Our experience:

The first pigs we raised on our farm were a Yorkshire/Duroc cross much like what you find in most commercial operations. They were essentially the “pink meat” variety you buy in the grocery store. When we first brought the piglets home, we noticed some immediate problems – for one, they smelled horrible. We’re talking the kind of stench that brings tears to your eyes. They also seemed sickly and had a difficult time transitioning to our farm. After getting them on high quality feed and fresh pasture, we were able to get the bad smell to go away. But we soon had a new problem- keeping them fenced became a daily fight as they were constantly testing weak spots and escaping. Additionally, their aggressive behavior became a safety concern for our kids running free in the backyard. After only 6 months, it became apparent that they weren’t bred to live long. They had stiff joints, difficulty moving, were fairly intolerant of the cold, and seemed unable to carry their own body weight. High quality feed and fresh pasture fixed their smell but it couldn’t fix their genetics. We decided the commercial breed hogs would not be a good fit or a sustainable option for our farm going forward. 

We began researching what other farms in our area were raising to see what breed of pig would be best suited for our farm and climate. Our desire was not only to find the best pork possible, but also to have pigs that we could enjoy raising in our pastures year round. Ideally, they would thrive in our Pacific Northwest climate, would be easy on pasture, light on feed, farrow well, and would be easy to both move and to keep fenced. We kept coming back to the Mangalitsa – it seemed to “check” all of our boxes. The only problem was.. we watched for months and couldn’t find any available near us. 

About the Mangalitsa:

Originating in Hungary, Mangalitsas are one of the oldest domestic swine breeds recorded and world renowned for their incredible pork and lard.  It is a lard variety breed that takes about one year to reach butcher weight in comparison to the 6-8 month time frame for most commercial breeds. But the unbelievable rich red marbled meat is second to none and worth the wait!  Recent culinary culture has rediscovered the many benefits of pig lard, the variety of it’s uses, and the excellent flavor and nutrients it brings to all sorts of dishes.. flavor that manufactured artificial fat can’t compete with. Pair this with juicy, tender, red meat and you can see why it’s popularity is growing fast in the culinary world. Because they also have a very docile nature and require less feed, they are an excellent choice to raise on homesteads and farms alike. 

Despite their long history, Mangalitsas have only been in the U.S. since 2007. Heath Putman imported and raised the first herd of swallow belly Mangalitsas on a farm right outside of Spokane, Washington. The blonde and red colored Mangalitsas were imported in later years to different parts of the country. See this link to read one of the first U.S. articles written about the newly introduced breed.

So why lard variety?

During our experience butchering our bacon variety commercial hogs, we began wondering what we could do with the excess lard. That led us to the discovery that lard can be rendered to use in all sorts of ways, but especially for baking and soaps (we found it makes the most amazing pie crust you’ll ever have). Our biggest surprise was discovering the number of health benefits that pig lard has to offer, including that it is one of the best sources of Vitamin D you can find. Did you know you that Vitamin D is fat soluble? That means you actually need the fat of the pork so that your body can fully absorb the Vitamin D (which studies find is about 1,000 IU per serving of pasture raised Mangalitsas – that’s 2nd only to Cod Liver Oil of all naturally occuring foods in the world!). Before raising our own pigs, we very rarely ate pork. After butchering 3 hogs in November, we found ourselves with A LOT of pork and began eating it 3-4 nights a week through winter. Interestingly, we found that for the first time ever our family didn’t seem to experience the “winter blues” that normally set in during January-March. The only thing we can attribute this too is the increased diet of pasture raised pork through the winter when we get far less sunlight (being so far North). See this link for more information about the health benefits of lard. 

The problem is, you don’t get very much lard with a bacon variety pig. We ended up with only 2 cups from one whole hog! This led to our desire for a lard variety pig that would yield far more pure white lard to use around our house and kitchen. Unfortunately, lard variety pigs lost popularity with the invention of Crisco and other manufactured fats, which led to a decline in population, making them hard to come by. 

Pasture Raised is Key!

Our Mangalitsa pork has a lot of amazing nutrients including Vitamin D,  Vitamin E (which protects your body from free radicals and improves your brain function), and Selenium (which is known for boosting your immune system). These key nutrients and many more are specific to pasture raised pigs that live in full sunlight, where they can synthesize the vitamin D, and on fresh pasture where they can root around to find the vital nutrients they need in the soil. You won’t find these nutrients in factory raised store-bought pork!

About our Mangalitsa Herd:

After watching for an entire year, we finally found purebred Mangalitsa piglets available from a nearby farm that were sired by one of the original boars brought to the U.S. We are so excited to contribute to preserving and furthering this amazing breed that has both a long history of excellence while also having a “new” history that began in our neck of the woods.

Our herd was worth the wait! They are easy on fences, easy on the land, and easy in personality. We went from dealing with weekly escapes with our commercial pigs, to a herd of pigs that doesn’t even test the fence. We brought our piglets to our farm in the middle of December, and we were concerned the low temperatures would be a problem. To our surprise, the cold didn’t bother them at all and we often found them sleeping in the snow rather than their shelter filled with straw! 

We feed our pigs a local non-GMO hog feed and rotationally graze them by moving them to fresh pasture every 2 weeks. Our blog is coming soon and will have more information about how to fence, raise, and butcher these for yourselves.

Why Berkshires?

Because Mangalitsas have a longer grow out time, we took note of Heath Putman’s success with the Berkshire cross and added Berkshire sows to our breeding herd. Berkshires grow a bit faster, so they make an excellent complementary cross to the Mangalitsa and still produce that wonderful red meat and extra white lard in a little bit shorter amount of time (about 8-9 months compared to 12-18 months). Berkshires also have a long history of excellence and are known for their great lard and red meat.