By Heather Lang
We look like many other families: high school sweethearts that have been together for a couple decades, with 3 energetic children who disagree with each other more times than not. We proudly reside in North Dakota and will stop everything to help out community, friends and family.
But what makes us, US? What makes us wake up every day and why did we decide to raise our children the way we are?
We are proud of our heritage and we appreciate history. All 3 of our children are named after presidents plus they are also the 5th working generation on my husband’s family farm that was established in 1906. My husband is definitely a history connoisseur. We make it a point to work in a history lesson on any vacation or even daily activities. I try to do my part by telling our story about our heritage along with the history of the farm to anyone who will listen. We are proud of our heritage. And so it was obvious for us to raise Heritage Pork.
Why we chose heritage breed pigs
Pigs had been raised on our farm in the past but due to the huge downfall in prices it wasn’t profitable, so we sold off all the pigs. Fast forward a decade or so. Prices were up a bit (not great or extreme, but up), plus we now had kids that were of age to start being more involved with farm chores. We wanted to give them a few responsibilities and decided to bring a handful of pigs back onto our farm. It quickly escalated into many more.
Heritage is to meat what heirloom is to tomatoes: traditional breeds being revived for a wider range of flavor. There are 8 Heritage breeds: Berkshire, Hampshires, Duroc, Tamworths, Gloucestershire Old Spots, Mangalitsa , Ossabaw and Red Wattle.
These breeds are older breeds. The sows have a reputation for being excellent caring mothers for their piglets with little to no help. They are typically not aggressive and tend to be outstanding foragers (meaning they eat off of pastures). This gives their meat flavor that is highly sought after by 5-star restaurant chefs.
Remember the slogan “Pork, the other white meat”? Heritage pork is far from white. Actually, some may mistake it for a steak when strictly looking at the coloring. Our pork is a dark red, but it is also juicy and full of flavor.
If you’d like to know more about the individual characteristics of each of the Heritage breeds heritagefoodsusa.com explains it well.
And just know that, no matter what your preference is in pork, farmers are taking good care of their animals to make sure you get the best product possible.