{"title":"25th Anniversary Rare Occasion!","description":"\u003ch2 style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"\u003e25th Anniversary Rare Occasion!\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003ch2 style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\n\u003cspan\u003eFor us it's the 25th anniversary, for these heritage breeds it's their 200th anniversary — or even the 2500th!\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThese time capsules are living, historical records of our gastronomic past. You can choose some of our rarest breeds and enjoy their history as you enjoy them!\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eAdditional discounts do not apply to Rare Occasion items.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"leg-of-lamb-bone-in","title":"TUNIS LEG OF LAMB — NOW 40% OFF","description":"[TABS]\n\u003ch5\u003eProduct\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLeg of Lamb\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBone-in, \u003cem\u003eTunis\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eSale products must ship immediately. Additional discounts cannot be applied to sale items. \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe lamb leg is popular year round as a centerpiece or cut into sandwiches due to its dark, melt-in-your-mouth meat and meat-to-bone ratio. 100% Heritage breed lamb is a marvelous gastronomic pleasure and much milder and more pleasant to the palate than regularly available lamb.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOur lamb is sourced from our long time farm partners in Vermont, Tamarack Sheep Farm, where three rare breeds of lamb are raised on pasture — breeds that have been raised there since the 1920s. Lamb is a seasonal livestock that is available four or five times a year. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e100% Heritage breeds raised on pasture and 100% antibiotic free\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eRaised by Ben Machin and Grace Bowmer of Tamarack Sheep Farm in Vermont\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHeritage lamb has tremendous marbling resulting in a more tender, exquisite, 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\/279504141\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eFarm\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBen Machin and Grace Bowmer raise three breeds of heritage breed sheep on their beautiful Tamarack Sheep Farm located on the rolling hills and green pastures of Vermont.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs Ben explains, “Grass, it is at the heart of our operation, and restoring grassland and soil is one of the reasons that we scaled up our operation.” All of the animals on Tamarack Farm have access to grass 100% of the time. In the summer, this means grass growing in the field, in the winter, or for animals that are housed in the barn, this means hay.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBen and Grace make all their own hay, managing about 120 acres of hay land. They have four old John Deere tractors, and all the equipment to make round bales. They fertilize the fields and cut them three or four times each year to keep the quality high. Supplements for the lamb include whole grains as opposed to ground or pellet feed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMost of the more successful commercial breeds of lamb are a mix of quite a few other breeds — hybrid vigor is a really big deal in the industry. But Ben and Grace are 100% committed to heritage breeds, both because they have a family tradition that’s almost 100 years old, and because they feel that the genetics are potentially quite important to the future.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe fastest growing sheep breed worldwide is the hybrid White Dorper and it would not exist if not for the foundational Horned Dorset genetics that were used to create it, the kind currently grown on Tamarack Farm. Dorpers are proving essential to allowing sheep farmers to adapt to climate change in various parts of the world, and it’s the heritage breed in them that allows them to be so resistant and strong. Ben and Grace have participated in a program with the Swiss Village Foundation and the Smithsonian, who collected eggs and semen from 80 of their animals over a 10-year period to store in cryogenic freezers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere are incredible challenges to raising heritage breed animals. Heritage breeds are inherently less productive, in general, than the modern breeds. But for Ben and Grace it’s worth it: Ben’s great-grandfather started a Tunis flock in the 1920s. Years later, Ben's grandfather, Herb, began to work with Dorset Horn sheep for a 4-H project. In 2006, in Herb’s last days, Ben made the monumental and wonderful decision to dedicate himself to revitalizing the family flock. Grace joined Ben in 2008. Grace came with a background in architecture, site design, landscaping, and gardening, and together they purchased the land and built a barn.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eToday with a fifth generation in the mix, there is even more reason to continue their efforts on the farm despite new challenges. Many of their local restaurant customers have taken a beating with recent global events, but sunny days on grassy pastures look to be in the future, which is good news for chefs and lovers of lamb! Ben and Grace have increased production on Hogget (1-2 year old sheep) and mutton (2+ year old sheep) on their farm because of increased demand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAccording to Ben, the Tunis breed is lean but has the richest taste of all. He remembers the Navajo Churro as being a bit drier but still delicious and succulent. The Dorset Horn is very moist and mild flavored. Ben especially loves the Horned Dorset, “because both males and females grow horns!” Amazingly the taste and flavor of all three breeds becomes more subtle and mild as the animal ages on the hoof.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eBreed\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Tunis is earthy with notes of buttermilk. The Dorset is lighter, with a clean, floral finish. The Navajo-Churro lamb is remarkably tender — even the braising cuts can be grilled.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTunis, Dorset Horn, and Navajo-Churro Breeds of Lamb\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTunis: Originally from Tunisia, the breed was brought to the U.S. as a gift to George Washington and raised by the first three Presidents. This is the same lamb as was written about in the Bible, but the modern version has a less fatty tail.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDorset Horn: A breed of sheep that spread over Dorset, Somerset, Devon, and most of Wales, in the 1750s this is the breed the English with a fine palate would eat for Christmas! Very few farmers still raise this endangered breed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNavajo-Churro: The first domesticated livestock to ever come onto American soil, the Churro breed was brought here by early Spanish explorers and quickly adopted into the culture of the Navajo Nation in the Southwest. The breed was used for wool and meat but today is considered America’s rarest breed of lamb.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eCooking\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHow to Prepare\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1. Take the roast out of the refrigerator an hour prior to cooking.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e2. Preheat your oven to 450℉.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e3. Season liberally with salt and pepper on all sides.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e4. Sear on all sides in a hot pan until browned.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e5. Move to a roasting pan lined with a rack and cook at 450℉ for 15-20 mins for an even crust.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e6. Lower the oven temperature to 300℉ and cook for 30 minutes checking the meat every 15 minutes thereafter until the roast reaches your desired internal temperature (130℉ approximately for lamb to medium rare.) The internal temperature will continue to rise slightly after leaving the oven. Let rest for 10-15 minutes before carving.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e———————\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOur favorite leftover suggestions:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLamb Ragù Rigatoni\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIngredients:\u003cbr\u003e8 oz roasted lamb leg, diced into ½” cubes\u003cbr\u003e4 oz English peas\u003cbr\u003e1 bunch asparagus diced into 1\/8 inch coins stopping about 2” from the tip of the spear\u003cbr\u003e3 stocks of green garlic, sliced — only the whites\u003cbr\u003e4 sprigs of mint\u003cbr\u003e1lb rigatoni pasta (Semolina or Winona’s Hemp)\u003cbr\u003e½ cup of lamb stock\u003cbr\u003e2 tablespoons unsalted butter\u003cbr\u003eParmigiano Reggiano (grated as needed)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTo prepare:\u003cbr\u003e1. Cook pasta in a large pot of well seasoned water according to the directions on box. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e2. Meanwhile, sauté the green garlic and asparagus coins and spears with the diced lamb until lamb is lightly browned and the green garlic is tender.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e3. Add the english peas and stock to the pan and bring to a boil. Add butter swirling to emulsify, toss together with pasta, and top with freshly picked mint and grated Parmigiano Reggiano.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eLamb Leg Tacos\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIngredients:\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cbr\u003e1 quart lamb stock\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e10-12 oz of leftover lamb leg, sliced\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e16 guajillo chilis\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e4 cloves of garlic \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e½ bunch of cilantro chopped (stem included)\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e3 oz sunflower sprouts \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e½ cup peeled, toasted, and salted sunflower seeds, \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e \u003cspan\u003e for garnish\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e3 oz pea shoots\u003cbr\u003e3 oz oxalis triangularis, for garnish\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e1 pack of tortillas (10 ct total)\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e2 limes cut into wedges\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eWater as needed\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTo prepare:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e1. Bring 1 quart of stock with sliced lamb meat in a small pot up to a boil and reduce to a low simmer while you prepare the salsa.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e2. Remove the stem and seeds from the chilis, place in a stock pot, add garlic and cilantro, and cover with with water. Bring to a boil and drop to a simmer for a minute. Turn off the heat and let sit for 15 minutes. \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e3. Add all the ingredients including 1-2 cups \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eof the soaking water (add just enough to blend smooth) to a blender and puree on high until smooth. Strain through a fine mesh strainer and discard the pulp. \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e4. In a heavy bottom pan over medium heat add 2 tbls of neutral oil and the strained salsa  and cook until the sauce is slightly reduced and coats the back of a spoon. Set aside to cool.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e5. Heat tortillas over the stove top flame or grill and set aside. Toss the pea shoots and sunflower sprouts in a small amount of lime juice and salt and set aside.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eTo assemble the tacos:\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ePlace 1-2 oz of lamb meat on each tortilla.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eSpoon guajillo salsa over the meat.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ePlace some pea shoot\/sunflower salad on top.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eGarnish with oxalis and sunflower seeds.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eRepeat for the rest of the tortillas.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eLamb Leg Bone Broth\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eIngredients:\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eRemainder lamb leg bone\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e2 leeks, roughly chopped\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e5 shallots peeled and halved\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e2 inches of ginger sliced into coins\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e6 cloves of garlic smashed\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e1 tsp coriander seeds\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eWater to cover\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTo prepare: \u003c\/span\u003eAdd all ingredients to a pot, cover with cold, fresh water, bring to a boil, and reduce to a simmer. Cook for 4-6 hours on low. Simmer, skimming foam every so often. Once finished, strain the solids through a mesh strainer into an airtight container and keep in the fridge for a week or frozen for up to 6 months. Makes about 2.5 quarts of broth.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[\/TABS]\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heritage Foods USA","offers":[{"title":"8-9lb","offer_id":40666578288698,"sku":"leg 8-9lb Tunis 2025","price":147.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"9-10lb","offer_id":41127007191098,"sku":"leg 9-10lb Tunis 2025","price":165.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/products\/hf_lamb_leg_1.jpg?v=1656619586"},{"product_id":"rack-of-lamb","title":"DORSET HORN RACK OF LAMB — NOW 40% OFF","description":"[TABS]\n\u003ch5\u003eProduct\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRack of Lamb\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eDorset Horn \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eChoose your preferred size from the drop down menu above.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eSale products must ship immediately. Additional discounts cannot be applied to sale items. \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe rack of lamb is often considered the most elegant cut, ideal as the centerpiece for an intimate dinner party worthy of royalty, or simply a special family dinner. Roast it whole for a show-stopping presentation, or slice between the bones to plate the tasty chops individually. Simple to prepare — as with all of our healthy and delicious Heritage lamb, we love just salt, pepper, and a little bit of rosemary.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOur lamb is sourced from our long time farm partners in Vermont, Tamarack Sheep Farm, where three rare breeds of lamb are raised on pasture — breeds that have been raised there since the 1920s. Lamb is a seasonal livestock that is available four or five times a year. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e100% Heritage breeds raised on pasture and 100% antibiotic free\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eRaised by Ben Machin and Grace Bowmer of Tamarack Sheep Farm in Vermont\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHeritage lamb has tremendous marbling resulting in a more tender, exquisite, and juicy meat\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eFarm\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBen Machin and Grace Bowmer raise three breeds of heritage breed sheep on their beautiful Tamarack Sheep Farm located on the rolling hills and green pastures of Vermont.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs Ben explains, “Grass, it is at the heart of our operation, and restoring grassland and soil is one of the reasons that we scaled up our operation.” All of the animals on Tamarack Farm have access to grass 100% of the time. In the summer, this means grass growing in the field, in the winter, or for animals that are housed in the barn, this means hay.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBen and Grace make all their own hay, managing about 120 acres of hay land. They have four old John Deere tractors, and all the equipment to make round bales. They fertilize the fields and cut them three or four times each year to keep the quality high. Supplements for the lamb include whole grains as opposed to ground or pellet feed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMost of the more successful commercial breeds of lamb are a mix of quite a few other breeds — hybrid vigor is a really big deal in the industry. But Ben and Grace are 100% committed to heritage breeds, both because they have a family tradition that’s almost 100 years old, and because they feel that the genetics are potentially quite important to the future.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe fastest growing sheep breed worldwide is the hybrid White Dorper and it would not exist if not for the foundational Horned Dorset genetics that were used to create it, the kind currently grown on Tamarack Farm. Dorpers are proving essential to allowing sheep farmers to adapt to climate change in various parts of the world, and it’s the heritage breed in them that allows them to be so resistant and strong. Ben and Grace have participated in a program with the Swiss Village Foundation and the Smithsonian, who collected eggs and semen from 80 of their animals over a 10-year period to store in cryogenic freezers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere are incredible challenges to raising heritage breed animals. Heritage breeds are inherently less productive, in general, than the modern breeds. But for Ben and Grace it’s worth it: Ben’s great-grandfather started a Tunis flock in the 1920s. Years later, Ben's grandfather, Herb, began to work with Dorset Horn sheep for a 4-H project. In 2006, in Herb’s last days, Ben made the monumental and wonderful decision to dedicate himself to revitalizing the family flock. Grace joined Ben in 2008. Grace came with a background in architecture, site design, landscaping, and gardening, and together they purchased the land and built a barn.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eToday with a fifth generation in the mix, there is even more reason to continue their efforts on the farm despite new challenges. Many of their local restaurant customers have taken a beating with recent global events, but sunny days on grassy pastures look to be in the future, which is good news for chefs and lovers of lamb! Ben and Grace have increased production on Hogget (1-2 year old sheep) and mutton (2+ year old sheep) on their farm because of increased demand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAccording to Ben, the Tunis breed is lean but has the richest taste of all. He remembers the Navajo Churro as being a bit drier but still delicious and succulent. The Dorset Horn is very moist and mild flavored. Ben especially loves the Horned Dorset, “because both males and females grow horns!” Amazingly the taste and flavor of all three breeds becomes more subtle and mild as the animal ages on the hoof.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eBreed\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Tunis is earthy with notes of buttermilk. The Dorset is lighter, with a clean, floral finish. The Navajo-Churro lamb is remarkably tender — even the braising cuts can be grilled.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTunis, Dorset Horn, and Navajo-Churro Breeds of Lamb\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTunis: Originally from Tunisia, the breed was brought to the U.S. as a gift to George Washington and raised by the first three Presidents. This is the same lamb as was written about in the Bible, but the modern version has a less fatty tail.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDorset Horn: A breed of sheep that spread over Dorset, Somerset, Devon, and most of Wales, in the 1750s this is the breed the English with a fine palate would eat for Christmas! Very few farmers still raise this endangered breed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNavajo-Churro: The first domesticated livestock to ever come onto American soil, the Churro breed was brought here by early Spanish explorers and quickly adopted into the culture of the Navajo Nation in the Southwest. The breed was used for wool and meat but today is considered America’s rarest breed of lamb.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eCooking\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHow to Prepare\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1. Take the roast out of the refrigerator an hour prior to cooking.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e2. Preheat your oven to 450℉.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e3. Season liberally with salt and pepper on all sides.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e4. Sear on all sides in a hot pan until browned.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e5. Move to a roasting pan lined with a rack and cook at 450℉ for 15-20 mins for an even crust.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e6. Lower the oven temperature to 300℉ and cook for 30 minutes checking \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ethe meat\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e every 15 minutes thereafter until the roast reaches your desired internal temperature (130℉ approximately for lamb to medium rare.) The internal temperature will continue to rise slightly after leaving the oven. Let rest for 10-15 minutes before carving.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSee recipe below for \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eRoasted Lamb Rack with Lamb Fat Roasted Carrots, Carrot Puree, and Cracklings\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e———————\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eRoasted Lamb Rack with Lamb Fat Roasted Carrots, Carrot Puree, and Cracklings\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eingredients:\u003cbr\u003e1 heritage lamb rack\u003cbr\u003e2lb baby rainbow carrots\u003cbr\u003e¼ bunch of parsley (finely chopped)\u003cbr\u003e1 lemon\u003cbr\u003e2 tablespoons Lambrusco vinegar\u003cbr\u003e2 tablespoons toasted cumin seeds\u003cbr\u003e1 head of garlic (crushed cloves)\u003cbr\u003e2-3 sprigs of thyme\u003cbr\u003e1 tablespoon butter\u003cbr\u003e1 tsp chili flakes\u003cbr\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eSalt and pepper\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTrim the fat cap off the rack of lamb 3-4 inches from the top of the bone until right above where the eye of the rack begins. Trim and remove all the fat between the individual bones and scrape well with a paring knife. Set all the lamb fat aside. You may further clean the bones for an impressive display by rubbing the remaining bits of fat and meat off the bones with a clean kitchen towel. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhere the eye of the rack begins (below where you trimmed), lightly score the remaining fat cap in a cross-hatch pattern. Be careful not to pierce the meat. Place on a roasting pan with a wire rack. This can be done the day ahead and you can leave the rack of lamb uncovered in the fridge to dry out a little more. Make sure you remove the rack from the fridge at least an hour before you cook it to bring it closer to room temp for roasting.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRendering Your Lamb Fat and Making Cracklings:\u003cbr\u003eRendering fat from any animal will follow this similar process, it will provide a nutritious and flavorful fat that you can use anywhere you would use lard or butter or oil.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePreheat the oven to 220℉ or set up a slow cooker on low. Dice the reserved fat cap into 1-inch cubes, add to a small dutch oven or pot with lid, and add 2 cups of water. Place in your oven for 4-6 hours or closer to 7-8 for a slow cooker. The ideal rendering temperature is at or just above the boiling point of water 212℉ so check it every 20-30 minutes as you don’t want it to brown. Once most of the fat has rendered and the water has boiled off your remaining rendered lamb fat will be relatively clear. Pull it off the heat and let cool for a half hour before straining through a fine mesh strainer. Save the remaining bits of fat to make cracklings.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSpread the remaining fat bits out on a 10-inch skillet and roast in an oven at 300℉ for about an hour until crispy, strain out the additional rendered fat and place on a baking sheet lined with paper towels to remove the excess fat. Season with salt.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRoast Your Carrots:\u003cbr\u003eWash and trim the greens off your baby carrots. Toss in a bowl with salt, pepper, 2 tablespoons of render lamb fat, toasted cumin seeds, cloves of garlic, chili flakes, and thyme, and place on a baking sheet and roast at 425℉ until tender, about 30 minutes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRoast your Lamb:\u003cbr\u003ePreheat your oven to 450℉. Season liberally with salt and pepper on all sides. Sear on all sides in a hot pan until browned.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMove to a roasting pan lined with a rack. Add a small piece of foil to wrap around each individual bone and cook at 450℉ for 15-20 minutes for an even crust.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLower the oven temperature to 300℉ and cook for 30 minutes checking the meat every 15 minutes thereafter until the roast reaches your desired internal temperature (130℉ approximately for lamb to medium rare.) The internal temperature will continue to rise slightly after leaving the oven. Let rest for 10-15 minutes before carving.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMake your puree:\u003cbr\u003eIn a blender add half your carrots and roasted cloves of garlic to the blender. Add 2 teaspoons Lambrusco vinegar, 1 tablespoon of lamb fat, and 1 tablespoon unsalted butter. Puree until smooth, adding water if too thick and seasoning with salt to taste.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eServing:\u003cbr\u003eRemove the foil and carve the rack into individual chops. Spoon the puree on the bottom of a large platter. Top with the whole roasted carrots. Place the chops on top and garnish with your crispy cracklings, finely chopped parsley, and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. Enjoy!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[\/TABS]\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heritage Foods USA","offers":[{"title":"2.5-3lb","offer_id":41619790102586,"sku":"1pk (2.5-3lb) 2025 DH","price":72.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"3-3.5lb","offer_id":41619716669498,"sku":"1pk (3-3.5lb) 2025 DH","price":85.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"5-5.5lb","offer_id":40842843029562,"sku":"1pk (5-5.5lb) 2025 DH","price":138.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"6-6.5lb","offer_id":41124880154682,"sku":"1pk (6-6.5) 2025 DH","price":165.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/products\/hf_lamb_rack_shopify.jpg?v=1656619727"},{"product_id":"signature-heritage-bacon-breed-flight","title":"SIGNATURE HERITAGE BACON 5 BREED TASTING KIT — NOW 40% OFF","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 class=\"p1\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eSale products must ship immediately. Additional discounts cannot be applied to sale items. \u003c\/i\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":69.0,"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":"chicken-wings","title":"NEW HAMPSHIRE CHICKEN WINGS — NOW 40% OFF","description":"[TABS]\n\u003ch5\u003eProduct\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHeritage Chicken Wings\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e2-2.5lb total\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew Hampshire\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eSale products must ship immediately. Additional discounts cannot be applied to sale items. \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eChicken wings are actually made of white meat! While our heritage chickens have all the pasture they desire and are much more active than commodity chickens (yes, they really do fly!), they choose to spend most of their time on the ground. Adorned with silky, yellow fat, these wings take best to dry heat to make the skin as crispy as possible. Our heritage chicken wings consist of the tip, drumette, and flat. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eKansas-based heritage farmer Frank Reese, who has made it his life’s work to preserve endangered breeds of poultry, has worked for years to maintain stronger lines of chickens. Reese has partnered with his first-ever protégé, Jed Greenberg of Chosen Farms, to raise and process heritage chickens in New Jersey. \u003cmeta charset=\"UTF-8\"\u003eHis flock is the only heritage breed line available online! \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“A chicken is no better than the farmer behind it. And the genetics, of course,” says Frank Reese, whose chickens are one of the only flocks in America to receive certification by the American Poultry Association, and the USDA, as 100% purebred Heritage, standards that were set in 1873 to define and defend best practices in American farming.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003ca rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Provisions - Heritage Foods\" href=\"https:\/\/heritagefoods.com\/collections\/larder-and-provisions\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eShop our Provisions\u003c\/a\u003e for your favorite dipping sauces!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGood Shepherd Ranch and now, Chosen Farms, are the premier breeders and farms for America’s oldest line of poultry.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCertified Standardbred\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePasture Raised\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFree Ranging Flock\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eVegetarian Fed\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNaturally Mating\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAntibiotic Free from hatching to plate\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eFarm\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eChosen Farms is founded and operated by Jed Greenberg who has worked with Frank Reese at Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch for almost a decade, learning the art and history and skills needed to raise heritage breeds of poultry.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFrank is almost 75 years old and is considered the Godfather of American poultry so Jed plays a pivotal role as he is the one destined (and you could say being bred!) to inherit the responsibility of running the network of what is currently the only heritage breed (Standardbred) hatchery for rare breeds in America.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eJed's New Jersey farm is currently raising exclusively Good Shepherd genetics of chicken, turkey, and guinea fowl. Jed is working to spread heritage breeds to farms across the country as the Director of the Good Shepherd Conservancy of which his farm is a leading member. The Conservancy is working to build a hatching and education center, as well as a museum on the Kansas prairie, ensuring a future for rare breeds around the world.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eBreed\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eYour parts come from two breeds: \u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe \u003cstrong\u003eNew Hampshire \u003c\/strong\u003ebreed is a beautifully red-feathered and fast-growing breed that epitomizes American innovation and quality. Prized for its rapid early growth, heavier breast development, and solid egg-laying ability, this newer breed was able to dethrone the Plymouth Rock as America’s #1 chicken in the 1930s.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCreated in the 1940s, the \u003cstrong\u003eDelaware\u003c\/strong\u003e breed is the youngest breed in our preservation program. Originating from the state that provides its name, it is the result of crossing a Barred Rock rooster and New Hampshire hen. This bird carries many of the benefits that made Rocks and New Hampshires favored and also sports a fully white under-fluff and pin feathers.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\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\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eExtra Juicy Chicken Wings\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e1. For the juiciest and most tender heritage chicken wings, bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Take the fully thawed chicken out of the refrigerator 30 minutes prior to cooking.\u003cbr\u003e2. Drain the excess liquid from the package over the sink, remove the chicken wings from the packaging, and add them to the pot of boiling water. Season the water with a tsp of salt and 2 bay leaves. Simmer the chicken wings in the water for 30-40 minutes.\u003cbr\u003e3. After 30-40 minutes, preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. Drain the wings and spread them out in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Season with salt, pepper, your favorite dry rub seasoning, and a light drizzle of olive oil on all sides. If you have bbq sauce, brush it on now and then re-apply more when you flip the wings in the next step.\u003cbr\u003e4. Bake the chicken wings for 15 minutes, then remove them from the oven and flip them. If you like the skin extra crispy, put them back into the oven for another 15-20 minutes, If you prefer them extra juicy, only cook them for 5 minutes longer. \u003cbr\u003e5. Remove the wings from the oven, toss with your favorite seasoning or sauce, and serve!\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[\/TABS]\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heritage Foods USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39836219605050,"sku":"1pk (2-2.5lb)","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/files\/chicken_wing.jpg?v=1738165251"},{"product_id":"red-wattle-porterhouse-pork-chops","title":"RED WATTLE PORTERHOUSE PORK CHOPS — NOW 40% OFF","description":"[TABS]\n\u003ch5\u003eProduct\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePorterhouse Pork Chops\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003eSix 14 oz chops, two per pack\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eRed Wattle\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eSale products must ship immediately. Additional discounts cannot be applied to sale items. \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003c\/em\u003eOur Number One Best Seller! These are the chops that put the words \"Heritage pork\" on menus throughout the country. The porterhouse is truly a fantastic cut —the T-Bone of pork. Marbled gorgeously, each piece includes both the tenderloin and loin section. These thick-cut chops make for a hearty and inexpensive sustainable meal anytime; they only take 30 minutes to defrost, cook, and serve! And two chops (one pack) served sliced can easily feed four!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe secret to great pork is to start off with great ingredients, and nothing beats our storied Heritage breeds. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/heritagefoods.com\/blogs\/news\/the-red-wattle-a-gastronomic-polyglot\" title=\"The Red Wattle Breed Pig\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eLearn more about the Red Wattle breed\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca rel=\"noopener\" title=\"The Berkshire Breed Pig\" href=\"https:\/\/heritagefoods.com\/blogs\/news\/the-history-of-the-well-bred-pig\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e.\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eHumanely raised on pasture, 100% antibiotic-free, by independent family farmers. \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/heritagefoods.com\/blogs\/news\/farmer-spotlight-lazy-s-farms-in-la-plata-missouri\" title=\"Lazy S. Farm\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"\u003eLearn more about Lazy S. Farm.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003ciframe height=\"270\" width=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/279272478\"\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 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\u003e1. Take the meat out of the refrigerator an hour prior to cooking.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e2. Season liberally with salt and pepper on all sides.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e3. Preheat a heavy bottomed pan over medium-high heat until just about smoking.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e4. Add a tablespoon of oil and sear chops for 3-9 minutes on each side depending on its size. For pieces with a fat cap, try to render the fat on its edge for an additional few minutes. For larger cuts, add a few knobs of butter to the pan along with a clove of garlic and 2-3 sprigs of thyme, sage, or rosemary and baste for the final 3-5 minutes of cooking.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e5. Cook until desired internal temperature is reached. (140-145℉ for pork)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e6. Let rest for 3-5 minutes before carving.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e__________________\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChef Q's Mojo Marinade\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIngredients:\u003cbr\u003e1 head of garlic minced \u003cbr\u003e3 limes (juiced)\u003cbr\u003e3 lemons (juiced)\u003cbr\u003e2 naval oranges (Juiced)\u003cbr\u003e1 red grapefruit (juiced)\u003cbr\u003e2 Tbsp cane vinegar\u003cbr\u003e½ bunch cilantro finely chopped (stem included)\u003cbr\u003e½ medium onion (small diced)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePreparation:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMix the juices, spices, vinegar, minced garlic, diced onion, and chopped cilantro in a medium bowl and add to a large ziploc bag with the pork chops. Marinate in the fridge overnight or for at least six hours. Occasionally turn the pork chops over in the fridge to evenly distribute the marinade.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eVietnamese Marinade courtesy of Chef Anthony Ha\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIngredients:\u003cbr\u003e1lb palm sugar\u003cbr\u003e1¼ cup fish sauce\u003cbr\u003e2 Tbsp garlic Minced\u003cbr\u003e4 Tbls lemongrass Minced\u003cbr\u003e2 Tbsp black pepper\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePreparation:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn a saucepan or pot, melt palm sugar in ¼ cup of water over low heat. Add everything else once dissolved. Let cool to room temperature. Marinate chops in ziploc bags overnight in the fridge or at least 6 hours. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOccasionally turn the pork chops over in the fridge to evenly distribute the marinade.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCarolina BBQ Marinade\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIngredients:\u003cbr\u003e1⁄2 cup pork or chicken stock\u003cbr\u003e2 1⁄2 cups cider vinegar\u003cbr\u003e3⁄4 cup ketchup\u003cbr\u003e2 1⁄2 Tbsp light brown sugar\u003cbr\u003e1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice\u003cbr\u003e1 Tbsp smoked paprika\u003cbr\u003e3⁄4 tsp kosher salt\u003cbr\u003e1⁄2 tsp freshly ground black pepper\u003cbr\u003e1⁄2 tsp garlic powder\u003cbr\u003e1⁄2 tsp onion powder\u003cbr\u003e1⁄4 tsp. chili powder\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePreparation:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn a saucepan or pot, heat all ingredients over medium-high heat until reduced by 2\/3rds. Let cool to room temperature and pour into a ziploc bag with the chops. Let marinate over night in the fridge. Occasionally turn the pork chops over in the fridge to evenly distribute the marinade.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSt. Anselm Restaurant's Bourbon Brined Pork Chop Recipe\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eby St. Anselm Restaurant Brooklyn, NY\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\"I’d given up on pork chops — always so dry and boring! — until I learned two ways to fix the problem: use a thick chop and brine it. This brine started as a sauce; I wanted to match bourbon’s sweet malt and vanilla flavors with pork, so I added a splash to melted butter. It later morphed into a boozy brine that could also be used with chicken, and I combined both in this recipe. Cabin Still is a great cooking bourbon, but you can use the cheapest bottle you’d be willing to drink.\" — Joe Carroll\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eFor the Bourbon Brine:\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e1 gallon water\u003cbr\u003e1 cup kosher salt\u003cbr\u003e1 cup packed dark brown sugar\u003cbr\u003e1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced\u003cbr\u003e1 head garlic, halved horizontally\u003cbr\u003e2 bay leaves\u003cbr\u003e1 cinnamon stick, preferably Mexican\u003cbr\u003e1 tablespoon black peppercorns\u003cbr\u003e1 tablespoon whole cloves\u003cbr\u003e¾ cup olive oil\u003cbr\u003e1 ½  cups bourbon\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eFor the Pork Chops:\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e6 Heritage breed Porterhouse Pork chops\u003cbr\u003e4 tablespoons butter\u003cbr\u003e1 tablespoon bourbon\u003cbr\u003eCoarse sea salt\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePreparation:\u003cbr\u003e1. In a large pot, combine all of the brine ingredients except the bourbon and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and stir in the bourbon. Let cool to room temperature, then transfer to a nonreactive container and refrigerate until cold.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e2. Put the pork chops in the cold brine and refrigerate for 8-12 hours.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e3. Remove the pork chops from the brine and pat dry with paper towels. Discard the brine.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e4. Grill the pork chops over medium-high heat (or cast iron pan),4-5mins per side until the temperature reaches 135℉. Transfer the pork to a platter and let rest for 5 minutes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e5. While the pork chops rest, in small skillet (if grilling, or the same pan you used to cook the chops), melt the butter over medium heat. Carefully add the bourbon and then tilt the pan away from you until it ignites (use a match or a lighter if using an electric stove). Let the alcohol burn off, then swirl the sauce until emulsified.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e6. Transfer the pork chops to plates and spoon some of the sauce over each chop. Sprinkle with coarse salt and serve.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[\/TABS]\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heritage Foods USA CA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40249596510266,"sku":"3pk pork chops, RW","price":50.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/files\/red_wattle_pig_drawing.jpg?v=1754334857"},{"product_id":"duroc-st-louis-ribs","title":"OLD SPOT ST. LOUIS RIBS — NOW 40% OFF","description":"[TABS]\n\u003ch5\u003eProduct\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSt. Louis Ribs\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOne slab, individually packed\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eOld Spot\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\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 class=\"p1\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eSale products must ship immediately. Additional discounts cannot be applied to sale items. \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBreed makes all the difference! When cooking meat low and slow, high levels of intramuscular fat and collagen are desired attributes and ones that heritage breeds like Red Wattle, Duroc, and Berkshire excel in. St. Louis ribs are the ultimate summertime grilling cut.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe St. Louis rib is the same as a spare rib, but with the deckle bone trimmed off making this cut a little more delicate while still yielding 11-12 meaty ribs per rack. Cooked low and slow on the grill, in a smoker, or in the oven, heritage breeds have delicious fat and marbling that becomes even more accentuated during the slow cooking process. As with all of our pork, this popular cut comes from healthy, pasture raised pigs and only need a little bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper to bring out their extraordinary flavor... but of course we understand if you want to get out a dry rub or the barbecue sauce!\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\/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\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 \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 \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\u003e1. Take the meat out of the refrigerator an hour prior to cooking.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e2. Season liberally with salt and pepper on all sides.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e3. Place in a roasting pan lined with a rack and cook at 450℉ for 15-20 minutes to create a golden-brown crust.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e4. Lower the oven temperature to 250℉ and cook for an additional 45 minutes to 1 hour per pound. Cook until the meat is tender and pulls back from the bone.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e5. Remove the roast from the oven and allow to cool for at least 10-15 minutes. For tacos, lettuce wraps, or sandwiches, shred the meat and crisp in a pan. Season or add sauce before enjoying with your favorite accompaniments.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[\/TABS]\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heritage Foods USA","offers":[{"title":"One 3-3.5lb slab","offer_id":40354622275642,"sku":"353 (two 4-4.5lb slabs OS)","price":36.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"One 3.5-4lb slab","offer_id":40354622242874,"sku":"353 (two 3.5-4lb slabs OS)","price":42.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/files\/stlouis-ribs131_378a4a07-b7b6-41b5-9330-a89d9e5d9a4a.jpg?v=1712326133"},{"product_id":"tamworth-signature-heritage-bacon","title":"TAMWORTH SIGNATURE HERITAGE BACON — NOW 40% OFF","description":"[TABS]\n\u003ch5\u003eProduct\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSignature Heritage Bacon\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eThree 1lb packs, sliced\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cem\u003eTamworth\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eSale products must ship immediately. Additional discounts cannot be applied to sale items. \u003c\/i\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\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eIngredients: \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003epork, 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\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":40449638793274,"sku":"3 pks TAM","price":41.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/files\/tamworth_bacon_shopify.jpg?v=1753374773"},{"product_id":"old-spot-signature-heritage-bacon-1","title":"OLD SPOT SIGNATURE HERITAGE BACON — NOW 40% OFF","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\u003cem\u003e\u003cem\u003eOld Spot\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eSale products must ship immediately. Additional discounts cannot be applied to sale items. \u003c\/i\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\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\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":40449639252026,"sku":"3 pks OS","price":41.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/files\/old_spot_bacon_shopify.jpg?v=1753374793"},{"product_id":"chicken-drumsticks-now-40-off-copy","title":"PLYMOUTH ROCK CHICKEN DRUMSTICKS — NOW 40% OFF","description":"[TABS]\n\u003ch5\u003eProduct\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHeritage Chicken Drumsticks\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e2-2.5lb total, skin-on\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePlymouth Rock\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eSale products must ship immediately. Additional discounts cannot be applied to sale items. \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eMuch like the thigh, drumsticks are made of dark meat, best for slow roasting or braising. They make for a striking presentation piece that does not sacrifice on flavor. Each part is laced with ribbons of sun-yellow fat that self-baste the bird as it renders, resulting in silky meat and crackly bronzed skin.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eKansas-based heritage farmer Frank Reese, who has made it his life’s work to preserve endangered breeds of poultry, has worked for years to maintain stronger lines of chickens. Reese has partnered with his first-ever protégé, Jed Greenberg of Chosen Farms, to raise and process heritage chickens in New Jersey. \u003cmeta charset=\"UTF-8\"\u003eHis flock is the only heritage breed line available online! \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“A chicken is no better than the farmer behind it. And the genetics, of course,” says Frank Reese, whose chickens are one of the only flocks in America to receive certification by the American Poultry Association, and the USDA, as 100% purebred Heritage, standards that were set in 1873 to define and defend best practices in American farming.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003ca rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Provisions - Heritage Foods\" href=\"https:\/\/heritagefoods.com\/collections\/larder-and-provisions\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eShop our Provisions\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/heritagefoods.com\/collections\/larder-and-provisions\" title=\"Provisions - Heritage Foods\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e for your favorite dipping sauces!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGood Shepherd Ranch and now, Chosen Farms, are the premier breeders and farms for America’s oldest line of poultry.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCertified Standardbred\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePasture Raised\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFree Ranging Flock\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eVegetarian Fed\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNaturally Mating\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAntibiotic Free from hatching to plate\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eFarm\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eChosen Farms is founded and operated by Jed Greenberg who has worked with Frank Reese at Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch for almost a decade, learning the art and history and skills needed to raise heritage breeds of poultry.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFrank is almost 75 years old and is considered the Godfather of American poultry so Jed plays a pivotal role as he is the one destined (and you could say being bred!) to inherit the responsibility of running the network of what is currently the only heritage breed (Standardbred) hatchery for rare breeds in America.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eJed's New Jersey farm is currently raising exclusively Good Shepherd genetics of chicken, turkey, and guinea fowl. Jed is working to spread heritage breeds to farms across the country as the Director of the Good Shepherd Conservancy of which his farm is a leading member. The Conservancy is working to build a hatching and education center, as well as a museum on the Kansas prairie, ensuring a future for rare breeds around the world.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eBreed\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eYour parts come from two breeds: \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe \u003cstrong\u003ePlymouth Rock\u003c\/strong\u003e, America’s first officially recognized breed of chicken, reigned as king of the United States’ broiler industry for over 100 years. Its reliability, adaptability, health, and quality kept it immensely popular until the rise of the Cornish cross hybrid in the mid-1900s.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhile today, millions of striped birds in the United States are sold each year bearing the name of this iconic breed, true Plymouth Rocks are few and far between. This storied past and the many important traits the Plymouth Rock holds all make it crucially important to the future of Standardbred broiler production in the United States.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe \u003cstrong\u003eNew Hampshire \u003c\/strong\u003ebreed is a beautifully red-feathered and fast-growing breed that epitomizes American innovation and quality. Prized for its rapid early growth, heavier breast development, and solid egg-laying ability, this newer breed was able to dethrone the Plymouth Rock as America’s #1 chicken in the 1930s.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCreated in the 1940s, the \u003cstrong\u003eDelaware\u003c\/strong\u003e breed is the youngest breed in our preservation program. Originating from the state that provides its name, it is the result of crossing a Barred Rock rooster and New Hampshire hen. This bird carries many of the benefits that made Rocks and New Hampshires favored and also sports a fully white under-fluff and pin feathers.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[\/TABS]\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heritage Foods USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41475819012154,"sku":"1pk (2-2.5#) Plymouth","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/files\/Chicken-Drumsticks-with-Lemony-Tahini-and-herb-salad_da3a1086-1260-4c3e-883d-c7ebaf2c49e4.jpg?v=1716565846"},{"product_id":"chicken-and-turkey-wing-pack","title":"TURKEY \u0026 CHICKEN WING 2 BREED TASTING KIT — NOW 40% OFF","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHeritage Turkey and Chicken Wing 2 Breed Tasting Kit\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFrom the Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch Network — 4-5lb total \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eSale products must ship immediately. Additional discounts cannot be applied to sale items. \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eWinging it does not need to mean eating factory farmed meat — only eat wings from birds that fly!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis package includes:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eNew Hampshire Chicken Wings, \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e2-2.5lb total, \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003emultiple pieces\u003cbr\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eStandard Bronze Turkey Wings, 2-3lb total, \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003emultiple pieces\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cb\u003eCertified Standardbred, Pasture Raised, Free Ranging Flock, Vegetarian Fed, Naturally Mating, and Antibiotic Free from hatching to plate.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese rare and endangered birds have been bred by \u003cstrong\u003eFrank Reese on the Good Shepherd Ranch in Kansas\u003c\/strong\u003e, the only remaining commercial USDA certified Standardbred heritage poultry farm in the U.S. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eOur turkey wings come from the \u003cstrong\u003eStandard Bronze\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003ebreed and o\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003eur chicken wings come from the \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNew Hampshire \u003c\/strong\u003ebreed.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003eThe \u003cstrong\u003eStandard Bronze\u003c\/strong\u003e was the first Standardbred turkey breed in America. \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e \u003cspan\u003eDeveloped in the 1840s and first shown at the first American Poultry Association show in 1873 in Buffalo New York the Bronze became the foundation for all domestic turkeys in the United States. It is known for its shimmering, coppery, gold color.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe New Hampshire \u003c\/strong\u003ebreed is a beautifully red-feathered and fast-growing breed that epitomizes American innovation and quality. Prized for its rapid early growth, heavier breast development, and solid egg-laying ability, this newer breed was able to dethrone the Plymouth Rock as America’s #1 chicken in the 1930s.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTo Prepare\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eExtra Juicy Turkey Wings\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'San Francisco', 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem;\"\u003e1. For the juiciest and most tender heritage turkey wings, bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Take the fully thawed turkey out of the refrigerator 30 minutes prior to cooking.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e2. Drain the excess liquid from the package over the sink, remove the wings from the packaging, and add them to the pot of boiling water. Season the water with a tsp of salt and 2 bay leaves. Simmer the wings in the water for 60 minutes.\u003cbr\u003e3. After 60 minutes, preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. Drain the wings and spread them out in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Season with salt, pepper, your favorite dry rub seasoning, and a light drizzle of olive oil on all sides. If you have bbq sauce, brush it on now and then re-apply more when you flip the wings in the next step.\u003cbr\u003e4. Bake the turkey wings for 15 minutes, then remove them from the oven and flip them. If you like the skin extra crispy, put them back into the oven for another 20 minutes, If you prefer them extra juicy, cook them for only 10 minutes longer then remove from the oven, toss with your favorite seasoning or BBQ sauce, and serve!\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eExtra Juicy Chicken Wings\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e1. For the juiciest and most tender heritage chicken wings, bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Take the fully thawed chicken out of the refrigerator 30 minutes prior to cooking.\u003cbr\u003e2. Drain the excess liquid from the package over the sink, remove the chicken wings from the packaging, and add them to the pot of boiling water. Season the water with a tsp of salt and 2 bay leaves. Simmer the chicken wings in the water for 30-40 minutes.\u003cbr\u003e3. After 30-40 minutes, preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. Drain the wings and spread them out in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Season with salt, pepper, your favorite dry rub seasoning, and a light drizzle of olive oil on all sides. If you have bbq sauce, brush it on now and then re-apply more when you flip the wings in the next step.\u003cbr\u003e4. Bake the chicken wings for 15 minutes, then remove them from the oven and flip them. If you like the skin extra crispy, put them back into the oven for another 15-20 minutes, If you prefer them extra juicy, only cook them for 5 minutes longer.  \u003cbr\u003e5. Remove the wings from the oven, toss with your favorite seasoning or sauce, and serve!\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heritage Foods USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40501164179514,"sku":"chicken wing 1pk (2-2.5lb), turkey wing (2-3lb TOTAL)","price":51.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/files\/turkey_chicken_wings.jpg?v=1738165046"},{"product_id":"center-cut-pork-chop-2-breed-flight-1","title":"CENTER-CUT PORK LOIN CHOP 4 BREED TASTING KIT — NOW 40% OFF","description":"[TABS]\n\u003ch5\u003eProduct\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCenter-Cut Pork Loin 4 Breed Tasting Kit\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTwo 12-16 oz center-cut pork chops each from: \u003cem\u003eOld Spot,\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cem\u003eTamworth, Berkshire, and Red Wattle\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003eEach breed is clearly marked.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eSale products must ship immediately. Additional discounts cannot be applied to sale items. \u003c\/i\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\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThese thick-cut chops are a meat lover’s dream come true. They are cut from the center part of the pork loin — each loin yields five supremely marbled double-cut chops.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\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\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\u003e1. Take the meat out of the refrigerator an hour prior to cooking.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e2. Season liberally with salt and pepper on all sides.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e3. Preheat a heavy bottomed pan over medium-high heat until just about smoking.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e4. Add a tablespoon of oil and sear chops for 3-9 minutes on each side depending on its size. For pieces with a fat cap, try to render the fat on its edge for an additional few minutes. For larger cuts, add a few knobs of butter to the pan along with a clove of garlic and 2-3 sprigs of thyme, sage, or rosemary and baste for the final 3-5 minutes of cooking.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e5. Cook until desired internal temperature is reached. (140-145℉ for pork)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e6. Let rest for 3-5 minutes before carving.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[\/TABS]\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heritage Foods USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40873670803514,"sku":"one 1.5-2lb pack each from OS, Berkshire, RW and Tamworth","price":113.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/files\/hf_center_cut_chops_ecomm_1.jpg?v=1747410067"},{"product_id":"duroc-signature-heritage-bacon-now-40-off","title":"DUROC SIGNATURE HERITAGE BACON — NOW 40% OFF","description":"[TABS]\n\u003ch5\u003eProduct\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSignature Heritage Bacon\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThree 1lb packs, sliced\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cem\u003eDuroc\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eSale products must ship immediately. Additional discounts cannot be applied to sale items. \u003c\/i\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\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eIngredients: \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003epork, 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 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, 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":40951816749114,"sku":"3 pks DUROC","price":41.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/files\/duroc_bacon_shopify.jpg?v=1753374743"},{"product_id":"porterhouse-pork-chop-4-breed-flight","title":"PORTERHOUSE PORK CHOP 4 BREED TASTING KIT — NOW 40% OFF","description":"[TABS]\n\u003ch5\u003eProduct\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePorterhouse Pork Chop 4 Breed Tasting Kit\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eEight 14 oz Porterhouse Pork Chops\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eSale products must ship immediately. Additional discounts cannot be applied to sale items. \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eYour package will include two chops each from each of these heritage breeds: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eBerkshire, Red Wattle, Old Spot, and Duroc\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eEach breed is clearly marked and information is included in each package.\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\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOur Number One Best Seller! The porterhouse is truly a fantastic cut — the T-Bone of pork. Cut thick and marbled gorgeously, each piece includes both the tenderloin and loin section of the pig, making these chops a unique treat, easy to cook (just a few minutes on each side), and satisfying for even the most demanding meat lover!\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\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\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\u003e1. Take the meat out of the refrigerator an hour prior to cooking.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e2. Season liberally with salt and pepper on all sides.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e3. Preheat a heavy bottomed pan over medium-high heat until just about smoking.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e4. Add a tablespoon of oil and sear chops for 3-9 minutes on each side depending on its size. For pieces with a fat cap, try to render the fat on its edge for an additional few minutes. For larger cuts, add a few knobs of butter to the pan along with a clove of garlic and 2-3 sprigs of thyme, sage, or rosemary and baste for the final 3-5 minutes of cooking.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e5. Cook until desired internal temperature is reached. (140-145℉ for pork)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e6. Let rest for 3-5 minutes before carving.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[\/TABS]\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heritage Foods USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40964780163130,"sku":"4 packs total, one from NBCH, RW, OS, Duroc","price":67.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/files\/porterhouse_breed_tasting_pic.jpg?v=1754405704"},{"product_id":"tamworth-center-cut-single-pork-loin-chops","title":"TAMWORTH CENTER-CUT SINGLE PORK LOIN CHOPS — NOW 40% OFF","description":"[TABS]\n\u003ch5\u003eProduct\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCenter-Cut Single Pork Loin Chops\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003eTwo 12-16 oz chops\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003eT\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003eamworth\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eSale products must ship immediately. Additional discounts cannot be applied to sale items. \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese single bone chops will be your go-to for weeknight meals. They are cut from the center part of the pork loin — each loin yields ten supremely marbled single-cut chops.\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\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHumanely raised\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e100% antibiotic free\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHeritage breeds have 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 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\u003e1. Take the meat out of the refrigerator an hour prior to cooking.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e2. Season liberally with salt and pepper on all sides.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e3. Preheat a heavy bottomed pan over medium-high heat until just about smoking.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e4. Add a tablespoon of oil and sear chops for 3-9 minutes on each side depending on its size. For pieces with a fat cap, try to render the fat on its edge for an additional few minutes. For larger cuts, add a few knobs of butter to the pan along with a clove of garlic and 2-3 sprigs of thyme, sage, or rosemary and baste for the final 3-5 minutes of cooking.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e5. Cook until desired internal temperature is reached. (140-145℉ for pork)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e6. Let rest for 3-5 minutes before carving.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[\/TABS]\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heritage Foods USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41621587230778,"sku":"center-cut chop SINGLE bone (1pk 1.5-2#, Tamworth)","price":28.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/products\/Center-cut1.jpg?v=1748353720"},{"product_id":"berkshire-center-cut-double-pork-loin-chops-now-40-off","title":"BERKSHIRE CENTER-CUT DOUBLE PORK LOIN CHOPS — NOW 40% OFF","description":"[TABS]\n\u003ch5\u003eProduct\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCenter-Cut Double Pork Loin Chops\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003eTwo 24-28 oz chops\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003eBerkshire\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\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 class=\"p1\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eSale products must ship immediately. Additional discounts cannot be applied to sale items. \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese thick-cut chops are a meat lover’s dream come true. They are cut from the center part of the pork loin — each loin yields five supremely marbled double-cut chops.\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\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHumanely raised\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e100% antibiotic free\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHeritage breeds have 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 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\u003e1. Take the meat out of the refrigerator an hour prior to cooking.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e2. Season liberally with salt and pepper on all sides.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e3. Preheat a heavy bottomed pan over medium-high heat until just about smoking.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e4. Add a tablespoon of oil and sear chops for 3-9 minutes on each side depending on its size. For pieces with a fat cap, try to render the fat on its edge for an additional few minutes. For larger cuts, add a few knobs of butter to the pan along with a clove of garlic and 2-3 sprigs of thyme, sage, or rosemary and baste for the final 3-5 minutes of cooking.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e5. Cook until desired internal temperature is reached. (140-145℉ for pork)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e6. Let rest for 3-5 minutes before carving.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[\/TABS]\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heritage Foods USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41621612920890,"sku":"119 (1pk 3-3.5#) berk","price":46.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/files\/centercut_double_porkchop_shopify.jpg?v=1754926073"},{"product_id":"tamworth-country-rib-pork-loin-roast","title":"TAMWORTH COUNTRY-RIB PORK LOIN ROAST — NOW 40% OFF","description":"[TABS]\n\u003ch5\u003eProduct\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCountry-Rib Pork Loin Roast\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eOne 2-2.5lb roast\u003cbr\u003eTamworth\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eSale products must ship immediately. Additional discounts cannot be applied to sale items. \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe country rib is called by many names including the three-rib rack, the farmer's cut and the shoulder chop.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is a centerpiece served at so many of America’s greatest restaurants. The country rib is loved because it is a chop that offers some of the richness and texture of the boston butt since it is cut from the shoulder end of the loin section. The country rib lends itself equally well to the grill or oven.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEach country rib roast has two to three chops that can be separated with a typical kitchen knife. Cut before searing or grilling the chops or coat the piece in salt, pepper and your favorite herbs to roast it whole.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFormer restaurant critic of \u003cem\u003eThe \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e, Frank Bruni, wrote about our country rib: “In a crazily porky city, the Red Wattle chop that chef Jean Adamson serves at Vinegar Hill House in Brooklyn got my attention, respect and love: it’s a big hunk of superior meat…\" \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHumanely raised\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e100% antibiotic-free\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eRaised by independent family farmers\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eHeritage breeds have 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 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\u003e1. Take the roast out of the refrigerator an hour prior to cooking.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e2. Preheat your oven to 450℉.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e3. Season liberally with salt and pepper on all sides.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e4. Sear on all sides in a hot pan until browned.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e5. Move to a roasting pan lined with a rack and cook at 450℉ for 15-20 mins for an even crust.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e6. Lower the oven temperature to 300℉ and cook for 30 minutes, checking every 15 minutes thereafter until the roast reaches your desired internal temperature. (for pork 140℉ for an even medium with slight pinkish hue in the center) The internal temperature will continue to rise slightly after leaving the oven. Let rest for 10-15 minutes before slicing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSee recipe below for a Grilled Heritage Country Rib Chop from Union Square Cafe!\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e_______________\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGrilled Heritage Country Rib Chop \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eCourtesy of Chef Lena Ciardullo\/Union Square Cafe\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIngredients:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e1 packed pint of Picked Parsley\u003cbr\u003e1 packed cup of Picked Cilantro\u003cbr\u003e1 packed cup De-Seeded and Chopped Shishito Pepper\u003cbr\u003e1 Clove Garlic\u003cbr\u003eOlive Oil to blend\u003cbr\u003eSalt to taste\u003cbr\u003e3-4# Country Rib Roasts (Sliced into chops)\u003cbr\u003e2 Ripe Peaches or Nectarines (sliced into wedges and grilled)\u003cbr\u003eLime Juice (as needed 2-3 limes)\u003cbr\u003eBaby Kale\/Spinach (or other baby greens of your liking)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eInstructions:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e1. Put shishitos, garlic, and cilantro into a food processor or blender\u003cbr\u003e2. Add enough olive oil to blend\u003cbr\u003e3. After the ingredients come together, add in the parsley, more olive oil, and a big pinch of salt. Blend until smooth.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMethod:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e1. Cut the country rib into individual chops, season liberally with salt and pepper, and then rub with ½ the above recipe before cooking as a seasoning rub (reserve the rest to make a dressing for the final plate). Cook country ribs on the grill. When cooked to medium (or your desired doneness), allow the pork to rest.\u003cbr\u003e2. In the meantime, grill some slices of your favorite stone fruit (we use yellow peaches), shishitos (or other peppers), and wedges of red onions.\u003cbr\u003e3. While that is on the grill, mix the reserved rub with lime juice and salt to make a dressing.  Once all the garnish is grilled, toss in a bowl with baby kale or spinach and dress with a drizzle of the dressing. Serve with the country rib and extra dressing to dip in as you go.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[\/TABS]\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Heritage Foods USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41621625634874,"sku":"76 (1pk 2-2.5lb, tam)","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2602\/4380\/products\/crib138.jpg?v=1629230732"}],"url":"https:\/\/heritagefoods.com\/collections\/a-25th-anniversary-rare-occasion.oembed","provider":"Heritage Foods","version":"1.0","type":"link"}