Wooly Pigs
Wooly Pigs is the company in America with Mangalitsa breeding stock. We've sold Mangalitsa and Mangalitsa-Berkshire pigs to other producers, who will fatten them differently than Wooly Pigs.
Genetics have a huge impact on meat quality. But given the same genetics, diet, method of keeping and age at slaughter determine meat quality. Hence, the different Mangalitsa producers make very different kinds of Mangalitsa pork.
Wooly Pigs has concentrated on fresh meat. Although our pigs are quite lardy by the standards of normal pigs, ours have been relatively young and lean Mangalitsa, designed for roasting and braising. Such pigs aren't optimal for making cured products.
In contrast, the other two producers are concentrating on Speckschweine - specially fattened pigs designed to produce the world's best cured products. Most Americans have never even seen such pork, much less eaten it.
Kylan Hoover
Kylan Hoover has bought a small herd of Mangalitsa pigs. He'll be finishing them free-range on acorns in the Bay Area's Diablo Range.
We expect that Kylan's pork will be the best for curing in the USA in Fall 2008. He's got the right breed, the best feed and he's keeping the pigs free range. Additionally, he'll kill his pigs when they are old and ripe, and during the cold months.
More on why this is the right way to do things.
Although our own efforts have popularized Mangalitsa quite a bit, we expect that Kylan Hoover will establish the Mangalitsa as America's super-premium pig breed.
The Herbfarm
The Herbfarm is one of America's best restaurants. In addition to growing their own herbs and vegetables, they now also raise their own Mangalitsa and Mangalitsa-Berkshire pigs.
Wooly Pigs has sold The Herbfarm quite a bit of pork, including several Mangalitsa pigs. In May of 2008, we reached a new milestone: The Herbfarm bought live pigs from us.
According to Executive Chef Keith Luce (who cooked at the White House), they'll raise the pigs to a ripe 15-or-so-months, fatten them on a special finishing diet and process them into cured products.
By raising the pigs themselves, The Herbfarm can directly control the fattening of their pigs. Given that they'll invest so much time processing the pork, they have every incentive to make sure these are the best pigs possible.
We know of no other restaurant that takes such a quality-sensitive and hands-on approach.
Wooly Pigs is working with them to make sure their fattening program will allow them to reach their goals.