2015 February

Mangalitsa on the Range 2015

Here are the eight Mangalitsa that we kept from the last litters, almost 5 months old at this point, enjoying another very sunny mild day at Stonebridge.  These guys are super hardy and have no problem with cold and wet, something they have not had to contend with much this year. 

Another ridge of high pressure has parked over the Northwest, leaving us dry, sunny and quite mild.  Great for getting things planted, but could spell trouble if we get some cold temps, rain and fruit flowers.

Chard

Swiss Chard, this big and nice looking this early, is almost unheard of.  We have been taking advantage of the weather and planting lots of greens, kale, mustards, mizuna, endive, spinach, favas, snap peas and radishes.  Even Raven's over winter sweet onions look great.  Tomatoes get started on March 3 rd, Town meeting day, old school timing that has worked well for us.

We look to reopen the restaurant by mid March, barring more delays with our on going refrigeration projects.

Shiro Plum Buds about to bloom

Flora & Faunas Piglets

One of Flora's Piglets

Our two purebred Swallow Belly Mangalitsas had piglets.  Fauna on Dec23 and Flora on Christmas.  They are super cute, very healthy, both the piglets and mothers are doing great.

Some of Fauna's Pigs

Flora

Link goes to Lopez

After a ferry ride and short drive, here is Link as we were introducing her to Horsedrawn Farm on Lopez Island.    Her new home is all clean straw, and she has a group of 8 or 9 young hogs to mingle with next to her.  She has really filled out and looks like a Swallow Belly Mangalitsa, she probably is about 350#, live weight.  After settling in for a day or two, she will meet Angus, who is all Berkshire, he is young, but still around 500 # or so and growing.

So with any luck, they will do what pigs do and we will be expecting piglets in the fall sometime.  It will be interesting to see first hand what the F 1 hybrids will look like, as we have raised pigs of various color, body type, all with various degrees of Mangalitsa.  All of the pork was excellent, well marbled, very fatty and consistently better than any pork we have tasted.  The big dark Mangalitsas that were most recently slaughtered were truely fantastic, very dark, rich, flavorful meat (see below) with excellent marbling, just a shade or two lighter than beef.  We also did a good job finishing them with a no corn, high protein feed.  No lard shortage here.

Trees & Pigs

Asian Pear graft from last year.  It has been grafted onto a volunteer sucker that came up near an old pear tree.  Most likely old pear or quince stock.  It is amazing that this flowered on it's first real year.  Soon we will make a spot for it out in the orchard.

Here is Link.  She is a gilt that will make the trip to Lopez soon to be bred with a Berkshire.  She has really sized up very well.  Good natured and as you can see, she knows where the food is.  Maybe in the future she will be bred via A.I. with pure mangalitsa, when it becomes available.  We are most certainly sold on the pork quality, thanks to Heath, it has made us crazy enough to keep pigs on site.

Judd Cove Oysters

On the way into town this afternoon, at the end of a beautiful sunny day. Low tide and Judd Cove Oysters.  Bill was out harvesting oysters, so I snapped a couple shots.  Bill and Char grow them in mesh bags and bring the bags in and then grade according to desired size.  The rest go back onto the beach to grow some more.  You can see the bags of oysters in the background, they are held off of the sand by racks.  It is hard to believe that many local restaurants do not even serve these incredible oysters, they prefer imports, or do not offer them at all.



Bill & Char are mostly selling in the Seattle area during the winter, but we will be sure to have them on the menu when we reopen the restaurant on February 11.

We are very lucky to have such an excellent oyster less than a mile from the Inn and there is no better time to eat them than during the cool winter months.

Here is a shot of one of the Mangalitsa Pigs.  He is getting chunky, bulking up.  The big ones are at around 200 #'s now.  We are happy to give a tour.

Not the best picture, but you get an idea of their size, they do love the mud.