Farm & Travel: Pigging out on the farm

On a bright Sunday evening in early June we took the train to Eindhoven (NL), from where we took a bus that took us way into the countryside. The province of Brabant where we were in is not a very densely populated one. The sandy soils there are not very good for farming, so that is why they specialised in pigs; currently there are about twice as many pigs as people. Needless to say, that was exactly what we were coming for; albeit not for the nasty dark-concrete-floor-wire-cage pig farms, but for one raising organically grown heritage breed slow growing pigs, more about that later.

On the road again

From the bus stop in a tiny village (church, square, two bars and one supermarket) we were picked up by Teresa, the woman who together with her husband Peter ran the farm we were going to visit. We arrived at their place, and after some wine, peanuts and small talk we went to bed.

Their foodtruck: you can find them every Saturday on Tillburg market (Dutch people go there!)

The farm itself was a beautiful 19th century building where Peter had lived his whole childhood, his dad had been a pig farmer before him. Teresa used to be an artist (very visible throughout the house), but moved in with Peter after they met, and had taken on the role of farmer’s wife and butcher. As she said it: “Peter takes care of the living animals, and I take care of the dead ones”. The next day we would see what she meant by that, as she showed us her drying room, where some lovely hams and salami sausages were hanging to dry and become tastier by the day. The killing itself was not done by her, but by a professional slaughterhouse some 15 minutes away. From there they would get the pig back in six pieces, which she would further process and turn into sausages, coppa, ham, salami, meatballs, hamburgers and of course lard.

Going HAM

"Bacon is good for me"

Throughout the two weeks, our main tasks involved feeding and cleaning up after the pigs, tending to the garden (weeding, planting and harvesting) and helping Teresa in her kitchen/butchery.

Doing crépinette, more or less with conviction

Heart and kidney to be minced and made into spicy meatballs

Some bacon from the chin

Butchery hat selfie

About the pigs themselves then: it is important to know what differentiates the pigs on this organic farm from the ones you would normally encounter in the supermarket. The biggest difference has to do with fat, or better said, the lack of it. That is because apparently customers want pork without a lot of fat and just a lot of cheap protein for their money. That is why breeders have created the well-known pink cross-breed, with the best so-called “feed conversion ratio”. That basically means you can stuff this pig with cheap Brazilian soy beans, and it will just get bigger very fast, without getting fat. The dream of every body-builder you would say! Unfortunately when the fat goes, the taste goes away along with it, so that you are left with a tasteless piece of watery proteins. Furthermore, these pigs are butchered at the age of five months, which is way too young to develop any taste whatsoever.

Pigs in their apartments and the field they have access to every day

Not so much at Peter and Teresa’s farm though. First of all, they did not work with this pink hybrid designer crossbreed, but with an almost extinct Dutch-German race called Bonte Bentheimer. This type of pig grows rather slowly (one year to full-grown size), and if you overfeed it, it will just get fat; that is why Peter put these pigs on strict rations. Furthermore, these pigs had access to the outside, where they could run around, play and dig with their noses for roots. That way, they get some nice intramuscular fat (think Wagyu beef here) and of course they are much happier by it. Finally, for what it’s worth, they also listened to classical music throughout the day, and were fed on leftover bread from an artisanal organic bakery closeby!

Jef grinding the bread

Pieces of organic bread that made us hungry!

Needless to say, we had two very nice weeks at this farm, where we learned a lot about growing heritage breed pigs, and making sure they had the best life possible. Myself, I have become quite enchanted with the idea of raising some heritage breed pigs one day. Maybe not quite these ones, but another one that is on the list of endangered races. That way, we’ll save them by raising them and eating them, and I think that is a wonderful thing.

Jef