Wow.. what a great day with the crew at Mt Angel Meats today. They invited me to spend the day watching them break down the first 4 of our hazelnut finished hogs today and it almost brought a tear to my eyes to see how fantastic they came out. The comments from the butchers who process animals every day to say that our pork is like no other, makes us even more confident to say that we produce some of the best gourmet pork available on the market.
I met Julia and Chef Wishard from La Medusa today who drove down from Seattle to pick up a half a hog. First I would like to say what dedication for a Chef and Owner to drive 400+ miles to get a product that they would want to serve to their customers is only committment to excellence. To the customer’s, you have someone who really cares about the quality, sustainability and methods of how the animals they use are raised and by you supporting them you are supporting small farmers and not the CAFO’s. If you are in the Seattle area, please give them a call and find out when they will be serving this rare treat. I can honestly say from all the Red Wattles we have processed so far, this was the best looking carcass we have produced. Top that with the pastured hazelnut finish for the past 60+ days and this could be almost a once in a lifetime meal. Well perhaps at least until next year….
JP
Keeping my fingers crossed that we’ll get to try some of this rare treat!
Ah no worries. We will indeed see that you get some of the hazelnut pork. We have a couple of chops that Jim brought home with him that we’ll be sampling tomorrow. Can’t wait!! We ought to have the rest of the meat back in a few weeks.
We also have a one of our American Guinea Hogs being processed. We are looking forward to trying that meat as well. Its pork at its “itty bitty best”. A full ham weighed in at 9 lbs. Its a personal sized ham or at least sized for 2. 🙂
Wendy P
So far we’ve had some fresh side meat and some chops from our hazelnut RW. Yum! They were both delicious, and when we chilled the saved lard from the side meat it was almost pure white and very creamy. Next we’ll have some of the sweet Italian sausage. Mt. Angel Meats makes very good Italian sausage (it tastes just like my Italian grandma used to make).
Good Morning Nancy,
So glad to hear that the hazelnut RW is eating well at your house!!. We brought home a pack of chops from the day Jim spent at the processors as a preview, but we are waiting on our smoked order to come back so we can get the rest of the meat. Admittedly, there is something to this special, seasonal treat of hazelnut pork. It only comes once a year and we really look forward to it. We still have one bone in ham from last year. It was smoked at Vogets (we got lucky and slipped them into their order list). Likely the best ham I have ever had. Unfortunatly, Vogets declined to do hams for us this year. They are too busy for “new clients”.. sigh.. We are working on developing a new relationship with a smoking craftsman for next year.
In any case, enjoy that pork!
Wendy P