Mangalitsa Fan Mark Dommen of San Francisco's One Market

Mark Dommen, proudly wearing our shirt.

Above is a photo of One Market's chef, Mark Dommen, proudly wearing a Heath Putnam Farms shirt.

Mark is one of the top chefs in the USA. He's a Mangalitsa fan. He normally buys pigs from Suisun Valley Farm, one of my feeder pig and breeding stock customers. When they can't satisfy his need for Mangalitsa, we help fill in the gaps.

Why is Mark so happy wearing the shirt?

I didn't ask him, so I don't know. But I suspect it has something to do with the quality of Mangalitsa. Basically, we've got the best, and Mark understands that in a visceral way.

I think he also appreciates that when we decided to "art-up" and get some professional art, we went with a world-class artist, Tom Byrne, as explained here. As another professional artist said:

Tom is really a true artist and could probably sculpt a masterwork out of pig poop.

I really couldn't have said it better.

If you are looking at the shirt, wondering why it is the color it is, I suggest you read this and then google the term "Habsburg yellow".

We know that most of our customers (white guys) don't look as great in a light-colored shirt as Mark Dommen does. But we make our shirts the color we do because "Habsburg Yellow" means "Habsburg Yellow" and not "hipster black". We raise a breed of pigs that is essentially unchanged from 1833 until now. Black T-shirts may be fashionable now, but Habsburg yellow has been Habsburg yellow since 1686. We feel that you have to preserve some traditions, even if it means forgoing mass appeal.