Well, I’m back from vacation and have a lot of great blog entries to share.
In the next week or so, come back here for a couple of strawberry/rhubarb recipes, a primer on heritage vegetables, and more! Also, look for my column in Peterborough This Week, where we learn to grill the perfect steak with Brad Watt from Rare.
And now… On to the pork!
Tracker’s Drift Serves Up Local Heritage Pork
Excerpt 1:
Many of you will have heard of heritage or heirloom vegetables. They’re the traditional – and tasty – varieties that were common before the industrialization of agriculture.
Long before we started producing the common hybrids found in supermarkets today – the bland, pulpy tomatoes and starchy white potatoes found from Newfoundland to Vancouver Island – there were hundreds, if not thousands of varieties of veggies.
Many of these varieties were well on their way to extinction before farmers started realizing the worth of maintaining stocks of these heritage seeds.
I’ll be offering up a primer on heirloom varieties in the coming days, but in the meantime, I’d like to introduce a different concept to you: heritage livestock.
Yup. Meat eaters, you too can find the rich tastes and flavours of old heirloom breeds. You too can help prevent many species, already classified as endangered, from becoming extinct.
For the rest of the article AND recipe, please see my www.mykawartha.com Farm to Table Blog (link below):
Tamworth Pork Loin Chops Over Market Greens w/Garlic Scape Balsamic Vinaigrette.
Excerpt 2:
Katie Jackson of Trackers Drift Farm (near Lakefield), has recently helped to re-introduce Tamworth Pigs to the area. I’ll be writing a column about Katie and her farm this fall – she has some wonderful school visit options on her property – but in the meantime, here are a few things you need to know:
Tracker’s Drift grows a huge variety of vegetables and fruits – all from organic seed. They are currently offering their 3rd year of CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture), meaning that people pay a set amount at the beginning of the season for “shares” in the produce that gets grown. It’s a great way to get fresh Tracker’s Drift produce all season long.
This is their second year at the Lakefield Farmer’s Market.
Katie is currently on her 3rd litter of Tamworth pigs. She keeps some herself for selling as cuts of pork, sells some to local restaurants (the Riverhouse Company in Lakefield smokes bellies into bacon), and sells others for breeding. They are happy, pasture fed pigs that also receive organic feed.
So, what is the deal with Tamworth?
For the rest of the article AND recipe, please see my www.mykawartha.com Farm to Table Blog (link below):
Tamworth Pork Loin Chops Over Market Greens w/Garlic Scape Balsamic Vinaigrette.