Wedge Oak Farm

We sold some Swallow-Bellied Mangalitsa pigs to Tennessee's Wedge Oak Farm.

Some of her pigs will turn up at the Memphis in May. The Fatback Collective took a trophy in Memphis a few months ago.

Call Karen at 615-766-3773 for more info.

Girls Love Mangalitsa Soap

If you are the sort of guy who gives girls presents, you might want to give them Mangalitsa soap.

I like Mangalitsa soap. It is slick and moisturizes the skin better than any other soap I've used. The slickness makes it great for shaving. However, my appreciation for the stuff is utilitarian; if the soap didn't work particularly well, I wouldn't use it.



My own little experience suggests that in general, girls like soap, the frillier the better.

The two young women pictured accosted me and asked if I had any soap for them, as if it was Halloween and I have to give them free stuff.* I hadn't given them any previously- a neighbor had. I'd given him the soap because he'd done me a favor.

This tells me that the soap from Lather Unusual is what girls crave.


Buy the soap.


* They are adults (old enough to smoke!), but somehow the soap gets them acting like little girls, expecting handouts. I gave it to them because I figured I'd get an easy blog post out of it.

Johnston County Hams - Cooking LIght

Johnston County Hams just won an award from Cooking Light Magazine -- best in meat for their Mangalitsa hams (made from our raw material).

As they explain, "We tasted products from around the country to find the best of the best from small-production food artisans."

ORDER THE HAMS HERE

It is no surprise that Johnston County Hams won; they are using Mangalitsa pigs.

People Don't Know their Pig Parts

CrossFitter enjoying some Mangalitsa lardo

There's an article that talks up lard and lardo. Wonderful!

But then rather than using a photo of lardo or lard, they illustrate it with a picture of a cured pig jowl (guanciale). That looks a bit gross to me - there's a lot of glands in it, and they look a bit gross.

I'm guessing 99.99% of the Telegraph readers didn't spot the incongruity between the photo and the article. Why would they? At the same time, It took me about 1/10th of a second to notice it and have a cascade of emotions about it.

Paleo Diet Update

Me after starting a Mangalitsa/paleo diet

We took some photos of Spider Club. You can see me and others doing aerial tricks.

What I eat

I mention it here because I'm eating a lot of Mangalitsa (meat and especially fat), and am in the best shape I've ever been. You can see plenty of people who've radically improved their body composition similarly at robbwolf.com.

After Mangalitsa/paleo diet

Robb Wolf helped me construct a Mangalitsa-based paleo diet/exercise program. I eat a ridiculous amount of Mangalitsa (meat and especially fat). I'm fairly low-carb (150g/day or so on workout days, less on off days), so that means I need to eat lots of Mangalitsa fat - a bit like these guys.

At Robb's advice, I'm doing heavy lifting to get bigger and stronger. I'm around 12% body fat. I'm stronger and leaner than I've ever been.

Before Mangalitsa/paleo diet.

Here's a photo of me from 2007. I'm wearing a few layers, but you can see I was fat like a Mangalitsa back then.

It blows my mind that eating fat pigs can turn a two-legged fat pig into fairly lean and strong monkey.

Nancy Leson on Her Mangalitsa Pancetta

Some people told me they couldn't download and play the KPLU file, so I reencoded it and put it here.

KPLU, our local radio station, has an episode online of "Food for Thought" where Nancy Leson talks about how wonderful her Mangalitsa pancetta (made from our raw bellies) turned out.

She made it at the class put on by Heath Putnam Farms, Serious Pie (a Tom Douglas restaurant) and Slow Food Seattle.

Basically, she made what she thought was the best bacon ever. Not a surprise for those who know Mangalitsa.

If you want to buy our Mangalitsa bacon, I recommend Chef Shop: 1425 Elliot Ave W, Seattle. 206-286-9988

If you want to eat Mangalitsa pancetta, you might try some of the Serious Pie locations in Seattle. Ask your server if anything on the menu is made from our Mangalitsa pork; the Serious Pie menu changes regularly.

If you want to buy some Mangalitsa pancetta, I recommend Salumeria Biellese (make sure you ask for the Mangalitsa pancetta). They've bought tons (literally) of our bellies, turing them into pancetta. I haven't tried any, but the lardo they made from our fatback was fantastic.

Erno Hollo's First Litter

Dr. Erno Hollo (here's his veterinary clinic in Basking Ridge, NJ) just got his first litter of Swallow-Bellied Mangalitsa pigs out of his sow.

I'm relived he finally got some pigs from her. Although we think we shipped her to him bred, it seems she aborted.

I've written about him on this blog before. Here you can see some of his beautiful pigs.


The fear was that she'd gotten fat and barren. But then, after being rebred at Mosefund, she had 7 piglets.
Here's an article that mentions Dr. Hollo and Mosefund Farm, another much bigger farm, that also bought pigs from Heath Putnam Farms.

Paleo Comfort Foods

There's a book, "Paleo Comfort Foods". There's a website, paleocomfortfoods.com. I got sent an advance copy.

There's many recipes in it. If you like cooking, this will give you ideas on how to make paleo versions of non-paleo recipes.

My own cooking is very simple. I am curious to try a few of the easy recipes.