Obviously, the first thing I'd need was a source for the hog. I wanted a heritage breed, raised locally on pasture. The problem is that you can't just go to the store and ask for one. The only place I'd encountered one was at the previously mentioned Farm to Table event put on by the good folks who do our CSA - and sadly Mike and Judy didn't have any that would be ready for my timeline (which was as soon as possible - that stuff was too good to wait for!). I asked them if they could point me in the direction of another source and they were happy to do so. That's a neat thing about your local farmer... these folks that are trying to keep things local. Mike was more interested that I find someone who was active in the local food community and trying to raise their animals in a respectable way, than he was concerned about losing a sale to a "competitor".
Sadly, as with anything dealing with people, there are good ones and bad ones. After numerous text messages, phone calls, voicemails, emails, websites that didn't work, I'd learned a few things;
- a good hog farmer isn't necessarily a good business manager
- just because a hog farmer is local doesn't mean he's part of the "local food" movement
- one farmer's interpretation of pasture isn't always in line with what I thought it meant
- not all farmers believe that hogs should be raised on pasture and that this whole idea is bunk
- some farmers will tell you what you want to hear, even when it ain't true
- when you find someone on the up and up, give them your business so they'll be around next time
One farmer told me that his hogs were on pasture. When I asked him what type of forage made up most of their diet, he said Brand X feed. Turns out they were "confined" on pasture (meaning NOT on a hog-barn) and fed the same feed that we were trying to steer clear of.
Used without permission from Mountain Creek Farm
One farmer told me that you can't raise hogs on pasture. Another said that heritage breeds "ain't good for meat, just for fat".
Another said that he raised purebred Mulefoot hogs on pasture with minimal amounts of supplemental non-GMO organic feed. His prices were lower than any I'd seen and he could deliver however much I wanted, whenever I wanted it, wherever I wanted it. Sounded perfect - I asked him where he was located and he replied not too far from me and that he'd be happy to deliver for free if I ordered a certain amount or more. When I mentioned that I might like to drop by and see his operation, having never seen a pastured hog farm before, the emails stopped. No replies to my text messages either. When I finally did get an answer, it was a terse one-liner that said, "Sorry, we don't have any more available." Wow! He sold out fast. My guess is that his hogs were anything but what he claimed they were.
So after all that, here's my checklist - your potential supplier should meet most of this criteria:
- you should expect the farmer to be able to tell you what breeds they raise (not insist that what you are looking for is a bad idea)
- you should expect the farmer to be able to tell you what they feed their hogs and what their pasture is made up of
- you should expect them to tell you if they use hormones or anti-biotics in their herd at all and if they do, for what reasons
- you should be able to visit their farm (there ARE legitimate concerns with contamination and the spread of disease to a otherwise healthy herd and in those cases, you should be able to get some sort of third party confirmation on their claims).
So where do you start looking? Word of mouth helps. Get connected with like-minded folks. Check out your local farmer's market if you have one. Ask around. Check with your local butcher shop (if you have one... most people are stuck with their grocer's meat department and those guys likely won't even know what you are looking for - no disrespect to them at all - just outside their scope). Check with the breeder list at the Livestock Conservancy.
I contacted a couple of the better regarded local meat processors and abattoirs in the state and asked them who was raising the best meat. Be careful here though as what you consider best may not be what the local 4H judges consider best. Might be great meat by commercial standards but that's not what I was looking for.
Check with your Facebook contacts - there are several closed groups on Facebook that have been very helpful in my quest - in fact, the farmer I ended up using was referred to me by someone on the "Sausage Debauchery" Facebook group. Check out Craigslist...
Point being is that you'll know the right farmer when you find them - just trust your gut. For what it was worth, the guy that Mike referred me to was willing but we couldn't make the logistics work.
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