Directions for Farm Day

We are looking forwarding to hosting our Farm Day on May 07, 2011 from noon to 4 pm. Please use the map below for directions. If you have questions, please feel free to contact us. The map will be easier to view if you click the blue "View larger map" text below.


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Farm Day and Slow Food Day!

We will be hosting two fantastic events in the next few weeks!

The first event on Saturday April 30th will be the Culinary Tour to Hog Heaven.  This event is being sponsored by Slow Food Utah and led by Jim Light the Executive Chef of Viking Cooking School.  Jim has chartered a bus to help transport people from SLC to our farm in Vernon.  Participants will meet in SLC for a light breakfast before heading out to our farm.  Once here, we will offer a tour of the farm, answer questions, and get to know each other.  Jim will then work his culinary magic on the grill with all you can eat pork.  You need not be a member of Slow Food to participate.  Knowing Jim, I am sure he will be sharing cooking tips as he prepares the food.  This will be a relaxing day in Vernon with beautiful views, fresh air, great food, and good company with fellow Foodies.  If you need a break from the city life, this is a great way to recharge your batteries.  Sign up at by clicking here.

Our second event is the following Saturday on May 7th from noon to 4pm.  This will be our first Farm Day at the new farm!  This will be a great time to bring the family to see where food comes from.  We are planning some activities for those wanting to learn more about our farm or simply experience the country life.  This will be an open house, meaning no set schedule.  Folks can come and stay the whole time or just poke their heads in to say hi and see what's going on.  We plan to have baby chicks for kids (and adults) to see and hold.  Of course there will be the pigs to watch playing out in the field.  We may bring one of our cows home that recently had a calf.  We will also cook up some samples of pork and beef that people can try.  Some of our turkeys have gone broody and we are hoping that they will hatch out some little ones around this weekend.  We are kicking around the idea of a lard rendering demonstration for those interested.  We will also have a seed planting station for kids who are interested in learning a little bit about gardening. 

For those who would like to make a full day of their trip to Vernon, we can recommend some beautiful canyons to hike.  There are lots of trails to bike on and good places to take four wheelers and dirt bikes.  We also have the Vernon Reservoir just ten minutes from our farm that usually has good fishing.  There are also several historical sites like the Pony Express Trail markers that are fun to see.  Our local cafe, the Silver Sage grills up some great burgers for those who get hungry.  They also stay stocked on plenty of drinks should it be a warm day.  Last year we had people bring picnics and eat while they watched the animals.  Hollie and I will also be available to talk and answer questions.

Like last year, we ask that those who have children come with the understanding that this is a working farm.  There is barbed wire, machinery, and live animals that can all cause harm to unattended children.  If it is rainy it may be muddy, if it is windy it may be dusty, if it is sunny there is sunburn, so please come prepared for the elements.  Our hope is that everybody has a safe and enjoyable time.  We felt last year was a huge success as everybody seemed to have a good time.  Feel free to invite coworkers, neighbors, and family along.  For those interested in purchasing meats from our farm, we will be taking orders.  However, please understand that there is absolutely no obligation.  We love what we do and find joy in sharing this with others.

I will post an update to this event with maps, directions, and more official list of activities.  Feel free to contact us with questions about either event.

We hope to have a good turnout so please mark your calenders and spread the word!!!

Farm T-Shirts

I often mention that we have such wonderful customers.  And that's the truth.  We have had several customers come up with some great suggestions.  Recently, it was suggested that we come up with some T-shirts with our farm name on them.  While I love the idea, I am not particularly fond of wearing "business T-shirts".  You know, the kind that are simply Hanes undershirts with a business logo on them.  You usually catch one at a parade and end up using it to paint or garden in.  The exception to this is if you visit a fun place like Hard Rock Cafe, Harley Davidson, or Disneyland.  The difference is that these T-shirts are somewhat stylish to wear.  When I received the suggestion I started trying to come up a design.  However, no matter what I tried, it ended up looking like a "free painting T-shirt".  I was explaining my dilemma to my friend Rich (same guy who mixes our pig feed for us).  He is much more creative than I am and suggested that I simplify the shirt and add some color.  I went back to the drawing board and things started to come together.  While I don't think I will ever cut it on a show like Project Runway, I do think we came up with something that I would feel comfortable wearing around in public.

What I would like to do is simply put out some feelers to see if there is any interest in these T-shirts.  After all, who would trust what a pig farmer thinks is cool?  Hollie and I ended up selecting shirts that are a little distressed.  Of course this added to the cost over simply using a "Hanes Beefy T".  Basically if enough people (20+) would like to buy a shirt, we can get the price down to $20/shirt.  That is our cost.  Our motivation for doing this is simply a little free advertising.  We would love to hear any feedback!

PS. For those who don't follow us on Facebook, we are planning our next farm day! This will be a great family outing with fun activities for all ages. Tentatively we are looking at the first Saturday in May. More details to follow!
 
Description of Men's T-shirt from the manufacturer: Olive shirt with harvest gold print
Sizes: S, M, L, XL, XXL
Features: 3.8 oz. All colors are a poly/cotton blend. Features custom vintage wash and worn edges for a broken-in feel.
Comments: Runs Small. This shirt fits and feels like no other! This ultra-soft style feels like you've had this tee in your wardrobe forever.

Description of Women's T-shirt from the manufacturer: Dark Brown shirt with light pink print
Sizes: S, M, L, XL, XXL
Features: 3.8 oz. All colors are a poly/cotton blend. Junior fit. Be sure to check sizing information. Features custom vintage wash and worn edges for a broken-in feel. Open neckline with capped sleeves and fitted body. This shirt is slightly sheer in the color white.
Comments: This ultra-soft style feels like you've had this tee in your wardrobe forever

Pork Milk?

We are a fairly modern farm in regards to our use of the internet and online presence.  So if somebody is searching for something online in terms of farming and Utah, we often come up in some of the top search results. This means when somebody has a wacky question such as, oh I don't know, something like, "Can I come and milk one of your pigs?", we would be the farm that they call to ask such a thing.  This really happened!  Turns out, there is a radio show in Pennsylvania called The Mediocre Show.  On their show, they have a segment called, "One meat to rule them all." where they have been posing the question, "If you could only eat one meat for the rest of your life, what would you choose?"  If a person were to choose beef, that means that they would also get milk, cheese, and other dairy products.  Choose poultry and you would get eggs etc... Obviously pigs don't lay eggs and we don't get milk from them...or do we, rather, could we?

While pork is delicious and offers all kinds of yummy products like bacon, pork chops, ham, sausage, salami etc... there isn't an extra byproduct like there is with beef and poultry placing pork at a seemingly disadvantage.  Eric Tomorrow, one of the shows hosts and avid pork fan has been trying to promote pork as "the meat to rule them all."  However as the leader of "Team Pork", Eric has struggled to convince others that pork is the way to go.  Time and time again, beef has beat out pork because of the dairy that is inherent to the beef choice.  So Eric posed the question, why can't/don't we have pork milk?  He decided that the only way to find out was to try some pork milk.

Apparently, The Mediocre Show has a strong following here in Utah.  Here, they found that there are several pig farms in Utah, our farm being one of them.  This past weekend they were in Utah for a special event for the Utahns that follow their show .  They decided that while here, they would try and milk a pig.  When they called me about it, I thought it sounded kind of funny and agreed to let them come to our farm.  They hired a camera man to film their adventure. On Sunday, they showed up ready to prove once and for all that pork milk was not only a possibility but a superior and delicious product good enough to convert Team Beef members to their cause.  Milking a pig proved more difficult than anticipated!  There were a lot of laughs and witty one liners.  Eric was determined however to try some pork milk.  After I repeatedly failed to draw milk from the pig, Eric nuzzled his way in between the nursing piglets and drank milk right from the pig!  He proclaimed that it was delicious with a hint of bacon.  Good as it may have tasted, we concluded that the reason we don't have pork milk is that logistically, it is too difficult to acquire.  We would like to thank our good friends and neighbors the Petersens for allowing us to try milking their Tamworth pigs since we didn't have any pigs that were lactating at the time. You can read more about their Tamworths here.

Eric, his lovely wife Hope (co-host), and the rest of their crew were a lot of fun.  We had a great time with them and hope they will stop by next time they are in Utah.  They will be posting a video of their adventures on their website.  I will post a link to it on this blog when it becomes available.  Meanwhile you can listen to an audio clip of their pork milk adventure that they shared the following morning on the X96 Radio From Hell morning show.  You can find their podcast from the 7am hour on 21 March 2011 by clicking here.  After a couple of minutes of talk about their burly beards, they talk about their visit to our farm and milking a pig.  It is quite comical as you can expect if you have ever listened to Kerry, Bill, and Gina on X96.  As owner of a family farm, I must warn that not all of the content is suitable for young listeners.  I do appreciate Bill Allred's complimentary plug for our farm.  (His family visited our farm last year.)

Every once in a while we get an unusual request, this one has topped them all...so far.  Who knew being a farmer could offer such fun?  If we ever figure out a way to milk those pigs, we just might offer pork milk cheese! : )

Modern Farmer

Modern technology has really changed the opportunities for farmers.  For example, prior to the mid 90's before most people had internet in their homes, our farm in Vernon, UT (remote location) would have struggled to find customers.  As we were getting started, we did lots of research and talked to many farms across the country.  In the past few years, we have have found and been able to get advice from farmers in Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, Texas, Oklahoma, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Georgia, Pennsylvania, New York, and Vermont.  Every one of these farms we found through online searches.  The information we were able to glean from our conversations with these farmers helped us get off to a good start.  Conversely, the vast majority of our customers have found us via the internet.  In addition, we have had many phone calls from other beginning farmers call and ask a slew of the same questions we had when we started.

We are grateful for organizations online like Utah's Own, CSA Utah, LocalHarvest.org, American Berkshire Association, and APPPA.  These have really helped us get our name out and be easily accessible to our customers. 

It is fun to think about some of the modern technology that allows small, rurally located businesses to operate.  Think of the looks you would have received if you had mentioned some of our common marketing tools to a person 20 year ago.  Tools such as blogs, Facebook, PayPal, iPhone, email and so forth.  The iPhone is one of my favorites, from it I can send and receive texts, emails, post pics and video to facebook, update this blog, accept PayPal payments, transfer funds from one bank account to another, use GPS to find an address in a rural area, call customers and suppliers and so forth.  It is a wonderful tool that helps increase our efficiency.  When we run our errands, Hollie will often utilize the time while I am driving to reply to emails or call and place orders with vendors.

Our blog and website feature tools that allow us to see which pages are accessed most often.  We can even see the key words somebody searched to find our website/blog.  The other day I was reviewing this data when my eye caught the search words, "christian christiansen pig".  I couldn't help but wonder if they thought I was a pig and were searching to see if anybody else thought the same and happened to have a website about it or if they were simply trying to find out about our delicious Berkshire pork.  : ) Hopefully the latter.

Although we are a local operation, buy all of our inputs locally, and sell all of our products locally, it is all possible through our modern technology.  Without it, we would not exist or at least it would have taken years to reach the point we are at.  So if you happen to drive by and see a farmer perched up on his tractor out in the field with this thumbs busily hammering out an email, know that you are witnessing the Modern Farmer.

No Power on the Farm

The storm knocked the power out. Fortunately, we have a back up generator. However, most of the power needs to be allocated to the well pump, freezers, and heat lamps for the animals. Since the stove uses too much power with all of these items going, dinner is cooked on the wood stove.  The beautiful Chef Hollie is serving fried potatoes with pork sausage.  It is an inconvenience we find very cozy.

Impostor Berkshire Pigs

 

Can you spot the impostor Berkshires above? After reading this blog post you won't have a problem.  Scroll to the bottom for the answer.

I had a very eye opening experience yesterday.  However, the story actually began last week which is where I will start.  I received a lead on some Berkshire pigs that a man was wanting to sell.  Normally, I only buy pigs from one of three farms that I have established excellent relationships with.  Additionally, they have invested in the highest quality stock as well as agree to produce piglets to our humane and natural standards.  So when I called on these pigs this man had, I drilled him with questions.  What kind of feed had they been started on? Where did the breeding pair come from? How had he been treating them? Had he clipped tails and teeth? Had he been using antibiotics?  The man, a farmer, assured me that he had been feeding them grain grown on his own farm, had not docked tails and clipped teeth, and that the breeding pair we were both papered Berkshires.  Everything seemed good and the price was right so I agreed to meet him to have a look at the pigs as well as check out where/how he had been raising the pigs.

We set a time to meet (yesterday).  When I pulled up, I couldn't see any pigs anywhere.  I figured they were in a pen behind a barn or something like that.  I met the farmer and after exchanging greetings he asked if I was ready to see the pigs.  He led me over to livestock trailer where he had the pigs "ready to be loaded".  He acted as if he was offering me a convenience but all I saw was a red flag.  I asked where he kept his other pigs especially his breeding stock as I wanted to see their characteristics.  He mentioned that they were kept at another place and then said he had already sold the sow.  Another red flag.

Next I looked inside the trailer.  I saw ten black pigs and one white pig.  However, not one of the black pigs was a Berkshire.  They looked like Hampshire pigs (a commercial breed of pigs).  The white pig was what is called a "Blue Butt" which is the coloring you get when you cross a Hampshire with a Yorkshire.  I asked about the white pig, and the man laughed and replied, "Can you believe that?  He is out of the same litter!"  I told him that none of his pigs were Berkshires and that I wouldn't be able to buy his Hampshire pigs.  He argued that he had "papers" proving that they were Berkshires.  I told him that he could show me all the papers he wanted, but that his pigs were not Berkshires.  And that perhaps, whoever sold him the pigs had sent him with the wrong pigs to go with his papers.  I pointed out all the distinguishing features of the Berkshire and showed him how his pigs differed.  I then explained that one of the unique things with Berkshire pigs is that nearly all of their identifying characteristics are recessive traits.  For example, Berkshire pigs have six white points consisting of four white "socks", a white tail, and a white face.  Poland China pigs have the same markings but have floppy ears instead of erect ears (additionally, they have a thinner coat than Berkshires).  Berkshires have a short snout and a curved back unlike commercial breeds that have an unnaturally straight back.  They also don't have the defined hams and muscular tone that commercial breeds have.  Many breeders have successfully bred Berkshires to look more like commercial breeds in this regard, but we prefer the old fashioned body type.  Interestingly, the commercial breeds are becoming more difficult to breed naturally as a pigs anatomy isn't designed to reproduce with huge hams and straight backs.  If a Berkshire pig doesn't have all of the above characteristics, then they are not a purebred Berkshire. 

Of course the body shape and appearance isn't the reason that chefs in any fine dining restaurant prefer Berkshires (Kurobuta) over any other breed. The reason their preference is the Berkshire is because of the  incredible quality of pork.  Berkshire pork has three characteristics that set it apart from the rest.  First, is the marbling of the meat.  Berkshire pork is finely marbled throughout; even in traditionally "dry cuts" like the ham and loin.  Second, the deep red color of the meat is unique in appearance and flavor.  It is a reminder that this breed hasn't been bred to look like chicken which has been the goal of commercial producers for decades.  Berkshire or Kurobuta pork is definitely not, the other white meat.  Lastly, is the pH level of the pork.  Berkshire pork has the lowest pH level which leads to all kinds of wonderful cooking qualities and moisture retention that chefs can explain much better than me.  But I will add that this is why commercial pork is injected with brine solution at the stores. These characteristics are also recessive traits which is why cross breeding doesn't give as much of the Berkshire benefits as many would assume.  We know this because of experience and later research (when the pork didn't turn out as well as we had hoped).  : )

I think I finally convinced the man that he didn't have purebred Berkshires, maybe some Hampshires that had been crossed to a Berkshire.  I was frustrated that had already sold the sow and some other pigs as purebred Berkshires.  This means that somebody else is now raising and selling pigs as purebred Berkshires when in fact they are far from Berkshires.  Berkshire pigs take longer to reach a butcher weight, consume more feed, and produce smaller litters.  This adds a significant amount to our production costs.  Of course we feel it is well worth it as I am sure many of our customers do as well.  Part of our farming philosophy has been to ethically and humanely raise premium quality meat at a price that is affordable.  In other words, while we could probably charge more for our pork and beef, we don't because we want average families to have a viable alternative to the meat raised under traditional commercial practices.  Raising cross bred pigs is an easy way to lower production costs.  However, it also lowers the quality and flavor of the pork significantly.  Sadly, I know the person who bought these pigs.  They have been marketing their pork as being the same as ours only at a lower price.  A price that isn't sustainable for long term business.  They are new to raising pigs even though they portray themselves has having been doing this for years.  I am sure that they are convinced that they have purebred Berkshires and are not intentionally being deceitful.  The lower price they are able to charge is simply reflective of the lower input costs of the crossbred pigs they raise. 


There is little I can do about people who advertise something other than what it actually is whether they do so intentionally or not.  Of course it is a little concerning that enough of them could ruin our little niche by offering a hybrid pig as a purebred Berkshire at a price that is lower than what a purebred pig can we raised for.  However, we will worry about that if/when that day comes.  In the meantime, we hope to educate our customers with lots of information so that they know what to look for if Berkshire pork is what they are after.  Hollie reassures me constantly that we have the most loyal customers of any business she has ever seen.  That is certainly true.  Our customers have been so good to us.  Maybe there really is something to that whole Karma thing. : )  Besides there is more to a pig than just purebred or not.  There is also the treatment and diet of the pig that play equally distinguishing factors in the quality of the pork.  For those who would like the real deal and not an impostor pig you can order here.   : )


Answers to the pictures at the top of the page:
First pic: Hampshire
Second pic: Poland China
Third pic: Berkshire