Natural Pork
How We Raise Our Pigs
Pigs are intelligent, sensitive, social animals and we make sure they are treated with dignity at Turnbow Flat Farm. We raise a berkshire cross for hybrid vigor and the famous berkshire taste. The pigs are raised on grass but have shelter from the sun and are allowed to wallow, root, play and exercise as much as they want. Just in case some of them get lazy we keep the water and food at opposite ends of the paddock to help encourage muscle development. Our pigs don’t eat garbage but instead are fed an all-natural diet free of antibiotics and hormones to supplement grass and bugs and other things they can find in the pasture. Pigs also do important work at the farm from time to time: they are great for tilling new ground, sealing ponds, removing tree stumps and aerating compost. As a result of all this the pigs get to express their natural tendencies and lead happy lives while producing truly excellent quality pork for us and our customers. The meat is lean, firm, flavorful and nutritious just as you’d expect from a production system like this.
How We Sell Our Pork
Pork is sold by the whole or half and includes cutting to your specifications, wrap and freeze. Because we use local butchers we can not sell individual cuts from the freezer and all animals must be purchased before they are processed. We believe this is better for the animals as they avoid stress from being moved, better for the environment compared to shipping animals away then shipping packaged meat back, and better for the local community because we’re keeping the dollars in our own region.
Just like our grass fed beef, purchasing pork from us requires some effort and planning. You’ll need storage space (allow 1 cubic foot of freezer space per 35-40 pounds of cut and wrapped meat) and cooking adjustments to accommodate the leaner meat. A typical market weight hog is 250 pounds and translates into roughly 180 pounds hanging weight and 120-140 pounds package weight. So a half hog would be in the neighborhood of 65 pounds of meat in your freezer. We don’t force animals into a standard mold so they vary and actual sizes can be smaller or larger. We are a family of two and eat one whole hog each year.
