PORK
Naturally Raised without Antibiotics.
HERITAGE PORK
We are excited to share more about our newest adventure over here at Brown Family Farm in Oak Park.
We added pigs to our farm back in 2021. They are crosses between Red Waddle, Hampshire & Berkshire; all are well known heritage breeds. These pigs have earned their reputation and are raised for their fat to muscle ratio. For best flavor and tenderness, pork should have marbling. The cross breeding between the oldest Heritage Hog lines provides us with piglets that possess all of the desirable traits from their lineage!
Our neighbor farrows for us. She's right around the corner and you can actually see her barn from our front door. Talk about local! These pigs are born and raised on the farm, with the most comfortable life possible.
We are selling our pigs has halves and wholes again this season. We're charging a base price per pound ($3.75) and you work directly with our butcher to customize your processing. The thickness of your chops, the amount of hams or roasts, seasoned sausage, you get to choose what you want! Butchering costs are explained more below and paid directly to the butcher. More info on this below.
**You do not need to be a Farm Share Members to purchase Pork!
Enjoying their fresh hay!
I'm ready for my close up!
Building another run!
H A P P Y & H E A L T H Y
Animal husbandry should be your first question when considering locally raised meats. How are they cared for? What do they eat? Where do they live and how much space do they have?
Hogs are the ultimate foraging creature; they enjoy being able to exercise their instincts to root up the ground looking for bugs, worms, roots, and any organic material they can find. Yes, they eat SO much produce on our farm here too! More on this below.
As piglets we start them on a special feed. It's a higher protein feed that encourages structural & bone growth early on. After that high protein grain, we switched them to the free-choice grains.
We feed our hogs fresh produce & free choice grains so that they can eat when they want; they always have food available. This makes for healthy eating habits, resulting in healthy growing rates, which in turn helps us to provide you with the best quality Premium Heritage Breed Pork.
We are giving them the trimmings from plants, or over-ripe muskmelons for example. Which is 100% their favorite food of all time! A good example of the produce they're getting is when we bring them tons of cauliflower greens. When we go out and harvest cauliflower for our CSA, we keep the leaves intact around the head of cauliflower, which completely cover the 'face' of the cauliflower to keep it safe in travel. We haul the cauliflower in from the field on the wagon and bring it to the pack shed where we will wash it and cut away the outer leaves, exposing a beautiful head of cauliflower! (That's what goes in your Crop Share!)
When we trim all the leaves off, we put them in gaylords and have SO MUCH produce/ greens/ fruits etc. to bring the hogs. A gaylord in a unit of measurement, it's the bins that are used for watermelons and pumpkins at grocery stores. With the cauliflower, a single day's Crop Share harvest will yield at least a gaylord of fresh greens for them! Literally hundreds of pounds.
3 OPTIONS FOR YOU
1. Pork Packages- smaller portions & smaller price point.
Since January 2024, we have been offering a variety of Pork Packages. These packages are an assortment of our favorite pork products. The last package we offered was in the fall of 2024, it had brat patties, snack sticks, bacon, breakfast links, bulk sausage and our best-selling brats too.
We will not have anymore Pork Packages available until summer of 2025. If you'd like more information when it's time, please enter your email on the list below.
2. Whole/Half Hogs- larger quantity, more cuts, personalized butchering.
This is for the folks who want to get the best per-pound-price. Buying in bulk saves money but it also provides the most amount of diversity in the pork products you'll receive.
This is when a customer commits to the Whole/Half Hog. Our customers will work directly with the butcher shop to place their cutting instructions, so it is customizable. Though, the majority of people stick with the standard cuts because it's a great variety (including Ben & I).
There are 4 main areas on the hog to know about: the front shoulder (where the roasts come from), the back leg (where the hams come from), the belly (where the bacon comes from), and the loin/side (where the chops come from).
We are sold out of Hogs for 2024. We look forward to offering more in the summer of 2025. If you'd like more information, please enter your email on the list below.
3. Individual Packages- by the cut.
This is exactly what it sounds like.
We have a Farm Stand at the Hardware Hank in Zimmerman. We are open seasonally from July-October; it varies slightly with the weather. We're open Fridays & Saturdays from 9am-6pm and Sundays from 9am-5pm.
We have all of our seasonal fresh produce offerings there, in addition to a permanent freezer that has our Pork Products available! We consistently have things like brats, bacon, links, snack sticks, pork chops (and the popular marinated pork chops), and more. You can buy as many or as few packages as you'd like.
We do have a select variety available during the winter. Pre-orders can be picked up here at the farm.
If you'd like to get more info & announcements on the Farm Stand, please enter your email on the list below.