product_id":"bentons-extra-aged-ham","title":"BENTON'S EXTRA-AGED HAM","description":"[TABS]\n\u003ch5\u003eProduct\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBenton’s Extra-Aged Ham\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOne boneless ham, aged 20-27 months\u003cbr\u003eReady to slice and eat!\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eChoose your preferred weight from the drop-down menu above.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis ham boasts a hint of smoke and deep, rich flavor. For the real meat-lover, there is nothing like a whole leg! If you have a meat slicer, this is an obvious choice, but it can also be easily sliced with a sharp knife! Each ham comes with a cloth netting for easy storage in the refrigerator where it lasts up to a year.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAl Benton cures his meats in an ancient smokehouse in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, with little consideration for the modern world. Benton's meats are renowned for being heavy on the smoke and a perfect food for folk who love strong and bold flavor. Even though Benton is a legend in the South, he is still hands-on and present in all steps of the curing process. He is another famed traditionalist who is forwarding the cause of the American charcuterie renaissance by embracing heritage breed pigs. We are thrilled to be working with him to bring his great art to Heritage customers.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eServe as you would any Spanish or Italian ham. Slice thin – slicing thinly is the key to enjoying and appreciating long-aged cured ham. A little bit goes a long way. Wrap and store in your refrigerator — this ham has an incredibly long shelf life.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eIngredients: pork, \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003esalt, brown sugar, sodium nitrite, pepper.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHumanely raised on pasture by independent family farms\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e100% antibiotic-free\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHeritage pork has more marbling resulting in more tender and juicy meat\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eArtisan\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt was teeming rain on the way from Nashville to Madisonville, Tennessee, the kind of rain that obscures the green, Smoky Mountains of Tennessee behind sheets of steam and fog and sounds like war drums on the roof of a rented car. It didn’t take much imagination to think we were driving through Skull Island, home of King Kong, or had somehow made a detour into the Heart of Darkness, a scene from Apocalypse Now.  The truth, however, was far more comforting: We were on a mission to see a King and Queen of country ham, Al Benton and Nancy Newsom.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMaking personal visits to farms, chefs, and providers has always been one of the hallmarks of Heritage Foods USA, and as anyone who has ever been on one of these trips with ringleader Patrick Martins knows, they are magical meat tours indeed, whirlwinds of gastronomic bliss and historical culinary discovery, epicurean epics writ large in regional cuisine. And, a hell of a lot of fun.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBenton’s Country Hams was the first stop on this pilgrimage to the cathedrals of southern ham, and we were greeted by the man himself in his small, roadside storefront.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Don’t call me Mr. Benton,” he chided with a smile, “I’m Al.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAl Benton speaks with an unerring southern twang that is like catnip to New Yawkers. And even though he teases at himself for being a hillbilly, he can’t hide his business acumen or old-school good looks — his smile is half Robert Redford and half Jimmy Carter, equal parts star power and earnest American. Speaking to him about his business is a powerful lesson in pride, good taste, modesty, respect for history, and the providence of good timing — both Al and his Kentucky counterpart, Nancy Newsom were lucky enough to catch the rising tide of foodies and enlightened chefs who recognized the soaring quality of their country hams just as cosmopolitan foodie culture was exploding.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhile we spoke with Al, a steady stream of customers came in to buy bacon, ham parts, sliced country hams, and more bacon — young men wearing camo pants and trucker hats, soccer moms with their kids, a middle-aged man wearing a Grateful Dead t-shirt… ham does not discriminate. “The Southern Food Alliance,” Al mentions matter-of-factly, “is built on the idea that if you sat down at the table we are all the same. It doesn’t matter where you come from or what your ethnic background is.” Indeed, ham is the great equalizer.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTommy — Al’s plant manager and right hand man (“Sometimes he’s up to his elbows in bacon grease, sometimes he is solving problems on the phone.”) — accompanies us with Al on a tour through his facility, which from the road looks no bigger than the storefront, but turns out to be a warren of rooms filled with hams hung to dry or curing in salt, a veritable bunker of porky goodness. The smell of hickory smoke kisses you on the face at every turn.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAl tells us about running into a burning smokehouse to literally save his bacon, screaming at the firemen “DO NOT USE YOUR HOSES, THERE IS BACON IN THERE!” and ruminates on his favorite places to eat: “I love Charleston, and New Orleans, but New York City, that’s the place, you can get everything… if I had one place to go there, though, it would be one of David Chang’s restaurants.” And why not? Chang’s Momofuku empire has been one of Benton’s great champions, and in fact, our pilgrimage follows the one made by Momofuku executive chef and prime mover Matt Rudofker just a week before.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere is no secret to the Benton formula for ham, it could not be simpler: “Just salt, sage, black and red pepper… we don’t use anything you can’t pronounce. You look at some of these industrially made hams – you can’t even read the ingredients, they have so many and things you never even heard of.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThey use a wood stove in the smoke room, burning local hickory — “The wood comes in when it does. When people are running out of beer and milk and want to sell some wood, they come see me. That’s always the way it’s been.”  The hams spend three days in the smoke room to get that intense flavor. Bacon takes about five weeks to make, moving from curing (brown sugar and salt) into cooler rooms and then a heated room; hams can age up to two years. “You have to age the hams – it’s like cheese, it starts mild and when you age it the flavor becomes sharper.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBenton’s began in 1947, when dairy farmer Al Hicks cured hams for local farmers. “Ham was sustenance food for hillbillies,” Al Benton says of the very thing that has become a culinary legend.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1973, Al was a High School guidance counselor struggling to make ends meet when he decided he was going to give a go to what he knew best.  “I quit my job and then it really sunk in – it wasn’t going to be easy to make a living curing hams…. so I wrote to everyone I could think of, anyone who could help, university professors, cooks, I wanted to hear everyone’s ideas, and I studied everything I could, but I could never improve on the recipe from the old smoke house behind the house I was born in — people really seemed to like it. At the beginning I was thinking about curing quickly, maybe one hour for a twelve-lb. ham – I thought if I was going to make it in this business I had to work very fast and quick-cure, which is what the business was. But my daddy told me ‘If you play the other guy’s game, you are always going to lose. Make it the best you can. Quality is what is going to sustain you.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Blackberry Farms changed things, this was in about 1991. We had just two employees then. John Fleer was the chef at Blackberry and he was already something of a star – he had been Mary Tyler Moore’s personal chef! John is such a good man, I never even heard him raise his voice, which is very rare among chefs… and he cared so much about sourcing. He called on day, he had bought some stuff from us, and I thought he was going to complain, but he wanted to see if it was okay to put our name on his menu at Blackberry. I thought there had to be a reason why not, but I couldn’t think of one. And then the phone started ringing, he had so many great chefs coming to visit him — Tom Colicchio, Thomas Keller — I guess that’s when I saw the Promised Land. There was a market for fine dining with the aged country hams and bacon.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLater that night, dinner talk turned to moonshine, music, and professional wrestling — Tennessee, and Memphis, especially, being mecca’s of the great sport, led by it’s own King, Jerry Lawler, who’s greatest rivalry was a Jewish comedian from New York named Andy Kaufman. But mostly we talked about food, and mostly about ham. Al spoke with great admiration for his colleagues Sam Edwards and Nancy Newsom, to whom he gives great credit for bringing traditional Southern ham north.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“People are really starting to care where their food comes from — Look, when McDonald’s is talking about cage-free eggs, they’re reading the tea leaves. It gives me pride that small folks have been able to make such a ripple in food culture.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eFarms\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen Heritage Foods started in 2001 we set out to sell heritage Thanksgiving turkeys. For three years our turkey project grew, but naturally mating turkey is a seasonal food and two of the three farmers we worked with to raise birds were looking for a more regular source of income if they were to continue working with us. So we committed to selling pork, which can be produced year round, as long as the breeds came from historic genetic lines, just like the turkeys. Now, 24 years later, Heritage Foods still works with those two original farms who together introduced the word “heritage pork” to hundreds of America’s best restaurants from coast-to-coast as well as thousands of homes through the Heritage Foods retail website.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNewman Farm Berkshire Pork\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eMyrtle, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 2006 we got a handwritten letter from farmer Mark Newman asking us if Heritage Foods would ever consider selling his pasture raised old school Berkshire pigs. We said yes and a relationship grew that still continues today, now through his son David who has maintained the genetic line of Berkshires which can be traced back to the 17th and 18th century lines that came to these shores by way of the Berkshire region of England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom the air, Newman Farm Berkshire Pork, in south central Missouri, in the heart of the Ozarks, looks more like a pioneer settlement or a holiday camp than any sort of pig farm. Wooden huts are scattered across green fields like bungalows, where contented Berkshire pigs live their lives, happily on-pasture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePigs on Newman Farm are raised 100% on-pasture. The sows raise their piglets in huts that dot the fields of the farm. The babies live inside the huts until they are old enough to jump over the 6-inch wooden board that blocks the entrance. Once they make the great leap, they have an entire field to run on and they can mingle with the other piglets from the other huts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDavid Newman is both a farmer and scientist. “The farmer came first,” he laughs. His degrees are in animal science, and he holds a Ph.D in meat science and muscle biology, focused on meat quality. “As I became a scientist and got involved in education, I applied what I was learning to understand what we could do better.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBerkshires were the favorite breed of British royalty and were first introduced to the New World in 1823. Since then, Berkshire bloodlines have remained exceptionally pure and have become a mainstay favorite of chefs and diners, legendary for their exceptionally bright pork flavor and thick, delicious fat cap. And if anyone were to question their excellence, just ask David. “It’s not a matter of opinion!” he insists, passionately. “It’s a scientific fact, Berkshires are the most marbled hog on the market today.” David is a master breeder and works hard to keep the lines on his farm separate and he is always working to improve the Berkshire breed on his farm.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDavid lives on the farm with his wife, Kristin, his mom Rita, and his two kids. “I got my start through my family. My parents were hog farmers, but primarily in the commercial pig business. In the 1980s my parents raised pigs in confinement. There were some very challenging economic times for everyone in production, and we realized we were going to have to do something differently. Kristin came from a family farming background also and is a major part of the operations success today, working for the farm along with their team of employees.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“In the 1990s my parents decided they wanted to go back to their roots. We were going to have to be very large to be successful in the commercial sector, and my father decided we should focus on quality. We changed our genetic program and our nutrition program. We became Certified Humane®, and we chose to focus on Berkshire pigs for their quality.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDavid and his family are the future of American farming! They are young, energetic and very passionate about the future of agriculture. David and Kristin work with a team of farmers who raise their Berkshires to supply Heritage Foods and the national network of chefs who rely on his product for their menus.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLazy Red Wattle Ranch\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eLa Plata, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe met Larry and Madonna Sorell in 2002, as growers for Frank Reese and the Heritage Turkey Project. As their turkey flock grew in size, so did the Sorell’s importance to Heritage Foods.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen you see Red Wattle pork on a menu, what you are seeing is a five-state, twelve farm network founded by Larry and Madonna, dedicated to raising a storied breed that was once upon a time nearly extinct. Larry and Madonna are the heroes of this story, avatars of the heritage food movement, true believers who were destined to become the Guardians of the Red Wattle. They are proof positive of the ethos that when it comes to endangered livestock, “you have to eat them to save them.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the beginning, back in 2004 when the Heritage Foods wholesale business began selling pigs, a market for the Red Wattle pig was built on a handshake agreement with chefs Zach Allen and Mark Ladner, then at Lupa Restaurant in NYC. They recognized the high-quality and undiminished taste that came from a Red Wattle pig humanely raised on-pasture and antibiotic free, using traditional farming methods. The deal with Ladner, and the partnership with Larry and his Lazy Red Wattle Ranch, were part of the origins of Heritage Foods.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“We traveled 18,000 miles to get started,” Larry says matter-of-factly about a Heritage Foods Odyssey whose mission was to search out rare Red Wattle sows and collect a viable genetic lineage of this incredible pig whose American legacy goes back to 18th century New Orleans. \"When we began, we had two Red Wattle gilts and a boar, and we had to travel all over the United States to start a herd.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Now I’ve kinda retired from raising animals, but we have a dozen Amish growers working with us, and I pick up the hogs and pay for them, and then bring them to the processor, Paradise Locker. I drive a tractor trailer and go around picking up three hundred pounders, fifty to eighty head a week. We have farms in Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa... that’s a lot of traveling. We may have four or five pick-ups every week. You wear out a truck pretty fast.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLarry, now over eighty, does less of the driving, but he still keeps all the relationships going, which isn’t easy considering the Amish don’t have phones inside their homes! “I’ll have to quit sometime but right now it’s going pretty good. The driving is easy. The hard job is you gotta keep Amish families happy, picking up their hogs, coordinating, monitoring the size of the animals, and making sure we have the right amount — each week we round up 50 to 100 pigs. And we’ve been doing it for almost 20 years now.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThanks to Larry and Madonna’s work, the Red Wattle was upgraded to Threatened status from Critical on The Livestock Conservancy’s watch list, a great achievement for the cause of biodiversity, one of the most important issues of our time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMetzger Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eSeneca, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug Metzger's Tamworth and Berkshire genetics are now being shepherded by Robert Funk. Doug sadly passed away in 2023. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug Metzger was truly at the ground zero of our business and the heritage food movement. He was the magic man that first introduced us to our processor Paradise Locker Meats, with whom we have worked and grown ever since and he worked together with Frank Reese raising heritage turkeys from about 2002 to 2013.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt 83-years-old, Doug raises purebred, certified Berkshire and Tamworth pigs on his 1,500 acre farm in Seneca, Kansas, with his wife Betty.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn an era of specialization Doug is an anomaly. Doug is famous for adapting to any moment. In 2001 he took our call and agreed to raise heritage turkeys for us with Frank because he believed that the growing food movement would appreciate the flavor of the birds his grandfather raised. As demand grew for quality meat, Doug got into heritage pigs and transitioned his commodity farm to a pastured farm and haven for the rare Tamworth breed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug has been farming since 1951. As a kid he raised chickens but gave them up when he got into turkeys. As he got older, he broke into the milk cattle game. Then he tried sheep, but he says he couldn’t get them to breed right. He also raised Aylesbury ducks — a rare heritage breed. Over the years the acres on his sprawling farm have been used to grow wheat, corn, oats, barley, sorghum, alfalfa, and rye. He even grew flax one year because he heard it was supposed to help the immune system of the cattle, which he thought it did. “It certainly made their coats look wonderful,” Doug says.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eToday farmers are incentivized to grow monocrops of corn and soybean — “that’s all they want us to grow,” Doug explains, “and farmers haul their crops to town instead of using it for something on their own farm.” Doug remembers fondly the days when a diversified farm would grow corn and turn it into whiskey, or when soybeans were grown for the purpose of feeding milk cattle — as Doug did on his farm. “Keep your grain,” Doug insists, “and use it to grow a truly sustainable farm.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug was never one to use chemicals to grow food. He believes any talk of sustainability is not real when you raise only one crop or when you use chemicals to do it. “My buddy and I could clear 100 acres of weeds in a day if we worked through the night, and we did not need any additives to do it. All those chemicals are part of the reason there are so many cancers around, if you ask me.” Doug has amassed generations of farming secrets having grown so many foods naturally, often calling upon experiences from decades ago to solve a problem that presents itself today.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug comes from a truly great American farming family — Life Magazine once wrote that Doug’s father, who lived to be 104, had more living descendants than any American – many of them farmers. His is part of the story of immigrants who came to the New World and made good through old-fashioned values, tradition, and hard work.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“We’re here today to save these breeds,” says Doug, who is as down-home as the farm he still works on as he approaches his 84th birthday. “Save the breeds and make a little money. We got a lot of things going on, we have a lot of land. But it’s getting hard to keep up with it all… I need more young people! When I was young, we raised turkeys in spring and sold ‘em all by Christmas. We milked cattle all year round. I want to keep working — my dad was helping me when he was 84!”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis conversational style always brings insight and interesting thoughts to bear. We hope Doug and Betty work with us for many years to come and that their beliefs of diversified farming continue. Today, his farm is supported through the work of his daughter Marilyn and her husband Stan, and their children Simon and Joel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGood Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eOlsburg, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGood Farms' Old Spot, Duroc, and Tamworth genetics are now being shepherded by Dustin and Maria Torneden since Craig and his wife Amy retired in 2024. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe met the Goods through a connection at Kansas State University where Craig’s father was a distinguished professor. Craig spent his life in agriculture growing up in the Flint Hills of Kansas, some of the best agricultural land in the world, perfectly adapted to free ranging livestock, which feed on the perennial grasses that grow there naturally.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Good’s hog operation began in earnest in 1981, and they have continuously raised hogs there for the past 37 years. Their Duroc herd started with a few sows from Craig’s former employer who started raising Duroc pigs in the 1940s — with females obtained through Sears and Roebucks! As Craig explains, “I took a job in 1975 working with an outstanding stockman who raised purebred Duroc pigs here in Kansas. His name was Fred Germann, and he was one of the oldest and best Duroc breeders in the U.S. Things sure have changed since then, but the Durocs that we now raise have ancestry that goes back to those Sears females, approximately 85 years ago.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDuroc is an American breed that was used as the foundational genetics for the entire pig industry in the United States because of their good growth rate, body type, and mothering instincts. But big agriculture continued to overbreed the Duroc for certain traits related to higher profits and they crossed it with other pig breeds. Soon the industrial pig became utterly unrecognizable, and it became almost impossible to tell that it had originally derived from Duroc genetics.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCraig, on the other hand, continued to breed his Durocs to improve their genetics with traits particular to Craig’s preferences, while staying true to the original healthy and hearty breed. Craig always put a lot of thought into which sows he would breed with which boars as he worked to improve meat quality and edibility, as opposed to faster growth. He also selected pigs for the demeanor of the animals, who he treats like members of his own family. Craig bred for strong animals and sought out leaner carcasses (although the Duroc is supremely marbled). He also bred for skeletal size – Craig likes good length of body, for better loin eye size and fat distribution.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOver the years, the Durocs on Good Farm became his own breed, even though they looked like and acted like true old school Durocs. The Goods continue to bring in new lines to avoid inbreeding, but they work with the lines to continue improving their particular version of the Duroc.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCraig and Amy also raise Gloucestershire Old Spots and Tamworths, both considered rare breeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCraig's father, Don, was a meat scientist and would eventually have a division of Kansas State University named after him. Together they raised purebred Angus cattle and crops on the farm. “I have had a passion for raising pigs,” says Craig, since taking pigs on as a 4-H project in 1965. Craig studied Animal Science at Kansas State University. “Amy and I were married in 1976 and 5 years later we made the decision to move to the farm that my father and mother had owned since 1961, near Olsburg, Kansas, on 1000 acres of Flint Hills pasture.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eBreed\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRed Wattle\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 18th Century Louisiana by way of New Caledonia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a cross between pork and beef, Red Wattle is floral and robust, concentrated and bold.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: A consortium of 18 Amish families in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: French colonists brought these hogs to New Orleans as a favored meat breed. The Red Wattle eventually would populate the forests of Texas where they were rounded up and brought to the great slaughterhouses of Chicago. Recognized by their signature wattles that hang from the jowl, the Red Wattle resembles Kunekune pigs of New Zealand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGloucestershire Old Spots\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 19th Century Indiana by way of Berkeley Valley of Gloucestershire, England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a charcuterie pig with a delicious milky fat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside of Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: Descended from the native old English pigs of western England, this pig was mentioned as early as the 1780's. The spotted pig forages on fallen orchard fruits and other farm by products. Despite their signature oversized floppy ears which hang over their eyes, this gentle pig is hearty and self-reliant.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTamworth\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 2,500 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Rossville, Illinois by way of Staffordshire, England by way of Ireland.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: A premiere bacon producer, Tamworth meat is fruity, earthy, clean, mineral, root, sweet and tender.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Doug Metzger and Craig and Amy Good in Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The only native red breed to England, its heritage traces back to the wild pigs of Middle Age Europe. A slow growing breed, the Tamworth is active and hearty. Traditionally raised in the woods, the pig's long angular snout makes it an excellent forager — Tamworth pigs do not conform to industrial agriculture needs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBerkshire\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 1823 Kentucky\/ Illinois by way of Western England and outside London.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Sweet with depth of flavor, Berkshire pork is balanced and the most universally loved of all the Heritage breeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: David Newman and a consortium of 12 family farms in Kansas, Missouri and Iowa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: For years the Royal Family kept a large Berkshire herd at Windsor Castle — our Berkshire pigs are traceable back to these old English genetics. This would eventually become the most popular Heritage breed of pig in the United States because of its supreme marbling. Prized by the Japanese who imported it as \"Kurobuta\" pork, the Berkshire is recognized by 6 white spots at the tip of its feet, nose and tail.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDuroc\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Eastern United States and corn belt by way of the Guinea coast of Africa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Duroc meat is crisp and clean — known for great marbling and polished texture its taste is approachable on the palate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The Duroc is an older breed of American domestic pig that has become one of the most popular breeds because of its great taste and strong genetics, but pure Duroc is very hard to find. Durocs are a red pig strain developed around 1800 in New England and reputed to trace their ancestry back to the early red pigs of Africa. Durocs are especially valued by farmers for their hardiness and quick but thorough muscle growth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[\/TABS]\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heritage Foods","offers":[{"title":"7.5-8lbs","offer_id":41632385531962,"sku":"benton (8-8.5lb) + bag-1","price":274.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"8-8.5lbs","offer_id":41632385564730,"sku":"benton (8-8.5lb) + bag-2","price":292.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/products\/benton_600.jpg?v=1568755008"},{"product_id":"bentons-heritage-slab-bacon-americas-smokiest-bacon-since-1947-cured-in-tennessee","title":"BENTON'S HERITAGE SLAB BACON","description":"[TABS]\n\u003ch5\u003eProduct\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBenton's Heritage Slab Bacon\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOne 3-4lb slab\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eBerkshire\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAl Benton cures his meats in an ancient smokehouse in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. Established in 1947 in the town of Madisonville, the Benton operation is widely regarded as an American treasure producing the most delicious cured products in the nation. “Don’t call me Mr. Benton,” he chides, “I’m Al.” His smile is half Robert Redford and half Jimmy Carter, equal parts star power and earnest American. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThere is no secret to the Benton formula for bacon, it could not be simpler: salt, brown sugar, time and patience! And a good hickory smoke that lasts about 3 days! Bacon curing is an art Al learned growing up. His family always butchered their own hogs, always made their own sausage and bacon, and today Al will tell you that all he’s doing is what he grew up doing in his backyard so many years ago. Al also makes amazing prosciutto style ham using our heritage hams! His smoked hams are aged for over a year and a half and the only ingredients are salt, sage, black and red pepper… as Al says he doesn't use anything he can’t pronounce! Even though Benton is a legend in the South, he is still hands-on and present in all steps of the curing process. He is another famed traditionalist who is forwarding the cause of the American charcuterie renaissance by embracing heritage breed pigs.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eIngredients: pork, salt, brown sugar, pepper.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHumanely raised on pasture \u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e100% \u003cspan\u003eantibiotic-free\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRaised by independent family farmers\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHeritage pork has more marbling resulting in more tender and juicy meat\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eArtisan\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt was teeming rain on the way from Nashville to Madisonville, Tennessee, the kind of rain that obscures the green, Smoky Mountains of Tennessee behind sheets of steam and fog and sounds like war drums on the roof of a rented car. It didn’t take much imagination to think we were driving through Skull Island, home of King Kong, or had somehow made a detour into the Heart of Darkness, a scene from Apocalypse Now.  The truth, however, was far more comforting: We were on a mission to see a King and Queen of country ham, Al Benton and Nancy Newsom.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMaking personal visits to farms, chefs, and providers has always been one of the hallmarks of Heritage Foods USA, and as anyone who has ever been on one of these trips with ringleader Patrick Martins knows, they are magical meat tours indeed, whirlwinds of gastronomic bliss and historical culinary discovery, epicurean epics writ large in regional cuisine. And, a hell of a lot of fun.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBenton’s Country Hams was the first stop on this pilgrimage to the cathedrals of southern ham, and we were greeted by the man himself in his small, roadside storefront.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Don’t call me Mr. Benton,” he chided with a smile, “I’m Al.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAl Benton speaks with an unerring southern twang that is like catnip to New Yawkers. And even though he teases at himself for being a hillbilly, he can’t hide his business acumen or old-school good looks — his smile is half Robert Redford and half Jimmy Carter, equal parts star power and earnest American. Speaking to him about his business is a powerful lesson in pride, good taste, modesty, respect for history, and the providence of good timing — both Al and his Kentucky counterpart, Nancy Newsom were lucky enough to catch the rising tide of foodies and enlightened chefs who recognized the soaring quality of their country hams just as cosmopolitan foodie culture was exploding.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhile we spoke with Al, a steady stream of customers came in to buy bacon, ham parts, sliced country hams, and more bacon — young men wearing camo pants and trucker hats, soccer moms with their kids, a middle-aged man wearing a Grateful Dead t-shirt… ham does not discriminate. “The Southern Food Alliance,” Al mentions matter-of-factly, “is built on the idea that if you sat down at the table we are all the same. It doesn’t matter where you come from or what your ethnic background is.” Indeed, ham is the great equalizer.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTommy — Al’s plant manager and right hand man (“Sometimes he’s up to his elbows in bacon grease, sometimes he is solving problems on the phone.”) — accompanies us with Al on a tour through his facility, which from the road looks no bigger than the storefront, but turns out to be a warren of rooms filled with hams hung to dry or curing in salt, a veritable bunker of porky goodness. The smell of hickory smoke kisses you on the face at every turn.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAl tells us about running into a burning smokehouse to literally save his bacon, screaming at the firemen “DO NOT USE YOUR HOSES, THERE IS BACON IN THERE!” and ruminates on his favorite places to eat: “I love Charleston, and New Orleans, but New York City, that’s the place, you can get everything… if I had one place to go there, though, it would be one of David Chang’s restaurants.” And why not? Chang’s Momofuku empire has been one of Benton’s great champions, and in fact, our pilgrimage follows the one made by Momofuku executive chef and prime mover Matt Rudofker just a week before.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere is no secret to the Benton formula for ham, it could not be simpler: “Just salt, sage, black and red pepper… we don’t use anything you can’t pronounce. You look at some of these industrially made hams – you can’t even read the ingredients, they have so many and things you never even heard of.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThey use a wood stove in the smoke room, burning local hickory — “The wood comes in when it does. When people are running out of beer and milk and want to sell some wood, they come see me. That’s always the way it’s been.”  The hams spend three days in the smoke room to get that intense flavor. Bacon takes about five weeks to make, moving from curing (brown sugar and salt) into cooler rooms and then a heated room; hams can age up to two years. “You have to age the hams – it’s like cheese, it starts mild and when you age it the flavor becomes sharper.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBenton’s began in 1947, when dairy farmer Al Hicks cured hams for local farmers. “Ham was sustenance food for hillbillies,” Al Benton says of the very thing that has become a culinary legend.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1973, Al was a High School guidance counselor struggling to make ends meet when he decided he was going to give a go to what he knew best.  “I quit my job and then it really sunk in – it wasn’t going to be easy to make a living curing hams…. so I wrote to everyone I could think of, anyone who could help, university professors, cooks, I wanted to hear everyone’s ideas, and I studied everything I could, but I could never improve on the recipe from the old smoke house behind the house I was born in — people really seemed to like it. At the beginning I was thinking about curing quickly, maybe one hour for a twelve-lb. ham – I thought if I was going to make it in this business I had to work very fast and quick-cure, which is what the business was. But my daddy told me ‘If you play the other guy’s game, you are always going to lose. Make it the best you can. Quality is what is going to sustain you.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Blackberry Farms changed things, this was in about 1991. We had just two employees then. John Fleer was the chef at Blackberry and he was already something of a star – he had been Mary Tyler Moore’s personal chef! John is such a good man, I never even heard him raise his voice, which is very rare among chefs… and he cared so much about sourcing. He called on day, he had bought some stuff from us, and I thought he was going to complain, but he wanted to see if it was okay to put our name on his menu at Blackberry. I thought there had to be a reason why not, but I couldn’t think of one. And then the phone started ringing, he had so many great chefs coming to visit him — Tom Colicchio, Thomas Keller — I guess that’s when I saw the Promised Land. There was a market for fine dining with the aged country hams and bacon.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLater that night, dinner talk turned to moonshine, music, and professional wrestling — Tennessee, and Memphis, especially, being mecca’s of the great sport, led by it’s own King, Jerry Lawler, who’s greatest rivalry was a Jewish comedian from New York named Andy Kaufman. But mostly we talked about food, and mostly about ham. Al spoke with great admiration for his colleagues Sam Edwards and Nancy Newsom, to whom he gives great credit for bringing traditional Southern ham north.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“People are really starting to care where their food comes from — Look, when McDonald’s is talking about cage-free eggs, they’re reading the tea leaves. It gives me pride that small folks have been able to make such a ripple in food culture.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eFarms\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen Heritage Foods started in 2001 we set out to sell heritage Thanksgiving turkeys. For three years our turkey project grew, but naturally mating turkey is a seasonal food and two of the three farmers we worked with to raise birds were looking for a more regular source of income if they were to continue working with us. So we committed to selling pork, which can be produced year round, as long as the breeds came from historic genetic lines, just like the turkeys. Now, 24 years later, Heritage Foods still works with those two original farms who together introduced the word “heritage pork” to hundreds of America’s best restaurants from coast-to-coast as well as thousands of homes through the Heritage Foods retail website.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNewman Farm Berkshire Pork\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eMyrtle, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 2006 we got a handwritten letter from farmer Mark Newman asking us if Heritage Foods would ever consider selling his pasture raised old school Berkshire pigs. We said yes and a relationship grew that still continues today, now through his son David who has maintained the genetic line of Berkshires which can be traced back to the 17th and 18th century lines that came to these shores by way of the Berkshire region of England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom the air, Newman Farm Berkshire Pork, in south central Missouri, in the heart of the Ozarks, looks more like a pioneer settlement or a holiday camp than any sort of pig farm. Wooden huts are scattered across green fields like bungalows, where contented Berkshire pigs live their lives, happily on-pasture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePigs on Newman Farm are raised 100% on-pasture. The sows raise their piglets in huts that dot the fields of the farm. The babies live inside the huts until they are old enough to jump over the 6-inch wooden board that blocks the entrance. Once they make the great leap, they have an entire field to run on and they can mingle with the other piglets from the other huts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDavid Newman is both a farmer and scientist. “The farmer came first,” he laughs. His degrees are in animal science, and he holds a Ph.D in meat science and muscle biology, focused on meat quality. “As I became a scientist and got involved in education, I applied what I was learning to understand what we could do better.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBerkshires were the favorite breed of British royalty and were first introduced to the New World in 1823. Since then, Berkshire bloodlines have remained exceptionally pure and have become a mainstay favorite of chefs and diners, legendary for their exceptionally bright pork flavor and thick, delicious fat cap. And if anyone were to question their excellence, just ask David. “It’s not a matter of opinion!” he insists, passionately. “It’s a scientific fact, Berkshires are the most marbled hog on the market today.” David is a master breeder and works hard to keep the lines on his farm separate and he is always working to improve the Berkshire breed on his farm.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDavid lives on the farm with his wife, Kristin, his mom Rita, and his two kids. “I got my start through my family. My parents were hog farmers, but primarily in the commercial pig business. In the 1980s my parents raised pigs in confinement. There were some very challenging economic times for everyone in production, and we realized we were going to have to do something differently. Kristin came from a family farming background also and is a major part of the operations success today, working for the farm along with their team of employees.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“In the 1990s my parents decided they wanted to go back to their roots. We were going to have to be very large to be successful in the commercial sector, and my father decided we should focus on quality. We changed our genetic program and our nutrition program. We became Certified Humane®, and we chose to focus on Berkshire pigs for their quality.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDavid and his family are the future of American farming! They are young, energetic and very passionate about the future of agriculture. David and Kristin work with a team of farmers who raise their Berkshires to supply Heritage Foods and the national network of chefs who rely on his product for their menus.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLazy Red Wattle Ranch\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eLa Plata, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe met Larry and Madonna Sorell in 2002, as growers for Frank Reese and the Heritage Turkey Project. As their turkey flock grew in size, so did the Sorell’s importance to Heritage Foods.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen you see Red Wattle pork on a menu, what you are seeing is a five-state, twelve farm network founded by Larry and Madonna, dedicated to raising a storied breed that was once upon a time nearly extinct. Larry and Madonna are the heroes of this story, avatars of the heritage food movement, true believers who were destined to become the Guardians of the Red Wattle. They are proof positive of the ethos that when it comes to endangered livestock, “you have to eat them to save them.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the beginning, back in 2004 when the Heritage Foods wholesale business began selling pigs, a market for the Red Wattle pig was built on a handshake agreement with chefs Zach Allen and Mark Ladner, then at Lupa Restaurant in NYC. They recognized the high-quality and undiminished taste that came from a Red Wattle pig humanely raised on-pasture and antibiotic free, using traditional farming methods. The deal with Ladner, and the partnership with Larry and his Lazy Red Wattle Ranch, were part of the origins of Heritage Foods.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“We traveled 18,000 miles to get started,” Larry says matter-of-factly about a Heritage Foods Odyssey whose mission was to search out rare Red Wattle sows and collect a viable genetic lineage of this incredible pig whose American legacy goes back to 18th century New Orleans. \"When we began, we had two Red Wattle gilts and a boar, and we had to travel all over the United States to start a herd.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Now I’ve kinda retired from raising animals, but we have a dozen Amish growers working with us, and I pick up the hogs and pay for them, and then bring them to the processor, Paradise Locker. I drive a tractor trailer and go around picking up three hundred pounders, fifty to eighty head a week. We have farms in Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa... that’s a lot of traveling. We may have four or five pick-ups every week. You wear out a truck pretty fast.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLarry, now over eighty, does less of the driving, but he still keeps all the relationships going, which isn’t easy considering the Amish don’t have phones inside their homes! “I’ll have to quit sometime but right now it’s going pretty good. The driving is easy. The hard job is you gotta keep Amish families happy, picking up their hogs, coordinating, monitoring the size of the animals, and making sure we have the right amount — each week we round up 50 to 100 pigs. And we’ve been doing it for almost 20 years now.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThanks to Larry and Madonna’s work, the Red Wattle was upgraded to Threatened status from Critical on The Livestock Conservancy’s watch list, a great achievement for the cause of biodiversity, one of the most important issues of our time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMetzger Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eSeneca, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug Metzger's Tamworth and Berkshire genetics are now being shepherded by Robert Funk. Doug sadly passed away in 2023. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug Metzger was truly at the ground zero of our business and the heritage food movement. He was the magic man that first introduced us to our processor Paradise Locker Meats, with whom we have worked and grown ever since and he worked together with Frank Reese raising heritage turkeys from about 2002 to 2013.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt 83-years-old, Doug raises purebred, certified Berkshire and Tamworth pigs on his 1,500 acre farm in Seneca, Kansas, with his wife Betty.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn an era of specialization Doug is an anomaly. Doug is famous for adapting to any moment. In 2001 he took our call and agreed to raise heritage turkeys for us with Frank because he believed that the growing food movement would appreciate the flavor of the birds his grandfather raised. As demand grew for quality meat, Doug got into heritage pigs and transitioned his commodity farm to a pastured farm and haven for the rare Tamworth breed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug has been farming since 1951. As a kid he raised chickens but gave them up when he got into turkeys. As he got older, he broke into the milk cattle game. Then he tried sheep, but he says he couldn’t get them to breed right. He also raised Aylesbury ducks — a rare heritage breed. Over the years the acres on his sprawling farm have been used to grow wheat, corn, oats, barley, sorghum, alfalfa, and rye. He even grew flax one year because he heard it was supposed to help the immune system of the cattle, which he thought it did. “It certainly made their coats look wonderful,” Doug says.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eToday farmers are incentivized to grow monocrops of corn and soybean — “that’s all they want us to grow,” Doug explains, “and farmers haul their crops to town instead of using it for something on their own farm.” Doug remembers fondly the days when a diversified farm would grow corn and turn it into whiskey, or when soybeans were grown for the purpose of feeding milk cattle — as Doug did on his farm. “Keep your grain,” Doug insists, “and use it to grow a truly sustainable farm.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug was never one to use chemicals to grow food. He believes any talk of sustainability is not real when you raise only one crop or when you use chemicals to do it. “My buddy and I could clear 100 acres of weeds in a day if we worked through the night, and we did not need any additives to do it. All those chemicals are part of the reason there are so many cancers around, if you ask me.” Doug has amassed generations of farming secrets having grown so many foods naturally, often calling upon experiences from decades ago to solve a problem that presents itself today.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug comes from a truly great American farming family — Life Magazine once wrote that Doug’s father, who lived to be 104, had more living descendants than any American – many of them farmers. His is part of the story of immigrants who came to the New World and made good through old-fashioned values, tradition, and hard work.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“We’re here today to save these breeds,” says Doug, who is as down-home as the farm he still works on as he approaches his 84th birthday. “Save the breeds and make a little money. We got a lot of things going on, we have a lot of land. But it’s getting hard to keep up with it all… I need more young people! When I was young, we raised turkeys in spring and sold ‘em all by Christmas. We milked cattle all year round. I want to keep working — my dad was helping me when he was 84!”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis conversational style always brings insight and interesting thoughts to bear. We hope Doug and Betty work with us for many years to come and that their beliefs of diversified farming continue. Today, his farm is supported through the work of his daughter Marilyn and her husband Stan, and their children Simon and Joel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGood Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eOlsburg, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGood Farms' Old Spot, Duroc, and Tamworth genetics are now being shepherded by Dustin and Maria Torneden since Craig and his wife Amy retired in 2024. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe met the Goods through a connection at Kansas State University where Craig’s father was a distinguished professor. Craig spent his life in agriculture growing up in the Flint Hills of Kansas, some of the best agricultural land in the world, perfectly adapted to free ranging livestock, which feed on the perennial grasses that grow there naturally.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Good’s hog operation began in earnest in 1981, and they have continuously raised hogs there for the past 37 years. Their Duroc herd started with a few sows from Craig’s former employer who started raising Duroc pigs in the 1940s — with females obtained through Sears and Roebucks! As Craig explains, “I took a job in 1975 working with an outstanding stockman who raised purebred Duroc pigs here in Kansas. His name was Fred Germann, and he was one of the oldest and best Duroc breeders in the U.S. Things sure have changed since then, but the Durocs that we now raise have ancestry that goes back to those Sears females, approximately 85 years ago.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDuroc is an American breed that was used as the foundational genetics for the entire pig industry in the United States because of their good growth rate, body type, and mothering instincts. But big agriculture continued to overbreed the Duroc for certain traits related to higher profits and they crossed it with other pig breeds. Soon the industrial pig became utterly unrecognizable, and it became almost impossible to tell that it had originally derived from Duroc genetics.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCraig, on the other hand, continued to breed his Durocs to improve their genetics with traits particular to Craig’s preferences, while staying true to the original healthy and hearty breed. Craig always put a lot of thought into which sows he would breed with which boars as he worked to improve meat quality and edibility, as opposed to faster growth. He also selected pigs for the demeanor of the animals, who he treats like members of his own family. Craig bred for strong animals and sought out leaner carcasses (although the Duroc is supremely marbled). He also bred for skeletal size – Craig likes good length of body, for better loin eye size and fat distribution.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOver the years, the Durocs on Good Farm became his own breed, even though they looked like and acted like true old school Durocs. The Goods continue to bring in new lines to avoid inbreeding, but they work with the lines to continue improving their particular version of the Duroc.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCraig and Amy also raise Gloucestershire Old Spots and Tamworths, both considered rare breeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCraig's father, Don, was a meat scientist and would eventually have a division of Kansas State University named after him. Together they raised purebred Angus cattle and crops on the farm. “I have had a passion for raising pigs,” says Craig, since taking pigs on as a 4-H project in 1965. Craig studied Animal Science at Kansas State University. “Amy and I were married in 1976 and 5 years later we made the decision to move to the farm that my father and mother had owned since 1961, near Olsburg, Kansas, on 1000 acres of Flint Hills pasture.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eBreed\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRed Wattle\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 18th Century Louisiana by way of New Caledonia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a cross between pork and beef, Red Wattle is floral and robust, concentrated and bold.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: A consortium of 18 Amish families in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: French colonists brought these hogs to New Orleans as a favored meat breed. The Red Wattle eventually would populate the forests of Texas where they were rounded up and brought to the great slaughterhouses of Chicago. Recognized by their signature wattles that hang from the jowl, the Red Wattle resembles Kunekune pigs of New Zealand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGloucestershire Old Spots\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 19th Century Indiana by way of Berkeley Valley of Gloucestershire, England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a charcuterie pig with a delicious milky fat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside of Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: Descended from the native old English pigs of western England, this pig was mentioned as early as the 1780's. The spotted pig forages on fallen orchard fruits and other farm by products. Despite their signature oversized floppy ears which hang over their eyes, this gentle pig is hearty and self-reliant.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTamworth\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 2,500 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Rossville, Illinois by way of Staffordshire, England by way of Ireland.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: A premiere bacon producer, Tamworth meat is fruity, earthy, clean, mineral, root, sweet and tender.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Doug Metzger and Craig and Amy Good in Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The only native red breed to England, its heritage traces back to the wild pigs of Middle Age Europe. A slow growing breed, the Tamworth is active and hearty. Traditionally raised in the woods, the pig's long angular snout makes it an excellent forager — Tamworth pigs do not conform to industrial agriculture needs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBerkshire\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 1823 Kentucky\/ Illinois by way of Western England and outside London.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Sweet with depth of flavor, Berkshire pork is balanced and the most universally loved of all the Heritage breeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: David Newman and a consortium of 12 family farms in Kansas, Missouri and Iowa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: For years the Royal Family kept a large Berkshire herd at Windsor Castle — our Berkshire pigs are traceable back to these old English genetics. This would eventually become the most popular Heritage breed of pig in the United States because of its supreme marbling. Prized by the Japanese who imported it as \"Kurobuta\" pork, the Berkshire is recognized by 6 white spots at the tip of its feet, nose and tail.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDuroc\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Eastern United States and corn belt by way of the Guinea coast of Africa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Duroc meat is crisp and clean — known for great marbling and polished texture its taste is approachable on the palate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The Duroc is an older breed of American domestic pig that has become one of the most popular breeds because of its great taste and strong genetics, but pure Duroc is very hard to find. Durocs are a red pig strain developed around 1800 in New England and reputed to trace their ancestry back to the early red pigs of Africa. Durocs are especially valued by farmers for their hardiness and quick but thorough muscle growth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[\/TABS]\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heritage Foods USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":30190514044970,"sku":"1 slab (3-4#)","price":72.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/products\/bentons_slab_600.jpg?v=1569000481"},{"product_id":"choose-your-own-bacon-pack","title":"MIX \u0026 MATCH HERITAGE BACON","description":"[TABS]\n\u003ch5\u003eProduct\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMix \u0026amp; Match Heritage Bacon\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003eChoose your 3 favorite bacon styles from the drop down menu above\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFor the bacon lover, this mix \u0026amp; match package is a dream come true! \u003c\/span\u003eAmerica's greatest artisans have cured our 100% heritage breed pork in their signature styles exclusively for Heritage Foods. Choose from these 8 bacon varieties, listed mildest to boldest:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSignature Heritage Maple Cured, Trimble, MO:\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003eWhen people think of bacon, this is it, the most loved bacon in the world. Produced in a maple sugar cure and sourced from our pasture-raised, rare breed pigs, this sweet bacon is a staple and has been our top seller for over ten years. This is sure to become a fixture in your fridge — the perfect companion for day or night!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eUncured Smoked Bacon\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e, Trimble, MO:\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003eA naturally cured version of our signature maple bacon! The team at Fantasma's Finest have carefully crafted this option using sea salt and celery powder in place of traditional curing agents, while keeping the integrity, flavor profile, and quality standards that that our customers expect.\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTempesta Maple Bacon, Chicago, IL:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eTempesta Artisans, with its signature logo of the Roman Goddess blowing up a storm, is owned and operated by Antonio Fiasche. Tony has taken the food world by storm, emerging as one of the nation’s premiere curemasters thanks to his hard work ethic and refined yet diverse and creative palette. Tony uses real maple sugar and maple wood smoke, and a light cure that enhances the flavors of the heritage breeds for our newest bacon!\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFatted Calf's Sugar, Sea Salt, Cayenne, San Francisco, CA:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis is old-fashioned bacon at its very finest, beginning with our superior Heritage pigs, and then dry cured with an old-world salt-box method — just brown sugar, sea salt, and a bit of cayenne. It’s not too spicy and very well-balanced, and it is smoked over four kinds of wood, two fruit woods and two hardwoods — cherry, apple, mesquite and alderwood.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan class=\"il\"\u003eFarmstead\u003c\/span\u003e's Napa Valley Berkshire, St. Helena, CA:\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003eA “California” bacon, mild mannered and mellow. Easy to eat on sandwiches or with eggs, perfect for any time of day. It is lighter in flavor with just a bit of smoke, delicate and creamy, but with its own perky profile. We love it on avocado toast, and it pairs incredibly with a light California red, like the Pinot Noir from \u003cspan class=\"il\"\u003eFarmstead\u003c\/span\u003e! As with all our bacon, it is made from the healthiest, pasture-raised heritage breed pigs, with no antibiotics.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSignature Heritage Jowl Bacon, \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMaple Cured, Trimble, MO:\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSome would say that jowl bacon is the final frontier — others have known about it’s sweet pleasure for years. One thing is for sure, it is suddenly popping up on menus across the country. Similar to traditional bacon cut from pork belly, the jowl has its own wonderful character and its tasty fat is even more delicate. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSignature Heritage Loin Bacon, \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMaple Cured, Trimble, MO:\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eThis is our leanest and meatiest bacon, cut from our heritage breed loins and maple cured by the team at Paradise Locker Meats. This Canadian-style bacon is perfect for anyone who prefers a leaner bacon option.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSignature Heritage Pepper-Crusted Bacon, \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMaple Cured, Trimble, MO:\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eThis is our spectacular signature bacon, maple cured with the added spice of pepper. The pepper crust adds an unexpected kick while still delivering the famous Heritage goods. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBroadbent Hickory Smoked, Kuttawa, KY:\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003eIn 2009, Broadbent's celebrated 100 years of making old-fashioned country ham, bacon, and sausage. We are proud to ship them our 100% heritage pork bellies which they cure in their signature style. This is a lighter, sweeter bacon, smoked with hickory.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"UTF-8\"\u003e \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan class=\"il\"\u003eBenton\u003c\/span\u003e's Extra Hickory Smoked, Madisonville, TN: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAl \u003cspan class=\"il\"\u003eBenton\u003c\/span\u003e cures his meats in an ancient smokehouse in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, with little consideration for the modern world. \u003cspan class=\"il\"\u003eBenton\u003c\/span\u003e's meats are renowned for being heavy on the smoke and a perfect food for folk who love strong and bold flavor. Even though \u003cspan class=\"il\"\u003eBenton\u003c\/span\u003e is a legend in the South, he is still hands-on and present in all steps of the curing process. He is another famed traditionalist who is forwarding the cause of the American charcuterie renaissance by embracing heritage breed pigs. His strong, salty, smoky bacon has always enjoyed a huge following, and we are thrilled to be working with him to bring his great art to Heritage customers.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSmoking Goose Applewood Smoked Heritage Bacon,\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eIndianapolis, IN: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eWe send our 100% heritage Berkshire bellies to Smoking Goose in Indianapolis. There curemaster Chris Eley dry-rubs them and cures them under brown sugar, sea salt, and Indiana maple syrup. They are then smoked over apple wood. We loved this bacon the second we tasted it and are proud to add it to our list of delicious bacon produced by the country’s best curemasters. We especially love that this bacon is smoked using a real old-school smoker, not the case with most modern bacon today.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGround Bacon for Bacon Bits, two 1lb packs\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e, Maple Cured, Trimble, MO:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eHeritage Bacon Bits make everything better! A delicious new seasoning meat option that packs real flavor and can be sprinkled over any dish.Produced in a maple sugar cure and sourced from our pasture-raised, rare breed pigs.\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAll our meats are:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHumanely raised on pasture\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e100%\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eantibiotic free\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRaised by independent family farmers\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHeritage pork has more marbling resulting in more tender and  juicy meat\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eFarms\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen Heritage Foods started in 2001 we set out to sell heritage Thanksgiving turkeys. For three years our turkey project grew, but naturally mating turkey is a seasonal food and two of the three farmers we worked with to raise birds were looking for a more regular source of income if they were to continue working with us. So we committed to selling pork, which can be produced year round, as long as the breeds came from historic genetic lines, just like the turkeys. Now, 24 years later, Heritage Foods still works with those two original farms who together introduced the word “heritage pork” to hundreds of America’s best restaurants from coast-to-coast as well as thousands of homes through the Heritage Foods retail website.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNewman Farm Berkshire Pork\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eMyrtle, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn 2006 we got a handwritten letter from farmer Mark Newman asking us if Heritage Foods would ever consider selling his pasture raised old school Berkshire pigs. We said yes and a relationship grew that still continues today, now through his son David who has maintained the genetic line of Berkshires which can be traced back to the 17th and 18th century lines that came to these shores by way of the Berkshire region of England.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFrom the air, Newman Farm Berkshire Pork, in south central Missouri, in the heart of the Ozarks, looks more like a pioneer settlement or a holiday camp than any sort of pig farm. Wooden huts are scattered across green fields like bungalows, where contented Berkshire pigs live their lives, happily on-pasture.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePigs on Newman Farm are raised 100% on-pasture. The sows raise their piglets in huts that dot the fields of the farm. The babies live inside the huts until they are old enough to jump over the 6-inch wooden board that blocks the entrance. Once they make the great leap, they have an entire field to run on and they can mingle with the other piglets from the other huts.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid Newman is both a farmer and scientist. “The farmer came first,” he laughs. His degrees are in animal science, and he holds a Ph.D in meat science and muscle biology, focused on meat quality. “As I became a scientist and got involved in education, I applied what I was learning to understand what we could do better.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBerkshires were the favorite breed of British royalty and were first introduced to the New World in 1823. Since then, Berkshire bloodlines have remained exceptionally pure and have become a mainstay favorite of chefs and diners, legendary for their exceptionally bright pork flavor and thick, delicious fat cap. And if anyone were to question their excellence, just ask David. “It’s not a matter of opinion!” he insists, passionately. “It’s a scientific fact, Berkshires are the most marbled hog on the market today.” David is a master breeder and works hard to keep the lines on his farm separate and he is always working to improve the Berkshire breed on his farm.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid lives on the farm with his wife, Kristin, his mom Rita, and his two kids. “I got my start through my family. My parents were hog farmers, but primarily in the commercial pig business. In the 1980s my parents raised pigs in confinement. There were some very challenging economic times for everyone in production, and we realized we were going to have to do something differently. Kristin came from a family farming background also and is a major part of the operations success today, working for the farm along with their team of employees.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“In the 1990s my parents decided they wanted to go back to their roots. We were going to have to be very large to be successful in the commercial sector, and my father decided we should focus on quality. We changed our genetic program and our nutrition program. We became Certified Humane®, and we chose to focus on Berkshire pigs for their quality.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid and his family are the future of American farming! They are young, energetic and very passionate about the future of agriculture. David and Kristin work with a team of farmers who raise their Berkshires to supply Heritage Foods and the national network of chefs who rely on his product for their menus.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLazy Red Wattle Ranch\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eLa Plata, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWe met Larry and Madonna Sorell in 2002, as growers for Frank Reese and the Heritage Turkey Project. As their turkey flock grew in size, so did the Sorell’s importance to Heritage Foods.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen you see Red Wattle pork on a menu, what you are seeing is a five-state, twelve farm network founded by Larry and Madonna, dedicated to raising a storied breed that was once upon a time nearly extinct. Larry and Madonna are the heroes of this story, avatars of the heritage food movement, true believers who were destined to become the Guardians of the Red Wattle. They are proof positive of the ethos that when it comes to endangered livestock, “you have to eat them to save them.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn the beginning, back in 2004 when the Heritage Foods wholesale business began selling pigs, a market for the Red Wattle pig was built on a handshake agreement with chefs Zach Allen and Mark Ladner, then at Lupa Restaurant in NYC. They recognized the high-quality and undiminished taste that came from a Red Wattle pig humanely raised on-pasture and antibiotic free, using traditional farming methods. The deal with Ladner, and the partnership with Larry and his Lazy Red Wattle Ranch, were part of the origins of Heritage Foods.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“We traveled 18,000 miles to get started,” Larry says matter-of-factly about a Heritage Foods Odyssey whose mission was to search out rare Red Wattle sows and collect a viable genetic lineage of this incredible pig whose American legacy goes back to 18th century New Orleans. \"When we began, we had two Red Wattle gilts and a boar, and we had to travel all over the United States to start a herd.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Now I’ve kinda retired from raising animals, but we have a dozen Amish growers working with us, and I pick up the hogs and pay for them, and then bring them to the processor, Paradise Locker. I drive a tractor trailer and go around picking up three hundred pounders, fifty to eighty head a week. We have farms in Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa... that’s a lot of traveling. We may have four or five pick-ups every week. You wear out a truck pretty fast.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLarry, now over eighty, does less of the driving, but he still keeps all the relationships going, which isn’t easy considering the Amish don’t have phones inside their homes! “I’ll have to quit sometime but right now it’s going pretty good. The driving is easy. The hard job is you gotta keep Amish families happy, picking up their hogs, coordinating, monitoring the size of the animals, and making sure we have the right amount — each week we round up 50 to 100 pigs. And we’ve been doing it for almost 20 years now.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThanks to Larry and Madonna’s work, the Red Wattle was upgraded to Threatened status from Critical on The Livestock Conservancy’s watch list, a great achievement for the cause of biodiversity, one of the most important issues of our time.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMetzger Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eSeneca, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug Metzger's Tamworth and Berkshire genetics are now being shepherded by Robert Funk. Doug sadly passed away in 2023. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug Metzger was truly at the ground zero of our business and the heritage food movement. He was the magic man that first introduced us to our processor Paradise Locker Meats, with whom we have worked and grown ever since and he worked together with Frank Reese raising heritage turkeys from about 2002 to 2013.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAt 83-years-old, Doug raises purebred, certified Berkshire and Tamworth pigs on his 1,500 acre farm in Seneca, Kansas, with his wife Betty.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn an era of specialization Doug is an anomaly. Doug is famous for adapting to any moment. In 2001 he took our call and agreed to raise heritage turkeys for us with Frank because he believed that the growing food movement would appreciate the flavor of the birds his grandfather raised. As demand grew for quality meat, Doug got into heritage pigs and transitioned his commodity farm to a pastured farm and haven for the rare Tamworth breed.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug has been farming since 1951. As a kid he raised chickens but gave them up when he got into turkeys. As he got older, he broke into the milk cattle game. Then he tried sheep, but he says he couldn’t get them to breed right. He also raised Aylesbury ducks — a rare heritage breed. Over the years the acres on his sprawling farm have been used to grow wheat, corn, oats, barley, sorghum, alfalfa, and rye. He even grew flax one year because he heard it was supposed to help the immune system of the cattle, which he thought it did. “It certainly made their coats look wonderful,” Doug says.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eToday farmers are incentivized to grow monocrops of corn and soybean — “that’s all they want us to grow,” Doug explains, “and farmers haul their crops to town instead of using it for something on their own farm.” Doug remembers fondly the days when a diversified farm would grow corn and turn it into whiskey, or when soybeans were grown for the purpose of feeding milk cattle — as Doug did on his farm. “Keep your grain,” Doug insists, “and use it to grow a truly sustainable farm.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug was never one to use chemicals to grow food. He believes any talk of sustainability is not real when you raise only one crop or when you use chemicals to do it. “My buddy and I could clear 100 acres of weeds in a day if we worked through the night, and we did not need any additives to do it. All those chemicals are part of the reason there are so many cancers around, if you ask me.” Doug has amassed generations of farming secrets having grown so many foods naturally, often calling upon experiences from decades ago to solve a problem that presents itself today.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug comes from a truly great American farming family — Life Magazine once wrote that Doug’s father, who lived to be 104, had more living descendants than any American – many of them farmers. His is part of the story of immigrants who came to the New World and made good through old-fashioned values, tradition, and hard work.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“We’re here today to save these breeds,” says Doug, who is as down-home as the farm he still works on as he approaches his 84th birthday. “Save the breeds and make a little money. We got a lot of things going on, we have a lot of land. But it’s getting hard to keep up with it all… I need more young people! When I was young, we raised turkeys in spring and sold ‘em all by Christmas. We milked cattle all year round. I want to keep working — my dad was helping me when he was 84!”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHis conversational style always brings insight and interesting thoughts to bear. We hope Doug and Betty work with us for many years to come and that their beliefs of diversified farming continue. Today, his farm is supported through the work of his daughter Marilyn and her husband Stan, and their children Simon and Joel.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGood Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eOlsburg, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eGood Farms' Old Spot, Duroc, and Tamworth genetics are now being shepherded by Dustin and Maria Torneden since Craig and his wife Amy retired in 2024.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWe met the Goods through a connection at Kansas State University where Craig’s father was a distinguished professor. Craig spent his life in agriculture growing up in the Flint Hills of Kansas, some of the best agricultural land in the world, perfectly adapted to free ranging livestock, which feed on the perennial grasses that grow there naturally.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Good’s hog operation began in earnest in 1981, and they have continuously raised hogs there for the past 37 years. Their Duroc herd started with a few sows from Craig’s former employer who started raising Duroc pigs in the 1940s — with females obtained through Sears and Roebucks! As Craig explains, “I took a job in 1975 working with an outstanding stockman who raised purebred Duroc pigs here in Kansas. His name was Fred Germann, and he was one of the oldest and best Duroc breeders in the U.S. Things sure have changed since then, but the Durocs that we now raise have ancestry that goes back to those Sears females, approximately 85 years ago.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDuroc is an American breed that was used as the foundational genetics for the entire pig industry in the United States because of their good growth rate, body type, and mothering instincts. But big agriculture continued to overbreed the Duroc for certain traits related to higher profits and they crossed it with other pig breeds. Soon the industrial pig became utterly unrecognizable, and it became almost impossible to tell that it had originally derived from Duroc genetics.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig, on the other hand, continued to breed his Durocs to improve their genetics with traits particular to Craig’s preferences, while staying true to the original healthy and hearty breed. Craig always put a lot of thought into which sows he would breed with which boars as he worked to improve meat quality and edibility, as opposed to faster growth. He also selected pigs for the demeanor of the animals, who he treats like members of his own family. Craig bred for strong animals and sought out leaner carcasses (although the Duroc is supremely marbled). He also bred for skeletal size – Craig likes good length of body, for better loin eye size and fat distribution.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOver the years, the Durocs on Good Farm became his own breed, even though they looked like and acted like true old school Durocs. The Goods continue to bring in new lines to avoid inbreeding, but they work with the lines to continue improving their particular version of the Duroc.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig and Amy also raise Gloucestershire Old Spots and Tamworths, both considered rare breeds.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig's father, Don, was a meat scientist and would eventually have a division of Kansas State University named after him. Together they raised purebred Angus cattle and crops on the farm. “I have had a passion for raising pigs,” says Craig, since taking pigs on as a 4-H project in 1965. Craig studied Animal Science at Kansas State University. “Amy and I were married in 1976 and 5 years later we made the decision to move to the farm that my father and mother had owned since 1961, near Olsburg, Kansas, on 1000 acres of Flint Hills pasture.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eBreed\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRed Wattle\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 18th Century Louisiana by way of New Caledonia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a cross between pork and beef, Red Wattle is floral and robust, concentrated and bold.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: A consortium of 18 Amish families in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: French colonists brought these hogs to New Orleans as a favored meat breed. The Red Wattle eventually would populate the forests of Texas where they were rounded up and brought to the great slaughterhouses of Chicago. Recognized by their signature wattles that hang from the jowl, the Red Wattle resembles Kunekune pigs of New Zealand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGloucestershire Old Spot\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 19th Century Indiana by way of Berkeley Valley of Gloucestershire, England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a charcuterie pig with a delicious milky fat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside of Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: Descended from the native old English pigs of western England, this pig was mentioned as early as the 1780's. The spotted pig forages on fallen orchard fruits and other farm by products. Despite their signature oversized floppy ears which hang over their eyes, this gentle pig is hearty and self-reliant.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTamworth\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 2,500 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Rossville, Illinois by way of Staffordshire, England by way of Ireland.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: A premiere bacon producer, Tamworth meat is fruity, earthy, clean, mineral, root, sweet and tender.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Doug Metzger and Craig and Amy Good in Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The only native red breed to England, its heritage traces back to the wild pigs of Middle Age Europe. A slow growing breed, the Tamworth is active and hearty. Traditionally raised in the woods, the pig's long angular snout makes it an excellent forager — Tamworth pigs do not conform to industrial agriculture needs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBerkshire\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 1823 Kentucky\/ Illinois by way of Western England and outside London.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Sweet with depth of flavor, Berkshire pork is balanced and the most universally loved of all the Heritage breeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: David Newman and a consortium of 12 family farms in Kansas, Missouri and Iowa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: For years the Royal Family kept a large Berkshire herd at Windsor Castle — our Berkshire pigs are traceable back to these old English genetics. This would eventually become the most popular Heritage breed of pig in the United States because of its supreme marbling. Prized by the Japanese who imported it as \"Kurobuta\" pork, the Berkshire is recognized by 6 white spots at the tip of its feet, nose and tail.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDuroc\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Eastern United States and corn belt by way of the Guinea coast of Africa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Duroc meat is crisp and clean — known for great marbling and polished texture its taste is approachable on the palate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The Duroc is an older breed of American domestic pig that has become one of the most popular breeds because of its great taste and strong genetics, but pure Duroc is very hard to find. Durocs are a red pig strain developed around 1800 in New England and reputed to trace their ancestry back to the early red pigs of Africa. Durocs are especially valued by farmers for their hardiness and quick but thorough muscle growth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[\/TABS]\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heritage Foods USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39597649264698,"sku":"","price":69.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/products\/1112_bacon_MixandMatch.jpg?v=1628021899"},{"product_id":"smoking-goose-bacon","title":"SMOKING GOOSE APPLEWOOD SMOKED HERITAGE BACON","description":"[TABS]\n\u003ch5\u003eProduct\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eApplewood Smoked Heritage Bacon \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eDry rubbed with Indiana Maple Syrup and Brown Sugar and smoked over fruit wood by Smoking Goose\u003cbr\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e \u003cspan\u003eThree 12 oz packs, sliced\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBerkshire\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe send our 100% heritage Berkshire bellies to Smoking Goose in Indianapolis. There curemaster Chris Eley dry-rubs them and cures them under brown sugar, sea salt, and Indiana maple syrup. They are then smoked over apple wood. We loved this bacon the second we tasted it and are proud to add it to our list of delicious bacon produced by the country’s best curemasters. We especially love that this bacon is smoked using a real old-school smoker, not the case with most modern bacon today.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eWe first met Chris at the Good Food Awards and fell in love with his wide selection of charcuterie. A respected member of the young talented generation of American curemasters using old world techniques while using sustainably produced ingredients, Chris is an active member in his community through his curehouse and shop. We are so excited to feature our first bacon with him using bellies from Newman Berkshire Farm.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThe secret to great pork is to start off with great ingredients, and nothing beats our storied Heritage breeds —  Berkshire, Red Wattle, Duroc, Gloucestershire Old Spot, Large Black, and Tamworth. Each breed comes from a different culinary tradition, and boasts a distinctive, nuanced flavor.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHumanely raised on pasture \u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e100% \u003cspan\u003eantibiotic-free\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRaised by independent family farmers\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHeritage pork has more marbling resulting in more tender and juicy meat\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/279514159\" width=\"480\" height=\"270\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eFarms\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen Heritage Foods started in 2001 we set out to sell heritage Thanksgiving turkeys. For three years our turkey project grew, but naturally mating turkey is a seasonal food and two of the three farmers we worked with to raise birds were looking for a more regular source of income if they were to continue working with us. So we committed to selling pork, which can be produced year round, as long as the breeds came from historic genetic lines, just like the turkeys. Now, 20 years later, Heritage Foods still works with those two original farms, as well as a few others, who together introduced the word “heritage pork” to menus across the country by providing center of the plate pork dishes to hundreds of America’s best restaurants from coast-to-coast as well as thousands of homes through the Heritage Foods mail order division.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMetzger Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eSeneca, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug Metzger was truly at the ground zero of our business and the heritage food movement. He was the magic man that first introduced us to our processor Paradise Locker Meats, with whom we have worked and grown ever since and he worked together with Frank Reese raising heritage turkeys from about 2002 to 2013.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt 83-years-old, Doug raises purebred, certified Berkshire and Tamworth pigs on his 1,500 acre farm in Seneca, Kansas, with his wife Betty.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn an era of specialization Doug is an anomaly. Doug is famous for adapting to any moment. In 2001 he took our call and agreed to raise heritage turkeys for us with Frank because he believed that the growing food movement would appreciate the flavor of the birds his grandfather raised. As demand grew for quality meat, Doug got into heritage pigs and transitioned his commodity farm to a pastured farm and haven for the rare Tamworth breed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug has been farming since 1951. As a kid he raised chickens but gave them up when he got into turkeys. As he got older, he broke into the milk cattle game. Then he tried sheep, but he says he couldn’t get them to breed right. He also raised Aylesbury ducks — a rare heritage breed. Over the years the acres on his sprawling farm have been used to grow wheat, corn, oats, barley, sorghum, alfalfa, and rye. He even grew flax one year because he heard it was supposed to help the immune system of the cattle, which he thought it did. “It certainly made their coats look wonderful,” Doug says.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eToday farmers are incentivized to grow monocrops of corn and soybean — “that’s all they want us to grow,” Doug explains, “and farmers haul their crops to town instead of using it for something on their own farm.” Doug remembers fondly the days when a diversified farm would grow corn and turn it into whiskey, or when soybeans were grown for the purpose of feeding milk cattle — as Doug did on his farm. “Keep your grain,” Doug insists, “and use it to grow a truly sustainable farm.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug was never one to use chemicals to grow food. He believes any talk of sustainability is not real when you raise only one crop or when you use chemicals to do it. “My buddy and I could clear 100 acres of weeds in a day if we worked through the night, and we did not need any additives to do it. All those chemicals are part of the reason there are so many cancers around, if you ask me.” Doug has amassed generations of farming secrets having grown so many foods naturally, often calling upon experiences from decades ago to solve a problem that presents itself today.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug comes from a truly great American farming family — \u003cem\u003eLife Magazine\u003c\/em\u003e once wrote that Doug’s father, who lived to be 104, had more living descendants than any American – many of them farmers. His is part of the story of immigrants who came to the New World and made good through old-fashioned values, tradition, and hard work.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“We’re here today to save these breeds,” says Doug, who is as down-home as the farm he still works on as he approaches his 84th birthday. “Save the breeds and make a little money. We got a lot of things going on, we have a lot of land. But it’s getting hard to keep up with it all… I need more young people! When I was young, we raised turkeys in spring and sold ‘em all by Christmas. We milked cattle all year round. I want to keep working — my dad was helping me when he was 84!”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis conversational style always brings insight and interesting thoughts to bear. We hope Doug and Betty work with us for many years to come and that their beliefs of diversified farming continue. Today, his farm is supported through the work of his daughter Marilyn and her husband Stan, and their children Simon and Joel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLazy S. Farms\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eLa Plata, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe met Larry and Madonna Sorell in 2002, as growers for Frank Reese and the Heritage Turkey Project. As their turkey flock grew in size, so did the Sorell’s importance to Heritage Foods.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen you see Red Wattle pork on a menu, what you are seeing is a five-state, twelve farm network founded by Larry and Madonna, dedicated to raising a storied breed that was once upon a time nearly extinct. Larry and Madonna are the heroes of this story, avatars of the heritage food movement, true believers who were destined to become the Guardians of the Red Wattle. They are proof positive of the ethos that when it comes to endangered livestock, “you have to eat them to save them.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the beginning, back in 2004 when the Heritage Foods wholesale business began selling pigs, a market for the Red Wattle pig was built on a handshake agreement with chefs Zach Allen and Mark Ladner, then at Lupa Restaurant in NYC. They recognized the high-quality and undiminished taste that came from a Red Wattle pig humanely raised on-pasture and antibiotic free, using traditional farming methods. The deal with Ladner, and the partnership with Larry and his Lazy S Farms, were part of the origins of Heritage Foods.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“We traveled 18,000 miles to get started,” Larry says matter-of-factly about a Heritage Foods Odyssey whose mission was to search out rare Red Wattle sows and collect a viable genetic lineage of this incredible pig whose American legacy goes back to 18th century New Orleans. \"When we began, we had two Red Wattle gilts and a boar, and we had to travel all over the United States to start a herd.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Now I’ve kinda retired from raising animals, but we have a dozen Amish growers working with us, and I pick up the hogs and pay for them, and then bring them to the processor, Paradise Locker. I drive a tractor trailer and go around picking up three hundred pounders, fifty to eighty head a week. We have farms in Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa... that’s a lot of traveling. We may have four or five pick-ups every week. You wear out a truck pretty fast.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLarry, now over eighty, does less of the driving, but he still keeps all the relationships going, which isn’t easy considering the Amish don’t have phones inside their homes! “I’ll have to quit sometime but right now it’s going pretty good. The driving is easy. The hard job is you gotta keep Amish families happy, picking up their hogs, coordinating, monitoring the size of the animals, and making sure we have the right amount — each week we round up 50 to 100 pigs. And we’ve been doing it for almost 20 years now.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThanks to Larry and Madonna’s work, the Red Wattle was upgraded to Threatened status from Critical on The Livestock Conservancy’s watch list, a great achievement for the cause of biodiversity, one of the most important issues of our time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNewman Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eMyrtle, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 2006 we got a handwritten letter from farmer Mark Newman asking us if Heritage Foods would ever consider selling his pasture raised old school Berkshire pigs. We said yes and a relationship grew that still continues today, now through his son David who has maintained the genetic line of Berkshires which can be traced back to the 17th and 18th century lines that came to these shores by way of the Berkshire region of England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom the air, Newman Farms, in south central Missouri, in the heart of the Ozarks, looks more like a pioneer settlement or a holiday camp than any sort of pig farm. Wooden huts are scattered across green fields like bungalows, where contented Berkshire pigs live their lives, happily on-pasture. It’s an idyllic image, far from the modern machine that is industrial pig farming.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePigs on Newman Farm are raised 100% on-pasture. The sows raise their piglets in huts that dot the fields of the farm. The babies live inside the huts until they are old enough to jump over the 6-inch wooden board that blocks the entrance. Once they make the great leap, they have an entire field to run on and they can mingle with the other piglets from the other huts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs they age together, the piggies will get moved to new paddocks, as part of the rotational grazing program that keeps the soil healthy and the pigs clean. As adolescents the pigs move into grow barns where a few dozen of them live together in what seems like an open-air college dormitory where they roll over each other and play all day long.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDavid Newman is both a farmer and scientist. “The farmer came first,” he laughs. His degrees are in animal science, and he holds a Ph.D in meat science and muscle biology, focused on meat quality. “As I became a scientist and got involved in education, I applied what I was learning to understand what we could do better.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBerkshires were the favorite breed of British royalty and were first introduced to the New World in 1823. Since then, Berkshire bloodlines have remained exceptionally pure and have become a mainstay favorite of chefs and diners, legendary for their exceptionally bright pork flavor and thick, delicious fat cap. And if anyone were to question their excellence, just ask David. “It’s not a matter of opinion!” he insists, passionately. “It’s a scientific fact, Berkshires are the most marbled hog on the market today.” David is a master breeder and works hard to keep the lines on his farm separate and he is always working to improve the Berkshire breed on his farm.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDavid lives on the farm with his wife, Kristin, his mom Rita, and his two kids, and teaches animal science at Arkansas State, bringing with him what few teachers ever will: a real-world case study, a not-so-secret double life, professor as farmer, farmer as professor. As he says, “there is nothing better than learning from someone who has some skin in the game. I make a living for our family on the farm, and I bring that with me when I educate my students. It is the real American dream, America at its best.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“I got my start through my family. My grandfather was a farmer. My parents were hog farmers, but primarily in the commercial pig business. In the 1980s my parents raised pigs in confinement. There were some very challenging economic times for everyone in production, and we realized we were going to have to do something differently.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“In the 1990s my parents decided they wanted to go back to their roots. We were going to have to be very large to be successful in the commercial sector, and my father decided we should focus on quality. We changed our genetic program and our nutrition program. We became Certified Humane®. We never confine any animals — ‘everybody’ has pasture access — and we chose to focus on Berkshire pigs for their quality.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDavid is the future of American farming! He sits on the National Pork Board but also runs a small family pig operation. He is young, energetic and strong. He is a great speaker and holds in his brain so many secrets about pigs and pig farming that most of the larger pig operators have forgotten since they raise their pigs in unnatural surroundings: indoors and in confinement. He travels around the world and is a sought out speaker at seminars and events, always promoting the old way of raising pigs but with an understanding of what it takes to be successful in modern times. David works with a team of farmers who raise his Berkshires to supply Heritage Foods and the national network of chefs who rely on his product for their menus.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGood Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eOlsburg, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe met the Goods through a connection at Kansas State University where Craig’s father was a distinguished professor. Craig spent his life in agriculture growing up in the Flint Hills of Kansas, some of the best agricultural land in the world, perfectly adapted to free ranging livestock, which feed on the perennial grasses that grow there naturally.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Good’s hog operation began in earnest in 1981, and they have continuously raised hogs there for the past 37 years. Their Duroc herd started with a few sows from Craig’s former employer who started raising Duroc pigs in the 1940s — with females obtained through Sears and Roebucks! As Craig explains, “I took a job in 1975 working with an outstanding stockman who raised purebred Duroc pigs here in Kansas. His name was Fred Germann, and he was one of the oldest and best Duroc breeders in the U.S. Things sure have changed since then, but the Durocs that we now raise have ancestry that goes back to those Sears females, approximately 85 years ago.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDuroc is an American breed that was used as the foundational genetics for the entire pig industry in the United States because of their good growth rate, body type, and mothering instincts. But big agriculture continued to overbreed the Duroc for certain traits related to higher profits and they crossed it with other pig breeds. Soon the industrial pig became utterly unrecognizable, and it became almost impossible to tell that it had originally derived from Duroc genetics.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCraig, on the other hand, continued to breed his Durocs to improve their genetics with traits particular to Craig’s preferences, while staying true to the original healthy and hearty breed. Craig always put a lot of thought into which sows he would breed with which boars as he worked to improve meat quality and edibility, as opposed to faster growth. He also selected pigs for the demeanor of the animals, who he treats like members of his own family. Craig bred for strong animals and sought out leaner carcasses (although the Duroc is supremely marbled). He also bred for skeletal size – Craig likes good length of body, for better loin eye size and fat distribution.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOver the years, the Durocs on Good Farm became his own breed, even though they looked like and acted like true old school Durocs. The Goods continue to bring in new lines to avoid inbreeding, but they work with the lines to continue improving their particular version of the Duroc.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCraig and Amy also raise Gloucestershire Old Spots and Tamworths, both considered rare breeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCraig's father, Don, was a meat scientist and would eventually have a division of Kansas State University named after him. Together they raised purebred Angus cattle and crops on the farm. “I have had a passion for raising pigs,” says Craig, since taking pigs on as a 4-H project in 1965. Craig studied Animal Science at Kansas State University. “Amy and I were married in 1976 and 5 years later we made the decision to move to the farm that my father and mother had owned since 1961, near Olsburg, Kansas, on 1000 acres of Flint Hills pasture.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOther Producers: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eMeyer, Baker, and Johnson\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHeritage Foods is also proud to have developed relationships with local producers outside the Kansas City area where most of our meats are processed. These include Kenneth Johnson who started with us as a 4-H student and kept his line going after that, a line he originally sourced from Craig Good. We also work with Sharon Meyer and Trent and Troy Baker (the Baker boys) who raise some of the largest and nicest Berkshire pigs in the nation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eBreed\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRed Wattle\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 18th Century Louisiana by way of New Caledonia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a cross between pork and beef, Red Wattle is floral and robust, concentrated and bold.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: A consortium of 18 Amish families in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: French colonists brought these hogs to New Orleans as a favored meat breed. The Red Wattle eventually would populate the forests of Texas where they were rounded up and brought to the great slaughterhouses of Chicago. Recognized by their signature wattles that hang from the jowl, the Red Wattle resembles Kunekune pigs of New Zealand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGloucestershire Old Spots\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 19th Century Indiana by way of Berkeley Valley of Gloucestershire, England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a charcuterie pig with a delicious milky fat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside of Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: Descended from the native old English pigs of western England, this pig was mentioned as early as the 1780's. The spotted pig forages on fallen orchard fruits and other farm by products. Despite their signature oversized floppy ears which hang over their eyes, this gentle pig is hearty and self-reliant.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTamworth\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 2,500 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Rossville, Illinois by way of Staffordshire, England by way of Ireland.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: A premiere bacon producer, Tamworth meat is fruity, earthy, clean, mineral, root, sweet and tender.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Doug Metzger and Craig and Amy Good in Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The only native red breed to England, its heritage traces back to the wild pigs of Middle Age Europe. A slow growing breed, the Tamworth is active and hearty. Traditionally raised in the woods, the pig's long angular snout makes it an excellent forager — Tamworth pigs do not conform to industrial agriculture needs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBerkshire\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 1823 Kentucky\/ Illinois by way of Western England and outside London.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Sweet with depth of flavor, Berkshire pork is balanced and the most universally loved of all the Heritage breeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: David Newman and a consortium of 12 family farms in Kansas, Missouri and Iowa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: For years the Royal Family kept a large Berkshire herd at Windsor Castle — our Berkshire pigs are traceable back to these old English genetics. This would eventually become the most popular Heritage breed of pig in the United States because of its supreme marbling. Prized by the Japanese who imported it as \"Kurobuta\" pork, the Berkshire is recognized by 6 white spots at the tip of its feet, nose and tail.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDuroc\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Eastern United States and corn belt by way of the Guinea coast of Africa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Duroc meat is crisp and clean — known for great marbling and polished texture its taste is approachable on the palate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The Duroc is an older breed of American domestic pig that has become one of the most popular breeds because of its great taste and strong genetics, but pure Duroc is very hard to find. Durocs are a red pig strain developed around 1800 in New England and reputed to trace their ancestry back to the early red pigs of Africa. Durocs are especially valued by farmers for their hardiness and quick but thorough muscle growth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eCooking\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHow to Prepare\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the oven: preheat oven to 325°F. Place bacon on a foil lined sheet tray and bake, rotating the tray every 10 minutes until you reach the desired crispiness.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn the stovetop: heat skillet over medium-high heat, almost to smoking. No oil is needed! Place bacon strips, one at a time, into the skillet. We recommend flipping once and using a bacon press to prevent curling. When you reach the desired crispiness, transfer bacon onto a plate lined with paper towels and pour off fat from the pan after each round.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e[\/TABS]\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heritage Foods USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":31636301447226,"sku":"Smoking Goose bacon (3pks)","price":69.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/products\/hf_smoking_goose_bacon_1.jpg?v=1759500230"},{"product_id":"shaved-berkshire-heritage-maple-sugar-cured-ham","title":"SHAVED HERITAGE DELI HAM","description":"[TABS]\n\u003ch5\u003eProduct\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHeritage Shaved Deli Ham, Maple Sugar Cured\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eBerkshire\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eChoose three or ten 8 oz packs from the drop down menu above. \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEach pack makes about 4 sandwiches. Freeze upon delivery or store sealed in your refrigerator for up to 40 days. Once opened, shaved ham can be stored in a ziploc bag in your refrigerator for seven days. \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMaple cured ham is at the cornerstone of American cooking, loved universally as the main ingredient for an iconic sandwich. Whether for a ham and cheese, jambon beurre, Cubano, or fried with an egg for breakfast, pasture raised heritage breeds produce marbled delicious meat, so every bite is sure to be sweet and juicy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOur deli ham is shaved and ready to eat. The maple sugar cure is the foundational and proprietary cure recipe for everything produced at Paradise Locker Meats. It is sweet and perfect for everyday eating.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you are like so many who love our maple sugar cured deli ham, try the same ham as a \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/heritagefoods.com\/products\/top-selling-ham?_pos=1\u0026amp;_sid=79eaca256\u0026amp;_ss=r\" target=\"_blank\"\u003ecenterpiece\u003c\/a\u003e, either bone-in or boneless.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eIngredients: pork cured with water, less than 2% of the following: salt, cane sugar, maple sugar, and brown sugar, spice extractives, sodium phosphate, sodium erythorbate, vinegar, sodium nitrite.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e100% Berkshire breed\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHumanely raised on pasture, 100% antibiotic-free and raised by independent family farmers\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eReady to eat! \u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eArtisan\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHeritage Foods ham is all cut by our abattoir partners outside Kansas City, Paradise Locker Meats.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMario and Teresa purchased the business in 1995 and ran the locker, still in Paradise, providing custom processing for local farmers and hunters in the area. They also started a retail side of the business, offering various cuts of meat to local shoppers! Mario started with a team of around 3-5 employees and was processing roughly 10 beef and 10 hogs a week.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter a fire, Mario and Teresa found land just down the road in Trimble, MO and set out building the growing business! In January of 2003, they broke ground and in September they reopened the doors to the new Paradise Locker Meats. Starting with the same crew, they quickly started growing with more capabilities in the new building.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGrowing was never easy, but Mario and Teresa were determined to continue what they started in Paradise, and build a company that could make a difference in the food world. Through wonderful support by the local community, and establishing amazing relationships with clients locally and nationally, Paradise Locker Meats currently employs 50 plus employees and processes 350-400 local animals on a weekly basis! Paradise is now run by Lou Fantasma along with his parents and brother Nick.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eParadise Locker Meats exists to support and serve patrons and families in a sustainable manner by processing meats from small family farms; building awareness of local, natural food; and providing quality, wholesome products with dedication, integrity and honesty!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eFarms\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen Heritage Foods started in 2001 we set out to sell heritage Thanksgiving turkeys. For three years our turkey project grew, but naturally mating turkey is a seasonal food and two of the three farmers we worked with to raise birds were looking for a more regular source of income if they were to continue working with us. So we committed to selling pork, which can be produced year round, as long as the breeds came from historic genetic lines, just like the turkeys. Now, 24 years later, Heritage Foods still works with those two original farms who together introduced the word “heritage pork” to hundreds of America’s best restaurants from coast-to-coast as well as thousands of homes through the Heritage Foods retail website.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNewman Farm Berkshire Pork\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eMyrtle, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 2006 we got a handwritten letter from farmer Mark Newman asking us if Heritage Foods would ever consider selling his pasture raised old school Berkshire pigs. We said yes and a relationship grew that still continues today, now through his son David who has maintained the genetic line of Berkshires which can be traced back to the 17th and 18th century lines that came to these shores by way of the Berkshire region of England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom the air, Newman Farm Berkshire Pork, in south central Missouri, in the heart of the Ozarks, looks more like a pioneer settlement or a holiday camp than any sort of pig farm. Wooden huts are scattered across green fields like bungalows, where contented Berkshire pigs live their lives, happily on-pasture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePigs on Newman Farm are raised 100% on-pasture. The sows raise their piglets in huts that dot the fields of the farm. The babies live inside the huts until they are old enough to jump over the 6-inch wooden board that blocks the entrance. Once they make the great leap, they have an entire field to run on and they can mingle with the other piglets from the other huts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDavid Newman is both a farmer and scientist. “The farmer came first,” he laughs. His degrees are in animal science, and he holds a Ph.D in meat science and muscle biology, focused on meat quality. “As I became a scientist and got involved in education, I applied what I was learning to understand what we could do better.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBerkshires were the favorite breed of British royalty and were first introduced to the New World in 1823. Since then, Berkshire bloodlines have remained exceptionally pure and have become a mainstay favorite of chefs and diners, legendary for their exceptionally bright pork flavor and thick, delicious fat cap. And if anyone were to question their excellence, just ask David. “It’s not a matter of opinion!” he insists, passionately. “It’s a scientific fact, Berkshires are the most marbled hog on the market today.” David is a master breeder and works hard to keep the lines on his farm separate and he is always working to improve the Berkshire breed on his farm.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDavid lives on the farm with his wife, Kristin, his mom Rita, and his two kids. “I got my start through my family. My parents were hog farmers, but primarily in the commercial pig business. In the 1980s my parents raised pigs in confinement. There were some very challenging economic times for everyone in production, and we realized we were going to have to do something differently. Kristin came from a family farming background also and is a major part of the operations success today, working for the farm along with their team of employees.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“In the 1990s my parents decided they wanted to go back to their roots. We were going to have to be very large to be successful in the commercial sector, and my father decided we should focus on quality. We changed our genetic program and our nutrition program. We became Certified Humane®, and we chose to focus on Berkshire pigs for their quality.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDavid and his family are the future of American farming! They are young, energetic and very passionate about the future of agriculture. David and Kristin work with a team of farmers who raise their Berkshires to supply Heritage Foods and the national network of chefs who rely on his product for their menus.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLazy Red Wattle Ranch\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eLa Plata, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe met Larry and Madonna Sorell in 2002, as growers for Frank Reese and the Heritage Turkey Project. As their turkey flock grew in size, so did the Sorell’s importance to Heritage Foods.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen you see Red Wattle pork on a menu, what you are seeing is a five-state, twelve farm network founded by Larry and Madonna, dedicated to raising a storied breed that was once upon a time nearly extinct. Larry and Madonna are the heroes of this story, avatars of the heritage food movement, true believers who were destined to become the Guardians of the Red Wattle. They are proof positive of the ethos that when it comes to endangered livestock, “you have to eat them to save them.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the beginning, back in 2004 when the Heritage Foods wholesale business began selling pigs, a market for the Red Wattle pig was built on a handshake agreement with chefs Zach Allen and Mark Ladner, then at Lupa Restaurant in NYC. They recognized the high-quality and undiminished taste that came from a Red Wattle pig humanely raised on-pasture and antibiotic free, using traditional farming methods. The deal with Ladner, and the partnership with Larry and his Lazy Red Wattle Ranch, were part of the origins of Heritage Foods.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“We traveled 18,000 miles to get started,” Larry says matter-of-factly about a Heritage Foods Odyssey whose mission was to search out rare Red Wattle sows and collect a viable genetic lineage of this incredible pig whose American legacy goes back to 18th century New Orleans. \"When we began, we had two Red Wattle gilts and a boar, and we had to travel all over the United States to start a herd.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Now I’ve kinda retired from raising animals, but we have a dozen Amish growers working with us, and I pick up the hogs and pay for them, and then bring them to the processor, Paradise Locker. I drive a tractor trailer and go around picking up three hundred pounders, fifty to eighty head a week. We have farms in Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa... that’s a lot of traveling. We may have four or five pick-ups every week. You wear out a truck pretty fast.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLarry, now over eighty, does less of the driving, but he still keeps all the relationships going, which isn’t easy considering the Amish don’t have phones inside their homes! “I’ll have to quit sometime but right now it’s going pretty good. The driving is easy. The hard job is you gotta keep Amish families happy, picking up their hogs, coordinating, monitoring the size of the animals, and making sure we have the right amount — each week we round up 50 to 100 pigs. And we’ve been doing it for almost 20 years now.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThanks to Larry and Madonna’s work, the Red Wattle was upgraded to Threatened status from Critical on The Livestock Conservancy’s watch list, a great achievement for the cause of biodiversity, one of the most important issues of our time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMetzger Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eSeneca, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug Metzger's Tamworth and Berkshire genetics are now being shepherded by Robert Funk. Doug sadly passed away in 2023. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug Metzger was truly at the ground zero of our business and the heritage food movement. He was the magic man that first introduced us to our processor Paradise Locker Meats, with whom we have worked and grown ever since and he worked together with Frank Reese raising heritage turkeys from about 2002 to 2013.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt 83-years-old, Doug raises purebred, certified Berkshire and Tamworth pigs on his 1,500 acre farm in Seneca, Kansas, with his wife Betty.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn an era of specialization Doug is an anomaly. Doug is famous for adapting to any moment. In 2001 he took our call and agreed to raise heritage turkeys for us with Frank because he believed that the growing food movement would appreciate the flavor of the birds his grandfather raised. As demand grew for quality meat, Doug got into heritage pigs and transitioned his commodity farm to a pastured farm and haven for the rare Tamworth breed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug has been farming since 1951. As a kid he raised chickens but gave them up when he got into turkeys. As he got older, he broke into the milk cattle game. Then he tried sheep, but he says he couldn’t get them to breed right. He also raised Aylesbury ducks — a rare heritage breed. Over the years the acres on his sprawling farm have been used to grow wheat, corn, oats, barley, sorghum, alfalfa, and rye. He even grew flax one year because he heard it was supposed to help the immune system of the cattle, which he thought it did. “It certainly made their coats look wonderful,” Doug says.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eToday farmers are incentivized to grow monocrops of corn and soybean — “that’s all they want us to grow,” Doug explains, “and farmers haul their crops to town instead of using it for something on their own farm.” Doug remembers fondly the days when a diversified farm would grow corn and turn it into whiskey, or when soybeans were grown for the purpose of feeding milk cattle — as Doug did on his farm. “Keep your grain,” Doug insists, “and use it to grow a truly sustainable farm.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug was never one to use chemicals to grow food. He believes any talk of sustainability is not real when you raise only one crop or when you use chemicals to do it. “My buddy and I could clear 100 acres of weeds in a day if we worked through the night, and we did not need any additives to do it. All those chemicals are part of the reason there are so many cancers around, if you ask me.” Doug has amassed generations of farming secrets having grown so many foods naturally, often calling upon experiences from decades ago to solve a problem that presents itself today.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug comes from a truly great American farming family — Life Magazine once wrote that Doug’s father, who lived to be 104, had more living descendants than any American – many of them farmers. His is part of the story of immigrants who came to the New World and made good through old-fashioned values, tradition, and hard work.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“We’re here today to save these breeds,” says Doug, who is as down-home as the farm he still works on as he approaches his 84th birthday. “Save the breeds and make a little money. We got a lot of things going on, we have a lot of land. But it’s getting hard to keep up with it all… I need more young people! When I was young, we raised turkeys in spring and sold ‘em all by Christmas. We milked cattle all year round. I want to keep working — my dad was helping me when he was 84!”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis conversational style always brings insight and interesting thoughts to bear. We hope Doug and Betty work with us for many years to come and that their beliefs of diversified farming continue. Today, his farm is supported through the work of his daughter Marilyn and her husband Stan, and their children Simon and Joel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGood Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eOlsburg, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGood Farms' Old Spot, Duroc, and Tamworth genetics are now being shepherded by Dustin and Maria Torneden since Craig and his wife Amy retired in 2024. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe met the Goods through a connection at Kansas State University where Craig’s father was a distinguished professor. Craig spent his life in agriculture growing up in the Flint Hills of Kansas, some of the best agricultural land in the world, perfectly adapted to free ranging livestock, which feed on the perennial grasses that grow there naturally.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Good’s hog operation began in earnest in 1981, and they have continuously raised hogs there for the past 37 years. Their Duroc herd started with a few sows from Craig’s former employer who started raising Duroc pigs in the 1940s — with females obtained through Sears and Roebucks! As Craig explains, “I took a job in 1975 working with an outstanding stockman who raised purebred Duroc pigs here in Kansas. His name was Fred Germann, and he was one of the oldest and best Duroc breeders in the U.S. Things sure have changed since then, but the Durocs that we now raise have ancestry that goes back to those Sears females, approximately 85 years ago.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDuroc is an American breed that was used as the foundational genetics for the entire pig industry in the United States because of their good growth rate, body type, and mothering instincts. But big agriculture continued to overbreed the Duroc for certain traits related to higher profits and they crossed it with other pig breeds. Soon the industrial pig became utterly unrecognizable, and it became almost impossible to tell that it had originally derived from Duroc genetics.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCraig, on the other hand, continued to breed his Durocs to improve their genetics with traits particular to Craig’s preferences, while staying true to the original healthy and hearty breed. Craig always put a lot of thought into which sows he would breed with which boars as he worked to improve meat quality and edibility, as opposed to faster growth. He also selected pigs for the demeanor of the animals, who he treats like members of his own family. Craig bred for strong animals and sought out leaner carcasses (although the Duroc is supremely marbled). He also bred for skeletal size – Craig likes good length of body, for better loin eye size and fat distribution.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOver the years, the Durocs on Good Farm became his own breed, even though they looked like and acted like true old school Durocs. The Goods continue to bring in new lines to avoid inbreeding, but they work with the lines to continue improving their particular version of the Duroc.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCraig and Amy also raise Gloucestershire Old Spots and Tamworths, both considered rare breeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCraig's father, Don, was a meat scientist and would eventually have a division of Kansas State University named after him. Together they raised purebred Angus cattle and crops on the farm. “I have had a passion for raising pigs,” says Craig, since taking pigs on as a 4-H project in 1965. Craig studied Animal Science at Kansas State University. “Amy and I were married in 1976 and 5 years later we made the decision to move to the farm that my father and mother had owned since 1961, near Olsburg, Kansas, on 1000 acres of Flint Hills pasture.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eBreed\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRed Wattle\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 18th Century Louisiana by way of New Caledonia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a cross between pork and beef, Red Wattle is floral and robust, concentrated and bold.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: A consortium of 18 Amish families in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: French colonists brought these hogs to New Orleans as a favored meat breed. The Red Wattle eventually would populate the forests of Texas where they were rounded up and brought to the great slaughterhouses of Chicago. Recognized by their signature wattles that hang from the jowl, the Red Wattle resembles Kunekune pigs of New Zealand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGloucestershire Old Spot\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 19th Century Indiana by way of Berkeley Valley of Gloucestershire, England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a charcuterie pig with a delicious milky fat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside of Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: Descended from the native old English pigs of western England, this pig was mentioned as early as the 1780's. The spotted pig forages on fallen orchard fruits and other farm by products. Despite their signature oversized floppy ears which hang over their eyes, this gentle pig is hearty and self-reliant.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTamworth\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 2,500 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Rossville, Illinois by way of Staffordshire, England by way of Ireland.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: A premiere bacon producer, Tamworth meat is fruity, earthy, clean, mineral, root, sweet and tender.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Doug Metzger and Craig and Amy Good in Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The only native red breed to England, its heritage traces back to the wild pigs of Middle Age Europe. A slow growing breed, the Tamworth is active and hearty. Traditionally raised in the woods, the pig's long angular snout makes it an excellent forager — Tamworth pigs do not conform to industrial agriculture needs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBerkshire\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 1823 Kentucky\/ Illinois by way of Western England and outside London.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Sweet with depth of flavor, Berkshire pork is balanced and the most universally loved of all the Heritage breeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: David Newman and a consortium of 12 family farms in Kansas, Missouri and Iowa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: For years the Royal Family kept a large Berkshire herd at Windsor Castle — our Berkshire pigs are traceable back to these old English genetics. This would eventually become the most popular Heritage breed of pig in the United States because of its supreme marbling. Prized by the Japanese who imported it as \"Kurobuta\" pork, the Berkshire is recognized by 6 white spots at the tip of its feet, nose and tail.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDuroc\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Eastern United States and corn belt by way of the Guinea coast of Africa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Duroc meat is crisp and clean — known for great marbling and polished texture its taste is approachable on the palate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The Duroc is an older breed of American domestic pig that has become one of the most popular breeds because of its great taste and strong genetics, but pure Duroc is very hard to find. Durocs are a red pig strain developed around 1800 in New England and reputed to trace their ancestry back to the early red pigs of Africa. Durocs are especially valued by farmers for their hardiness and quick but thorough muscle growth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[\/TABS]\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heritage Foods USA","offers":[{"title":"Three 8 oz packs","offer_id":39260261777466,"sku":"974 (3pks)","price":39.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Ten 8 oz packs","offer_id":39748264558650,"sku":"974 (10 pks)","price":105.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/products\/ham_shopify.jpg?v=1738941503"},{"product_id":"signature-heritage-bacon-maple-sugar-cured","title":"SIGNATURE HERITAGE BACON","description":"[TABS]\n\u003ch5\u003eProduct\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSignature Heritage Bacon\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThree 1lb packs, sliced\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eBerkshire, Duroc, or Red Wattle\u003c\/em\u003e\u003ci\u003e.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eChoose from three or nine 1lb packs from the drop down menu above.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003c\/em\u003eA TRUE CLASSIC! When people think of bacon, this is it — perfect for any and all palates. Produced in a maple sugar cure and sourced from our pasture-raised, rare breed pigs, this sweet bacon is a staple and has been our top seller for over 15 years. \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eParadise Locker Meats cures this bacon to iconic perfection and they have won numerous awards for their family recipe. This is sure to become a fixture in your fridge — the perfect companion for day or night for any recipe!\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eIngredients: pork, cured with water and less than 2% of the following: salt, cane sugar, maple sugar, and brown sugar, spice extractives, sodium erythorbate, sodium nitrite.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHumanely raised on pasture \u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e100% antibiotic-free\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRaised by independent family farmers\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHeritage pork has more marbling resulting in more  tender and juicy meat\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003ciframe height=\"270\" width=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/279514159\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eFarms\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen Heritage Foods started in 2001 we set out to sell heritage Thanksgiving turkeys. For three years our turkey project grew, but naturally mating turkey is a seasonal food and two of the three farmers we worked with to raise birds were looking for a more regular source of income if they were to continue working with us. So we committed to selling pork, which can be produced year round, as long as the breeds came from historic genetic lines, just like the turkeys. Now, 24 years later, Heritage Foods still works with those two original farms who together introduced the word “heritage pork” to hundreds of America’s best restaurants from coast-to-coast as well as thousands of homes through the Heritage Foods retail website.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNewman Farm Berkshire Pork\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eMyrtle, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn 2006 we got a handwritten letter from farmer Mark Newman asking us if Heritage Foods would ever consider selling his pasture raised old school Berkshire pigs. We said yes and a relationship grew that still continues today, now through his son David who has maintained the genetic line of Berkshires which can be traced back to the 17th and 18th century lines that came to these shores by way of the Berkshire region of England.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFrom the air, Newman Farm Berkshire Pork, in south central Missouri, in the heart of the Ozarks, looks more like a pioneer settlement or a holiday camp than any sort of pig farm. Wooden huts are scattered across green fields like bungalows, where contented Berkshire pigs live their lives, happily on-pasture.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePigs on Newman Farm are raised 100% on-pasture. The sows raise their piglets in huts that dot the fields of the farm. The babies live inside the huts until they are old enough to jump over the 6-inch wooden board that blocks the entrance. Once they make the great leap, they have an entire field to run on and they can mingle with the other piglets from the other huts.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid Newman is both a farmer and scientist. “The farmer came first,” he laughs. His degrees are in animal science, and he holds a Ph.D in meat science and muscle biology, focused on meat quality. “As I became a scientist and got involved in education, I applied what I was learning to understand what we could do better.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBerkshires were the favorite breed of British royalty and were first introduced to the New World in 1823. Since then, Berkshire bloodlines have remained exceptionally pure and have become a mainstay favorite of chefs and diners, legendary for their exceptionally bright pork flavor and thick, delicious fat cap. And if anyone were to question their excellence, just ask David. “It’s not a matter of opinion!” he insists, passionately. “It’s a scientific fact, Berkshires are the most marbled hog on the market today.” David is a master breeder and works hard to keep the lines on his farm separate and he is always working to improve the Berkshire breed on his farm.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid lives on the farm with his wife, Kristin, his mom Rita, and his two kids. “I got my start through my family. My parents were hog farmers, but primarily in the commercial pig business. In the 1980s my parents raised pigs in confinement. There were some very challenging economic times for everyone in production, and we realized we were going to have to do something differently. Kristin came from a family farming background also and is a major part of the operations success today, working for the farm along with their team of employees.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“In the 1990s my parents decided they wanted to go back to their roots. We were going to have to be very large to be successful in the commercial sector, and my father decided we should focus on quality. We changed our genetic program and our nutrition program. We became Certified Humane®, and we chose to focus on Berkshire pigs for their quality.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid and his family are the future of American farming! They are young, energetic and very passionate about the future of agriculture. David and Kristin work with a team of farmers who raise their Berkshires to supply Heritage Foods and the national network of chefs who rely on his product for their menus.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLazy Red Wattle Ranch\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eLa Plata, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWe met Larry and Madonna Sorell in 2002, as growers for Frank Reese and the Heritage Turkey Project. As their turkey flock grew in size, so did the Sorell’s importance to Heritage Foods.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen you see Red Wattle pork on a menu, what you are seeing is a five-state, twelve farm network founded by Larry and Madonna, dedicated to raising a storied breed that was once upon a time nearly extinct. Larry and Madonna are the heroes of this story, avatars of the heritage food movement, true believers who were destined to become the Guardians of the Red Wattle. They are proof positive of the ethos that when it comes to endangered livestock, “you have to eat them to save them.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn the beginning, back in 2004 when the Heritage Foods wholesale business began selling pigs, a market for the Red Wattle pig was built on a handshake agreement with chefs Zach Allen and Mark Ladner, then at Lupa Restaurant in NYC. They recognized the high-quality and undiminished taste that came from a Red Wattle pig humanely raised on-pasture and antibiotic free, using traditional farming methods. The deal with Ladner, and the partnership with Larry and his Lazy Red Wattle Ranch, were part of the origins of Heritage Foods.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“We traveled 18,000 miles to get started,” Larry says matter-of-factly about a Heritage Foods Odyssey whose mission was to search out rare Red Wattle sows and collect a viable genetic lineage of this incredible pig whose American legacy goes back to 18th century New Orleans. \"When we began, we had two Red Wattle gilts and a boar, and we had to travel all over the United States to start a herd.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Now I’ve kinda retired from raising animals, but we have a dozen Amish growers working with us, and I pick up the hogs and pay for them, and then bring them to the processor, Paradise Locker. I drive a tractor trailer and go around picking up three hundred pounders, fifty to eighty head a week. We have farms in Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa... that’s a lot of traveling. We may have four or five pick-ups every week. You wear out a truck pretty fast.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLarry, now over eighty, does less of the driving, but he still keeps all the relationships going, which isn’t easy considering the Amish don’t have phones inside their homes! “I’ll have to quit sometime but right now it’s going pretty good. The driving is easy. The hard job is you gotta keep Amish families happy, picking up their hogs, coordinating, monitoring the size of the animals, and making sure we have the right amount — each week we round up 50 to 100 pigs. And we’ve been doing it for almost 20 years now.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThanks to Larry and Madonna’s work, the Red Wattle was upgraded to Threatened status from Critical on The Livestock Conservancy’s watch list, a great achievement for the cause of biodiversity, one of the most important issues of our time.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMetzger Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eSeneca, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug Metzger's Tamworth and Berkshire genetics are now being shepherded by Robert Funk. Doug sadly passed away in 2023. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug Metzger was truly at the ground zero of our business and the heritage food movement. He was the magic man that first introduced us to our processor Paradise Locker Meats, with whom we have worked and grown ever since and he worked together with Frank Reese raising heritage turkeys from about 2002 to 2013.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAt 83-years-old, Doug raises purebred, certified Berkshire and Tamworth pigs on his 1,500 acre farm in Seneca, Kansas, with his wife Betty.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn an era of specialization Doug is an anomaly. Doug is famous for adapting to any moment. In 2001 he took our call and agreed to raise heritage turkeys for us with Frank because he believed that the growing food movement would appreciate the flavor of the birds his grandfather raised. As demand grew for quality meat, Doug got into heritage pigs and transitioned his commodity farm to a pastured farm and haven for the rare Tamworth breed.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug has been farming since 1951. As a kid he raised chickens but gave them up when he got into turkeys. As he got older, he broke into the milk cattle game. Then he tried sheep, but he says he couldn’t get them to breed right. He also raised Aylesbury ducks — a rare heritage breed. Over the years the acres on his sprawling farm have been used to grow wheat, corn, oats, barley, sorghum, alfalfa, and rye. He even grew flax one year because he heard it was supposed to help the immune system of the cattle, which he thought it did. “It certainly made their coats look wonderful,” Doug says.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eToday farmers are incentivized to grow monocrops of corn and soybean — “that’s all they want us to grow,” Doug explains, “and farmers haul their crops to town instead of using it for something on their own farm.” Doug remembers fondly the days when a diversified farm would grow corn and turn it into whiskey, or when soybeans were grown for the purpose of feeding milk cattle — as Doug did on his farm. “Keep your grain,” Doug insists, “and use it to grow a truly sustainable farm.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug was never one to use chemicals to grow food. He believes any talk of sustainability is not real when you raise only one crop or when you use chemicals to do it. “My buddy and I could clear 100 acres of weeds in a day if we worked through the night, and we did not need any additives to do it. All those chemicals are part of the reason there are so many cancers around, if you ask me.” Doug has amassed generations of farming secrets having grown so many foods naturally, often calling upon experiences from decades ago to solve a problem that presents itself today.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug comes from a truly great American farming family — Life Magazine once wrote that Doug’s father, who lived to be 104, had more living descendants than any American – many of them farmers. His is part of the story of immigrants who came to the New World and made good through old-fashioned values, tradition, and hard work.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“We’re here today to save these breeds,” says Doug, who is as down-home as the farm he still works on as he approaches his 84th birthday. “Save the breeds and make a little money. We got a lot of things going on, we have a lot of land. But it’s getting hard to keep up with it all… I need more young people! When I was young, we raised turkeys in spring and sold ‘em all by Christmas. We milked cattle all year round. I want to keep working — my dad was helping me when he was 84!”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHis conversational style always brings insight and interesting thoughts to bear. We hope Doug and Betty work with us for many years to come and that their beliefs of diversified farming continue. Today, his farm is supported through the work of his daughter Marilyn and her husband Stan, and their children Simon and Joel.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGood Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eOlsburg, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eGood Farms' Old Spot, Duroc, and Tamworth genetics are now being shepherded by Dustin and Maria Torneden since Craig and his wife Amy retired in 2024. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWe met the Goods through a connection at Kansas State University where Craig’s father was a distinguished professor. Craig spent his life in agriculture growing up in the Flint Hills of Kansas, some of the best agricultural land in the world, perfectly adapted to free ranging livestock, which feed on the perennial grasses that grow there naturally.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Good’s hog operation began in earnest in 1981, and they have continuously raised hogs there for the past 37 years. Their Duroc herd started with a few sows from Craig’s former employer who started raising Duroc pigs in the 1940s — with females obtained through Sears and Roebucks! As Craig explains, “I took a job in 1975 working with an outstanding stockman who raised purebred Duroc pigs here in Kansas. His name was Fred Germann, and he was one of the oldest and best Duroc breeders in the U.S. Things sure have changed since then, but the Durocs that we now raise have ancestry that goes back to those Sears females, approximately 85 years ago.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDuroc is an American breed that was used as the foundational genetics for the entire pig industry in the United States because of their good growth rate, body type, and mothering instincts. But big agriculture continued to overbreed the Duroc for certain traits related to higher profits and they crossed it with other pig breeds. Soon the industrial pig became utterly unrecognizable, and it became almost impossible to tell that it had originally derived from Duroc genetics.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig, on the other hand, continued to breed his Durocs to improve their genetics with traits particular to Craig’s preferences, while staying true to the original healthy and hearty breed. Craig always put a lot of thought into which sows he would breed with which boars as he worked to improve meat quality and edibility, as opposed to faster growth. He also selected pigs for the demeanor of the animals, who he treats like members of his own family. Craig bred for strong animals and sought out leaner carcasses (although the Duroc is supremely marbled). He also bred for skeletal size – Craig likes good length of body, for better loin eye size and fat distribution.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOver the years, the Durocs on Good Farm became his own breed, even though they looked like and acted like true old school Durocs. The Goods continue to bring in new lines to avoid inbreeding, but they work with the lines to continue improving their particular version of the Duroc.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig and Amy also raise Gloucestershire Old Spots and Tamworths, both considered rare breeds.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig's father, Don, was a meat scientist and would eventually have a division of Kansas State University named after him. Together they raised purebred Angus cattle and crops on the farm. “I have had a passion for raising pigs,” says Craig, since taking pigs on as a 4-H project in 1965. Craig studied Animal Science at Kansas State University. “Amy and I were married in 1976 and 5 years later we made the decision to move to the farm that my father and mother had owned since 1961, near Olsburg, Kansas, on 1000 acres of Flint Hills pasture.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eBreed\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRed Wattle\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 18th Century Louisiana by way of New Caledonia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a cross between pork and beef, Red Wattle is floral and robust, concentrated and bold.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: A consortium of 18 Amish families in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: French colonists brought these hogs to New Orleans as a favored meat breed. The Red Wattle eventually would populate the forests of Texas where they were rounded up and brought to the great slaughterhouses of Chicago. Recognized by their signature wattles that hang from the jowl, the Red Wattle resembles Kunekune pigs of New Zealand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGloucestershire Old Spots\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 19th Century Indiana by way of Berkeley Valley of Gloucestershire, England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a charcuterie pig with a delicious milky fat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside of Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: Descended from the native old English pigs of western England, this pig was mentioned as early as the 1780's. The spotted pig forages on fallen orchard fruits and other farm by products. Despite their signature oversized floppy ears which hang over their eyes, this gentle pig is hearty and self-reliant.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTamworth\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 2,500 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Rossville, Illinois by way of Staffordshire, England by way of Ireland.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: A premiere bacon producer, Tamworth meat is fruity, earthy, clean, mineral, root, sweet and tender.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Doug Metzger and Craig and Amy Good in Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The only native red breed to England, its heritage traces back to the wild pigs of Middle Age Europe. A slow growing breed, the Tamworth is active and hearty. Traditionally raised in the woods, the pig's long angular snout makes it an excellent forager — Tamworth pigs do not conform to industrial agriculture needs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBerkshire\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 1823 Kentucky\/ Illinois by way of Western England and outside London.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Sweet with depth of flavor, Berkshire pork is balanced and the most universally loved of all the Heritage breeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: David Newman and a consortium of 12 family farms in Kansas, Missouri and Iowa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: For years the Royal Family kept a large Berkshire herd at Windsor Castle — our Berkshire pigs are traceable back to these old English genetics. This would eventually become the most popular Heritage breed of pig in the United States because of its supreme marbling. Prized by the Japanese who imported it as \"Kurobuta\" pork, the Berkshire is recognized by 6 white spots at the tip of its feet, nose and tail.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDuroc\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Eastern United States and corn belt by way of the Guinea coast of Africa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Duroc meat is crisp and clean — known for great marbling and polished texture its taste is approachable on the palate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The Duroc is an older breed of American domestic pig that has become one of the most popular breeds because of its great taste and strong genetics, but pure Duroc is very hard to find. Durocs are a red pig strain developed around 1800 in New England and reputed to trace their ancestry back to the early red pigs of Africa. Durocs are especially valued by farmers for their hardiness and quick but thorough muscle growth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eCooking\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHow to Prepare\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the oven: preheat oven to 325°F. Place bacon on a foil lined sheet tray and bake, rotating the tray every 10 minutes until you reach the desired crispiness.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn the stovetop: heat skillet over medium-high heat, almost to smoking. No oil is needed! Place bacon strips, one at a time, into the skillet. We recommend flipping once and using a bacon press to prevent curling. When you reach the desired crispiness, transfer bacon onto a plate lined with paper towels and pour off fat from the pan after each round.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[\/TABS]\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heritage Foods USA","offers":[{"title":"Three 1lb packs","offer_id":40196827840570,"sku":"3 pks Berk, Duroc or RW","price":69.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Nine 1lb packs","offer_id":40196827873338,"sku":"9 pks Berk, Duroc or RW","price":199.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/products\/bacon_bestseller_28a73da3-79de-47ca-90df-135e3fc1110c.jpg?v=1659118208"},{"product_id":"signature-heritage-bacon-breed-flight","title":"SIGNATURE HERITAGE BACON 5 BREED TASTING KIT","description":"[TABS]\n\u003ch5\u003eProduct\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSignature Heritage Bacon 5 Breed Tasting Kit\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003eYour package will include 1lb of bacon each from these 5 heritage breeds: \u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cem\u003eRed Wattle, Berkshire, Old Spot, Duroc\u003c\/em\u003e, and\u003cem\u003e Tamworth\u003c\/em\u003e all cured in our same Signature style!\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMost Americans are surprised to learn that there are dozens of breeds of pigs and that each breed has its own wondrous and unique flavor. This package is an unprecedented opportunity to experience just how varied the taste of the same livestock can be from one cherished heritage breed to the next.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHeritage Foods has made it our mission to promote these pure, rare breeds, each with their own colorful history and provenance. In fact we’ve been able to protect them from the brink of extinction by creating a growing market for their earthy, natural flavors. As we like to say, “you need to eat ’em to save ’em.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOur Signature Bacon\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHeritage pigs are renowned for their well marbled, flavorful bellies. When people think of bacon, this is it, produced in a maple sugar cure this bacon has become a fixture in many acclaimed restaurants across the country and is sure to become a fixture in your fridge — the perfect companion for day or night! This is a very approachable, sweet bacon. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHumanely raised on pasture\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e100% \u003cspan\u003eantibiotic free\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRaised by independent family farmers\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHeritage pork has more marbling resulting in more tender and juicy meat\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003ciframe height=\"270\" width=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/279514159\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eFarms\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen Heritage Foods started in 2001 we set out to sell heritage Thanksgiving turkeys. For three years our turkey project grew, but naturally mating turkey is a seasonal food and two of the three farmers we worked with to raise birds were looking for a more regular source of income if they were to continue working with us. So we committed to selling pork, which can be produced year round, as long as the breeds came from historic genetic lines, just like the turkeys. Now, 24 years later, Heritage Foods still works with those two original farms who together introduced the word “heritage pork” to hundreds of America’s best restaurants from coast-to-coast as well as thousands of homes through the Heritage Foods retail website.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNewman Farm Berkshire Pork\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eMyrtle, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn 2006 we got a handwritten letter from farmer Mark Newman asking us if Heritage Foods would ever consider selling his pasture raised old school Berkshire pigs. We said yes and a relationship grew that still continues today, now through his son David who has maintained the genetic line of Berkshires which can be traced back to the 17th and 18th century lines that came to these shores by way of the Berkshire region of England.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFrom the air, Newman Farm Berkshire Pork, in south central Missouri, in the heart of the Ozarks, looks more like a pioneer settlement or a holiday camp than any sort of pig farm. Wooden huts are scattered across green fields like bungalows, where contented Berkshire pigs live their lives, happily on-pasture.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePigs on Newman Farm are raised 100% on-pasture. The sows raise their piglets in huts that dot the fields of the farm. The babies live inside the huts until they are old enough to jump over the 6-inch wooden board that blocks the entrance. Once they make the great leap, they have an entire field to run on and they can mingle with the other piglets from the other huts.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid Newman is both a farmer and scientist. “The farmer came first,” he laughs. His degrees are in animal science, and he holds a Ph.D in meat science and muscle biology, focused on meat quality. “As I became a scientist and got involved in education, I applied what I was learning to understand what we could do better.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBerkshires were the favorite breed of British royalty and were first introduced to the New World in 1823. Since then, Berkshire bloodlines have remained exceptionally pure and have become a mainstay favorite of chefs and diners, legendary for their exceptionally bright pork flavor and thick, delicious fat cap. And if anyone were to question their excellence, just ask David. “It’s not a matter of opinion!” he insists, passionately. “It’s a scientific fact, Berkshires are the most marbled hog on the market today.” David is a master breeder and works hard to keep the lines on his farm separate and he is always working to improve the Berkshire breed on his farm.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid lives on the farm with his wife, Kristin, his mom Rita, and his two kids. “I got my start through my family. My parents were hog farmers, but primarily in the commercial pig business. In the 1980s my parents raised pigs in confinement. There were some very challenging economic times for everyone in production, and we realized we were going to have to do something differently. Kristin came from a family farming background also and is a major part of the operations success today, working for the farm along with their team of employees.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“In the 1990s my parents decided they wanted to go back to their roots. We were going to have to be very large to be successful in the commercial sector, and my father decided we should focus on quality. We changed our genetic program and our nutrition program. We became Certified Humane®, and we chose to focus on Berkshire pigs for their quality.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid and his family are the future of American farming! They are young, energetic and very passionate about the future of agriculture. David and Kristin work with a team of farmers who raise their Berkshires to supply Heritage Foods and the national network of chefs who rely on his product for their menus.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLazy Red Wattle Ranch\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eLa Plata, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWe met Larry and Madonna Sorell in 2002, as growers for Frank Reese and the Heritage Turkey Project. As their turkey flock grew in size, so did the Sorell’s importance to Heritage Foods.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen you see Red Wattle pork on a menu, what you are seeing is a five-state, twelve farm network founded by Larry and Madonna, dedicated to raising a storied breed that was once upon a time nearly extinct. Larry and Madonna are the heroes of this story, avatars of the heritage food movement, true believers who were destined to become the Guardians of the Red Wattle. They are proof positive of the ethos that when it comes to endangered livestock, “you have to eat them to save them.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn the beginning, back in 2004 when the Heritage Foods wholesale business began selling pigs, a market for the Red Wattle pig was built on a handshake agreement with chefs Zach Allen and Mark Ladner, then at Lupa Restaurant in NYC. They recognized the high-quality and undiminished taste that came from a Red Wattle pig humanely raised on-pasture and antibiotic free, using traditional farming methods. The deal with Ladner, and the partnership with Larry and his Lazy Red Wattle Ranch, were part of the origins of Heritage Foods.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“We traveled 18,000 miles to get started,” Larry says matter-of-factly about a Heritage Foods Odyssey whose mission was to search out rare Red Wattle sows and collect a viable genetic lineage of this incredible pig whose American legacy goes back to 18th century New Orleans. \"When we began, we had two Red Wattle gilts and a boar, and we had to travel all over the United States to start a herd.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Now I’ve kinda retired from raising animals, but we have a dozen Amish growers working with us, and I pick up the hogs and pay for them, and then bring them to the processor, Paradise Locker. I drive a tractor trailer and go around picking up three hundred pounders, fifty to eighty head a week. We have farms in Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa... that’s a lot of traveling. We may have four or five pick-ups every week. You wear out a truck pretty fast.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLarry, now over eighty, does less of the driving, but he still keeps all the relationships going, which isn’t easy considering the Amish don’t have phones inside their homes! “I’ll have to quit sometime but right now it’s going pretty good. The driving is easy. The hard job is you gotta keep Amish families happy, picking up their hogs, coordinating, monitoring the size of the animals, and making sure we have the right amount — each week we round up 50 to 100 pigs. And we’ve been doing it for almost 20 years now.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThanks to Larry and Madonna’s work, the Red Wattle was upgraded to Threatened status from Critical on The Livestock Conservancy’s watch list, a great achievement for the cause of biodiversity, one of the most important issues of our time.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMetzger Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eSeneca, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug Metzger's Tamworth and Berkshire genetics are now being shepherded by Robert Funk. Doug sadly passed away in 2023. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug Metzger was truly at the ground zero of our business and the heritage food movement. He was the magic man that first introduced us to our processor Paradise Locker Meats, with whom we have worked and grown ever since and he worked together with Frank Reese raising heritage turkeys from about 2002 to 2013.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAt 83-years-old, Doug raises purebred, certified Berkshire and Tamworth pigs on his 1,500 acre farm in Seneca, Kansas, with his wife Betty.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn an era of specialization Doug is an anomaly. Doug is famous for adapting to any moment. In 2001 he took our call and agreed to raise heritage turkeys for us with Frank because he believed that the growing food movement would appreciate the flavor of the birds his grandfather raised. As demand grew for quality meat, Doug got into heritage pigs and transitioned his commodity farm to a pastured farm and haven for the rare Tamworth breed.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug has been farming since 1951. As a kid he raised chickens but gave them up when he got into turkeys. As he got older, he broke into the milk cattle game. Then he tried sheep, but he says he couldn’t get them to breed right. He also raised Aylesbury ducks — a rare heritage breed. Over the years the acres on his sprawling farm have been used to grow wheat, corn, oats, barley, sorghum, alfalfa, and rye. He even grew flax one year because he heard it was supposed to help the immune system of the cattle, which he thought it did. “It certainly made their coats look wonderful,” Doug says.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eToday farmers are incentivized to grow monocrops of corn and soybean — “that’s all they want us to grow,” Doug explains, “and farmers haul their crops to town instead of using it for something on their own farm.” Doug remembers fondly the days when a diversified farm would grow corn and turn it into whiskey, or when soybeans were grown for the purpose of feeding milk cattle — as Doug did on his farm. “Keep your grain,” Doug insists, “and use it to grow a truly sustainable farm.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug was never one to use chemicals to grow food. He believes any talk of sustainability is not real when you raise only one crop or when you use chemicals to do it. “My buddy and I could clear 100 acres of weeds in a day if we worked through the night, and we did not need any additives to do it. All those chemicals are part of the reason there are so many cancers around, if you ask me.” Doug has amassed generations of farming secrets having grown so many foods naturally, often calling upon experiences from decades ago to solve a problem that presents itself today.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug comes from a truly great American farming family — Life Magazine once wrote that Doug’s father, who lived to be 104, had more living descendants than any American – many of them farmers. His is part of the story of immigrants who came to the New World and made good through old-fashioned values, tradition, and hard work.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“We’re here today to save these breeds,” says Doug, who is as down-home as the farm he still works on as he approaches his 84th birthday. “Save the breeds and make a little money. We got a lot of things going on, we have a lot of land. But it’s getting hard to keep up with it all… I need more young people! When I was young, we raised turkeys in spring and sold ‘em all by Christmas. We milked cattle all year round. I want to keep working — my dad was helping me when he was 84!”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHis conversational style always brings insight and interesting thoughts to bear. We hope Doug and Betty work with us for many years to come and that their beliefs of diversified farming continue. Today, his farm is supported through the work of his daughter Marilyn and her husband Stan, and their children Simon and Joel.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGood Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eOlsburg, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eGood Farms' Old Spot, Duroc, and Tamworth genetics are now being shepherded by Dustin and Maria Torneden since Craig and his wife Amy retired in 2024. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWe met the Goods through a connection at Kansas State University where Craig’s father was a distinguished professor. Craig spent his life in agriculture growing up in the Flint Hills of Kansas, some of the best agricultural land in the world, perfectly adapted to free ranging livestock, which feed on the perennial grasses that grow there naturally.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Good’s hog operation began in earnest in 1981, and they have continuously raised hogs there for the past 37 years. Their Duroc herd started with a few sows from Craig’s former employer who started raising Duroc pigs in the 1940s — with females obtained through Sears and Roebucks! As Craig explains, “I took a job in 1975 working with an outstanding stockman who raised purebred Duroc pigs here in Kansas. His name was Fred Germann, and he was one of the oldest and best Duroc breeders in the U.S. Things sure have changed since then, but the Durocs that we now raise have ancestry that goes back to those Sears females, approximately 85 years ago.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDuroc is an American breed that was used as the foundational genetics for the entire pig industry in the United States because of their good growth rate, body type, and mothering instincts. But big agriculture continued to overbreed the Duroc for certain traits related to higher profits and they crossed it with other pig breeds. Soon the industrial pig became utterly unrecognizable, and it became almost impossible to tell that it had originally derived from Duroc genetics.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig, on the other hand, continued to breed his Durocs to improve their genetics with traits particular to Craig’s preferences, while staying true to the original healthy and hearty breed. Craig always put a lot of thought into which sows he would breed with which boars as he worked to improve meat quality and edibility, as opposed to faster growth. He also selected pigs for the demeanor of the animals, who he treats like members of his own family. Craig bred for strong animals and sought out leaner carcasses (although the Duroc is supremely marbled). He also bred for skeletal size – Craig likes good length of body, for better loin eye size and fat distribution.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOver the years, the Durocs on Good Farm became his own breed, even though they looked like and acted like true old school Durocs. The Goods continue to bring in new lines to avoid inbreeding, but they work with the lines to continue improving their particular version of the Duroc.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig and Amy also raise Gloucestershire Old Spots and Tamworths, both considered rare breeds.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig's father, Don, was a meat scientist and would eventually have a division of Kansas State University named after him. Together they raised purebred Angus cattle and crops on the farm. “I have had a passion for raising pigs,” says Craig, since taking pigs on as a 4-H project in 1965. Craig studied Animal Science at Kansas State University. “Amy and I were married in 1976 and 5 years later we made the decision to move to the farm that my father and mother had owned since 1961, near Olsburg, Kansas, on 1000 acres of Flint Hills pasture.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eBreed\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRed Wattle\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 18th Century Louisiana by way of New Caledonia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a cross between pork and beef, Red Wattle is floral and robust, concentrated and bold.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: A consortium of 18 Amish families in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: French colonists brought these hogs to New Orleans as a favored meat breed. The Red Wattle eventually would populate the forests of Texas where they were rounded up and brought to the great slaughterhouses of Chicago. Recognized by their signature wattles that hang from the jowl, the Red Wattle resembles Kunekune pigs of New Zealand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGloucestershire Old Spots\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 19th Century Indiana by way of Berkeley Valley of Gloucestershire, England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a charcuterie pig with a delicious milky fat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside of Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: Descended from the native old English pigs of western England, this pig was mentioned as early as the 1780's. The spotted pig forages on fallen orchard fruits and other farm by products. Despite their signature oversized floppy ears which hang over their eyes, this gentle pig is hearty and self-reliant.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTamworth\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 2,500 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Rossville, Illinois by way of Staffordshire, England by way of Ireland.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: A premiere bacon producer, Tamworth meat is fruity, earthy, clean, mineral, root, sweet and tender.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Doug Metzger and Craig and Amy Good in Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The only native red breed to England, its heritage traces back to the wild pigs of Middle Age Europe. A slow growing breed, the Tamworth is active and hearty. Traditionally raised in the woods, the pig's long angular snout makes it an excellent forager — Tamworth pigs do not conform to industrial agriculture needs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBerkshire\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 1823 Kentucky\/ Illinois by way of Western England and outside London.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Sweet with depth of flavor, Berkshire pork is balanced and the most universally loved of all the Heritage breeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: David Newman and a consortium of 12 family farms in Kansas, Missouri and Iowa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: For years the Royal Family kept a large Berkshire herd at Windsor Castle — our Berkshire pigs are traceable back to these old English genetics. This would eventually become the most popular Heritage breed of pig in the United States because of its supreme marbling. Prized by the Japanese who imported it as \"Kurobuta\" pork, the Berkshire is recognized by 6 white spots at the tip of its feet, nose and tail.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDuroc\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Eastern United States and corn belt by way of the Guinea coast of Africa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Duroc meat is crisp and clean — known for great marbling and polished texture its taste is approachable on the palate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The Duroc is an older breed of American domestic pig that has become one of the most popular breeds because of its great taste and strong genetics, but pure Duroc is very hard to find. Durocs are a red pig strain developed around 1800 in New England and reputed to trace their ancestry back to the early red pigs of Africa. Durocs are especially valued by farmers for their hardiness and quick but thorough muscle growth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eCooking\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHow to Prepare\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the oven: preheat oven to 325°F. Place bacon on a foil lined sheet tray and bake, rotating the tray every 10 minutes until you reach the desired crispiness.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn the stovetop: heat skillet over medium-high heat, almost to smoking. No oil is needed! Place bacon strips, one at a time, into the skillet. We recommend flipping once and using a bacon press to prevent curling. When you reach the desired crispiness, transfer bacon onto a plate lined with paper towels and pour off fat from the pan after each round.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[\/TABS]\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heritage Foods USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39751036403770,"sku":"(1pk each sk84) Berk, Duroc, RW, OS, Tam","price":115.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/products\/Oldspot-bacon1103_bd6a48b7-920b-4ece-a551-af3956fc07b6.jpg?v=1666107869"},{"product_id":"copy-of-spiral-sliced-heritage-maple-sugar-cured-ham","title":"SALE! SPIRAL SLICED HERITAGE MAPLE SUGAR CURED HAM","description":"[TABS]\n\u003ch5\u003eProduct\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHeritage Spiral Sliced Maple Sugar Cured Ham\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eBerkshire or Red Wattle\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003eShips in Gold Wrapping!\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eChoose your preferred size on the drop down menu above.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003c\/em\u003eYou will find no better, juicier, more delicious centerpiece than this 100% heritage maple-cured classic ham — now spiral cut for the ultimate in easy entertaining! \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eMaple cured ham is at the cornerstone of American cooking, loved universally as a centerpiece for a holiday meal. There is no spice or seasoning this delicious ham won’t welcome from pineapples and cherries to mustard and more maple syrup.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ePasture raised heritage breeds produce marbled delicious meat, so every bite is sure to be sweet and juicy.  The maple sugar cure is the foundational and proprietary cure recipe for everything produced at Paradise Locker Meats. It is sweet and perfect for everyday eating.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eIf you are like so many who love our maple sugar cured ham, try our \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/heritagefoods.com\/collections\/ham\/products\/shaved-berkshire-heritage-maple-sugar-cured-ham\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eShaved Deli Ham\u003c\/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/heritagefoods.com\/products\/cured-ham-shanks-four-pieces-3lb-total\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eCured Hocks\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eIngredients: pork cured with water, less than 2% of the following: salt, cane sugar, maple sugar, and brown sugar, spice extractives, sodium phosphate, sodium erythorbate, vinegar, sodium nitrite.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHumanely raised on pasture, 100% antibiotic-free and raised by independent family farmers\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAlready cooked - just heat and eat \u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHeritage hams last in the fridge for three weeks and a year in the freezer\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eArtisan\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHeritage Foods ham is all cut by our abattoir partners outside Kansas City, Paradise Locker Meats.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMario and Teresa purchased the business in 1995 and ran the locker, still in Paradise, providing custom processing for local farmers and hunters in the area. They also started a retail side of the business, offering various cuts of meat to local shoppers! Mario started with a team of around 3-5 employees and was processing roughly 10 beef and 10 hogs a week.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter a fire, Mario and Teresa found land just down the road in Trimble, MO and set out building the growing business! In January of 2003, they broke ground and in September they reopened the doors to the new Paradise Locker Meats. Starting with the same crew, they quickly started growing with more capabilities in the new building.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGrowing was never easy, but Mario and Teresa were determined to continue what they started in Paradise, and build a company that could make a difference in the food world. Through wonderful support by the local community, and establishing amazing relationships with clients locally and nationally, Paradise Locker Meats currently employs 50 plus employees and processes 350-400 local animals on a weekly basis! Paradise is now run by Lou Fantasma along with his parents and brother Nick.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eParadise Locker Meats exists to support and serve patrons and families in a sustainable manner by processing meats from small family farms; building awareness of local, natural food; and providing quality, wholesome products with dedication, integrity and honesty!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eFarms\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen Heritage Foods started in 2001 we set out to sell heritage Thanksgiving turkeys. For three years our turkey project grew, but naturally mating turkey is a seasonal food and two of the three farmers we worked with to raise birds were looking for a more regular source of income if they were to continue working with us. So we committed to selling pork, which can be produced year round, as long as the breeds came from historic genetic lines, just like the turkeys. Now, 24 years later, Heritage Foods still works with those two original farms who together introduced the word “heritage pork” to hundreds of America’s best restaurants from coast-to-coast as well as thousands of homes through the Heritage Foods retail website.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNewman Farm Berkshire Pork\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eMyrtle, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn 2006 we got a handwritten letter from farmer Mark Newman asking us if Heritage Foods would ever consider selling his pasture raised old school Berkshire pigs. We said yes and a relationship grew that still continues today, now through his son David who has maintained the genetic line of Berkshires which can be traced back to the 17th and 18th century lines that came to these shores by way of the Berkshire region of England.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFrom the air, Newman Farm Berkshire Pork, in south central Missouri, in the heart of the Ozarks, looks more like a pioneer settlement or a holiday camp than any sort of pig farm. Wooden huts are scattered across green fields like bungalows, where contented Berkshire pigs live their lives, happily on-pasture.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePigs on Newman Farm are raised 100% on-pasture. The sows raise their piglets in huts that dot the fields of the farm. The babies live inside the huts until they are old enough to jump over the 6-inch wooden board that blocks the entrance. Once they make the great leap, they have an entire field to run on and they can mingle with the other piglets from the other huts.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid Newman is both a farmer and scientist. “The farmer came first,” he laughs. His degrees are in animal science, and he holds a Ph.D in meat science and muscle biology, focused on meat quality. “As I became a scientist and got involved in education, I applied what I was learning to understand what we could do better.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBerkshires were the favorite breed of British royalty and were first introduced to the New World in 1823. Since then, Berkshire bloodlines have remained exceptionally pure and have become a mainstay favorite of chefs and diners, legendary for their exceptionally bright pork flavor and thick, delicious fat cap. And if anyone were to question their excellence, just ask David. “It’s not a matter of opinion!” he insists, passionately. “It’s a scientific fact, Berkshires are the most marbled hog on the market today.” David is a master breeder and works hard to keep the lines on his farm separate and he is always working to improve the Berkshire breed on his farm.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid lives on the farm with his wife, Kristin, his mom Rita, and his two kids. “I got my start through my family. My parents were hog farmers, but primarily in the commercial pig business. In the 1980s my parents raised pigs in confinement. There were some very challenging economic times for everyone in production, and we realized we were going to have to do something differently. Kristin came from a family farming background also and is a major part of the operations success today, working for the farm along with their team of employees.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“In the 1990s my parents decided they wanted to go back to their roots. We were going to have to be very large to be successful in the commercial sector, and my father decided we should focus on quality. We changed our genetic program and our nutrition program. We became Certified Humane®, and we chose to focus on Berkshire pigs for their quality.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid and his family are the future of American farming! They are young, energetic and very passionate about the future of agriculture. David and Kristin work with a team of farmers who raise their Berkshires to supply Heritage Foods and the national network of chefs who rely on his product for their menus.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLazy Red Wattle Ranch\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eLa Plata, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWe met Larry and Madonna Sorell in 2002, as growers for Frank Reese and the Heritage Turkey Project. As their turkey flock grew in size, so did the Sorell’s importance to Heritage Foods.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen you see Red Wattle pork on a menu, what you are seeing is a five-state, twelve farm network founded by Larry and Madonna, dedicated to raising a storied breed that was once upon a time nearly extinct. Larry and Madonna are the heroes of this story, avatars of the heritage food movement, true believers who were destined to become the Guardians of the Red Wattle. They are proof positive of the ethos that when it comes to endangered livestock, “you have to eat them to save them.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn the beginning, back in 2004 when the Heritage Foods wholesale business began selling pigs, a market for the Red Wattle pig was built on a handshake agreement with chefs Zach Allen and Mark Ladner, then at Lupa Restaurant in NYC. They recognized the high-quality and undiminished taste that came from a Red Wattle pig humanely raised on-pasture and antibiotic free, using traditional farming methods. The deal with Ladner, and the partnership with Larry and his Lazy Red Wattle Ranch, were part of the origins of Heritage Foods.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“We traveled 18,000 miles to get started,” Larry says matter-of-factly about a Heritage Foods Odyssey whose mission was to search out rare Red Wattle sows and collect a viable genetic lineage of this incredible pig whose American legacy goes back to 18th century New Orleans. \"When we began, we had two Red Wattle gilts and a boar, and we had to travel all over the United States to start a herd.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Now I’ve kinda retired from raising animals, but we have a dozen Amish growers working with us, and I pick up the hogs and pay for them, and then bring them to the processor, Paradise Locker. I drive a tractor trailer and go around picking up three hundred pounders, fifty to eighty head a week. We have farms in Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa... that’s a lot of traveling. We may have four or five pick-ups every week. You wear out a truck pretty fast.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLarry, now over eighty, does less of the driving, but he still keeps all the relationships going, which isn’t easy considering the Amish don’t have phones inside their homes! “I’ll have to quit sometime but right now it’s going pretty good. The driving is easy. The hard job is you gotta keep Amish families happy, picking up their hogs, coordinating, monitoring the size of the animals, and making sure we have the right amount — each week we round up 50 to 100 pigs. And we’ve been doing it for almost 20 years now.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThanks to Larry and Madonna’s work, the Red Wattle was upgraded to Threatened status from Critical on The Livestock Conservancy’s watch list, a great achievement for the cause of biodiversity, one of the most important issues of our time.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMetzger Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eSeneca, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug Metzger's Tamworth and Berkshire genetics are now being shepherded by Robert Funk. Doug sadly passed away in 2023. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug Metzger was truly at the ground zero of our business and the heritage food movement. He was the magic man that first introduced us to our processor Paradise Locker Meats, with whom we have worked and grown ever since and he worked together with Frank Reese raising heritage turkeys from about 2002 to 2013.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAt 83-years-old, Doug raises purebred, certified Berkshire and Tamworth pigs on his 1,500 acre farm in Seneca, Kansas, with his wife Betty.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn an era of specialization Doug is an anomaly. Doug is famous for adapting to any moment. In 2001 he took our call and agreed to raise heritage turkeys for us with Frank because he believed that the growing food movement would appreciate the flavor of the birds his grandfather raised. As demand grew for quality meat, Doug got into heritage pigs and transitioned his commodity farm to a pastured farm and haven for the rare Tamworth breed.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug has been farming since 1951. As a kid he raised chickens but gave them up when he got into turkeys. As he got older, he broke into the milk cattle game. Then he tried sheep, but he says he couldn’t get them to breed right. He also raised Aylesbury ducks — a rare heritage breed. Over the years the acres on his sprawling farm have been used to grow wheat, corn, oats, barley, sorghum, alfalfa, and rye. He even grew flax one year because he heard it was supposed to help the immune system of the cattle, which he thought it did. “It certainly made their coats look wonderful,” Doug says.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eToday farmers are incentivized to grow monocrops of corn and soybean — “that’s all they want us to grow,” Doug explains, “and farmers haul their crops to town instead of using it for something on their own farm.” Doug remembers fondly the days when a diversified farm would grow corn and turn it into whiskey, or when soybeans were grown for the purpose of feeding milk cattle — as Doug did on his farm. “Keep your grain,” Doug insists, “and use it to grow a truly sustainable farm.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug was never one to use chemicals to grow food. He believes any talk of sustainability is not real when you raise only one crop or when you use chemicals to do it. “My buddy and I could clear 100 acres of weeds in a day if we worked through the night, and we did not need any additives to do it. All those chemicals are part of the reason there are so many cancers around, if you ask me.” Doug has amassed generations of farming secrets having grown so many foods naturally, often calling upon experiences from decades ago to solve a problem that presents itself today.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug comes from a truly great American farming family — Life Magazine once wrote that Doug’s father, who lived to be 104, had more living descendants than any American – many of them farmers. His is part of the story of immigrants who came to the New World and made good through old-fashioned values, tradition, and hard work.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“We’re here today to save these breeds,” says Doug, who is as down-home as the farm he still works on as he approaches his 84th birthday. “Save the breeds and make a little money. We got a lot of things going on, we have a lot of land. But it’s getting hard to keep up with it all… I need more young people! When I was young, we raised turkeys in spring and sold ‘em all by Christmas. We milked cattle all year round. I want to keep working — my dad was helping me when he was 84!”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHis conversational style always brings insight and interesting thoughts to bear. We hope Doug and Betty work with us for many years to come and that their beliefs of diversified farming continue. Today, his farm is supported through the work of his daughter Marilyn and her husband Stan, and their children Simon and Joel.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGood Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eOlsburg, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eGood Farms' Old Spot, Duroc, and Tamworth genetics are now being shepherded by Dustin and Maria Torneden since Craig and his wife Amy retired in 2024. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWe met the Goods through a connection at Kansas State University where Craig’s father was a distinguished professor. Craig spent his life in agriculture growing up in the Flint Hills of Kansas, some of the best agricultural land in the world, perfectly adapted to free ranging livestock, which feed on the perennial grasses that grow there naturally.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Good’s hog operation began in earnest in 1981, and they have continuously raised hogs there for the past 37 years. Their Duroc herd started with a few sows from Craig’s former employer who started raising Duroc pigs in the 1940s — with females obtained through Sears and Roebucks! As Craig explains, “I took a job in 1975 working with an outstanding stockman who raised purebred Duroc pigs here in Kansas. His name was Fred Germann, and he was one of the oldest and best Duroc breeders in the U.S. Things sure have changed since then, but the Durocs that we now raise have ancestry that goes back to those Sears females, approximately 85 years ago.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDuroc is an American breed that was used as the foundational genetics for the entire pig industry in the United States because of their good growth rate, body type, and mothering instincts. But big agriculture continued to overbreed the Duroc for certain traits related to higher profits and they crossed it with other pig breeds. Soon the industrial pig became utterly unrecognizable, and it became almost impossible to tell that it had originally derived from Duroc genetics.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig, on the other hand, continued to breed his Durocs to improve their genetics with traits particular to Craig’s preferences, while staying true to the original healthy and hearty breed. Craig always put a lot of thought into which sows he would breed with which boars as he worked to improve meat quality and edibility, as opposed to faster growth. He also selected pigs for the demeanor of the animals, who he treats like members of his own family. Craig bred for strong animals and sought out leaner carcasses (although the Duroc is supremely marbled). He also bred for skeletal size – Craig likes good length of body, for better loin eye size and fat distribution.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOver the years, the Durocs on Good Farm became his own breed, even though they looked like and acted like true old school Durocs. The Goods continue to bring in new lines to avoid inbreeding, but they work with the lines to continue improving their particular version of the Duroc.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig and Amy also raise Gloucestershire Old Spots and Tamworths, both considered rare breeds.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig's father, Don, was a meat scientist and would eventually have a division of Kansas State University named after him. Together they raised purebred Angus cattle and crops on the farm. “I have had a passion for raising pigs,” says Craig, since taking pigs on as a 4-H project in 1965. Craig studied Animal Science at Kansas State University. “Amy and I were married in 1976 and 5 years later we made the decision to move to the farm that my father and mother had owned since 1961, near Olsburg, Kansas, on 1000 acres of Flint Hills pasture.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eBreed\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRed Wattle\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 18th Century Louisiana by way of New Caledonia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a cross between pork and beef, Red Wattle is floral and robust, concentrated and bold.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: A consortium of 18 Amish families in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: French colonists brought these hogs to New Orleans as a favored meat breed. The Red Wattle eventually would populate the forests of Texas where they were rounded up and brought to the great slaughterhouses of Chicago. Recognized by their signature wattles that hang from the jowl, the Red Wattle resembles Kunekune pigs of New Zealand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGloucestershire Old Spot\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 19th Century Indiana by way of Berkeley Valley of Gloucestershire, England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a charcuterie pig with a delicious milky fat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside of Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: Descended from the native old English pigs of western England, this pig was mentioned as early as the 1780's. The spotted pig forages on fallen orchard fruits and other farm by products. Despite their signature oversized floppy ears which hang over their eyes, this gentle pig is hearty and self-reliant.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTamworth\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 2,500 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Rossville, Illinois by way of Staffordshire, England by way of Ireland.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: A premiere bacon producer, Tamworth meat is fruity, earthy, clean, mineral, root, sweet and tender.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Doug Metzger and Craig and Amy Good in Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The only native red breed to England, its heritage traces back to the wild pigs of Middle Age Europe. A slow growing breed, the Tamworth is active and hearty. Traditionally raised in the woods, the pig's long angular snout makes it an excellent forager — Tamworth pigs do not conform to industrial agriculture needs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBerkshire\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 1823 Kentucky\/ Illinois by way of Western England and outside London.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Sweet with depth of flavor, Berkshire pork is balanced and the most universally loved of all the Heritage breeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: David Newman and a consortium of 12 family farms in Kansas, Missouri and Iowa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: For years the Royal Family kept a large Berkshire herd at Windsor Castle — our Berkshire pigs are traceable back to these old English genetics. This would eventually become the most popular Heritage breed of pig in the United States because of its supreme marbling. Prized by the Japanese who imported it as \"Kurobuta\" pork, the Berkshire is recognized by 6 white spots at the tip of its feet, nose and tail.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDuroc\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Eastern United States and corn belt by way of the Guinea coast of Africa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Duroc meat is crisp and clean — known for great marbling and polished texture its taste is approachable on the palate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The Duroc is an older breed of American domestic pig that has become one of the most popular breeds because of its great taste and strong genetics, but pure Duroc is very hard to find. Durocs are a red pig strain developed around 1800 in New England and reputed to trace their ancestry back to the early red pigs of Africa. Durocs are especially valued by farmers for their hardiness and quick but thorough muscle growth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eCooking\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHow to Prepare\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis ham is fully cooked and can be eaten straight out of the bag!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1. Place your Maple Cured Heritage Ham on a roasting pan with a rack with 1 cup of water, wine, or stock in the bottom of the pan. Optional: brush your ham with one of the following three glazes to enhance the flavor.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e2. Cover the ham with foil and cook at 325\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e℉ \u003c\/span\u003eoven until ham reaches 135\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e℉\u003c\/span\u003e. (It is fully cooked, you just want to warm it up without drying it out.)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e3. Turn up the oven to 400\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e℉\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003efor the final 10-15 minutes, remove the foil, brush on some more glaze if you are using it, and roast until caramelized to your liking.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCitrus-y Brown Sugar\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eGlaze\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e1 cup total citrus juice of your preference (orange\/lemon\/lime\/grapefruit)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e1 cup brown sugar\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e½ cup \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eapple cider\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e vinegar\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBring all the ingredients to a simmer over medium heat in a small saucepan. Be careful that it doesn’t boil over. Adjust the heat as necessary, stir frequently and reduce until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRaspberry Jalapeno Sesame Glaze\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e1 cup Lambrusco vinegar\u003cbr\u003e1.5 cups raspberries (fresh or frozen)\u003cbr\u003e¼ cup soy sauce \u003cbr\u003e1 tablespoon sesame oil\u003cbr\u003e2 cups of white sugar\u003cbr\u003e½ cup freshly squeezed lemon\u003cbr\u003e¼ minced jalapeño\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBring all the ingredients to a simmer over medium heat in a small saucepan. Be careful that it doesn’t boil over. Adjust the heat as necessary, stir frequently and reduce until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eClassic Pineapple Glaze\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e1 cup soy sauce\u003cbr\u003e1 cup wildflower honey\u003cbr\u003e¼ cup pineapple juice\u003cbr\u003e¼ cup Wilder mustard\u003cbr\u003e2 tablespoons luxardo cherry juice\u003cbr\u003e1 teaspoon whole cloves\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBring all the ingredients to a simmer over medium heat in a small saucepan. Be careful that it doesn’t boil over. Adjust the heat as necessary, stir frequently and reduce until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[\/TABS]\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heritage Foods USA","offers":[{"title":"11-12lb","offer_id":41630865555514,"sku":"11-12lb","price":202.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"12-13lb","offer_id":41080970969146,"sku":"12-13lb","price":219.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"13-14lb","offer_id":41080971362362,"sku":"13-14lb","price":237.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"14-15lb","offer_id":41080973033530,"sku":"14-15lb","price":255.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"15-16lb","offer_id":41125148426298,"sku":"15-16lb","price":273.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/files\/hf_2023_spiral_ham_ecomm.jpg?v=1698430485"},{"product_id":"boneless-maple-sugar-cured-heritage-ham","title":"SALE! BONELESS MAPLE SUGAR CURED HERITAGE HAM","description":"[TABS]\n\u003ch5\u003eProduct\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMaple Sugar Cured Heritage Ham\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eBerkshire or Red Wattle\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eChoose your preferred weight and breed from the drop down menu above.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eMaple cured ham is at the cornerstone of American cooking, loved universally as a centerpiece for a holiday meal. There is no spice or seasoning this delicious ham won’t welcome from pineapples and cherries to mustard and more maple syrup.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ePasture raised heritage breeds produce marbled delicious meat, so every bite is sure to be sweet and juicy.  The maple sugar cure is the foundational and proprietary cure recipe for everything produced at Paradise Locker Meats. It is sweet and perfect for everyday eating.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eIf you are like so many who love our maple sugar cured ham, try our \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/heritagefoods.com\/collections\/ham\/products\/shaved-berkshire-heritage-maple-sugar-cured-ham\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eShaved Deli Ham\u003c\/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/heritagefoods.com\/products\/cured-ham-shanks-four-pieces-3lb-total\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eCured Hocks\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIngredients: pork cured with water, less than 2% of the following: salt, cane sugar, maple sugar, and brown sugar, spice extractives, sodium phosphate, sodium erythorbate, vinegar, sodium nitrite.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHumanely raised on pasture, 100% antibiotic-free and raised by independent family farmers\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAlready cooked - just heat and eat \u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHeritage hams last in the fridge for three weeks and a year in the freezer\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eArtisan\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHeritage Foods ham is all cut by our abattoir partners outside Kansas City, Paradise Locker Meats.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMario and Teresa purchased the business in 1995 and ran the locker, still in Paradise, providing custom processing for local farmers and hunters in the area. They also started a retail side of the business, offering various cuts of meat to local shoppers! Mario started with a team of around 3-5 employees and was processing roughly 10 beef and 10 hogs a week.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter a fire, Mario and Teresa found land just down the road in Trimble, MO and set out building the growing business! In January of 2003, they broke ground and in September they reopened the doors to the new Paradise Locker Meats. Starting with the same crew, they quickly started growing with more capabilities in the new building.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGrowing was never easy, but Mario and Teresa were determined to continue what they started in Paradise, and build a company that could make a difference in the food world. Through wonderful support by the local community, and establishing amazing relationships with clients locally and nationally, Paradise Locker Meats currently employs 50 plus employees and processes 350-400 local animals on a weekly basis! Paradise is now run by Lou Fantasma along with his parents and brother Nick.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eParadise Locker Meats exists to support and serve patrons and families in a sustainable manner by processing meats from small family farms; building awareness of local, natural food; and providing quality, wholesome products with dedication, integrity and honesty!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eFarms\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen Heritage Foods started in 2001 we set out to sell heritage Thanksgiving turkeys. For three years our turkey project grew, but naturally mating turkey is a seasonal food and two of the three farmers we worked with to raise birds were looking for a more regular source of income if they were to continue working with us. So we committed to selling pork, which can be produced year round, as long as the breeds came from historic genetic lines, just like the turkeys. Now, 24 years later, Heritage Foods still works with those two original farms who together introduced the word “heritage pork” to hundreds of America’s best restaurants from coast-to-coast as well as thousands of homes through the Heritage Foods retail website.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNewman Farm Berkshire Pork\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eMyrtle, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn 2006 we got a handwritten letter from farmer Mark Newman asking us if Heritage Foods would ever consider selling his pasture raised old school Berkshire pigs. We said yes and a relationship grew that still continues today, now through his son David who has maintained the genetic line of Berkshires which can be traced back to the 17th and 18th century lines that came to these shores by way of the Berkshire region of England.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFrom the air, Newman Farm Berkshire Pork, in south central Missouri, in the heart of the Ozarks, looks more like a pioneer settlement or a holiday camp than any sort of pig farm. Wooden huts are scattered across green fields like bungalows, where contented Berkshire pigs live their lives, happily on-pasture.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePigs on Newman Farm are raised 100% on-pasture. The sows raise their piglets in huts that dot the fields of the farm. The babies live inside the huts until they are old enough to jump over the 6-inch wooden board that blocks the entrance. Once they make the great leap, they have an entire field to run on and they can mingle with the other piglets from the other huts.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid Newman is both a farmer and scientist. “The farmer came first,” he laughs. His degrees are in animal science, and he holds a Ph.D in meat science and muscle biology, focused on meat quality. “As I became a scientist and got involved in education, I applied what I was learning to understand what we could do better.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBerkshires were the favorite breed of British royalty and were first introduced to the New World in 1823. Since then, Berkshire bloodlines have remained exceptionally pure and have become a mainstay favorite of chefs and diners, legendary for their exceptionally bright pork flavor and thick, delicious fat cap. And if anyone were to question their excellence, just ask David. “It’s not a matter of opinion!” he insists, passionately. “It’s a scientific fact, Berkshires are the most marbled hog on the market today.” David is a master breeder and works hard to keep the lines on his farm separate and he is always working to improve the Berkshire breed on his farm.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid lives on the farm with his wife, Kristin, his mom Rita, and his two kids. “I got my start through my family. My parents were hog farmers, but primarily in the commercial pig business. In the 1980s my parents raised pigs in confinement. There were some very challenging economic times for everyone in production, and we realized we were going to have to do something differently. Kristin came from a family farming background also and is a major part of the operations success today, working for the farm along with their team of employees.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“In the 1990s my parents decided they wanted to go back to their roots. We were going to have to be very large to be successful in the commercial sector, and my father decided we should focus on quality. We changed our genetic program and our nutrition program. We became Certified Humane®, and we chose to focus on Berkshire pigs for their quality.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid and his family are the future of American farming! They are young, energetic and very passionate about the future of agriculture. David and Kristin work with a team of farmers who raise their Berkshires to supply Heritage Foods and the national network of chefs who rely on his product for their menus.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLazy Red Wattle Ranch\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eLa Plata, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWe met Larry and Madonna Sorell in 2002, as growers for Frank Reese and the Heritage Turkey Project. As their turkey flock grew in size, so did the Sorell’s importance to Heritage Foods.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen you see Red Wattle pork on a menu, what you are seeing is a five-state, twelve farm network founded by Larry and Madonna, dedicated to raising a storied breed that was once upon a time nearly extinct. Larry and Madonna are the heroes of this story, avatars of the heritage food movement, true believers who were destined to become the Guardians of the Red Wattle. They are proof positive of the ethos that when it comes to endangered livestock, “you have to eat them to save them.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn the beginning, back in 2004 when the Heritage Foods wholesale business began selling pigs, a market for the Red Wattle pig was built on a handshake agreement with chefs Zach Allen and Mark Ladner, then at Lupa Restaurant in NYC. They recognized the high-quality and undiminished taste that came from a Red Wattle pig humanely raised on-pasture and antibiotic free, using traditional farming methods. The deal with Ladner, and the partnership with Larry and his Lazy Red Wattle Ranch, were part of the origins of Heritage Foods.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“We traveled 18,000 miles to get started,” Larry says matter-of-factly about a Heritage Foods Odyssey whose mission was to search out rare Red Wattle sows and collect a viable genetic lineage of this incredible pig whose American legacy goes back to 18th century New Orleans. \"When we began, we had two Red Wattle gilts and a boar, and we had to travel all over the United States to start a herd.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Now I’ve kinda retired from raising animals, but we have a dozen Amish growers working with us, and I pick up the hogs and pay for them, and then bring them to the processor, Paradise Locker. I drive a tractor trailer and go around picking up three hundred pounders, fifty to eighty head a week. We have farms in Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa... that’s a lot of traveling. We may have four or five pick-ups every week. You wear out a truck pretty fast.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLarry, now over eighty, does less of the driving, but he still keeps all the relationships going, which isn’t easy considering the Amish don’t have phones inside their homes! “I’ll have to quit sometime but right now it’s going pretty good. The driving is easy. The hard job is you gotta keep Amish families happy, picking up their hogs, coordinating, monitoring the size of the animals, and making sure we have the right amount — each week we round up 50 to 100 pigs. And we’ve been doing it for almost 20 years now.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThanks to Larry and Madonna’s work, the Red Wattle was upgraded to Threatened status from Critical on The Livestock Conservancy’s watch list, a great achievement for the cause of biodiversity, one of the most important issues of our time.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMetzger Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eSeneca, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug Metzger's Tamworth and Berkshire genetics are now being shepherded by Robert Funk. Doug sadly passed away in 2023. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug Metzger was truly at the ground zero of our business and the heritage food movement. He was the magic man that first introduced us to our processor Paradise Locker Meats, with whom we have worked and grown ever since and he worked together with Frank Reese raising heritage turkeys from about 2002 to 2013.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAt 83-years-old, Doug raises purebred, certified Berkshire and Tamworth pigs on his 1,500 acre farm in Seneca, Kansas, with his wife Betty.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn an era of specialization Doug is an anomaly. Doug is famous for adapting to any moment. In 2001 he took our call and agreed to raise heritage turkeys for us with Frank because he believed that the growing food movement would appreciate the flavor of the birds his grandfather raised. As demand grew for quality meat, Doug got into heritage pigs and transitioned his commodity farm to a pastured farm and haven for the rare Tamworth breed.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug has been farming since 1951. As a kid he raised chickens but gave them up when he got into turkeys. As he got older, he broke into the milk cattle game. Then he tried sheep, but he says he couldn’t get them to breed right. He also raised Aylesbury ducks — a rare heritage breed. Over the years the acres on his sprawling farm have been used to grow wheat, corn, oats, barley, sorghum, alfalfa, and rye. He even grew flax one year because he heard it was supposed to help the immune system of the cattle, which he thought it did. “It certainly made their coats look wonderful,” Doug says.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eToday farmers are incentivized to grow monocrops of corn and soybean — “that’s all they want us to grow,” Doug explains, “and farmers haul their crops to town instead of using it for something on their own farm.” Doug remembers fondly the days when a diversified farm would grow corn and turn it into whiskey, or when soybeans were grown for the purpose of feeding milk cattle — as Doug did on his farm. “Keep your grain,” Doug insists, “and use it to grow a truly sustainable farm.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug was never one to use chemicals to grow food. He believes any talk of sustainability is not real when you raise only one crop or when you use chemicals to do it. “My buddy and I could clear 100 acres of weeds in a day if we worked through the night, and we did not need any additives to do it. All those chemicals are part of the reason there are so many cancers around, if you ask me.” Doug has amassed generations of farming secrets having grown so many foods naturally, often calling upon experiences from decades ago to solve a problem that presents itself today.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug comes from a truly great American farming family — Life Magazine once wrote that Doug’s father, who lived to be 104, had more living descendants than any American – many of them farmers. His is part of the story of immigrants who came to the New World and made good through old-fashioned values, tradition, and hard work.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“We’re here today to save these breeds,” says Doug, who is as down-home as the farm he still works on as he approaches his 84th birthday. “Save the breeds and make a little money. We got a lot of things going on, we have a lot of land. But it’s getting hard to keep up with it all… I need more young people! When I was young, we raised turkeys in spring and sold ‘em all by Christmas. We milked cattle all year round. I want to keep working — my dad was helping me when he was 84!”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHis conversational style always brings insight and interesting thoughts to bear. We hope Doug and Betty work with us for many years to come and that their beliefs of diversified farming continue. Today, his farm is supported through the work of his daughter Marilyn and her husband Stan, and their children Simon and Joel.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGood Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eOlsburg, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eGood Farms' Old Spot, Duroc, and Tamworth genetics are now being shepherded by Dustin and Maria Torneden since Craig and his wife Amy retired in 2024. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWe met the Goods through a connection at Kansas State University where Craig’s father was a distinguished professor. Craig spent his life in agriculture growing up in the Flint Hills of Kansas, some of the best agricultural land in the world, perfectly adapted to free ranging livestock, which feed on the perennial grasses that grow there naturally.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Good’s hog operation began in earnest in 1981, and they have continuously raised hogs there for the past 37 years. Their Duroc herd started with a few sows from Craig’s former employer who started raising Duroc pigs in the 1940s — with females obtained through Sears and Roebucks! As Craig explains, “I took a job in 1975 working with an outstanding stockman who raised purebred Duroc pigs here in Kansas. His name was Fred Germann, and he was one of the oldest and best Duroc breeders in the U.S. Things sure have changed since then, but the Durocs that we now raise have ancestry that goes back to those Sears females, approximately 85 years ago.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDuroc is an American breed that was used as the foundational genetics for the entire pig industry in the United States because of their good growth rate, body type, and mothering instincts. But big agriculture continued to overbreed the Duroc for certain traits related to higher profits and they crossed it with other pig breeds. Soon the industrial pig became utterly unrecognizable, and it became almost impossible to tell that it had originally derived from Duroc genetics.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig, on the other hand, continued to breed his Durocs to improve their genetics with traits particular to Craig’s preferences, while staying true to the original healthy and hearty breed. Craig always put a lot of thought into which sows he would breed with which boars as he worked to improve meat quality and edibility, as opposed to faster growth. He also selected pigs for the demeanor of the animals, who he treats like members of his own family. Craig bred for strong animals and sought out leaner carcasses (although the Duroc is supremely marbled). He also bred for skeletal size – Craig likes good length of body, for better loin eye size and fat distribution.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOver the years, the Durocs on Good Farm became his own breed, even though they looked like and acted like true old school Durocs. The Goods continue to bring in new lines to avoid inbreeding, but they work with the lines to continue improving their particular version of the Duroc.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig and Amy also raise Gloucestershire Old Spots and Tamworths, both considered rare breeds.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig's father, Don, was a meat scientist and would eventually have a division of Kansas State University named after him. Together they raised purebred Angus cattle and crops on the farm. “I have had a passion for raising pigs,” says Craig, since taking pigs on as a 4-H project in 1965. Craig studied Animal Science at Kansas State University. “Amy and I were married in 1976 and 5 years later we made the decision to move to the farm that my father and mother had owned since 1961, near Olsburg, Kansas, on 1000 acres of Flint Hills pasture.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eBreed\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRed Wattle\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 18th Century Louisiana by way of New Caledonia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a cross between pork and beef, Red Wattle is floral and robust, concentrated and bold.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: A consortium of 18 Amish families in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: French colonists brought these hogs to New Orleans as a favored meat breed. The Red Wattle eventually would populate the forests of Texas where they were rounded up and brought to the great slaughterhouses of Chicago. Recognized by their signature wattles that hang from the jowl, the Red Wattle resembles Kunekune pigs of New Zealand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGloucestershire Old Spot\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 19th Century Indiana by way of Berkeley Valley of Gloucestershire, England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a charcuterie pig with a delicious milky fat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside of Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: Descended from the native old English pigs of western England, this pig was mentioned as early as the 1780's. The spotted pig forages on fallen orchard fruits and other farm by products. Despite their signature oversized floppy ears which hang over their eyes, this gentle pig is hearty and self-reliant.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTamworth\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 2,500 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Rossville, Illinois by way of Staffordshire, England by way of Ireland.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: A premiere bacon producer, Tamworth meat is fruity, earthy, clean, mineral, root, sweet and tender.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Doug Metzger and Craig and Amy Good in Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The only native red breed to England, its heritage traces back to the wild pigs of Middle Age Europe. A slow growing breed, the Tamworth is active and hearty. Traditionally raised in the woods, the pig's long angular snout makes it an excellent forager — Tamworth pigs do not conform to industrial agriculture needs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBerkshire\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 1823 Kentucky\/ Illinois by way of Western England and outside London.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Sweet with depth of flavor, Berkshire pork is balanced and the most universally loved of all the Heritage breeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: David Newman and a consortium of 12 family farms in Kansas, Missouri and Iowa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: For years the Royal Family kept a large Berkshire herd at Windsor Castle — our Berkshire pigs are traceable back to these old English genetics. This would eventually become the most popular Heritage breed of pig in the United States because of its supreme marbling. Prized by the Japanese who imported it as \"Kurobuta\" pork, the Berkshire is recognized by 6 white spots at the tip of its feet, nose and tail.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDuroc\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Eastern United States and corn belt by way of the Guinea coast of Africa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Duroc meat is crisp and clean — known for great marbling and polished texture its taste is approachable on the palate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The Duroc is an older breed of American domestic pig that has become one of the most popular breeds because of its great taste and strong genetics, but pure Duroc is very hard to find. Durocs are a red pig strain developed around 1800 in New England and reputed to trace their ancestry back to the early red pigs of Africa. Durocs are especially valued by farmers for their hardiness and quick but thorough muscle growth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eCooking\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHow to Prepare\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis ham is fully cooked and can be eaten straight out of the bag!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1. Place your Maple Cured Heritage Ham on a roasting pan with a rack with 1 cup of water, wine, or stock in the bottom of the pan. Optional: brush your ham with one of the following three glazes to enhance the flavor.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e2. Cover the ham with foil and cook at 325\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e℉ \u003c\/span\u003eoven until ham reaches 135\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e℉\u003c\/span\u003e. (It is fully cooked, you just want to warm it up without drying it out.)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e3. Turn up the oven to 400\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e℉\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003efor the final 10-15 minutes, remove the foil, brush on some more glaze if you are using it, and roast until caramelized to your liking.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRaspberry Jalapeno Sesame Glaze\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e1 cup Lambrusco vinegar\u003cbr\u003e1.5 cups raspberries (fresh or frozen)\u003cbr\u003e¼ cup soy sauce \u003cbr\u003e1 tablespoon sesame oil\u003cbr\u003e2 cups of white sugar\u003cbr\u003e½ cup freshly squeezed lemon\u003cbr\u003e¼ minced jalapeño\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBring all the ingredients to a simmer over medium heat in a small saucepan. Be careful that it doesn’t boil over. Adjust the heat as necessary, stir frequently and reduce until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eCitrus-y Brown Sugar\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eGlaze\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e1 cup total citrus juice of your preference (orange\/lemon\/lime\/grapefruit)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e1 cup brown sugar\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e½ cup \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eapple cider\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e vinegar\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBring all the ingredients to a simmer over medium heat in a small saucepan. Be careful that it doesn’t boil over. Adjust the heat as necessary, stir frequently and reduce until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eClassic Pineapple Glaze\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e1 cup soy sauce\u003cbr\u003e1 cup wildflower honey\u003cbr\u003e¼ cup pineapple juice\u003cbr\u003e¼ cup Wilder mustard\u003cbr\u003e2 tablespoons luxardo cherry juice\u003cbr\u003e1 teaspoon whole cloves\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBring all the ingredients to a simmer over medium heat in a small saucepan. Be careful that it doesn’t boil over. Adjust the heat as necessary, stir frequently and reduce until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[\/TABS]\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heritage Foods USA","offers":[{"title":"4-5lb Boneless half","offer_id":41299857768506,"sku":"(1pk) 4-5lb","price":90.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"5-6lb Boneless half","offer_id":41432830804026,"sku":"(1pk) 5-6lb","price":110.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"6-7lb Boneless half","offer_id":41432831688762,"sku":"(1pk) 6-7lb","price":131.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"7-8lb Boneless half","offer_id":40990399823930,"sku":"(1pk) 7-8lb Berk","price":151.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/files\/bnls_ham_shopify.jpg?v=1779894632"},{"product_id":"bone-in-maple-sugar-cured-heritage-ham","title":"SALE! BONE-IN MAPLE SUGAR CURED HERITAGE HAM","description":"[TABS]\n\u003ch5\u003eProduct\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMaple Sugar Cured Heritage Ham\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eBerkshire, Red Wattle, Old Spot, or Tamworth\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eCheck out our 3 favorite ham glazes in our cooking tab below!\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eChoose your preferred weight and breed from the drop down menu above.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eMaple cured ham is at the cornerstone of American cooking, loved universally as a centerpiece for a holiday meal. There is no spice or seasoning this delicious ham won’t welcome from pineapples and cherries to mustard and more maple syrup.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ePasture raised heritage breeds produce marbled delicious meat, so every bite is sure to be sweet and juicy.  The maple sugar cure is the foundational and proprietary cure recipe for everything produced at Paradise Locker Meats. It is sweet and perfect for everyday eating.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eIf you are like so many who love our maple sugar cured ham, try our \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/heritagefoods.com\/collections\/ham\/products\/shaved-berkshire-heritage-maple-sugar-cured-ham\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eShaved Deli Ham\u003c\/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/heritagefoods.com\/products\/cured-ham-shanks-four-pieces-3lb-total\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eCured Hocks\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eIngredients: pork cured with water, less than 2% of the following: salt, cane sugar, maple sugar, and brown sugar, spice extractives, sodium phosphate, sodium erythorbate, vinegar, sodium nitrite.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHumanely raised on pasture, 100% antibiotic-free and raised by independent family farmers\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAlready cooked - just heat and eat \u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHeritage hams last in the fridge for three weeks and a year in the freezer\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eArtisan\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHeritage Foods ham is all cut by our abattoir partners outside Kansas City, Paradise Locker Meats.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMario and Teresa purchased the business in 1995 and ran the locker, still in Paradise, providing custom processing for local farmers and hunters in the area. They also started a retail side of the business, offering various cuts of meat to local shoppers! Mario started with a team of around 3-5 employees and was processing roughly 10 beef and 10 hogs a week.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter a fire, Mario and Teresa found land just down the road in Trimble, MO and set out building the growing business! In January of 2003, they broke ground and in September they reopened the doors to the new Paradise Locker Meats. Starting with the same crew, they quickly started growing with more capabilities in the new building.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGrowing was never easy, but Mario and Teresa were determined to continue what they started in Paradise, and build a company that could make a difference in the food world. Through wonderful support by the local community, and establishing amazing relationships with clients locally and nationally, Paradise Locker Meats currently employs 50 plus employees and processes 350-400 local animals on a weekly basis! Paradise is now run by Lou Fantasma along with his parents and brother Nick.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eParadise Locker Meats exists to support and serve patrons and families in a sustainable manner by processing meats from small family farms; building awareness of local, natural food; and providing quality, wholesome products with dedication, integrity and honesty!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eFarms\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen Heritage Foods started in 2001 we set out to sell heritage Thanksgiving turkeys. For three years our turkey project grew, but naturally mating turkey is a seasonal food and two of the three farmers we worked with to raise birds were looking for a more regular source of income if they were to continue working with us. So we committed to selling pork, which can be produced year round, as long as the breeds came from historic genetic lines, just like the turkeys. Now, 24 years later, Heritage Foods still works with those two original farms who together introduced the word “heritage pork” to hundreds of America’s best restaurants from coast-to-coast as well as thousands of homes through the Heritage Foods retail website.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNewman Farm Berkshire Pork\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eMyrtle, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn 2006 we got a handwritten letter from farmer Mark Newman asking us if Heritage Foods would ever consider selling his pasture raised old school Berkshire pigs. We said yes and a relationship grew that still continues today, now through his son David who has maintained the genetic line of Berkshires which can be traced back to the 17th and 18th century lines that came to these shores by way of the Berkshire region of England.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFrom the air, Newman Farm Berkshire Pork, in south central Missouri, in the heart of the Ozarks, looks more like a pioneer settlement or a holiday camp than any sort of pig farm. Wooden huts are scattered across green fields like bungalows, where contented Berkshire pigs live their lives, happily on-pasture.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePigs on Newman Farm are raised 100% on-pasture. The sows raise their piglets in huts that dot the fields of the farm. The babies live inside the huts until they are old enough to jump over the 6-inch wooden board that blocks the entrance. Once they make the great leap, they have an entire field to run on and they can mingle with the other piglets from the other huts.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid Newman is both a farmer and scientist. “The farmer came first,” he laughs. His degrees are in animal science, and he holds a Ph.D in meat science and muscle biology, focused on meat quality. “As I became a scientist and got involved in education, I applied what I was learning to understand what we could do better.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBerkshires were the favorite breed of British royalty and were first introduced to the New World in 1823. Since then, Berkshire bloodlines have remained exceptionally pure and have become a mainstay favorite of chefs and diners, legendary for their exceptionally bright pork flavor and thick, delicious fat cap. And if anyone were to question their excellence, just ask David. “It’s not a matter of opinion!” he insists, passionately. “It’s a scientific fact, Berkshires are the most marbled hog on the market today.” David is a master breeder and works hard to keep the lines on his farm separate and he is always working to improve the Berkshire breed on his farm.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid lives on the farm with his wife, Kristin, his mom Rita, and his two kids. “I got my start through my family. My parents were hog farmers, but primarily in the commercial pig business. In the 1980s my parents raised pigs in confinement. There were some very challenging economic times for everyone in production, and we realized we were going to have to do something differently. Kristin came from a family farming background also and is a major part of the operations success today, working for the farm along with their team of employees.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“In the 1990s my parents decided they wanted to go back to their roots. We were going to have to be very large to be successful in the commercial sector, and my father decided we should focus on quality. We changed our genetic program and our nutrition program. We became Certified Humane®, and we chose to focus on Berkshire pigs for their quality.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid and his family are the future of American farming! They are young, energetic and very passionate about the future of agriculture. David and Kristin work with a team of farmers who raise their Berkshires to supply Heritage Foods and the national network of chefs who rely on his product for their menus.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLazy Red Wattle Ranch\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eLa Plata, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWe met Larry and Madonna Sorell in 2002, as growers for Frank Reese and the Heritage Turkey Project. As their turkey flock grew in size, so did the Sorell’s importance to Heritage Foods.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen you see Red Wattle pork on a menu, what you are seeing is a five-state, twelve farm network founded by Larry and Madonna, dedicated to raising a storied breed that was once upon a time nearly extinct. Larry and Madonna are the heroes of this story, avatars of the heritage food movement, true believers who were destined to become the Guardians of the Red Wattle. They are proof positive of the ethos that when it comes to endangered livestock, “you have to eat them to save them.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn the beginning, back in 2004 when the Heritage Foods wholesale business began selling pigs, a market for the Red Wattle pig was built on a handshake agreement with chefs Zach Allen and Mark Ladner, then at Lupa Restaurant in NYC. They recognized the high-quality and undiminished taste that came from a Red Wattle pig humanely raised on-pasture and antibiotic free, using traditional farming methods. The deal with Ladner, and the partnership with Larry and his Lazy Red Wattle Ranch, were part of the origins of Heritage Foods.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“We traveled 18,000 miles to get started,” Larry says matter-of-factly about a Heritage Foods Odyssey whose mission was to search out rare Red Wattle sows and collect a viable genetic lineage of this incredible pig whose American legacy goes back to 18th century New Orleans. \"When we began, we had two Red Wattle gilts and a boar, and we had to travel all over the United States to start a herd.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Now I’ve kinda retired from raising animals, but we have a dozen Amish growers working with us, and I pick up the hogs and pay for them, and then bring them to the processor, Paradise Locker. I drive a tractor trailer and go around picking up three hundred pounders, fifty to eighty head a week. We have farms in Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa... that’s a lot of traveling. We may have four or five pick-ups every week. You wear out a truck pretty fast.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLarry, now over eighty, does less of the driving, but he still keeps all the relationships going, which isn’t easy considering the Amish don’t have phones inside their homes! “I’ll have to quit sometime but right now it’s going pretty good. The driving is easy. The hard job is you gotta keep Amish families happy, picking up their hogs, coordinating, monitoring the size of the animals, and making sure we have the right amount — each week we round up 50 to 100 pigs. And we’ve been doing it for almost 20 years now.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThanks to Larry and Madonna’s work, the Red Wattle was upgraded to Threatened status from Critical on The Livestock Conservancy’s watch list, a great achievement for the cause of biodiversity, one of the most important issues of our time.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMetzger Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eSeneca, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug Metzger's Tamworth and Berkshire genetics are now being shepherded by Robert Funk. Doug sadly passed away in 2023. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug Metzger was truly at the ground zero of our business and the heritage food movement. He was the magic man that first introduced us to our processor Paradise Locker Meats, with whom we have worked and grown ever since and he worked together with Frank Reese raising heritage turkeys from about 2002 to 2013.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAt 83-years-old, Doug raises purebred, certified Berkshire and Tamworth pigs on his 1,500 acre farm in Seneca, Kansas, with his wife Betty.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn an era of specialization Doug is an anomaly. Doug is famous for adapting to any moment. In 2001 he took our call and agreed to raise heritage turkeys for us with Frank because he believed that the growing food movement would appreciate the flavor of the birds his grandfather raised. As demand grew for quality meat, Doug got into heritage pigs and transitioned his commodity farm to a pastured farm and haven for the rare Tamworth breed.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug has been farming since 1951. As a kid he raised chickens but gave them up when he got into turkeys. As he got older, he broke into the milk cattle game. Then he tried sheep, but he says he couldn’t get them to breed right. He also raised Aylesbury ducks — a rare heritage breed. Over the years the acres on his sprawling farm have been used to grow wheat, corn, oats, barley, sorghum, alfalfa, and rye. He even grew flax one year because he heard it was supposed to help the immune system of the cattle, which he thought it did. “It certainly made their coats look wonderful,” Doug says.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eToday farmers are incentivized to grow monocrops of corn and soybean — “that’s all they want us to grow,” Doug explains, “and farmers haul their crops to town instead of using it for something on their own farm.” Doug remembers fondly the days when a diversified farm would grow corn and turn it into whiskey, or when soybeans were grown for the purpose of feeding milk cattle — as Doug did on his farm. “Keep your grain,” Doug insists, “and use it to grow a truly sustainable farm.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug was never one to use chemicals to grow food. He believes any talk of sustainability is not real when you raise only one crop or when you use chemicals to do it. “My buddy and I could clear 100 acres of weeds in a day if we worked through the night, and we did not need any additives to do it. All those chemicals are part of the reason there are so many cancers around, if you ask me.” Doug has amassed generations of farming secrets having grown so many foods naturally, often calling upon experiences from decades ago to solve a problem that presents itself today.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug comes from a truly great American farming family — Life Magazine once wrote that Doug’s father, who lived to be 104, had more living descendants than any American – many of them farmers. His is part of the story of immigrants who came to the New World and made good through old-fashioned values, tradition, and hard work.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“We’re here today to save these breeds,” says Doug, who is as down-home as the farm he still works on as he approaches his 84th birthday. “Save the breeds and make a little money. We got a lot of things going on, we have a lot of land. But it’s getting hard to keep up with it all… I need more young people! When I was young, we raised turkeys in spring and sold ‘em all by Christmas. We milked cattle all year round. I want to keep working — my dad was helping me when he was 84!”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHis conversational style always brings insight and interesting thoughts to bear. We hope Doug and Betty work with us for many years to come and that their beliefs of diversified farming continue. Today, his farm is supported through the work of his daughter Marilyn and her husband Stan, and their children Simon and Joel.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGood Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eOlsburg, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eGood Farms' Old Spot, Duroc, and Tamworth genetics are now being shepherded by Dustin and Maria Torneden since Craig and his wife Amy retired in 2024. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWe met the Goods through a connection at Kansas State University where Craig’s father was a distinguished professor. Craig spent his life in agriculture growing up in the Flint Hills of Kansas, some of the best agricultural land in the world, perfectly adapted to free ranging livestock, which feed on the perennial grasses that grow there naturally.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Good’s hog operation began in earnest in 1981, and they have continuously raised hogs there for the past 37 years. Their Duroc herd started with a few sows from Craig’s former employer who started raising Duroc pigs in the 1940s — with females obtained through Sears and Roebucks! As Craig explains, “I took a job in 1975 working with an outstanding stockman who raised purebred Duroc pigs here in Kansas. His name was Fred Germann, and he was one of the oldest and best Duroc breeders in the U.S. Things sure have changed since then, but the Durocs that we now raise have ancestry that goes back to those Sears females, approximately 85 years ago.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDuroc is an American breed that was used as the foundational genetics for the entire pig industry in the United States because of their good growth rate, body type, and mothering instincts. But big agriculture continued to overbreed the Duroc for certain traits related to higher profits and they crossed it with other pig breeds. Soon the industrial pig became utterly unrecognizable, and it became almost impossible to tell that it had originally derived from Duroc genetics.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig, on the other hand, continued to breed his Durocs to improve their genetics with traits particular to Craig’s preferences, while staying true to the original healthy and hearty breed. Craig always put a lot of thought into which sows he would breed with which boars as he worked to improve meat quality and edibility, as opposed to faster growth. He also selected pigs for the demeanor of the animals, who he treats like members of his own family. Craig bred for strong animals and sought out leaner carcasses (although the Duroc is supremely marbled). He also bred for skeletal size – Craig likes good length of body, for better loin eye size and fat distribution.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOver the years, the Durocs on Good Farm became his own breed, even though they looked like and acted like true old school Durocs. The Goods continue to bring in new lines to avoid inbreeding, but they work with the lines to continue improving their particular version of the Duroc.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig and Amy also raise Gloucestershire Old Spots and Tamworths, both considered rare breeds.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig's father, Don, was a meat scientist and would eventually have a division of Kansas State University named after him. Together they raised purebred Angus cattle and crops on the farm. “I have had a passion for raising pigs,” says Craig, since taking pigs on as a 4-H project in 1965. Craig studied Animal Science at Kansas State University. “Amy and I were married in 1976 and 5 years later we made the decision to move to the farm that my father and mother had owned since 1961, near Olsburg, Kansas, on 1000 acres of Flint Hills pasture.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eBreed\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRed Wattle\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 18th Century Louisiana by way of New Caledonia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a cross between pork and beef, Red Wattle is floral and robust, concentrated and bold.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: A consortium of 18 Amish families in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: French colonists brought these hogs to New Orleans as a favored meat breed. The Red Wattle eventually would populate the forests of Texas where they were rounded up and brought to the great slaughterhouses of Chicago. Recognized by their signature wattles that hang from the jowl, the Red Wattle resembles Kunekune pigs of New Zealand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGloucestershire Old Spot\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 19th Century Indiana by way of Berkeley Valley of Gloucestershire, England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a charcuterie pig with a delicious milky fat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside of Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: Descended from the native old English pigs of western England, this pig was mentioned as early as the 1780's. The spotted pig forages on fallen orchard fruits and other farm by products. Despite their signature oversized floppy ears which hang over their eyes, this gentle pig is hearty and self-reliant.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTamworth\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 2,500 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Rossville, Illinois by way of Staffordshire, England by way of Ireland.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: A premiere bacon producer, Tamworth meat is fruity, earthy, clean, mineral, root, sweet and tender.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Doug Metzger and Craig and Amy Good in Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The only native red breed to England, its heritage traces back to the wild pigs of Middle Age Europe. A slow growing breed, the Tamworth is active and hearty. Traditionally raised in the woods, the pig's long angular snout makes it an excellent forager — Tamworth pigs do not conform to industrial agriculture needs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBerkshire\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 1823 Kentucky\/ Illinois by way of Western England and outside London.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Sweet with depth of flavor, Berkshire pork is balanced and the most universally loved of all the Heritage breeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: David Newman and a consortium of 12 family farms in Kansas, Missouri and Iowa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: For years the Royal Family kept a large Berkshire herd at Windsor Castle — our Berkshire pigs are traceable back to these old English genetics. This would eventually become the most popular Heritage breed of pig in the United States because of its supreme marbling. Prized by the Japanese who imported it as \"Kurobuta\" pork, the Berkshire is recognized by 6 white spots at the tip of its feet, nose and tail.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDuroc\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Eastern United States and corn belt by way of the Guinea coast of Africa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Duroc meat is crisp and clean — known for great marbling and polished texture its taste is approachable on the palate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The Duroc is an older breed of American domestic pig that has become one of the most popular breeds because of its great taste and strong genetics, but pure Duroc is very hard to find. Durocs are a red pig strain developed around 1800 in New England and reputed to trace their ancestry back to the early red pigs of Africa. Durocs are especially valued by farmers for their hardiness and quick but thorough muscle growth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eCooking\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHow to Prepare\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis ham is fully cooked and can be eaten straight out of the bag!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1. Place your Maple Cured Heritage Ham on a roasting pan with a rack with 1 cup of water, wine, or stock in the bottom of the pan. Optional: brush your ham with one of the following three glazes to enhance the flavor.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e2. Cover the ham with foil and cook at 325\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e℉ \u003c\/span\u003eoven until ham reaches 135\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e℉\u003c\/span\u003e. (It is fully cooked, you just want to warm it up without drying it out.)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e3. Turn up the oven to 400\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e℉\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003efor the final 10-15 minutes, remove the foil, brush on some more glaze if you are using it, and roast until caramelized to your liking.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRaspberry Jalapeno Sesame Glaze\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e1 cup Lambrusco vinegar\u003cbr\u003e1.5 cups raspberries (fresh or frozen)\u003cbr\u003e¼ cup soy sauce \u003cbr\u003e1 tablespoon sesame oil\u003cbr\u003e2 cups of white sugar\u003cbr\u003e½ cup freshly squeezed lemon\u003cbr\u003e¼ minced jalapeño\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBring all the ingredients to a simmer over medium heat in a small saucepan. Be careful that it doesn’t boil over. Adjust the heat as necessary, stir frequently and reduce until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eCitrus-y Brown Sugar\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eGlaze\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e1 cup total citrus juice of your preference (orange\/lemon\/lime\/grapefruit)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e1 cup brown sugar\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e½ cup \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eapple cider\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e vinegar\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBring all the ingredients to a simmer over medium heat in a small saucepan. Be careful that it doesn’t boil over. Adjust the heat as necessary, stir frequently and reduce until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eClassic Pineapple Glaze\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e1 cup soy sauce\u003cbr\u003e1 cup wildflower honey\u003cbr\u003e¼ cup pineapple juice\u003cbr\u003e¼ cup Wilder mustard\u003cbr\u003e2 tablespoons luxardo cherry juice\u003cbr\u003e1 teaspoon whole cloves\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBring all the ingredients to a simmer over medium heat in a small saucepan. Be careful that it doesn’t boil over. Adjust the heat as necessary, stir frequently and reduce until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[\/TABS]\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heritage Foods USA","offers":[{"title":"9-10lb Bone-in half","offer_id":41269720678458,"sku":"SKU: 63 9-10lb (1pk)","price":138.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"10-11lb Bone-in half","offer_id":41628961472570,"sku":"SKU: 63 10-11lb (1pk)","price":153.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"11-12lb Bone-in half","offer_id":41628996534330,"sku":"SKU: 63 11-12lb (1pk)","price":168.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"12-13lb Bone-in half","offer_id":41628998008890,"sku":"SKU: 63 12-13lb (1pk)","price":182.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"13-14lb Bone-in half","offer_id":41629006299194,"sku":"SKU: 63 13-14lb (1pk)","price":197.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"14-15lb Bone-in half","offer_id":41299925270586,"sku":"SKU: 63 14-15lb (1pk)","price":211.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"15-16lb Bone-in half","offer_id":41629130555450,"sku":"SKU: 63 15-16lb (1pk)","price":226.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"25-26lb Bone-in whole","offer_id":41603181674554,"sku":"25-26lb whole","price":371.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"26-27lb Bone-in whole","offer_id":41603182723130,"sku":"26-27lb whole","price":385.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"29-30lb Bone-in whole","offer_id":41603175415866,"sku":"29-30# whole","price":429.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/files\/HF_boneinham2026-1.jpg?v=1785514114"},{"product_id":"maple-sugar-cured-heritage-ham-steak","title":"MAPLE SUGAR CURED HERITAGE HAM STEAK","description":"[TABS]\n\u003ch5\u003eProduct\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMaple Sugar Cured Ham Steak\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003c\/em\u003eOne steak per pack\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eBerkshire \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eChoose your preferred weight from the drop down menu above.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA supermarket stalwart, upgraded! A ¾ inch-thick slice of bone-in pork steak, brined in maple sugar, oozing with juicy sweetness and silky fat. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHam steaks are a symbol of 1960s Americana. See the difference a heritage breed makes in the marbled silky fat dispersed throughout the ham. Every piece is edible — even the skin! — except of course, for the signature round ham bone, as seen in cartoons from yesteryear! \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOur heritage ham steaks are fully cooked. Just heat and eat! Let kids dip bites in their favorite condiment, or top it with a fancier pineapple or bourbon glaze.  Each steak serves 2-3!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eIngredients: pork cured with water, less than 2% of the following: salt, cane sugar, maple sugar, and brown sugar, spice extractives, sodium phosphate, sodium erythorbate, dried vinegar, sodium nitrite.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHumanely raised on pasture\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e100% antibiotic-free\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRaised by independent family farmers\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHeritage pork has more marbling resulting in more tender and juicy meat\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eFarms\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen Heritage Foods started in 2001 we set out to sell heritage Thanksgiving turkeys. For three years our turkey project grew, but naturally mating turkey is a seasonal food and two of the three farmers we worked with to raise birds were looking for a more regular source of income if they were to continue working with us. So we committed to selling pork, which can be produced year round, as long as the breeds came from historic genetic lines, just like the turkeys. Now, 24 years later, Heritage Foods still works with those two original farms who together introduced the word “heritage pork” to hundreds of America’s best restaurants from coast-to-coast as well as thousands of homes through the Heritage Foods retail website.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNewman Farm Berkshire Pork\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eMyrtle, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn 2006 we got a handwritten letter from farmer Mark Newman asking us if Heritage Foods would ever consider selling his pasture raised old school Berkshire pigs. We said yes and a relationship grew that still continues today, now through his son David who has maintained the genetic line of Berkshires which can be traced back to the 17th and 18th century lines that came to these shores by way of the Berkshire region of England.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFrom the air, Newman Farm Berkshire Pork, in south central Missouri, in the heart of the Ozarks, looks more like a pioneer settlement or a holiday camp than any sort of pig farm. Wooden huts are scattered across green fields like bungalows, where contented Berkshire pigs live their lives, happily on-pasture.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePigs on Newman Farm are raised 100% on-pasture. The sows raise their piglets in huts that dot the fields of the farm. The babies live inside the huts until they are old enough to jump over the 6-inch wooden board that blocks the entrance. Once they make the great leap, they have an entire field to run on and they can mingle with the other piglets from the other huts.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid Newman is both a farmer and scientist. “The farmer came first,” he laughs. His degrees are in animal science, and he holds a Ph.D in meat science and muscle biology, focused on meat quality. “As I became a scientist and got involved in education, I applied what I was learning to understand what we could do better.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBerkshires were the favorite breed of British royalty and were first introduced to the New World in 1823. Since then, Berkshire bloodlines have remained exceptionally pure and have become a mainstay favorite of chefs and diners, legendary for their exceptionally bright pork flavor and thick, delicious fat cap. And if anyone were to question their excellence, just ask David. “It’s not a matter of opinion!” he insists, passionately. “It’s a scientific fact, Berkshires are the most marbled hog on the market today.” David is a master breeder and works hard to keep the lines on his farm separate and he is always working to improve the Berkshire breed on his farm.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid lives on the farm with his wife, Kristin, his mom Rita, and his two kids. “I got my start through my family. My parents were hog farmers, but primarily in the commercial pig business. In the 1980s my parents raised pigs in confinement. There were some very challenging economic times for everyone in production, and we realized we were going to have to do something differently. Kristin came from a family farming background also and is a major part of the operations success today, working for the farm along with their team of employees.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“In the 1990s my parents decided they wanted to go back to their roots. We were going to have to be very large to be successful in the commercial sector, and my father decided we should focus on quality. We changed our genetic program and our nutrition program. We became Certified Humane®, and we chose to focus on Berkshire pigs for their quality.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid and his family are the future of American farming! They are young, energetic and very passionate about the future of agriculture. David and Kristin work with a team of farmers who raise their Berkshires to supply Heritage Foods and the national network of chefs who rely on his product for their menus.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLazy Red Wattle Ranch\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eLa Plata, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWe met Larry and Madonna Sorell in 2002, as growers for Frank Reese and the Heritage Turkey Project. As their turkey flock grew in size, so did the Sorell’s importance to Heritage Foods.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen you see Red Wattle pork on a menu, what you are seeing is a five-state, twelve farm network founded by Larry and Madonna, dedicated to raising a storied breed that was once upon a time nearly extinct. Larry and Madonna are the heroes of this story, avatars of the heritage food movement, true believers who were destined to become the Guardians of the Red Wattle. They are proof positive of the ethos that when it comes to endangered livestock, “you have to eat them to save them.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn the beginning, back in 2004 when the Heritage Foods wholesale business began selling pigs, a market for the Red Wattle pig was built on a handshake agreement with chefs Zach Allen and Mark Ladner, then at Lupa Restaurant in NYC. They recognized the high-quality and undiminished taste that came from a Red Wattle pig humanely raised on-pasture and antibiotic free, using traditional farming methods. The deal with Ladner, and the partnership with Larry and his Lazy Red Wattle Ranch, were part of the origins of Heritage Foods.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“We traveled 18,000 miles to get started,” Larry says matter-of-factly about a Heritage Foods Odyssey whose mission was to search out rare Red Wattle sows and collect a viable genetic lineage of this incredible pig whose American legacy goes back to 18th century New Orleans. \"When we began, we had two Red Wattle gilts and a boar, and we had to travel all over the United States to start a herd.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Now I’ve kinda retired from raising animals, but we have a dozen Amish growers working with us, and I pick up the hogs and pay for them, and then bring them to the processor, Paradise Locker. I drive a tractor trailer and go around picking up three hundred pounders, fifty to eighty head a week. We have farms in Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa... that’s a lot of traveling. We may have four or five pick-ups every week. You wear out a truck pretty fast.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLarry, now over eighty, does less of the driving, but he still keeps all the relationships going, which isn’t easy considering the Amish don’t have phones inside their homes! “I’ll have to quit sometime but right now it’s going pretty good. The driving is easy. The hard job is you gotta keep Amish families happy, picking up their hogs, coordinating, monitoring the size of the animals, and making sure we have the right amount — each week we round up 50 to 100 pigs. And we’ve been doing it for almost 20 years now.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThanks to Larry and Madonna’s work, the Red Wattle was upgraded to Threatened status from Critical on The Livestock Conservancy’s watch list, a great achievement for the cause of biodiversity, one of the most important issues of our time.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMetzger Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eSeneca, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug Metzger's Tamworth and Berkshire genetics are now being shepherded by Robert Funk. Doug sadly passed away in 2023. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug Metzger was truly at the ground zero of our business and the heritage food movement. He was the magic man that first introduced us to our processor Paradise Locker Meats, with whom we have worked and grown ever since and he worked together with Frank Reese raising heritage turkeys from about 2002 to 2013.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAt 83-years-old, Doug raises purebred, certified Berkshire and Tamworth pigs on his 1,500 acre farm in Seneca, Kansas, with his wife Betty.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn an era of specialization Doug is an anomaly. Doug is famous for adapting to any moment. In 2001 he took our call and agreed to raise heritage turkeys for us with Frank because he believed that the growing food movement would appreciate the flavor of the birds his grandfather raised. As demand grew for quality meat, Doug got into heritage pigs and transitioned his commodity farm to a pastured farm and haven for the rare Tamworth breed.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug has been farming since 1951. As a kid he raised chickens but gave them up when he got into turkeys. As he got older, he broke into the milk cattle game. Then he tried sheep, but he says he couldn’t get them to breed right. He also raised Aylesbury ducks — a rare heritage breed. Over the years the acres on his sprawling farm have been used to grow wheat, corn, oats, barley, sorghum, alfalfa, and rye. He even grew flax one year because he heard it was supposed to help the immune system of the cattle, which he thought it did. “It certainly made their coats look wonderful,” Doug says.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eToday farmers are incentivized to grow monocrops of corn and soybean — “that’s all they want us to grow,” Doug explains, “and farmers haul their crops to town instead of using it for something on their own farm.” Doug remembers fondly the days when a diversified farm would grow corn and turn it into whiskey, or when soybeans were grown for the purpose of feeding milk cattle — as Doug did on his farm. “Keep your grain,” Doug insists, “and use it to grow a truly sustainable farm.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug was never one to use chemicals to grow food. He believes any talk of sustainability is not real when you raise only one crop or when you use chemicals to do it. “My buddy and I could clear 100 acres of weeds in a day if we worked through the night, and we did not need any additives to do it. All those chemicals are part of the reason there are so many cancers around, if you ask me.” Doug has amassed generations of farming secrets having grown so many foods naturally, often calling upon experiences from decades ago to solve a problem that presents itself today.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug comes from a truly great American farming family — Life Magazine once wrote that Doug’s father, who lived to be 104, had more living descendants than any American – many of them farmers. His is part of the story of immigrants who came to the New World and made good through old-fashioned values, tradition, and hard work.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“We’re here today to save these breeds,” says Doug, who is as down-home as the farm he still works on as he approaches his 84th birthday. “Save the breeds and make a little money. We got a lot of things going on, we have a lot of land. But it’s getting hard to keep up with it all… I need more young people! When I was young, we raised turkeys in spring and sold ‘em all by Christmas. We milked cattle all year round. I want to keep working — my dad was helping me when he was 84!”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHis conversational style always brings insight and interesting thoughts to bear. We hope Doug and Betty work with us for many years to come and that their beliefs of diversified farming continue. Today, his farm is supported through the work of his daughter Marilyn and her husband Stan, and their children Simon and Joel.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGood Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eOlsburg, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eGood Farms' Old Spot, Duroc, and Tamworth genetics are now being shepherded by Dustin and Maria Torneden since Craig and his wife Amy retired in 2024. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWe met the Goods through a connection at Kansas State University where Craig’s father was a distinguished professor. Craig spent his life in agriculture growing up in the Flint Hills of Kansas, some of the best agricultural land in the world, perfectly adapted to free ranging livestock, which feed on the perennial grasses that grow there naturally.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Good’s hog operation began in earnest in 1981, and they have continuously raised hogs there for the past 37 years. Their Duroc herd started with a few sows from Craig’s former employer who started raising Duroc pigs in the 1940s — with females obtained through Sears and Roebucks! As Craig explains, “I took a job in 1975 working with an outstanding stockman who raised purebred Duroc pigs here in Kansas. His name was Fred Germann, and he was one of the oldest and best Duroc breeders in the U.S. Things sure have changed since then, but the Durocs that we now raise have ancestry that goes back to those Sears females, approximately 85 years ago.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDuroc is an American breed that was used as the foundational genetics for the entire pig industry in the United States because of their good growth rate, body type, and mothering instincts. But big agriculture continued to overbreed the Duroc for certain traits related to higher profits and they crossed it with other pig breeds. Soon the industrial pig became utterly unrecognizable, and it became almost impossible to tell that it had originally derived from Duroc genetics.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig, on the other hand, continued to breed his Durocs to improve their genetics with traits particular to Craig’s preferences, while staying true to the original healthy and hearty breed. Craig always put a lot of thought into which sows he would breed with which boars as he worked to improve meat quality and edibility, as opposed to faster growth. He also selected pigs for the demeanor of the animals, who he treats like members of his own family. Craig bred for strong animals and sought out leaner carcasses (although the Duroc is supremely marbled). He also bred for skeletal size – Craig likes good length of body, for better loin eye size and fat distribution.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOver the years, the Durocs on Good Farm became his own breed, even though they looked like and acted like true old school Durocs. The Goods continue to bring in new lines to avoid inbreeding, but they work with the lines to continue improving their particular version of the Duroc.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig and Amy also raise Gloucestershire Old Spots and Tamworths, both considered rare breeds.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig's father, Don, was a meat scientist and would eventually have a division of Kansas State University named after him. Together they raised purebred Angus cattle and crops on the farm. “I have had a passion for raising pigs,” says Craig, since taking pigs on as a 4-H project in 1965. Craig studied Animal Science at Kansas State University. “Amy and I were married in 1976 and 5 years later we made the decision to move to the farm that my father and mother had owned since 1961, near Olsburg, Kansas, on 1000 acres of Flint Hills pasture.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eBreed\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRed Wattle\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 18th Century Louisiana by way of New Caledonia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a cross between pork and beef, Red Wattle is floral and robust, concentrated and bold.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: A consortium of 18 Amish families in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: French colonists brought these hogs to New Orleans as a favored meat breed. The Red Wattle eventually would populate the forests of Texas where they were rounded up and brought to the great slaughterhouses of Chicago. Recognized by their signature wattles that hang from the jowl, the Red Wattle resembles Kunekune pigs of New Zealand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGloucestershire Old Spot\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 19th Century Indiana by way of Berkeley Valley of Gloucestershire, England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a charcuterie pig with a delicious milky fat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside of Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: Descended from the native old English pigs of western England, this pig was mentioned as early as the 1780's. The spotted pig forages on fallen orchard fruits and other farm by products. Despite their signature oversized floppy ears which hang over their eyes, this gentle pig is hearty and self-reliant.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTamworth\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 2,500 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Rossville, Illinois by way of Staffordshire, England by way of Ireland.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: A premiere bacon producer, Tamworth meat is fruity, earthy, clean, mineral, root, sweet and tender.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Doug Metzger and Craig and Amy Good in Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The only native red breed to England, its heritage traces back to the wild pigs of Middle Age Europe. A slow growing breed, the Tamworth is active and hearty. Traditionally raised in the woods, the pig's long angular snout makes it an excellent forager — Tamworth pigs do not conform to industrial agriculture needs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBerkshire\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 1823 Kentucky\/ Illinois by way of Western England and outside London.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Sweet with depth of flavor, Berkshire pork is balanced and the most universally loved of all the Heritage breeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: David Newman and a consortium of 12 family farms in Kansas, Missouri and Iowa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: For years the Royal Family kept a large Berkshire herd at Windsor Castle — our Berkshire pigs are traceable back to these old English genetics. This would eventually become the most popular Heritage breed of pig in the United States because of its supreme marbling. Prized by the Japanese who imported it as \"Kurobuta\" pork, the Berkshire is recognized by 6 white spots at the tip of its feet, nose and tail.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDuroc\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Eastern United States and corn belt by way of the Guinea coast of Africa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Duroc meat is crisp and clean — known for great marbling and polished texture its taste is approachable on the palate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The Duroc is an older breed of American domestic pig that has become one of the most popular breeds because of its great taste and strong genetics, but pure Duroc is very hard to find. Durocs are a red pig strain developed around 1800 in New England and reputed to trace their ancestry back to the early red pigs of Africa. Durocs are especially valued by farmers for their hardiness and quick but thorough muscle growth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eCooking\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHow to Prepare\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese are fully cooked. Just heat until desired temperature is reached. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[\/TABS]\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heritage Foods USA","offers":[{"title":"24-28 oz","offer_id":41630877646906,"sku":"1 pk (1.5-1.75)","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"28-32 oz","offer_id":41056674873402,"sku":"1 pk (1.75-2)","price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"32-36 oz","offer_id":41630875254842,"sku":"1 pk (2-2.25)","price":39.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/files\/ham_steak_shopify.jpg?v=1741018349"},{"product_id":"broadbent-brown-sugar-honey-smoked-heritage-bacon","title":"BROADBENT BROWN SUGAR \u0026 HONEY HICKORY SMOKED HERITAGE BACON — NOW 10% OFF","description":"[TABS]\n\u003ch5\u003eProduct\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBroadbent Brown Sugar \u0026amp; Honey Hickory \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSmoked Heritage Bacon\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThree 14 oz packs, sliced\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eBerkshire\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eSale products must ship immediately. \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe newest flavor from Broadbent! A sweet and savory blend of brown sugar and honey, smoked with hickory.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA Kentucky Institution, Broadbent produces some of the most respected bacon in the US. It can be found on menus throughout the south and at many fine dining establishments. In 2009, Broadbent's celebrated 100 years of making old-fashioned country ham, bacon, and sausage. We are proud to ship them our 100% heritage pork bellies which they cure in their signature style. This bacon is cured with a blend of brown sugar and honey, creating a deliciously rich and slightly caramelized coating that enhances the natural flavors of the meat. After being carefully cured, the bacon is smoked over hickory, imparting a deep, robust smokiness that perfectly complements the sweetness of the cure.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe secret to great pork is to start off with great ingredients, and nothing beats our storied Heritage breeds —  Berkshire, Red Wattle, Duroc, Gloucestershire Old Spot, and Tamworth. Each breed comes from a different culinary tradition, and boasts a distinctive, nuanced flavor.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cem\u003eIngredients: pork, salt, sugar, brown sugar, honey powder, sodium nitrite.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHumanely raised on pasture \u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e100% \u003cspan\u003eantibiotic-free\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRaised by independent family farmers\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHeritage pork has more marbling resulting in more tender and  juicy meat\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ciframe height=\"270\" width=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/279514159\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eArtisan\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe story of Broadbent is one of preservation. Preservation that goes beyond the salt and smoke used on the heritage pork that hangs in Kuttawa. As regional foods and traditions continue to vanish, Broadbent, with their delicious line of products, is working to keep a piece of Kentucky’s culinary history alive, now using exclusively Lazy Red Wattle Ranch and Newman Berkshire Farm pork.  \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFounded in 1909 by Smith Broadbent, the company grew with the help of his sons, eventually  moving the business into a USDA facility in 1965. In 1999 the Broadbents sold the company to Ronny and Beth Drennan. Under their direction, Broadbent’s country hams have been named Grand Champion 19 times at the Kentucky State Fair — judged on their aroma, shape, color, and ratio of lean-to-fat. In addition they raised over 33 million dollars for charity by auctioning their award winning hams. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 2024, The Drennans were ready to retire and looking to pass the torch. As the story goes, buyers dressed in suits made generous offers, but none of them felt quite right. That is, until Josh Poling, Kentucky chef and restauranteur made the two hour drive from Bowling Green to Kuttawa. Still wearing his kitchen shoes, the Drennans saw a young man ready to continue the work of preserving hams and a Kentucky tradition. \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eFarms\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen Heritage Foods started in 2001 we set out to sell heritage Thanksgiving turkeys. For three years our turkey project grew, but naturally mating turkey is a seasonal food and two of the three farmers we worked with to raise birds were looking for a more regular source of income if they were to continue working with us. So we committed to selling pork, which can be produced year round, as long as the breeds came from historic genetic lines, just like the turkeys. Now, 24 years later, Heritage Foods still works with those two original farms who together introduced the word “heritage pork” to hundreds of America’s best restaurants from coast-to-coast as well as thousands of homes through the Heritage Foods retail website.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNewman Farm Berkshire Pork\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eMyrtle, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn 2006 we got a handwritten letter from farmer Mark Newman asking us if Heritage Foods would ever consider selling his pasture raised old school Berkshire pigs. We said yes and a relationship grew that still continues today, now through his son David who has maintained the genetic line of Berkshires which can be traced back to the 17th and 18th century lines that came to these shores by way of the Berkshire region of England.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFrom the air, Newman Farm Berkshire Pork, in south central Missouri, in the heart of the Ozarks, looks more like a pioneer settlement or a holiday camp than any sort of pig farm. Wooden huts are scattered across green fields like bungalows, where contented Berkshire pigs live their lives, happily on-pasture.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePigs on Newman Farm are raised 100% on-pasture. The sows raise their piglets in huts that dot the fields of the farm. The babies live inside the huts until they are old enough to jump over the 6-inch wooden board that blocks the entrance. Once they make the great leap, they have an entire field to run on and they can mingle with the other piglets from the other huts.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid Newman is both a farmer and scientist. “The farmer came first,” he laughs. His degrees are in animal science, and he holds a Ph.D in meat science and muscle biology, focused on meat quality. “As I became a scientist and got involved in education, I applied what I was learning to understand what we could do better.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBerkshires were the favorite breed of British royalty and were first introduced to the New World in 1823. Since then, Berkshire bloodlines have remained exceptionally pure and have become a mainstay favorite of chefs and diners, legendary for their exceptionally bright pork flavor and thick, delicious fat cap. And if anyone were to question their excellence, just ask David. “It’s not a matter of opinion!” he insists, passionately. “It’s a scientific fact, Berkshires are the most marbled hog on the market today.” David is a master breeder and works hard to keep the lines on his farm separate and he is always working to improve the Berkshire breed on his farm.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid lives on the farm with his wife, Kristin, his mom Rita, and his two kids. “I got my start through my family. My parents were hog farmers, but primarily in the commercial pig business. In the 1980s my parents raised pigs in confinement. There were some very challenging economic times for everyone in production, and we realized we were going to have to do something differently. Kristin came from a family farming background also and is a major part of the operations success today, working for the farm along with their team of employees.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“In the 1990s my parents decided they wanted to go back to their roots. We were going to have to be very large to be successful in the commercial sector, and my father decided we should focus on quality. We changed our genetic program and our nutrition program. We became Certified Humane®, and we chose to focus on Berkshire pigs for their quality.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid and his family are the future of American farming! They are young, energetic and very passionate about the future of agriculture. David and Kristin work with a team of farmers who raise their Berkshires to supply Heritage Foods and the national network of chefs who rely on his product for their menus.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLazy Red Wattle Ranch\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eLa Plata, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWe met Larry and Madonna Sorell in 2002, as growers for Frank Reese and the Heritage Turkey Project. As their turkey flock grew in size, so did the Sorell’s importance to Heritage Foods.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen you see Red Wattle pork on a menu, what you are seeing is a five-state, twelve farm network founded by Larry and Madonna, dedicated to raising a storied breed that was once upon a time nearly extinct. Larry and Madonna are the heroes of this story, avatars of the heritage food movement, true believers who were destined to become the Guardians of the Red Wattle. They are proof positive of the ethos that when it comes to endangered livestock, “you have to eat them to save them.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn the beginning, back in 2004 when the Heritage Foods wholesale business began selling pigs, a market for the Red Wattle pig was built on a handshake agreement with chefs Zach Allen and Mark Ladner, then at Lupa Restaurant in NYC. They recognized the high-quality and undiminished taste that came from a Red Wattle pig humanely raised on-pasture and antibiotic free, using traditional farming methods. The deal with Ladner, and the partnership with Larry and his Lazy Red Wattle Ranch, were part of the origins of Heritage Foods.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“We traveled 18,000 miles to get started,” Larry says matter-of-factly about a Heritage Foods Odyssey whose mission was to search out rare Red Wattle sows and collect a viable genetic lineage of this incredible pig whose American legacy goes back to 18th century New Orleans. \"When we began, we had two Red Wattle gilts and a boar, and we had to travel all over the United States to start a herd.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Now I’ve kinda retired from raising animals, but we have a dozen Amish growers working with us, and I pick up the hogs and pay for them, and then bring them to the processor, Paradise Locker. I drive a tractor trailer and go around picking up three hundred pounders, fifty to eighty head a week. We have farms in Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa... that’s a lot of traveling. We may have four or five pick-ups every week. You wear out a truck pretty fast.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLarry, now over eighty, does less of the driving, but he still keeps all the relationships going, which isn’t easy considering the Amish don’t have phones inside their homes! “I’ll have to quit sometime but right now it’s going pretty good. The driving is easy. The hard job is you gotta keep Amish families happy, picking up their hogs, coordinating, monitoring the size of the animals, and making sure we have the right amount — each week we round up 50 to 100 pigs. And we’ve been doing it for almost 20 years now.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThanks to Larry and Madonna’s work, the Red Wattle was upgraded to Threatened status from Critical on The Livestock Conservancy’s watch list, a great achievement for the cause of biodiversity, one of the most important issues of our time.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMetzger Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eSeneca, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug Metzger's Tamworth and Berkshire genetics are now being shepherded by Robert Funk. Doug sadly passed away in 2023. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug Metzger was truly at the ground zero of our business and the heritage food movement. He was the magic man that first introduced us to our processor Paradise Locker Meats, with whom we have worked and grown ever since and he worked together with Frank Reese raising heritage turkeys from about 2002 to 2013.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAt 83-years-old, Doug raises purebred, certified Berkshire and Tamworth pigs on his 1,500 acre farm in Seneca, Kansas, with his wife Betty.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn an era of specialization Doug is an anomaly. Doug is famous for adapting to any moment. In 2001 he took our call and agreed to raise heritage turkeys for us with Frank because he believed that the growing food movement would appreciate the flavor of the birds his grandfather raised. As demand grew for quality meat, Doug got into heritage pigs and transitioned his commodity farm to a pastured farm and haven for the rare Tamworth breed.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug has been farming since 1951. As a kid he raised chickens but gave them up when he got into turkeys. As he got older, he broke into the milk cattle game. Then he tried sheep, but he says he couldn’t get them to breed right. He also raised Aylesbury ducks — a rare heritage breed. Over the years the acres on his sprawling farm have been used to grow wheat, corn, oats, barley, sorghum, alfalfa, and rye. He even grew flax one year because he heard it was supposed to help the immune system of the cattle, which he thought it did. “It certainly made their coats look wonderful,” Doug says.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eToday farmers are incentivized to grow monocrops of corn and soybean — “that’s all they want us to grow,” Doug explains, “and farmers haul their crops to town instead of using it for something on their own farm.” Doug remembers fondly the days when a diversified farm would grow corn and turn it into whiskey, or when soybeans were grown for the purpose of feeding milk cattle — as Doug did on his farm. “Keep your grain,” Doug insists, “and use it to grow a truly sustainable farm.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug was never one to use chemicals to grow food. He believes any talk of sustainability is not real when you raise only one crop or when you use chemicals to do it. “My buddy and I could clear 100 acres of weeds in a day if we worked through the night, and we did not need any additives to do it. All those chemicals are part of the reason there are so many cancers around, if you ask me.” Doug has amassed generations of farming secrets having grown so many foods naturally, often calling upon experiences from decades ago to solve a problem that presents itself today.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug comes from a truly great American farming family — Life Magazine once wrote that Doug’s father, who lived to be 104, had more living descendants than any American – many of them farmers. His is part of the story of immigrants who came to the New World and made good through old-fashioned values, tradition, and hard work.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“We’re here today to save these breeds,” says Doug, who is as down-home as the farm he still works on as he approaches his 84th birthday. “Save the breeds and make a little money. We got a lot of things going on, we have a lot of land. But it’s getting hard to keep up with it all… I need more young people! When I was young, we raised turkeys in spring and sold ‘em all by Christmas. We milked cattle all year round. I want to keep working — my dad was helping me when he was 84!”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHis conversational style always brings insight and interesting thoughts to bear. We hope Doug and Betty work with us for many years to come and that their beliefs of diversified farming continue. Today, his farm is supported through the work of his daughter Marilyn and her husband Stan, and their children Simon and Joel.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGood Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eOlsburg, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eGood Farms' Old Spot, Duroc, and Tamworth genetics are now being shepherded by Dustin and Maria Torneden since Craig and his wife Amy retired in 2024. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWe met the Goods through a connection at Kansas State University where Craig’s father was a distinguished professor. Craig spent his life in agriculture growing up in the Flint Hills of Kansas, some of the best agricultural land in the world, perfectly adapted to free ranging livestock, which feed on the perennial grasses that grow there naturally.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Good’s hog operation began in earnest in 1981, and they have continuously raised hogs there for the past 37 years. Their Duroc herd started with a few sows from Craig’s former employer who started raising Duroc pigs in the 1940s — with females obtained through Sears and Roebucks! As Craig explains, “I took a job in 1975 working with an outstanding stockman who raised purebred Duroc pigs here in Kansas. His name was Fred Germann, and he was one of the oldest and best Duroc breeders in the U.S. Things sure have changed since then, but the Durocs that we now raise have ancestry that goes back to those Sears females, approximately 85 years ago.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDuroc is an American breed that was used as the foundational genetics for the entire pig industry in the United States because of their good growth rate, body type, and mothering instincts. But big agriculture continued to overbreed the Duroc for certain traits related to higher profits and they crossed it with other pig breeds. Soon the industrial pig became utterly unrecognizable, and it became almost impossible to tell that it had originally derived from Duroc genetics.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig, on the other hand, continued to breed his Durocs to improve their genetics with traits particular to Craig’s preferences, while staying true to the original healthy and hearty breed. Craig always put a lot of thought into which sows he would breed with which boars as he worked to improve meat quality and edibility, as opposed to faster growth. He also selected pigs for the demeanor of the animals, who he treats like members of his own family. Craig bred for strong animals and sought out leaner carcasses (although the Duroc is supremely marbled). He also bred for skeletal size – Craig likes good length of body, for better loin eye size and fat distribution.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOver the years, the Durocs on Good Farm became his own breed, even though they looked like and acted like true old school Durocs. The Goods continue to bring in new lines to avoid inbreeding, but they work with the lines to continue improving their particular version of the Duroc.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig and Amy also raise Gloucestershire Old Spots and Tamworths, both considered rare breeds.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig's father, Don, was a meat scientist and would eventually have a division of Kansas State University named after him. Together they raised purebred Angus cattle and crops on the farm. “I have had a passion for raising pigs,” says Craig, since taking pigs on as a 4-H project in 1965. Craig studied Animal Science at Kansas State University. “Amy and I were married in 1976 and 5 years later we made the decision to move to the farm that my father and mother had owned since 1961, near Olsburg, Kansas, on 1000 acres of Flint Hills pasture.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eBreed\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRed Wattle\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 18th Century Louisiana by way of New Caledonia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a cross between pork and beef, Red Wattle is floral and robust, concentrated and bold.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: A consortium of 18 Amish families in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: French colonists brought these hogs to New Orleans as a favored meat breed. The Red Wattle eventually would populate the forests of Texas where they were rounded up and brought to the great slaughterhouses of Chicago. Recognized by their signature wattles that hang from the jowl, the Red Wattle resembles Kunekune pigs of New Zealand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGloucestershire Old Spots\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 19th Century Indiana by way of Berkeley Valley of Gloucestershire, England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a charcuterie pig with a delicious milky fat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside of Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: Descended from the native old English pigs of western England, this pig was mentioned as early as the 1780's. The spotted pig forages on fallen orchard fruits and other farm by products. Despite their signature oversized floppy ears which hang over their eyes, this gentle pig is hearty and self-reliant.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTamworth\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 2,500 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Rossville, Illinois by way of Staffordshire, England by way of Ireland.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: A premiere bacon producer, Tamworth meat is fruity, earthy, clean, mineral, root, sweet and tender.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Doug Metzger and Craig and Amy Good in Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The only native red breed to England, its heritage traces back to the wild pigs of Middle Age Europe. A slow growing breed, the Tamworth is active and hearty. Traditionally raised in the woods, the pig's long angular snout makes it an excellent forager — Tamworth pigs do not conform to industrial agriculture needs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBerkshire\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 1823 Kentucky\/ Illinois by way of Western England and outside London.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Sweet with depth of flavor, Berkshire pork is balanced and the most universally loved of all the Heritage breeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: David Newman and a consortium of 12 family farms in Kansas, Missouri and Iowa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: For years the Royal Family kept a large Berkshire herd at Windsor Castle — our Berkshire pigs are traceable back to these old English genetics. This would eventually become the most popular Heritage breed of pig in the United States because of its supreme marbling. Prized by the Japanese who imported it as \"Kurobuta\" pork, the Berkshire is recognized by 6 white spots at the tip of its feet, nose and tail.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDuroc\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Eastern United States and corn belt by way of the Guinea coast of Africa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Duroc meat is crisp and clean — known for great marbling and polished texture its taste is approachable on the palate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The Duroc is an older breed of American domestic pig that has become one of the most popular breeds because of its great taste and strong genetics, but pure Duroc is very hard to find. Durocs are a red pig strain developed around 1800 in New England and reputed to trace their ancestry back to the early red pigs of Africa. Durocs are especially valued by farmers for their hardiness and quick but thorough muscle growth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[\/TABS]\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heritage Foods USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40835395485754,"sku":"90 (3pk) Broadbent brown sugar","price":54.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/files\/Broadbent_Brown_Sugar_Honey_Thick_Cut_Bacon.jpg?v=1744829946"},{"product_id":"bentons-hand-sliced-jowl-bacon","title":"BENTON'S HICKORY SMOKED JOWL BACON","description":"[TABS]\n\u003ch5\u003eProduct\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBenton's Hickory Smoked Jowl Bacon\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOne 1lb pack\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eBerkshire or Red Wattle\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBenton's smoky jowl bacon is cured and smoked like his belly bacon, but the high fat to meat ratio of the pork jowl makes for an unbelievably indulgent version. Enjoy this rich and unique product however you enjoy your bacon.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAl Benton cures his meats in a tiny smokehouse in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. Established in 1947 in the town of Madisonville, and taken over by Al in 1973, the Benton operation is widely regarded as an American treasure producing the most delicious cured products in the nation. “Don’t call me Mr. Benton,” he chides, “I’m Al.” His smile is half Robert Redford and half Jimmy Carter, equal parts star power and earnest American. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThere is no secret to the Benton formula for bacon, it could not be simpler: salt, brown sugar, time and patience! And a good hickory smoke that lasts about 3 days! Bacon curing is an art Al learned growing up. His family always butchered their own hogs, always made their own sausage and bacon, and today Al will tell you that all he’s doing is what he grew up doing in his backyard so many years ago. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAl also makes amazing prosciutto style ham using our heritage hams! His smoked hams are aged for over a year and a half and the only ingredients are salt, sage, black and red pepper… as Al says he doesn't use anything he can’t pronounce! Even though Benton is a legend in the South, he is still hands-on and present in all steps of the curing process. He is another famed traditionalist who is forwarding the cause of the American charcuterie renaissance by embracing heritage breed pigs.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eIngredients: pork,\u003cspan\u003e salt, brown sugar, pepper. Nitrite free.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHumanely raised on pasture \u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e100% \u003cspan\u003eantibiotic-free\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRaised by independent family farmers\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHeritage pork has more marbling resulting in more tender and juicy meat\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eArtisan\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt was teeming rain on the way from Nashville to Madisonville, Tennessee, the kind of rain that obscures the green, Smoky Mountains of Tennessee behind sheets of steam and fog and sounds like war drums on the roof of a rented car. It didn’t take much imagination to think we were driving through Skull Island, home of King Kong, or had somehow made a detour into the Heart of Darkness, a scene from Apocalypse Now.  The truth, however, was far more comforting: We were on a mission to see a King and Queen of country ham, Al Benton and Nancy Newsom.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMaking personal visits to farms, chefs, and providers has always been one of the hallmarks of Heritage Foods USA, and as anyone who has ever been on one of these trips with ringleader Patrick Martins knows, they are magical meat tours indeed, whirlwinds of gastronomic bliss and historical culinary discovery, epicurean epics writ large in regional cuisine. And, a hell of a lot of fun.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBenton’s Country Hams was the first stop on this pilgrimage to the cathedrals of southern ham, and we were greeted by the man himself in his small, roadside storefront.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Don’t call me Mr. Benton,” he chided with a smile, “I’m Al.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAl Benton speaks with an unerring southern twang that is like catnip to New Yawkers. And even though he teases at himself for being a hillbilly, he can’t hide his business acumen or old-school good looks — his smile is half Robert Redford and half Jimmy Carter, equal parts star power and earnest American. Speaking to him about his business is a powerful lesson in pride, good taste, modesty, respect for history, and the providence of good timing — both Al and his Kentucky counterpart, Nancy Newsom were lucky enough to catch the rising tide of foodies and enlightened chefs who recognized the soaring quality of their country hams just as cosmopolitan foodie culture was exploding.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhile we spoke with Al, a steady stream of customers came in to buy bacon, ham parts, sliced country hams, and more bacon — young men wearing camo pants and trucker hats, soccer moms with their kids, a middle-aged man wearing a Grateful Dead t-shirt… ham does not discriminate. “The Southern Food Alliance,” Al mentions matter-of-factly, “is built on the idea that if you sat down at the table we are all the same. It doesn’t matter where you come from or what your ethnic background is.” Indeed, ham is the great equalizer.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTommy — Al’s plant manager and right hand man (“Sometimes he’s up to his elbows in bacon grease, sometimes he is solving problems on the phone.”) — accompanies us with Al on a tour through his facility, which from the road looks no bigger than the storefront, but turns out to be a warren of rooms filled with hams hung to dry or curing in salt, a veritable bunker of porky goodness. The smell of hickory smoke kisses you on the face at every turn.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAl tells us about running into a burning smokehouse to literally save his bacon, screaming at the firemen “DO NOT USE YOUR HOSES, THERE IS BACON IN THERE!” and ruminates on his favorite places to eat: “I love Charleston, and New Orleans, but New York City, that’s the place, you can get everything… if I had one place to go there, though, it would be one of David Chang’s restaurants.” And why not? Chang’s Momofuku empire has been one of Benton’s great champions, and in fact, our pilgrimage follows the one made by Momofuku executive chef and prime mover Matt Rudofker just a week before.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere is no secret to the Benton formula for ham, it could not be simpler: “Just salt, sage, black and red pepper… we don’t use anything you can’t pronounce. You look at some of these industrially made hams – you can’t even read the ingredients, they have so many and things you never even heard of.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThey use a wood stove in the smoke room, burning local hickory — “The wood comes in when it does. When people are running out of beer and milk and want to sell some wood, they come see me. That’s always the way it’s been.”  The hams spend three days in the smoke room to get that intense flavor. Bacon takes about five weeks to make, moving from curing (brown sugar and salt) into cooler rooms and then a heated room; hams can age up to two years. “You have to age the hams – it’s like cheese, it starts mild and when you age it the flavor becomes sharper.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBenton’s began in 1947, when dairy farmer Al Hicks cured hams for local farmers. “Ham was sustenance food for hillbillies,” Al Benton says of the very thing that has become a culinary legend.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1973, Al was a High School guidance counselor struggling to make ends meet when he decided he was going to give a go to what he knew best.  “I quit my job and then it really sunk in – it wasn’t going to be easy to make a living curing hams…. so I wrote to everyone I could think of, anyone who could help, university professors, cooks, I wanted to hear everyone’s ideas, and I studied everything I could, but I could never improve on the recipe from the old smoke house behind the house I was born in — people really seemed to like it. At the beginning I was thinking about curing quickly, maybe one hour for a twelve-lb. ham – I thought if I was going to make it in this business I had to work very fast and quick-cure, which is what the business was. But my daddy told me ‘If you play the other guy’s game, you are always going to lose. Make it the best you can. Quality is what is going to sustain you.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Blackberry Farms changed things, this was in about 1991. We had just two employees then. John Fleer was the chef at Blackberry and he was already something of a star – he had been Mary Tyler Moore’s personal chef! John is such a good man, I never even heard him raise his voice, which is very rare among chefs… and he cared so much about sourcing. He called on day, he had bought some stuff from us, and I thought he was going to complain, but he wanted to see if it was okay to put our name on his menu at Blackberry. I thought there had to be a reason why not, but I couldn’t think of one. And then the phone started ringing, he had so many great chefs coming to visit him — Tom Colicchio, Thomas Keller — I guess that’s when I saw the Promised Land. There was a market for fine dining with the aged country hams and bacon.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLater that night, dinner talk turned to moonshine, music, and professional wrestling — Tennessee, and Memphis, especially, being mecca’s of the great sport, led by it’s own King, Jerry Lawler, who’s greatest rivalry was a Jewish comedian from New York named Andy Kaufman. But mostly we talked about food, and mostly about ham. Al spoke with great admiration for his colleagues Sam Edwards and Nancy Newsom, to whom he gives great credit for bringing traditional Southern ham north.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“People are really starting to care where their food comes from — Look, when McDonald’s is talking about cage-free eggs, they’re reading the tea leaves. It gives me pride that small folks have been able to make such a ripple in food culture.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eFarms\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen Heritage Foods started in 2001 we set out to sell heritage Thanksgiving turkeys. For three years our turkey project grew, but naturally mating turkey is a seasonal food and two of the three farmers we worked with to raise birds were looking for a more regular source of income if they were to continue working with us. So we committed to selling pork, which can be produced year round, as long as the breeds came from historic genetic lines, just like the turkeys. Now, 24 years later, Heritage Foods still works with those two original farms who together introduced the word “heritage pork” to hundreds of America’s best restaurants from coast-to-coast as well as thousands of homes through the Heritage Foods retail website.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNewman Farm Berkshire Pork\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eMyrtle, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 2006 we got a handwritten letter from farmer Mark Newman asking us if Heritage Foods would ever consider selling his pasture raised old school Berkshire pigs. We said yes and a relationship grew that still continues today, now through his son David who has maintained the genetic line of Berkshires which can be traced back to the 17th and 18th century lines that came to these shores by way of the Berkshire region of England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom the air, Newman Farm Berkshire Pork, in south central Missouri, in the heart of the Ozarks, looks more like a pioneer settlement or a holiday camp than any sort of pig farm. Wooden huts are scattered across green fields like bungalows, where contented Berkshire pigs live their lives, happily on-pasture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePigs on Newman Farm are raised 100% on-pasture. The sows raise their piglets in huts that dot the fields of the farm. The babies live inside the huts until they are old enough to jump over the 6-inch wooden board that blocks the entrance. Once they make the great leap, they have an entire field to run on and they can mingle with the other piglets from the other huts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDavid Newman is both a farmer and scientist. “The farmer came first,” he laughs. His degrees are in animal science, and he holds a Ph.D in meat science and muscle biology, focused on meat quality. “As I became a scientist and got involved in education, I applied what I was learning to understand what we could do better.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBerkshires were the favorite breed of British royalty and were first introduced to the New World in 1823. Since then, Berkshire bloodlines have remained exceptionally pure and have become a mainstay favorite of chefs and diners, legendary for their exceptionally bright pork flavor and thick, delicious fat cap. And if anyone were to question their excellence, just ask David. “It’s not a matter of opinion!” he insists, passionately. “It’s a scientific fact, Berkshires are the most marbled hog on the market today.” David is a master breeder and works hard to keep the lines on his farm separate and he is always working to improve the Berkshire breed on his farm.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDavid lives on the farm with his wife, Kristin, his mom Rita, and his two kids. “I got my start through my family. My parents were hog farmers, but primarily in the commercial pig business. In the 1980s my parents raised pigs in confinement. There were some very challenging economic times for everyone in production, and we realized we were going to have to do something differently. Kristin came from a family farming background also and is a major part of the operations success today, working for the farm along with their team of employees.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“In the 1990s my parents decided they wanted to go back to their roots. We were going to have to be very large to be successful in the commercial sector, and my father decided we should focus on quality. We changed our genetic program and our nutrition program. We became Certified Humane®, and we chose to focus on Berkshire pigs for their quality.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDavid and his family are the future of American farming! They are young, energetic and very passionate about the future of agriculture. David and Kristin work with a team of farmers who raise their Berkshires to supply Heritage Foods and the national network of chefs who rely on his product for their menus.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLazy Red Wattle Ranch\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eLa Plata, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe met Larry and Madonna Sorell in 2002, as growers for Frank Reese and the Heritage Turkey Project. As their turkey flock grew in size, so did the Sorell’s importance to Heritage Foods.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen you see Red Wattle pork on a menu, what you are seeing is a five-state, twelve farm network founded by Larry and Madonna, dedicated to raising a storied breed that was once upon a time nearly extinct. Larry and Madonna are the heroes of this story, avatars of the heritage food movement, true believers who were destined to become the Guardians of the Red Wattle. They are proof positive of the ethos that when it comes to endangered livestock, “you have to eat them to save them.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the beginning, back in 2004 when the Heritage Foods wholesale business began selling pigs, a market for the Red Wattle pig was built on a handshake agreement with chefs Zach Allen and Mark Ladner, then at Lupa Restaurant in NYC. They recognized the high-quality and undiminished taste that came from a Red Wattle pig humanely raised on-pasture and antibiotic free, using traditional farming methods. The deal with Ladner, and the partnership with Larry and his Lazy Red Wattle Ranch, were part of the origins of Heritage Foods.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“We traveled 18,000 miles to get started,” Larry says matter-of-factly about a Heritage Foods Odyssey whose mission was to search out rare Red Wattle sows and collect a viable genetic lineage of this incredible pig whose American legacy goes back to 18th century New Orleans. \"When we began, we had two Red Wattle gilts and a boar, and we had to travel all over the United States to start a herd.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Now I’ve kinda retired from raising animals, but we have a dozen Amish growers working with us, and I pick up the hogs and pay for them, and then bring them to the processor, Paradise Locker. I drive a tractor trailer and go around picking up three hundred pounders, fifty to eighty head a week. We have farms in Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa... that’s a lot of traveling. We may have four or five pick-ups every week. You wear out a truck pretty fast.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLarry, now over eighty, does less of the driving, but he still keeps all the relationships going, which isn’t easy considering the Amish don’t have phones inside their homes! “I’ll have to quit sometime but right now it’s going pretty good. The driving is easy. The hard job is you gotta keep Amish families happy, picking up their hogs, coordinating, monitoring the size of the animals, and making sure we have the right amount — each week we round up 50 to 100 pigs. And we’ve been doing it for almost 20 years now.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThanks to Larry and Madonna’s work, the Red Wattle was upgraded to Threatened status from Critical on The Livestock Conservancy’s watch list, a great achievement for the cause of biodiversity, one of the most important issues of our time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMetzger Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eSeneca, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug Metzger's Tamworth and Berkshire genetics are now being shepherded by Robert Funk. Doug sadly passed away in 2023. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug Metzger was truly at the ground zero of our business and the heritage food movement. He was the magic man that first introduced us to our processor Paradise Locker Meats, with whom we have worked and grown ever since and he worked together with Frank Reese raising heritage turkeys from about 2002 to 2013.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt 83-years-old, Doug raises purebred, certified Berkshire and Tamworth pigs on his 1,500 acre farm in Seneca, Kansas, with his wife Betty.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn an era of specialization Doug is an anomaly. Doug is famous for adapting to any moment. In 2001 he took our call and agreed to raise heritage turkeys for us with Frank because he believed that the growing food movement would appreciate the flavor of the birds his grandfather raised. As demand grew for quality meat, Doug got into heritage pigs and transitioned his commodity farm to a pastured farm and haven for the rare Tamworth breed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug has been farming since 1951. As a kid he raised chickens but gave them up when he got into turkeys. As he got older, he broke into the milk cattle game. Then he tried sheep, but he says he couldn’t get them to breed right. He also raised Aylesbury ducks — a rare heritage breed. Over the years the acres on his sprawling farm have been used to grow wheat, corn, oats, barley, sorghum, alfalfa, and rye. He even grew flax one year because he heard it was supposed to help the immune system of the cattle, which he thought it did. “It certainly made their coats look wonderful,” Doug says.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eToday farmers are incentivized to grow monocrops of corn and soybean — “that’s all they want us to grow,” Doug explains, “and farmers haul their crops to town instead of using it for something on their own farm.” Doug remembers fondly the days when a diversified farm would grow corn and turn it into whiskey, or when soybeans were grown for the purpose of feeding milk cattle — as Doug did on his farm. “Keep your grain,” Doug insists, “and use it to grow a truly sustainable farm.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug was never one to use chemicals to grow food. He believes any talk of sustainability is not real when you raise only one crop or when you use chemicals to do it. “My buddy and I could clear 100 acres of weeds in a day if we worked through the night, and we did not need any additives to do it. All those chemicals are part of the reason there are so many cancers around, if you ask me.” Doug has amassed generations of farming secrets having grown so many foods naturally, often calling upon experiences from decades ago to solve a problem that presents itself today.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug comes from a truly great American farming family — Life Magazine once wrote that Doug’s father, who lived to be 104, had more living descendants than any American – many of them farmers. His is part of the story of immigrants who came to the New World and made good through old-fashioned values, tradition, and hard work.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“We’re here today to save these breeds,” says Doug, who is as down-home as the farm he still works on as he approaches his 84th birthday. “Save the breeds and make a little money. We got a lot of things going on, we have a lot of land. But it’s getting hard to keep up with it all… I need more young people! When I was young, we raised turkeys in spring and sold ‘em all by Christmas. We milked cattle all year round. I want to keep working — my dad was helping me when he was 84!”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis conversational style always brings insight and interesting thoughts to bear. We hope Doug and Betty work with us for many years to come and that their beliefs of diversified farming continue. Today, his farm is supported through the work of his daughter Marilyn and her husband Stan, and their children Simon and Joel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGood Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eOlsburg, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGood Farms' Old Spot, Duroc, and Tamworth genetics are now being shepherded by Dustin and Maria Torneden since Craig and his wife Amy retired in 2024. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe met the Goods through a connection at Kansas State University where Craig’s father was a distinguished professor. Craig spent his life in agriculture growing up in the Flint Hills of Kansas, some of the best agricultural land in the world, perfectly adapted to free ranging livestock, which feed on the perennial grasses that grow there naturally.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Good’s hog operation began in earnest in 1981, and they have continuously raised hogs there for the past 37 years. Their Duroc herd started with a few sows from Craig’s former employer who started raising Duroc pigs in the 1940s — with females obtained through Sears and Roebucks! As Craig explains, “I took a job in 1975 working with an outstanding stockman who raised purebred Duroc pigs here in Kansas. His name was Fred Germann, and he was one of the oldest and best Duroc breeders in the U.S. Things sure have changed since then, but the Durocs that we now raise have ancestry that goes back to those Sears females, approximately 85 years ago.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDuroc is an American breed that was used as the foundational genetics for the entire pig industry in the United States because of their good growth rate, body type, and mothering instincts. But big agriculture continued to overbreed the Duroc for certain traits related to higher profits and they crossed it with other pig breeds. Soon the industrial pig became utterly unrecognizable, and it became almost impossible to tell that it had originally derived from Duroc genetics.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCraig, on the other hand, continued to breed his Durocs to improve their genetics with traits particular to Craig’s preferences, while staying true to the original healthy and hearty breed. Craig always put a lot of thought into which sows he would breed with which boars as he worked to improve meat quality and edibility, as opposed to faster growth. He also selected pigs for the demeanor of the animals, who he treats like members of his own family. Craig bred for strong animals and sought out leaner carcasses (although the Duroc is supremely marbled). He also bred for skeletal size – Craig likes good length of body, for better loin eye size and fat distribution.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOver the years, the Durocs on Good Farm became his own breed, even though they looked like and acted like true old school Durocs. The Goods continue to bring in new lines to avoid inbreeding, but they work with the lines to continue improving their particular version of the Duroc.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCraig and Amy also raise Gloucestershire Old Spots and Tamworths, both considered rare breeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCraig's father, Don, was a meat scientist and would eventually have a division of Kansas State University named after him. Together they raised purebred Angus cattle and crops on the farm. “I have had a passion for raising pigs,” says Craig, since taking pigs on as a 4-H project in 1965. Craig studied Animal Science at Kansas State University. “Amy and I were married in 1976 and 5 years later we made the decision to move to the farm that my father and mother had owned since 1961, near Olsburg, Kansas, on 1000 acres of Flint Hills pasture.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eBreed\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRed Wattle\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 18th Century Louisiana by way of New Caledonia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a cross between pork and beef, Red Wattle is floral and robust, concentrated and bold.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: A consortium of 18 Amish families in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: French colonists brought these hogs to New Orleans as a favored meat breed. The Red Wattle eventually would populate the forests of Texas where they were rounded up and brought to the great slaughterhouses of Chicago. Recognized by their signature wattles that hang from the jowl, the Red Wattle resembles Kunekune pigs of New Zealand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGloucestershire Old Spots\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 19th Century Indiana by way of Berkeley Valley of Gloucestershire, England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a charcuterie pig with a delicious milky fat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside of Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: Descended from the native old English pigs of western England, this pig was mentioned as early as the 1780's. The spotted pig forages on fallen orchard fruits and other farm by products. Despite their signature oversized floppy ears which hang over their eyes, this gentle pig is hearty and self-reliant.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTamworth\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 2,500 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Rossville, Illinois by way of Staffordshire, England by way of Ireland.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: A premiere bacon producer, Tamworth meat is fruity, earthy, clean, mineral, root, sweet and tender.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Doug Metzger and Craig and Amy Good in Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The only native red breed to England, its heritage traces back to the wild pigs of Middle Age Europe. A slow growing breed, the Tamworth is active and hearty. Traditionally raised in the woods, the pig's long angular snout makes it an excellent forager — Tamworth pigs do not conform to industrial agriculture needs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBerkshire\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 1823 Kentucky\/ Illinois by way of Western England and outside London.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Sweet with depth of flavor, Berkshire pork is balanced and the most universally loved of all the Heritage breeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: David Newman and a consortium of 12 family farms in Kansas, Missouri and Iowa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: For years the Royal Family kept a large Berkshire herd at Windsor Castle — our Berkshire pigs are traceable back to these old English genetics. This would eventually become the most popular Heritage breed of pig in the United States because of its supreme marbling. Prized by the Japanese who imported it as \"Kurobuta\" pork, the Berkshire is recognized by 6 white spots at the tip of its feet, nose and tail.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDuroc\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Eastern United States and corn belt by way of the Guinea coast of Africa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Duroc meat is crisp and clean — known for great marbling and polished texture its taste is approachable on the palate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The Duroc is an older breed of American domestic pig that has become one of the most popular breeds because of its great taste and strong genetics, but pure Duroc is very hard to find. Durocs are a red pig strain developed around 1800 in New England and reputed to trace their ancestry back to the early red pigs of Africa. Durocs are especially valued by farmers for their hardiness and quick but thorough muscle growth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[\/TABS]\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heritage Foods USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40976527917114,"sku":"89 (1pk)","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/files\/HF_bentonjowlbacon-1.jpg?v=1758652728"},{"product_id":"boneless-spiral-sliced-heritage-maple-sugar-cured-ham","title":"BONELESS SPIRAL SLICED HERITAGE MAPLE SUGAR CURED HAM","description":"[TABS]\n\u003ch5\u003eProduct\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBoneless Spiral Sliced Heritage Maple Sugar Cured Ham\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eBerkshire or Red Wattle\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eChoose your preferred weight on the drop down menu above.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eMaple cured ham is at the cornerstone of American cooking, loved universally as a centerpiece for a holiday meal or sandwich stuffer. This ham is already perfectly seasoned, but there is no spice or glaze this delicious ham won’t welcome. This petite, quartered ham is thick sliced for easy service! \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ePasture raised heritage breeds produce marbled delicious meat, so every bite is sure to be sweet and juicy.  The maple sugar cure is the foundational and proprietary cure recipe for everything produced at Paradise Locker Meats. It is sweet and perfect for everyday eating.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eIf you are like so many who love our maple sugar cured ham, try our \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/heritagefoods.com\/collections\/ham\/products\/shaved-berkshire-heritage-maple-sugar-cured-ham\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eShaved Deli Ham\u003c\/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/heritagefoods.com\/products\/cured-ham-shanks-four-pieces-3lb-total\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eCured Hocks\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eIngredients: pork cured with water, less than 2% of the following: salt, cane sugar, maple sugar, and brown sugar, spice extractives, sodium phosphate, sodium erythorbate, vinegar, sodium nitrite.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHumanely raised on pasture, 100% antibiotic-free and raised by independent family farmers\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAlready cooked - just heat and eat \u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHeritage hams last in the fridge for three weeks and a year in the freezer\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eArtisan\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHeritage Foods ham is all cut by our abattoir partners outside Kansas City, Paradise Locker Meats.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMario and Teresa purchased the business in 1995 and ran the locker, still in Paradise, providing custom processing for local farmers and hunters in the area. They also started a retail side of the business, offering various cuts of meat to local shoppers! Mario started with a team of around 3-5 employees and was processing roughly 10 beef and 10 hogs a week.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter a fire, Mario and Teresa found land just down the road in Trimble, MO and set out building the growing business! In January of 2003, they broke ground and in September they reopened the doors to the new Paradise Locker Meats. Starting with the same crew, they quickly started growing with more capabilities in the new building.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGrowing was never easy, but Mario and Teresa were determined to continue what they started in Paradise, and build a company that could make a difference in the food world. Through wonderful support by the local community, and establishing amazing relationships with clients locally and nationally, Paradise Locker Meats currently employs 50 plus employees and processes 350-400 local animals on a weekly basis! Paradise is now run by Lou Fantasma along with his parents and brother Nick.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eParadise Locker Meats exists to support and serve patrons and families in a sustainable manner by processing meats from small family farms; building awareness of local, natural food; and providing quality, wholesome products with dedication, integrity and honesty!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eFarms\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen Heritage Foods started in 2001 we set out to sell heritage Thanksgiving turkeys. For three years our turkey project grew, but naturally mating turkey is a seasonal food and two of the three farmers we worked with to raise birds were looking for a more regular source of income if they were to continue working with us. So we committed to selling pork, which can be produced year round, as long as the breeds came from historic genetic lines, just like the turkeys. Now, 24 years later, Heritage Foods still works with those two original farms who together introduced the word “heritage pork” to hundreds of America’s best restaurants from coast-to-coast as well as thousands of homes through the Heritage Foods retail website.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNewman Farm Berkshire Pork\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eMyrtle, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn 2006 we got a handwritten letter from farmer Mark Newman asking us if Heritage Foods would ever consider selling his pasture raised old school Berkshire pigs. We said yes and a relationship grew that still continues today, now through his son David who has maintained the genetic line of Berkshires which can be traced back to the 17th and 18th century lines that came to these shores by way of the Berkshire region of England.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFrom the air, Newman Farm Berkshire Pork, in south central Missouri, in the heart of the Ozarks, looks more like a pioneer settlement or a holiday camp than any sort of pig farm. Wooden huts are scattered across green fields like bungalows, where contented Berkshire pigs live their lives, happily on-pasture.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePigs on Newman Farm are raised 100% on-pasture. The sows raise their piglets in huts that dot the fields of the farm. The babies live inside the huts until they are old enough to jump over the 6-inch wooden board that blocks the entrance. Once they make the great leap, they have an entire field to run on and they can mingle with the other piglets from the other huts.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid Newman is both a farmer and scientist. “The farmer came first,” he laughs. His degrees are in animal science, and he holds a Ph.D in meat science and muscle biology, focused on meat quality. “As I became a scientist and got involved in education, I applied what I was learning to understand what we could do better.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBerkshires were the favorite breed of British royalty and were first introduced to the New World in 1823. Since then, Berkshire bloodlines have remained exceptionally pure and have become a mainstay favorite of chefs and diners, legendary for their exceptionally bright pork flavor and thick, delicious fat cap. And if anyone were to question their excellence, just ask David. “It’s not a matter of opinion!” he insists, passionately. “It’s a scientific fact, Berkshires are the most marbled hog on the market today.” David is a master breeder and works hard to keep the lines on his farm separate and he is always working to improve the Berkshire breed on his farm.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid lives on the farm with his wife, Kristin, his mom Rita, and his two kids. “I got my start through my family. My parents were hog farmers, but primarily in the commercial pig business. In the 1980s my parents raised pigs in confinement. There were some very challenging economic times for everyone in production, and we realized we were going to have to do something differently. Kristin came from a family farming background also and is a major part of the operations success today, working for the farm along with their team of employees.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“In the 1990s my parents decided they wanted to go back to their roots. We were going to have to be very large to be successful in the commercial sector, and my father decided we should focus on quality. We changed our genetic program and our nutrition program. We became Certified Humane®, and we chose to focus on Berkshire pigs for their quality.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid and his family are the future of American farming! They are young, energetic and very passionate about the future of agriculture. David and Kristin work with a team of farmers who raise their Berkshires to supply Heritage Foods and the national network of chefs who rely on his product for their menus.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLazy Red Wattle Ranch\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eLa Plata, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWe met Larry and Madonna Sorell in 2002, as growers for Frank Reese and the Heritage Turkey Project. As their turkey flock grew in size, so did the Sorell’s importance to Heritage Foods.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen you see Red Wattle pork on a menu, what you are seeing is a five-state, twelve farm network founded by Larry and Madonna, dedicated to raising a storied breed that was once upon a time nearly extinct. Larry and Madonna are the heroes of this story, avatars of the heritage food movement, true believers who were destined to become the Guardians of the Red Wattle. They are proof positive of the ethos that when it comes to endangered livestock, “you have to eat them to save them.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn the beginning, back in 2004 when the Heritage Foods wholesale business began selling pigs, a market for the Red Wattle pig was built on a handshake agreement with chefs Zach Allen and Mark Ladner, then at Lupa Restaurant in NYC. They recognized the high-quality and undiminished taste that came from a Red Wattle pig humanely raised on-pasture and antibiotic free, using traditional farming methods. The deal with Ladner, and the partnership with Larry and his Lazy Red Wattle Ranch, were part of the origins of Heritage Foods.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“We traveled 18,000 miles to get started,” Larry says matter-of-factly about a Heritage Foods Odyssey whose mission was to search out rare Red Wattle sows and collect a viable genetic lineage of this incredible pig whose American legacy goes back to 18th century New Orleans. \"When we began, we had two Red Wattle gilts and a boar, and we had to travel all over the United States to start a herd.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Now I’ve kinda retired from raising animals, but we have a dozen Amish growers working with us, and I pick up the hogs and pay for them, and then bring them to the processor, Paradise Locker. I drive a tractor trailer and go around picking up three hundred pounders, fifty to eighty head a week. We have farms in Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa... that’s a lot of traveling. We may have four or five pick-ups every week. You wear out a truck pretty fast.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLarry, now over eighty, does less of the driving, but he still keeps all the relationships going, which isn’t easy considering the Amish don’t have phones inside their homes! “I’ll have to quit sometime but right now it’s going pretty good. The driving is easy. The hard job is you gotta keep Amish families happy, picking up their hogs, coordinating, monitoring the size of the animals, and making sure we have the right amount — each week we round up 50 to 100 pigs. And we’ve been doing it for almost 20 years now.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThanks to Larry and Madonna’s work, the Red Wattle was upgraded to Threatened status from Critical on The Livestock Conservancy’s watch list, a great achievement for the cause of biodiversity, one of the most important issues of our time.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMetzger Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eSeneca, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug Metzger's Tamworth and Berkshire genetics are now being shepherded by Robert Funk. Doug sadly passed away in 2023. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug Metzger was truly at the ground zero of our business and the heritage food movement. He was the magic man that first introduced us to our processor Paradise Locker Meats, with whom we have worked and grown ever since and he worked together with Frank Reese raising heritage turkeys from about 2002 to 2013.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAt 83-years-old, Doug raises purebred, certified Berkshire and Tamworth pigs on his 1,500 acre farm in Seneca, Kansas, with his wife Betty.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn an era of specialization Doug is an anomaly. Doug is famous for adapting to any moment. In 2001 he took our call and agreed to raise heritage turkeys for us with Frank because he believed that the growing food movement would appreciate the flavor of the birds his grandfather raised. As demand grew for quality meat, Doug got into heritage pigs and transitioned his commodity farm to a pastured farm and haven for the rare Tamworth breed.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug has been farming since 1951. As a kid he raised chickens but gave them up when he got into turkeys. As he got older, he broke into the milk cattle game. Then he tried sheep, but he says he couldn’t get them to breed right. He also raised Aylesbury ducks — a rare heritage breed. Over the years the acres on his sprawling farm have been used to grow wheat, corn, oats, barley, sorghum, alfalfa, and rye. He even grew flax one year because he heard it was supposed to help the immune system of the cattle, which he thought it did. “It certainly made their coats look wonderful,” Doug says.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eToday farmers are incentivized to grow monocrops of corn and soybean — “that’s all they want us to grow,” Doug explains, “and farmers haul their crops to town instead of using it for something on their own farm.” Doug remembers fondly the days when a diversified farm would grow corn and turn it into whiskey, or when soybeans were grown for the purpose of feeding milk cattle — as Doug did on his farm. “Keep your grain,” Doug insists, “and use it to grow a truly sustainable farm.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug was never one to use chemicals to grow food. He believes any talk of sustainability is not real when you raise only one crop or when you use chemicals to do it. “My buddy and I could clear 100 acres of weeds in a day if we worked through the night, and we did not need any additives to do it. All those chemicals are part of the reason there are so many cancers around, if you ask me.” Doug has amassed generations of farming secrets having grown so many foods naturally, often calling upon experiences from decades ago to solve a problem that presents itself today.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug comes from a truly great American farming family — Life Magazine once wrote that Doug’s father, who lived to be 104, had more living descendants than any American – many of them farmers. His is part of the story of immigrants who came to the New World and made good through old-fashioned values, tradition, and hard work.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“We’re here today to save these breeds,” says Doug, who is as down-home as the farm he still works on as he approaches his 84th birthday. “Save the breeds and make a little money. We got a lot of things going on, we have a lot of land. But it’s getting hard to keep up with it all… I need more young people! When I was young, we raised turkeys in spring and sold ‘em all by Christmas. We milked cattle all year round. I want to keep working — my dad was helping me when he was 84!”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHis conversational style always brings insight and interesting thoughts to bear. We hope Doug and Betty work with us for many years to come and that their beliefs of diversified farming continue. Today, his farm is supported through the work of his daughter Marilyn and her husband Stan, and their children Simon and Joel.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGood Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eOlsburg, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eGood Farms' Old Spot, Duroc, and Tamworth genetics are now being shepherded by Dustin and Maria Torneden since Craig and his wife Amy retired in 2024. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWe met the Goods through a connection at Kansas State University where Craig’s father was a distinguished professor. Craig spent his life in agriculture growing up in the Flint Hills of Kansas, some of the best agricultural land in the world, perfectly adapted to free ranging livestock, which feed on the perennial grasses that grow there naturally.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Good’s hog operation began in earnest in 1981, and they have continuously raised hogs there for the past 37 years. Their Duroc herd started with a few sows from Craig’s former employer who started raising Duroc pigs in the 1940s — with females obtained through Sears and Roebucks! As Craig explains, “I took a job in 1975 working with an outstanding stockman who raised purebred Duroc pigs here in Kansas. His name was Fred Germann, and he was one of the oldest and best Duroc breeders in the U.S. Things sure have changed since then, but the Durocs that we now raise have ancestry that goes back to those Sears females, approximately 85 years ago.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDuroc is an American breed that was used as the foundational genetics for the entire pig industry in the United States because of their good growth rate, body type, and mothering instincts. But big agriculture continued to overbreed the Duroc for certain traits related to higher profits and they crossed it with other pig breeds. Soon the industrial pig became utterly unrecognizable, and it became almost impossible to tell that it had originally derived from Duroc genetics.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig, on the other hand, continued to breed his Durocs to improve their genetics with traits particular to Craig’s preferences, while staying true to the original healthy and hearty breed. Craig always put a lot of thought into which sows he would breed with which boars as he worked to improve meat quality and edibility, as opposed to faster growth. He also selected pigs for the demeanor of the animals, who he treats like members of his own family. Craig bred for strong animals and sought out leaner carcasses (although the Duroc is supremely marbled). He also bred for skeletal size – Craig likes good length of body, for better loin eye size and fat distribution.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOver the years, the Durocs on Good Farm became his own breed, even though they looked like and acted like true old school Durocs. The Goods continue to bring in new lines to avoid inbreeding, but they work with the lines to continue improving their particular version of the Duroc.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig and Amy also raise Gloucestershire Old Spots and Tamworths, both considered rare breeds.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig's father, Don, was a meat scientist and would eventually have a division of Kansas State University named after him. Together they raised purebred Angus cattle and crops on the farm. “I have had a passion for raising pigs,” says Craig, since taking pigs on as a 4-H project in 1965. Craig studied Animal Science at Kansas State University. “Amy and I were married in 1976 and 5 years later we made the decision to move to the farm that my father and mother had owned since 1961, near Olsburg, Kansas, on 1000 acres of Flint Hills pasture.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eBreed\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRed Wattle\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 18th Century Louisiana by way of New Caledonia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a cross between pork and beef, Red Wattle is floral and robust, concentrated and bold.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: A consortium of 18 Amish families in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: French colonists brought these hogs to New Orleans as a favored meat breed. The Red Wattle eventually would populate the forests of Texas where they were rounded up and brought to the great slaughterhouses of Chicago. Recognized by their signature wattles that hang from the jowl, the Red Wattle resembles Kunekune pigs of New Zealand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGloucestershire Old Spot\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 19th Century Indiana by way of Berkeley Valley of Gloucestershire, England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a charcuterie pig with a delicious milky fat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside of Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: Descended from the native old English pigs of western England, this pig was mentioned as early as the 1780's. The spotted pig forages on fallen orchard fruits and other farm by products. Despite their signature oversized floppy ears which hang over their eyes, this gentle pig is hearty and self-reliant.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTamworth\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 2,500 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Rossville, Illinois by way of Staffordshire, England by way of Ireland.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: A premiere bacon producer, Tamworth meat is fruity, earthy, clean, mineral, root, sweet and tender.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Doug Metzger and Craig and Amy Good in Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The only native red breed to England, its heritage traces back to the wild pigs of Middle Age Europe. A slow growing breed, the Tamworth is active and hearty. Traditionally raised in the woods, the pig's long angular snout makes it an excellent forager — Tamworth pigs do not conform to industrial agriculture needs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBerkshire\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 1823 Kentucky\/ Illinois by way of Western England and outside London.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Sweet with depth of flavor, Berkshire pork is balanced and the most universally loved of all the Heritage breeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: David Newman and a consortium of 12 family farms in Kansas, Missouri and Iowa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: For years the Royal Family kept a large Berkshire herd at Windsor Castle — our Berkshire pigs are traceable back to these old English genetics. This would eventually become the most popular Heritage breed of pig in the United States because of its supreme marbling. Prized by the Japanese who imported it as \"Kurobuta\" pork, the Berkshire is recognized by 6 white spots at the tip of its feet, nose and tail.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDuroc\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Eastern United States and corn belt by way of the Guinea coast of Africa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Duroc meat is crisp and clean — known for great marbling and polished texture its taste is approachable on the palate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The Duroc is an older breed of American domestic pig that has become one of the most popular breeds because of its great taste and strong genetics, but pure Duroc is very hard to find. Durocs are a red pig strain developed around 1800 in New England and reputed to trace their ancestry back to the early red pigs of Africa. Durocs are especially valued by farmers for their hardiness and quick but thorough muscle growth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eCooking\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHow to Prepare\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis ham is fully cooked and can be eaten straight out of the bag!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1. Place your Maple Cured Heritage Ham on a roasting pan with a rack with 1 cup of water, wine, or stock in the bottom of the pan. Optional: brush your ham with one of the following three glazes to enhance the flavor.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e2. Cover the ham with foil and cook at 325\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e℉ \u003c\/span\u003eoven until ham reaches 135\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e℉\u003c\/span\u003e. (It is fully cooked, you just want to warm it up without drying it out.)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e3. Turn up the oven to 400\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e℉\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003efor the final 10-15 minutes, remove the foil, brush on some more glaze if you are using it, and roast until caramelized to your liking.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCitrus-y Brown Sugar\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eGlaze\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e1 cup total citrus juice of your preference (orange\/lemon\/lime\/grapefruit)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e1 cup brown sugar\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e½ cup \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eapple cider\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e vinegar\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBring all the ingredients to a simmer over medium heat in a small saucepan. Be careful that it doesn’t boil over. Adjust the heat as necessary, stir frequently and reduce until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRaspberry Jalapeno Sesame Glaze\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e1 cup Lambrusco vinegar\u003cbr\u003e1.5 cups raspberries (fresh or frozen)\u003cbr\u003e¼ cup soy sauce \u003cbr\u003e1 tablespoon sesame oil\u003cbr\u003e2 cups of white sugar\u003cbr\u003e½ cup freshly squeezed lemon\u003cbr\u003e¼ minced jalapeño\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBring all the ingredients to a simmer over medium heat in a small saucepan. Be careful that it doesn’t boil over. Adjust the heat as necessary, stir frequently and reduce until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eClassic Pineapple Glaze\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e1 cup soy sauce\u003cbr\u003e1 cup wildflower honey\u003cbr\u003e¼ cup pineapple juice\u003cbr\u003e¼ cup Wilder mustard\u003cbr\u003e2 tablespoons luxardo cherry juice\u003cbr\u003e1 teaspoon whole cloves\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBring all the ingredients to a simmer over medium heat in a small saucepan. Be careful that it doesn’t boil over. Adjust the heat as necessary, stir frequently and reduce until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[\/TABS]\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heritage Foods USA","offers":[{"title":"2.5-3lb","offer_id":41158328123450,"sku":"BNLS spiral ham 2.5-3lb","price":67.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"3-3.5lb","offer_id":41630857723962,"sku":"BNLS spiral ham 3-3.5lb","price":76.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"3.5-4lb","offer_id":41630858739770,"sku":"BNLS spiral ham 3.5-4lb","price":88.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/files\/HF_SpiralQuarterHam-09813-2.jpg?v=1766522446"},{"product_id":"uncured-smoked-bacon","title":"UNCURED HERITAGE SMOKED BACON","description":"[TABS]\n\u003ch5\u003eProduct\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eUncured Smoked Bacon\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThree 1lb packs, sliced\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eBerkshire or Red Wattle\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe’re excited that our signature bacon — the one we’ve been proudly producing for years — is now available in a naturally cured version. The team at Fantasma's Finest have carefully crafted this option using sea salt and celery powder in place of traditional curing agents, while keeping the integrity, flavor profile, and quality standards that that our customers expect.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJust like the original bacon, this naturally cured version is made with real hardwood smoke and put through a long, slow cure process. They don’t rush it. Time is one of the most important ingredients in developing depth of flavor, proper texture, and consistent quality. That extended curing and natural wood smoke create the rich color, clean bite, and balanced savory character that sets their bacons apart.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom the curemasters: \"We applied the same award-winning expertise and attention to detail that we’ve built our reputation on over the years to make sure this naturally cured version stands on its own. The result is a fantastic bacon that delivers the flavor and performance you love, now with a naturally cured label declaration.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYour can expect the same craftsmanship, the same premium quality, and the same commitment to doing things the right way — just with a naturally cured approach that fits today’s market demand.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom Lou, the artisan: \"I personally crafted and perfected this recipe with my 30 years of knowledge as a curemaster who prioritizes flavor over fast production.  It highlights each of your different breeds characteristics allowing the fat flavor to come through\".\u003cem\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eIngredients: pork, water, and 2% or less of the following: salt, cane sugar and brown sugar, spice extractives, cherry powder, cultured celery powder (sea salt, celery powder)\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHumanely raised on pasture \u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e100% antibiotic-free\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRaised by independent family farmers\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHeritage pork has more marbling resulting in more tender and juicy meat\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003ciframe height=\"270\" width=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/279514159\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eFarms\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen Heritage Foods started in 2001 we set out to sell heritage Thanksgiving turkeys. For three years our turkey project grew, but naturally mating turkey is a seasonal food and two of the three farmers we worked with to raise birds were looking for a more regular source of income if they were to continue working with us. So we committed to selling pork, which can be produced year round, as long as the breeds came from historic genetic lines, just like the turkeys. Now, 24 years later, Heritage Foods still works with those two original farms who together introduced the word “heritage pork” to hundreds of America’s best restaurants from coast-to-coast as well as thousands of homes through the Heritage Foods retail website.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNewman Farm Berkshire Pork\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eMyrtle, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn 2006 we got a handwritten letter from farmer Mark Newman asking us if Heritage Foods would ever consider selling his pasture raised old school Berkshire pigs. We said yes and a relationship grew that still continues today, now through his son David who has maintained the genetic line of Berkshires which can be traced back to the 17th and 18th century lines that came to these shores by way of the Berkshire region of England.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFrom the air, Newman Farm Berkshire Pork, in south central Missouri, in the heart of the Ozarks, looks more like a pioneer settlement or a holiday camp than any sort of pig farm. Wooden huts are scattered across green fields like bungalows, where contented Berkshire pigs live their lives, happily on-pasture.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePigs on Newman Farm are raised 100% on-pasture. The sows raise their piglets in huts that dot the fields of the farm. The babies live inside the huts until they are old enough to jump over the 6-inch wooden board that blocks the entrance. Once they make the great leap, they have an entire field to run on and they can mingle with the other piglets from the other huts.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid Newman is both a farmer and scientist. “The farmer came first,” he laughs. His degrees are in animal science, and he holds a Ph.D in meat science and muscle biology, focused on meat quality. “As I became a scientist and got involved in education, I applied what I was learning to understand what we could do better.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBerkshires were the favorite breed of British royalty and were first introduced to the New World in 1823. Since then, Berkshire bloodlines have remained exceptionally pure and have become a mainstay favorite of chefs and diners, legendary for their exceptionally bright pork flavor and thick, delicious fat cap. And if anyone were to question their excellence, just ask David. “It’s not a matter of opinion!” he insists, passionately. “It’s a scientific fact, Berkshires are the most marbled hog on the market today.” David is a master breeder and works hard to keep the lines on his farm separate and he is always working to improve the Berkshire breed on his farm.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid lives on the farm with his wife, Kristin, his mom Rita, and his two kids. “I got my start through my family. My parents were hog farmers, but primarily in the commercial pig business. In the 1980s my parents raised pigs in confinement. There were some very challenging economic times for everyone in production, and we realized we were going to have to do something differently. Kristin came from a family farming background also and is a major part of the operations success today, working for the farm along with their team of employees.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“In the 1990s my parents decided they wanted to go back to their roots. We were going to have to be very large to be successful in the commercial sector, and my father decided we should focus on quality. We changed our genetic program and our nutrition program. We became Certified Humane®, and we chose to focus on Berkshire pigs for their quality.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDavid and his family are the future of American farming! They are young, energetic and very passionate about the future of agriculture. David and Kristin work with a team of farmers who raise their Berkshires to supply Heritage Foods and the national network of chefs who rely on his product for their menus.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLazy Red Wattle Ranch\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eLa Plata, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWe met Larry and Madonna Sorell in 2002, as growers for Frank Reese and the Heritage Turkey Project. As their turkey flock grew in size, so did the Sorell’s importance to Heritage Foods.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen you see Red Wattle pork on a menu, what you are seeing is a five-state, twelve farm network founded by Larry and Madonna, dedicated to raising a storied breed that was once upon a time nearly extinct. Larry and Madonna are the heroes of this story, avatars of the heritage food movement, true believers who were destined to become the Guardians of the Red Wattle. They are proof positive of the ethos that when it comes to endangered livestock, “you have to eat them to save them.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn the beginning, back in 2004 when the Heritage Foods wholesale business began selling pigs, a market for the Red Wattle pig was built on a handshake agreement with chefs Zach Allen and Mark Ladner, then at Lupa Restaurant in NYC. They recognized the high-quality and undiminished taste that came from a Red Wattle pig humanely raised on-pasture and antibiotic free, using traditional farming methods. The deal with Ladner, and the partnership with Larry and his Lazy Red Wattle Ranch, were part of the origins of Heritage Foods.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“We traveled 18,000 miles to get started,” Larry says matter-of-factly about a Heritage Foods Odyssey whose mission was to search out rare Red Wattle sows and collect a viable genetic lineage of this incredible pig whose American legacy goes back to 18th century New Orleans. \"When we began, we had two Red Wattle gilts and a boar, and we had to travel all over the United States to start a herd.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Now I’ve kinda retired from raising animals, but we have a dozen Amish growers working with us, and I pick up the hogs and pay for them, and then bring them to the processor, Paradise Locker. I drive a tractor trailer and go around picking up three hundred pounders, fifty to eighty head a week. We have farms in Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa... that’s a lot of traveling. We may have four or five pick-ups every week. You wear out a truck pretty fast.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLarry, now over eighty, does less of the driving, but he still keeps all the relationships going, which isn’t easy considering the Amish don’t have phones inside their homes! “I’ll have to quit sometime but right now it’s going pretty good. The driving is easy. The hard job is you gotta keep Amish families happy, picking up their hogs, coordinating, monitoring the size of the animals, and making sure we have the right amount — each week we round up 50 to 100 pigs. And we’ve been doing it for almost 20 years now.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThanks to Larry and Madonna’s work, the Red Wattle was upgraded to Threatened status from Critical on The Livestock Conservancy’s watch list, a great achievement for the cause of biodiversity, one of the most important issues of our time.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMetzger Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eSeneca, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug Metzger's Tamworth and Berkshire genetics are now being shepherded by Robert Funk. Doug sadly passed away in 2023. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug Metzger was truly at the ground zero of our business and the heritage food movement. He was the magic man that first introduced us to our processor Paradise Locker Meats, with whom we have worked and grown ever since and he worked together with Frank Reese raising heritage turkeys from about 2002 to 2013.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAt 83-years-old, Doug raises purebred, certified Berkshire and Tamworth pigs on his 1,500 acre farm in Seneca, Kansas, with his wife Betty.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn an era of specialization Doug is an anomaly. Doug is famous for adapting to any moment. In 2001 he took our call and agreed to raise heritage turkeys for us with Frank because he believed that the growing food movement would appreciate the flavor of the birds his grandfather raised. As demand grew for quality meat, Doug got into heritage pigs and transitioned his commodity farm to a pastured farm and haven for the rare Tamworth breed.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug has been farming since 1951. As a kid he raised chickens but gave them up when he got into turkeys. As he got older, he broke into the milk cattle game. Then he tried sheep, but he says he couldn’t get them to breed right. He also raised Aylesbury ducks — a rare heritage breed. Over the years the acres on his sprawling farm have been used to grow wheat, corn, oats, barley, sorghum, alfalfa, and rye. He even grew flax one year because he heard it was supposed to help the immune system of the cattle, which he thought it did. “It certainly made their coats look wonderful,” Doug says.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eToday farmers are incentivized to grow monocrops of corn and soybean — “that’s all they want us to grow,” Doug explains, “and farmers haul their crops to town instead of using it for something on their own farm.” Doug remembers fondly the days when a diversified farm would grow corn and turn it into whiskey, or when soybeans were grown for the purpose of feeding milk cattle — as Doug did on his farm. “Keep your grain,” Doug insists, “and use it to grow a truly sustainable farm.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug was never one to use chemicals to grow food. He believes any talk of sustainability is not real when you raise only one crop or when you use chemicals to do it. “My buddy and I could clear 100 acres of weeds in a day if we worked through the night, and we did not need any additives to do it. All those chemicals are part of the reason there are so many cancers around, if you ask me.” Doug has amassed generations of farming secrets having grown so many foods naturally, often calling upon experiences from decades ago to solve a problem that presents itself today.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDoug comes from a truly great American farming family — Life Magazine once wrote that Doug’s father, who lived to be 104, had more living descendants than any American – many of them farmers. His is part of the story of immigrants who came to the New World and made good through old-fashioned values, tradition, and hard work.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“We’re here today to save these breeds,” says Doug, who is as down-home as the farm he still works on as he approaches his 84th birthday. “Save the breeds and make a little money. We got a lot of things going on, we have a lot of land. But it’s getting hard to keep up with it all… I need more young people! When I was young, we raised turkeys in spring and sold ‘em all by Christmas. We milked cattle all year round. I want to keep working — my dad was helping me when he was 84!”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHis conversational style always brings insight and interesting thoughts to bear. We hope Doug and Betty work with us for many years to come and that their beliefs of diversified farming continue. Today, his farm is supported through the work of his daughter Marilyn and her husband Stan, and their children Simon and Joel.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGood Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eOlsburg, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eGood Farms' Old Spot, Duroc, and Tamworth genetics are now being shepherded by Dustin and Maria Torneden since Craig and his wife Amy retired in 2024. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWe met the Goods through a connection at Kansas State University where Craig’s father was a distinguished professor. Craig spent his life in agriculture growing up in the Flint Hills of Kansas, some of the best agricultural land in the world, perfectly adapted to free ranging livestock, which feed on the perennial grasses that grow there naturally.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Good’s hog operation began in earnest in 1981, and they have continuously raised hogs there for the past 37 years. Their Duroc herd started with a few sows from Craig’s former employer who started raising Duroc pigs in the 1940s — with females obtained through Sears and Roebucks! As Craig explains, “I took a job in 1975 working with an outstanding stockman who raised purebred Duroc pigs here in Kansas. His name was Fred Germann, and he was one of the oldest and best Duroc breeders in the U.S. Things sure have changed since then, but the Durocs that we now raise have ancestry that goes back to those Sears females, approximately 85 years ago.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDuroc is an American breed that was used as the foundational genetics for the entire pig industry in the United States because of their good growth rate, body type, and mothering instincts. But big agriculture continued to overbreed the Duroc for certain traits related to higher profits and they crossed it with other pig breeds. Soon the industrial pig became utterly unrecognizable, and it became almost impossible to tell that it had originally derived from Duroc genetics.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig, on the other hand, continued to breed his Durocs to improve their genetics with traits particular to Craig’s preferences, while staying true to the original healthy and hearty breed. Craig always put a lot of thought into which sows he would breed with which boars as he worked to improve meat quality and edibility, as opposed to faster growth. He also selected pigs for the demeanor of the animals, who he treats like members of his own family. Craig bred for strong animals and sought out leaner carcasses (although the Duroc is supremely marbled). He also bred for skeletal size – Craig likes good length of body, for better loin eye size and fat distribution.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOver the years, the Durocs on Good Farm became his own breed, even though they looked like and acted like true old school Durocs. The Goods continue to bring in new lines to avoid inbreeding, but they work with the lines to continue improving their particular version of the Duroc.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig and Amy also raise Gloucestershire Old Spots and Tamworths, both considered rare breeds.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCraig's father, Don, was a meat scientist and would eventually have a division of Kansas State University named after him. Together they raised purebred Angus cattle and crops on the farm. “I have had a passion for raising pigs,” says Craig, since taking pigs on as a 4-H project in 1965. Craig studied Animal Science at Kansas State University. “Amy and I were married in 1976 and 5 years later we made the decision to move to the farm that my father and mother had owned since 1961, near Olsburg, Kansas, on 1000 acres of Flint Hills pasture.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eBreed\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRed Wattle\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 18th Century Louisiana by way of New Caledonia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a cross between pork and beef, Red Wattle is floral and robust, concentrated and bold.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: A consortium of 18 Amish families in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: French colonists brought these hogs to New Orleans as a favored meat breed. The Red Wattle eventually would populate the forests of Texas where they were rounded up and brought to the great slaughterhouses of Chicago. Recognized by their signature wattles that hang from the jowl, the Red Wattle resembles Kunekune pigs of New Zealand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGloucestershire Old Spots\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 19th Century Indiana by way of Berkeley Valley of Gloucestershire, England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a charcuterie pig with a delicious milky fat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside of Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: Descended from the native old English pigs of western England, this pig was mentioned as early as the 1780's. The spotted pig forages on fallen orchard fruits and other farm by products. Despite their signature oversized floppy ears which hang over their eyes, this gentle pig is hearty and self-reliant.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTamworth\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 2,500 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Rossville, Illinois by way of Staffordshire, England by way of Ireland.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: A premiere bacon producer, Tamworth meat is fruity, earthy, clean, mineral, root, sweet and tender.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Doug Metzger and Craig and Amy Good in Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The only native red breed to England, its heritage traces back to the wild pigs of Middle Age Europe. A slow growing breed, the Tamworth is active and hearty. Traditionally raised in the woods, the pig's long angular snout makes it an excellent forager — Tamworth pigs do not conform to industrial agriculture needs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBerkshire\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 1823 Kentucky\/ Illinois by way of Western England and outside London.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Sweet with depth of flavor, Berkshire pork is balanced and the most universally loved of all the Heritage breeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: David Newman and a consortium of 12 family farms in Kansas, Missouri and Iowa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: For years the Royal Family kept a large Berkshire herd at Windsor Castle — our Berkshire pigs are traceable back to these old English genetics. This would eventually become the most popular Heritage breed of pig in the United States because of its supreme marbling. Prized by the Japanese who imported it as \"Kurobuta\" pork, the Berkshire is recognized by 6 white spots at the tip of its feet, nose and tail.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDuroc\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Eastern United States and corn belt by way of the Guinea coast of Africa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Duroc meat is crisp and clean — known for great marbling and polished texture its taste is approachable on the palate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The Duroc is an older breed of American domestic pig that has become one of the most popular breeds because of its great taste and strong genetics, but pure Duroc is very hard to find. Durocs are a red pig strain developed around 1800 in New England and reputed to trace their ancestry back to the early red pigs of Africa. Durocs are especially valued by farmers for their hardiness and quick but thorough muscle growth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eCooking\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHow to Prepare\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the oven: preheat oven to 325°F. Place bacon on a foil lined sheet tray and bake, rotating the tray every 10 minutes until you reach the desired crispiness.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn the stovetop: heat skillet over medium-high heat, almost to smoking. No oil is needed! Place bacon strips, one at a time, into the skillet. We recommend flipping once and using a bacon press to prevent curling. When you reach the desired crispiness, transfer bacon onto a plate lined with paper towels and pour off fat from the pan after each round.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[\/TABS]\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heritage Foods USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41261942079546,"sku":"3 pks uncured","price":69.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/files\/HF_uncuredsigbaconshopify-1.jpg?v=1771950933"},{"product_id":"tempesta-bacon","title":"TEMPESTA HERITAGE MAPLE BACON","description":"[TABS]\n\u003ch5\u003eProduct\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTempesta Maple Bacon\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThree 1lb packs, sliced\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eBerkshire or Red Wattle\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA NEW bacon is now part of our BACON HALL OF FAME. To us Antonio of Tempesta Artisans and Volo Meats is one of the hardest working curers in the country, his newest expansion being a refurbished meat plant in Volo, Illinois just north of Chicago. His local delis are bounding with meaty options that 100% have been seasoned, aged, and altered for the better at the plant, by the maestro himself. From heritage deli turkey meat to sliced finocchiona salami to traditonal porchetta roasts, and now to bacon Antonio will forever be associated with making the best tasting food using the highest quality ingredients. From now on this bacon will be part of our regular line up!  Antonio uses real maple sugar and maple wood smoke, a light cure that enhances the flavors of the heritage breeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eIngredients: \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003epork belly, maple sugar, sea salt, garlic, sodium erythorbate, sodium nitrite\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHumanely raised on pasture \u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e100% antibiotic free\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRaised by independent family farmers\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHeritage pork has more marbling resulting in more tender and juicy meat \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"im\"\u003e \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eArtisan\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTempesta Artisans, with its signature logo of the Roman Goddess blowing up a storm, is owned and operated by Antonio Fiasche. Tony has taken the food world by storm, emerging as one of the nation’s premiere curemasters thanks to his hard work ethic and refined yet diverse and creative palette.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn a recent trip to Volo Meats outside Chicago we ate at his restaurant which offers up 50 delicious sandwiches — a menu made all the more remarkable because every single one of the meats had come through Tony’s plant and been artfully enhanced through his seasonings, marinades, aging, and curing processes. From the salami to the smoked turkey to the brisket and prime rib, meatballs, and sausages — even pickles and sauerkraut — everything he sells he adds value to and makes better.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTony started by making ‘nduja, a spicy spreadable salami. He learned the process from his father Agostino who ran an Italian restaurant in Chicago near O’Hare Airport for 45 years. Tony would go on to expand his repertoire, always reinvesting any profits into expansion, including purchasing two-story tall mixers, stuffers, and slicers. Tony’s meats can be found at Whole Foods, Eataly, and distributed by Chefs Warehouse.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEven while expanding, Tony still remembers the agricultural roots of the products he makes, and from the beginning he has consistently sourced a percentage of his supply from pasture raised heritage breeds from Newman Farm Berkshire Pork and Lazy Red Wattle Ranch including all the Tempesta custom products found on our website, like sliced salami and mortadella.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe are excited to see Tony move into a new facility in Volo, Illinois that will allow him to produce more in his own space. Volo is a 100-year-old German curehouse that Tony is actively renovating. It has its own maze of aging rooms, an elevator system, a 3-story smoke room, and even a secret tunnel that connects to the storefront!  As Tony grows his sliced salami line and invents new recipes — check out his new holiday roasts this year! — we hope he becomes a regular part of your menus at home!\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eFarms\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen Heritage Foods started in 2001 we set out to sell heritage Thanksgiving turkeys. For three years our turkey project grew, but naturally mating turkey is a seasonal food and two of the three farmers we worked with to raise birds were looking for a more regular source of income if they were to continue working with us. So we committed to selling pork, which can be produced year round, as long as the breeds came from historic genetic lines, just like the turkeys. Now, 24 years later, Heritage Foods still works with those two original farms who together introduced the word “heritage pork” to hundreds of America’s best restaurants from coast-to-coast as well as thousands of homes through the Heritage Foods retail website.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNewman Farm Berkshire Pork\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eMyrtle, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 2006 we got a handwritten letter from farmer Mark Newman asking us if Heritage Foods would ever consider selling his pasture raised old school Berkshire pigs. We said yes and a relationship grew that still continues today, now through his son David who has maintained the genetic line of Berkshires which can be traced back to the 17th and 18th century lines that came to these shores by way of the Berkshire region of England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom the air, Newman Farm Berkshire Pork, in south central Missouri, in the heart of the Ozarks, looks more like a pioneer settlement or a holiday camp than any sort of pig farm. Wooden huts are scattered across green fields like bungalows, where contented Berkshire pigs live their lives, happily on-pasture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePigs on Newman Farm are raised 100% on-pasture. The sows raise their piglets in huts that dot the fields of the farm. The babies live inside the huts until they are old enough to jump over the 6-inch wooden board that blocks the entrance. Once they make the great leap, they have an entire field to run on and they can mingle with the other piglets from the other huts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDavid Newman is both a farmer and scientist. “The farmer came first,” he laughs. His degrees are in animal science, and he holds a Ph.D in meat science and muscle biology, focused on meat quality. “As I became a scientist and got involved in education, I applied what I was learning to understand what we could do better.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBerkshires were the favorite breed of British royalty and were first introduced to the New World in 1823. Since then, Berkshire bloodlines have remained exceptionally pure and have become a mainstay favorite of chefs and diners, legendary for their exceptionally bright pork flavor and thick, delicious fat cap. And if anyone were to question their excellence, just ask David. “It’s not a matter of opinion!” he insists, passionately. “It’s a scientific fact, Berkshires are the most marbled hog on the market today.” David is a master breeder and works hard to keep the lines on his farm separate and he is always working to improve the Berkshire breed on his farm.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDavid lives on the farm with his wife, Kristin, his mom Rita, and his two kids. “I got my start through my family. My parents were hog farmers, but primarily in the commercial pig business. In the 1980s my parents raised pigs in confinement. There were some very challenging economic times for everyone in production, and we realized we were going to have to do something differently. Kristin came from a family farming background also and is a major part of the operations success today, working for the farm along with their team of employees.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“In the 1990s my parents decided they wanted to go back to their roots. We were going to have to be very large to be successful in the commercial sector, and my father decided we should focus on quality. We changed our genetic program and our nutrition program. We became Certified Humane®, and we chose to focus on Berkshire pigs for their quality.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDavid and his family are the future of American farming! They are young, energetic and very passionate about the future of agriculture. David and Kristin work with a team of farmers who raise their Berkshires to supply Heritage Foods and the national network of chefs who rely on his product for their menus.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLazy Red Wattle Ranch\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eLa Plata, Missouri\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe met Larry and Madonna Sorell in 2002, as growers for Frank Reese and the Heritage Turkey Project. As their turkey flock grew in size, so did the Sorell’s importance to Heritage Foods.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen you see Red Wattle pork on a menu, what you are seeing is a five-state, twelve farm network founded by Larry and Madonna, dedicated to raising a storied breed that was once upon a time nearly extinct. Larry and Madonna are the heroes of this story, avatars of the heritage food movement, true believers who were destined to become the Guardians of the Red Wattle. They are proof positive of the ethos that when it comes to endangered livestock, “you have to eat them to save them.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the beginning, back in 2004 when the Heritage Foods wholesale business began selling pigs, a market for the Red Wattle pig was built on a handshake agreement with chefs Zach Allen and Mark Ladner, then at Lupa Restaurant in NYC. They recognized the high-quality and undiminished taste that came from a Red Wattle pig humanely raised on-pasture and antibiotic free, using traditional farming methods. The deal with Ladner, and the partnership with Larry and his Lazy Red Wattle Ranch, were part of the origins of Heritage Foods.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“We traveled 18,000 miles to get started,” Larry says matter-of-factly about a Heritage Foods Odyssey whose mission was to search out rare Red Wattle sows and collect a viable genetic lineage of this incredible pig whose American legacy goes back to 18th century New Orleans. \"When we began, we had two Red Wattle gilts and a boar, and we had to travel all over the United States to start a herd.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Now I’ve kinda retired from raising animals, but we have a dozen Amish growers working with us, and I pick up the hogs and pay for them, and then bring them to the processor, Paradise Locker. I drive a tractor trailer and go around picking up three hundred pounders, fifty to eighty head a week. We have farms in Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa... that’s a lot of traveling. We may have four or five pick-ups every week. You wear out a truck pretty fast.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLarry, now over eighty, does less of the driving, but he still keeps all the relationships going, which isn’t easy considering the Amish don’t have phones inside their homes! “I’ll have to quit sometime but right now it’s going pretty good. The driving is easy. The hard job is you gotta keep Amish families happy, picking up their hogs, coordinating, monitoring the size of the animals, and making sure we have the right amount — each week we round up 50 to 100 pigs. And we’ve been doing it for almost 20 years now.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThanks to Larry and Madonna’s work, the Red Wattle was upgraded to Threatened status from Critical on The Livestock Conservancy’s watch list, a great achievement for the cause of biodiversity, one of the most important issues of our time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMetzger Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eSeneca, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug Metzger's Tamworth and Berkshire genetics are now being shepherded by Robert Funk. Doug sadly passed away in 2023. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug Metzger was truly at the ground zero of our business and the heritage food movement. He was the magic man that first introduced us to our processor Paradise Locker Meats, with whom we have worked and grown ever since and he worked together with Frank Reese raising heritage turkeys from about 2002 to 2013.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt 83-years-old, Doug raises purebred, certified Berkshire and Tamworth pigs on his 1,500 acre farm in Seneca, Kansas, with his wife Betty.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn an era of specialization Doug is an anomaly. Doug is famous for adapting to any moment. In 2001 he took our call and agreed to raise heritage turkeys for us with Frank because he believed that the growing food movement would appreciate the flavor of the birds his grandfather raised. As demand grew for quality meat, Doug got into heritage pigs and transitioned his commodity farm to a pastured farm and haven for the rare Tamworth breed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug has been farming since 1951. As a kid he raised chickens but gave them up when he got into turkeys. As he got older, he broke into the milk cattle game. Then he tried sheep, but he says he couldn’t get them to breed right. He also raised Aylesbury ducks — a rare heritage breed. Over the years the acres on his sprawling farm have been used to grow wheat, corn, oats, barley, sorghum, alfalfa, and rye. He even grew flax one year because he heard it was supposed to help the immune system of the cattle, which he thought it did. “It certainly made their coats look wonderful,” Doug says.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eToday farmers are incentivized to grow monocrops of corn and soybean — “that’s all they want us to grow,” Doug explains, “and farmers haul their crops to town instead of using it for something on their own farm.” Doug remembers fondly the days when a diversified farm would grow corn and turn it into whiskey, or when soybeans were grown for the purpose of feeding milk cattle — as Doug did on his farm. “Keep your grain,” Doug insists, “and use it to grow a truly sustainable farm.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug was never one to use chemicals to grow food. He believes any talk of sustainability is not real when you raise only one crop or when you use chemicals to do it. “My buddy and I could clear 100 acres of weeds in a day if we worked through the night, and we did not need any additives to do it. All those chemicals are part of the reason there are so many cancers around, if you ask me.” Doug has amassed generations of farming secrets having grown so many foods naturally, often calling upon experiences from decades ago to solve a problem that presents itself today.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDoug comes from a truly great American farming family — Life Magazine once wrote that Doug’s father, who lived to be 104, had more living descendants than any American – many of them farmers. His is part of the story of immigrants who came to the New World and made good through old-fashioned values, tradition, and hard work.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“We’re here today to save these breeds,” says Doug, who is as down-home as the farm he still works on as he approaches his 84th birthday. “Save the breeds and make a little money. We got a lot of things going on, we have a lot of land. But it’s getting hard to keep up with it all… I need more young people! When I was young, we raised turkeys in spring and sold ‘em all by Christmas. We milked cattle all year round. I want to keep working — my dad was helping me when he was 84!”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis conversational style always brings insight and interesting thoughts to bear. We hope Doug and Betty work with us for many years to come and that their beliefs of diversified farming continue. Today, his farm is supported through the work of his daughter Marilyn and her husband Stan, and their children Simon and Joel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGood Farm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eOlsburg, Kansas\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGood Farms' Old Spot, Duroc, and Tamworth genetics are now being shepherded by Dustin and Maria Torneden since Craig and his wife Amy retired in 2024. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe met the Goods through a connection at Kansas State University where Craig’s father was a distinguished professor. Craig spent his life in agriculture growing up in the Flint Hills of Kansas, some of the best agricultural land in the world, perfectly adapted to free ranging livestock, which feed on the perennial grasses that grow there naturally.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Good’s hog operation began in earnest in 1981, and they have continuously raised hogs there for the past 37 years. Their Duroc herd started with a few sows from Craig’s former employer who started raising Duroc pigs in the 1940s — with females obtained through Sears and Roebucks! As Craig explains, “I took a job in 1975 working with an outstanding stockman who raised purebred Duroc pigs here in Kansas. His name was Fred Germann, and he was one of the oldest and best Duroc breeders in the U.S. Things sure have changed since then, but the Durocs that we now raise have ancestry that goes back to those Sears females, approximately 85 years ago.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDuroc is an American breed that was used as the foundational genetics for the entire pig industry in the United States because of their good growth rate, body type, and mothering instincts. But big agriculture continued to overbreed the Duroc for certain traits related to higher profits and they crossed it with other pig breeds. Soon the industrial pig became utterly unrecognizable, and it became almost impossible to tell that it had originally derived from Duroc genetics.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCraig, on the other hand, continued to breed his Durocs to improve their genetics with traits particular to Craig’s preferences, while staying true to the original healthy and hearty breed. Craig always put a lot of thought into which sows he would breed with which boars as he worked to improve meat quality and edibility, as opposed to faster growth. He also selected pigs for the demeanor of the animals, who he treats like members of his own family. Craig bred for strong animals and sought out leaner carcasses (although the Duroc is supremely marbled). He also bred for skeletal size – Craig likes good length of body, for better loin eye size and fat distribution.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOver the years, the Durocs on Good Farm became his own breed, even though they looked like and acted like true old school Durocs. The Goods continue to bring in new lines to avoid inbreeding, but they work with the lines to continue improving their particular version of the Duroc.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCraig and Amy also raise Gloucestershire Old Spots and Tamworths, both considered rare breeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCraig's father, Don, was a meat scientist and would eventually have a division of Kansas State University named after him. Together they raised purebred Angus cattle and crops on the farm. “I have had a passion for raising pigs,” says Craig, since taking pigs on as a 4-H project in 1965. Craig studied Animal Science at Kansas State University. “Amy and I were married in 1976 and 5 years later we made the decision to move to the farm that my father and mother had owned since 1961, near Olsburg, Kansas, on 1000 acres of Flint Hills pasture.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eBreed\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRed Wattle\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 18th Century Louisiana by way of New Caledonia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a cross between pork and beef, Red Wattle is floral and robust, concentrated and bold.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: A consortium of 18 Amish families in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: French colonists brought these hogs to New Orleans as a favored meat breed. The Red Wattle eventually would populate the forests of Texas where they were rounded up and brought to the great slaughterhouses of Chicago. Recognized by their signature wattles that hang from the jowl, the Red Wattle resembles Kunekune pigs of New Zealand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGloucestershire Old Spot\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 1,000 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 19th Century Indiana by way of Berkeley Valley of Gloucestershire, England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Described as a charcuterie pig with a delicious milky fat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside of Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: Descended from the native old English pigs of western England, this pig was mentioned as early as the 1780's. The spotted pig forages on fallen orchard fruits and other farm by products. Despite their signature oversized floppy ears which hang over their eyes, this gentle pig is hearty and self-reliant.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTamworth\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThreatened: Fewer than 2,500 annual registrations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Rossville, Illinois by way of Staffordshire, England by way of Ireland.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: A premiere bacon producer, Tamworth meat is fruity, earthy, clean, mineral, root, sweet and tender.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Doug Metzger and Craig and Amy Good in Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The only native red breed to England, its heritage traces back to the wild pigs of Middle Age Europe. A slow growing breed, the Tamworth is active and hearty. Traditionally raised in the woods, the pig's long angular snout makes it an excellent forager — Tamworth pigs do not conform to industrial agriculture needs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBerkshire\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: 1823 Kentucky\/ Illinois by way of Western England and outside London.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Sweet with depth of flavor, Berkshire pork is balanced and the most universally loved of all the Heritage breeds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: David Newman and a consortium of 12 family farms in Kansas, Missouri and Iowa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: For years the Royal Family kept a large Berkshire herd at Windsor Castle — our Berkshire pigs are traceable back to these old English genetics. This would eventually become the most popular Heritage breed of pig in the United States because of its supreme marbling. Prized by the Japanese who imported it as \"Kurobuta\" pork, the Berkshire is recognized by 6 white spots at the tip of its feet, nose and tail.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDuroc\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrigin: Eastern United States and corn belt by way of the Guinea coast of Africa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFlavor Profile: Duroc meat is crisp and clean — known for great marbling and polished texture its taste is approachable on the palate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProducers: Craig and Amy Good outside Manhattan, Kansas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistory: The Duroc is an older breed of American domestic pig that has become one of the most popular breeds because of its great taste and strong genetics, but pure Duroc is very hard to find. Durocs are a red pig strain developed around 1800 in New England and reputed to trace their ancestry back to the early red pigs of Africa. Durocs are especially valued by farmers for their hardiness and quick but thorough muscle growth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eCooking\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHow to Prepare\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the oven: preheat oven to 325°F. Place bacon on a foil lined sheet tray and bake, rotating the tray every 10 minutes until you reach the desired crispiness.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn the stovetop: heat skillet over medium-high heat, almost to smoking. No oil is needed! Place bacon strips, one at a time, into the skillet. We recommend flipping once and using a bacon press to prevent curling. When you reach the desired crispiness, transfer bacon onto a plate lined with paper towels and pour off fat from the pan after each round.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[\/TABS]\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heritage Foods","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41261956366394,"sku":"3 pks","price":69.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/files\/Tempesta_bacon.jpg?v=1771956629"}],"url":"https:\/\/heritagefoods.com\/collections\/25-years-top-sellers-hall-of-fame.oembed","provider":"Heritage Foods","version":"1.0","type":"link"}