Our Beloved Link... and the Linkettes

The post that everyone has been waiting for.  Our sweet Link and her piglets, count them, seven, not bad for a Mangalitsa sow's first litter.  They are one month, almost to the day old.  Link looks great, very happy to see us again, and very attentive to the little ones.  The litter is three little girls and four boys.  We will bring three back to Ship Bay and Catherine will keep two gilts, because Link has been such a great mother.  Two of the other piglets will also stay on Lopez with another fan of the heirloom Mangalitsa genetics.

This is the beginning of the next generation.  

Thanks to Heath Putnam. 

Coppa

Mangalitsa Coppa ready to role, fantastic rich flavor.  Great marbling, cured and flavored with fennel seed.

Coffelt's Farm Pig Tour

 A trip to Coffelt's Farm for eggs, slowly gearing up for Feb. 11 opening of the restaurant.  I had almost forgotten what 'normal' pigs looked like.  The ones above ( 200 + lbs.)are mostly Berkshires and the ones below ( 25 - 35 # ) are Berkshire and basic pink pigs,  Sydney did not know their pedigree.

It gives some perspective on how different the Mangalitsas look and interact with people.  Their lives revolve around food.

Halloween

The mangalitsas are getting their daily allotment of Vitamin A, C and lots of Potassium from the many pumpkins left over from Halloween.  They seem to really like the whole thing, especially the seeds.  It is nice not seeing them go to waste.  The only part left over is the stem.

Corgi Mind Control

Ike is exercising the ancient art of Corgi Mind Control on one of the unsuspecting Mangalitsa pigs.  For what reason we are not sure.  The pigs are putting on weight and appear to be enjoying their new home.

Latest Additions to Ship Bay

After a quick trip to Eastern Washington, six young Mangalitsa pigs have found their new home on Orcas Island at The Inn at Ship Bay.  They are lucky pigs with a filtered water view(as they would say in the real estate business), but all they seem to care about is good food, clean water and a dry place to sleep.

We figured that this was our last easy opportunity to fatten some Mangalitsas, as the Wooly Pigs operation was moving to the Midwest.  Look for more Mangalitsa on the menu next year, but much of our Bacon, Lardo and Prosciutto will be a part of future menus.

Spring

Not to rave too much about any one topic, we just had to show everyone the incredible marbling of the Mangalitsa pork. This is a piece from the leg, which was brined and seared. Truely awesome.

We had the good fortune to be taught some basic grafting technique from a local expert orchardist named Ed, he grew up in Holland and was kind enough to come over and show us how to top work some old pear trees. The tree was vigorous, but the pears were not good at all. We grafted an old heirloom, asian type that we had here, and several old varieties of keeper pears that Ed had in his orchard, including one named after his father, Suij, from Holland. The tree looks kind of rough, but as the grafts take, we will continue to remove the old growth. We also grafted several plum varieties into our healthy Italian Prune Plum trees, of which we have plenty. We will look forward to reworking these trees and it will give us greater diversity and let us ripen over longer periods of time. Some of the cooking pears that Ed brought us were from last year, and are really good. As it is now, most of our pears ripen at the same time, during our busiest period, late August.

Here is a terrine being lined with some of the nice cured Mangalitsa Lardo. It is very clean and white, great for lining duck or chicken liver mousse.

The sun has been shining, lulling us into a false sense of security. We all know that many weeks of rain could be in store. But spring is unstoppable at this point, the tomatoes are started and the fruit trees are begging to bloom.

Piggy

Summer has come and gone on Orcas, we are well into the fall and it really feels like winter. Almost all of the apples and pears have been picked, dried, stored, made into syrup, butter, etc...

Here is a picture of cured pork belly from 1/2 Berkshire & 1/2 Mangalitsa pig. We will smoke some and keep some for fresh bacon. The flavor is great and the fat has a noticeable lightness. At the thickest point, the belly is almost four inches thick.

This coming week, we are having one of the 3/4 Mangalitsas slaughtered, so we will be able to compare the two. As in all of Wolly Pigs pictures, the fat is truely amazing and the flavor is exceptional.