The cost of sprawl.

Hello fellow bloggers! I wanted to post a letter Will recently wrote for the Frederick News Post regarding a recent push to rezone two large farms north of Frederick (Maryland) city limits for development.

This rezoning was an initiative pushed through at the last minute by the outgoing mayor with very little public input and a LOT of misinformation.

Will's letter was in response to a letter in the editorial section of the Frederick paper from a lawyer attacking those opposed to this rezoning and the County's new Comprehensive Plan, a blueprint for how the county should develop land to meet anticipated needs over the next decade.

Many people don't realize or think about the implications of suburban sprawl, but its affects are profound and far-reaching:

1. Loss of farmland and hence, increased centralization, homogenization, and industrialization of our food supply.

2. Adverse environmental impacts associated with loss of habitat, more hard surfaces, more chemicals being applied to lawns, etc - this is a VERY long list.

3. Increased carbon footprint to heat, cool, and maintain large homes with large lots.

4. High expense to municipalities to provide services to these sprawling communities.

5. Dependence on fossil fuels and automobiles as walking no longer becomes an option.

And so on, and so on....my point is sprawl affects us all in profound and sometimes unexpected ways. It touches on our lives, usually in a negative way, both as individuals and as a society.

I would encourage anyone looking to buy a home, to consider the advantages of smart growth and urban living as an alternative to sprawl.

Here is Will's letter:

Balance and perspective . . .

In his May 23rd commentary, Thomas Lynch attempts to cast illusions, build straw men and further polarize growth and development issues. The very things he suggests we rise above. Lynch unfairly characterized the recently adopted comprehensive plan, and Frederick County government in general, as being unfriendly towards the business community. As a business owner who moved to Frederick County specifically to start a business, I can tell you that nothing could be further from the truth.

The hundreds of properties that Lynch refers to as being “downgraded” constitute less than 1% of the properties covered under the comprehensive plan. In addition, within that 1%, a large number of the properties were re-evaluated as a result of new, updated flood zone maps issued by FEMA. Most reasonable would agree that properties in a flood zone are not good candidates for development. Furthermore, the county commissioners specifically acknowledged that some of the rezoned properties could still be developed if annexed by the adjacent municipalities as part of their growth plans. This ensures that new development can be serviced by adjacent municipal infrastructure. In the end, there were only a handful of property owners out of the ~230,000 residents in Frederick County that were adversely affected. Little consolation for those individuals for sure, but not a bad track record for elected officials trying to balance the desire of individuals with the best interests of the community at large.

The business community in Frederick County is diverse and made up of more than just developers. For example, Frederick County has more farms than any other county in Maryland. The number of farms in Frederick County is also up 13% from 2002, unlike many other counties. Those counties that focused on development as the main engine of growth have suffered the most as a result of the bust in the construction industry. The industry was premised on people continually upgrading to the next most fashionable neighborhood or floor plan. Studies have shown that land zoned agriculture puts money in the bank for local governments. They pay more in taxes than they consume in services. The opposite is true for new development. They cost existing taxpayers more than they bring in.

The County Commissioners spent two years and countless public meetings updating the comprehensive plan. The process was open and fair. All voices were heard. The final comprehensive plan does exactly what it is supposed to do. It accommodates the population growth that is projected to occur in Frederick County over the next 20 years. It aligns growth with existing infrastructure, minimizing the cost to existing residents and taxpayers. If developers are looking for something to do, look no further than the Golden Mile or any other half dozen communities in Frederick County that are in desperate need of redevelopment.

William Morrow

Whitmore Farm

Emmitsburg, MD

The bees are back in town, the bees are back in town!

Okay. When Will expressed some interest in getting bees last summer, I was a little skeptical. After all, this was a man who expresses interest in many things, usually within a 24 hour period, and then moves on with regularity. I also knew that he is insanely busy managing our farm business and often overcommits.

But, he persisted, and when he agreed to enroll in a beginning beekeepers course offered through our local beekeeping community, I was convinced.

Fast forward 6 months, and we now have two active hives on our property.

Busy with the day-to-day running of the farm, days and then weeks passed without much attention being paid to the bees.

One day, Will and I returned to find the workmen hiding in their trucks in front of our farmhouse. (We spent most of last summer living through a renovation/addition - more to come at another time when I've gotten past my post-traumatic stress disorder).

Anyways, back to my story.

'The bees were swarming like a giant cloud above those white things they live in' is what we heard. Like scary, 'they're-going-to-come-and-sting-me-to-death', killer bee kind of swarming thing you hear about in the media.

Now these are European honeybees, and not the least bit aggressive, but they swarm when overcrowded in their hives and supers.

Sure enough, we had neglected them for too long and not given them enough space, and they were gone. They left behind a small contigent, a pathetic, non-viable hive.

A few months later, the other hive went and swarmed.

After our hard winter, we were left with two empty hives, two sad relics as a reminder of our failures at beekeeping. 'We should put them on craigslist' Will suggested the other night.

So...imagine my surprise when I came back from checking for new baby goats at the water-front, anticipating dinner, and found Will on the front porch.

As I approached, I could detect a familiar sound. What was it? It sounded so familiar....

And then it hit me as I rounded the corner - a loud buzzing sound and the crazy, frenetic movement of a large swarm of bees covering our two hives!

'You missed the best of it' Will exclaimed. 'They were really swarming thick a minute ago!'. We practically had to raise our voices to be heard above the buzzing sound.

I guess I'll have to start being a little careful when mowing again.

And then a strange feeling came over me, kind of like the jilted lover - 'I wonder if they'll stay this time?' I asked myself.

HOOP house heaven! (or why cold greenhouses are COOL!)

I wanted to update everyone on the status of our cold frame program to expand our produce production for year-round veggies.

We were approved for the USDA-approved program (previously outlined in one of my earlier posts), ordered our framing kit, and 3 days later, a huge pile of galvanized steel and plastic appeared on the farm.


The next 3 weeks of Loran's and Corey's lives were spent pounding posts, installing a baseboard, and finally, the 4 year plastic covering overlying our hoop house.



'Hoop house' is kind of a generic term referring to a rounded top structure that can be used for hay storage, animal housing, or as a greenhouse. Technically, we are building a cold greenhouse, or unheated greenhouse.

This type of year-round production was commonly practiced in Europe and the United States before the advent of transcontinental, and more recently, INTER-continental transport of vegetables.

By harvesting the solar radiation during the day, and covering beds at night to hold the heat into the soil ( a double-layer system), one can grow vegetables year-round, even in cold climates.


Elliot Coleman has forwarded this technique perhaps more than anyone else in the United States, and successfully grows vegetables year-round in his zone 5 (?) Maine cold greenhouse.

Granted, you aren't growing tomatoes in january, but rather, eating seasonally. Rather than dying off, some vegetables thrive and actually prefer the cool temperatures of winter gardening. Plants like carrots, beets, lettuce, chard, spinach, arugula, and radish all prefer cool to cold temperatures.


Naysayers comment that you can't feed the world using local production.

The fact of the matter is this is exactly how we did feed the world in a sustainable manner before the advent of 'modern' agriculture.

These type of production models (double insulated cold frames, unheated greenhouses, and garden cloches) were exactly how people produced healthy food throughout the season in colder climes and ate seasonally.

This allowed them to eat only what was at its best, not some sad resemblance of a cardboard tomato in January.

We are excited and happy to be providing our customers more and more options to factory-farming and their harmful ways to human health, the environment, animal welfare, and sustainability.

Best,

K

Selling chicken in Maryland

I've previously touched on some of the barriers that prevent free access to fresh farm products and up until recently, selling poultry was a fine example of this.

USDA rules allowed an exemption for small producers (less than 20,000 birds per year) that allowed them to process and sell their chicken broilers without using a USDA-inspected facility.

However, back in the 70's Maryland set a higher standard than federal regulations, and required poultry to be processed at either a state or federally (USDA)-regulated facility if it was to be sold off-farm.

Fast-forward 30 years, and Maryland (as do many places in the United States) finds itself without a state-inspection program for meat-processing and NO USDA-inspected poultry processors that accept 'other farmers' birds.

Functionally, this means that a farmer could still sell chickens direct-to-consumer on the farm, but could not drive down the road to his regular farmer's market and sell to his local customers clamoring for this product.

After some hard work on the part of Maryland farmers and our state Senator and Delegate, a new state program was established that now allows farmers to sell direct to consumers at farmer's markets and grocery stores, and direct to restaurants.

This really opens up the marketplace to farmers wanting to supply farm-fresh, local products to their community. Chicken is the most popular meat consumed by Americans and previously, local producers were shut-out by these antiquated, out-dated laws.

It was hard to explain to our customers why we weren't able to provide them with the products they wanted to buy and it was unreasonable to expect a consumer to drive 20 or 30 miles just to buy a chicken.

In direct response to this program, we have restarted our small-scale poultry operation for broiler chickens raised on pasture, a program we had previously abandoned because of these unreasonable laws.

Here are some of our broilers being raised on pasture for harvest in a few more weeks.

You should start seeing Whitmore Farm chickens, turkeys and rabbit for sale at Maryland Farmers' Markets and in restaurants like VOLT and NOLA in Frederick Maryland.

Special thanks go to:

Senator David Brinkley and his Chief of Staff, Mike O'Halloran.

Delegate Chris Shank

Farmers Julie Bolton (Groff's Content Farm), Julie Stinar (Evensong Farm), & Mike Akey (Green Akeys Farm)

Liz Reitzig, MICFA

Ryan Cunningham, The Glover Park Group.

Zonal denial - hardy palms and cacti in Maryland.

Well, this was a very cold, snowy winter for our area of Maryland with a minimum low temp of -2 degrees F and about 2 feet of snow in December and 4 feet of snow in February. We are somewhere in the gray zone between zone 6B and 7A and it has been a hard adjustment for this gardener after our zone 8 garden in Washington, D.C.

As you may recall from earlier posts, I've been experimenting with various types of cold-hardy palms and cacti.

Last summer, I planted several palm species/cultivars of Trachycarpus (Chinese windmill palm) including T. fortuneii 'Bulgaria', T. wagneranius, and T. fortuneii 'Tennessee form'.

Most forms of hardy palms have improved cold hardiness with increasing size and age, but finding mature specimens in our area can be a challenge and shipping from the South can be very expensive.

Of the small, starter palms I planted last summer, none survived. Well, okay ONE did, but I mowed it by mistake because it was so scrawny and pathetic it deserved to die.

The only real survivors were a 3 foot specimen of generic windmill palm I bought at a local nursery and one 18 inch specimen of Trachycarpus fortuneii 'Bulgaria' that I transplanted from our garden in Washington, D.C. 3 years ago. That specimen, originally came from a strain of Trachycarpus growing in Bulgaria that had reportedly withstood temps well below zero degrees fahrenheit. The Bulgarian strain was imported as seed into the U.S. and is intermittently available through Plant Delights Nursery in North Carolina.

There are many nice examples of Trachycarpus growing without difficulty in protected spots in and around Washington, D.C., but we are an hour north of the city, have essentially wide open spaces without much wind protection, and lack the microclimates you see in many city gardens.

This year, I planted THREE 5-7 foot specimens of Trachycarpus fortuneii in the front garden of our farm house, south facing and out of the prevailing winter winds.

I also planted 2 need palms, which are probably the most cold hardy of all palms. There are some very large specimens of needle palm growing nicely in the National Arboretum in Washington, D.C.

Thirdly, I planted 3 small Morrocan blue fan palms, Chaemerops humilis cerifera. While European fan palms are not famous for their cold hardiness, the moroccan blue palm grows at high altitudes and probably has significantly more cold tolerance than its standard Mediterranean cousin. I prefer the blue hue of the Moroccan form, so from my perspective, its a win-win!

I know it doesn't look like much right now, but we saw some beautiful examples growing at high altitude on the road leading out of Marrekesh into the Atlas Mountains in heavy snow and bitter cold.

Moving on in our tour of plants likely to die this coming winter are the 'winter-hardy' cacti and succulents.

For the nay-sayers out there, here's an example of Echinocereus and Agave parryi I planted in some concrete planters on our porch last summer.

These small starter plants spent weeks under 2-3 feet of snow and endured temps into the minus single digits. As you probably already know, plants in pots and other containers above-ground typically endure temperatures the equivalent of a full zone colder than in-ground plants, making these babies tolerant to at least zone 6A or even zone 5B. And they are thriving with many side shoots and new growth!

The secret with the cacti and succulents seems to be absolutely perfect drainage. After several failed attempts, I started planting in straight gravel/stone (i.e. no soil) and have had good results ever since.

Here's an installation of Agave parryi going in with pea gravel - to be top-dressed with another gravel that fits into the bed a little more seamlessly.

I know this is hardly farm related but I thought you might be interested and I will keep you posted next spring as to how my experiment has worked out.

K

LARD - a love story

aka, LARD & human health.

What is lard?

Real Lard is rendered pork fat (also called tallow if it comes from a ruminant such as beef cattle).

Rendering is gently heating the fat to separate out the protein strands, the ‘cracklings’.

Real lard is a beautiful, white, naturally-partially-hydrogenated solid fat. Most of its carbon sites are filled with hydrogen in their natural and normal cis position just as it comes from the hog.

Good lard is only

• 40% SATURATED fat,
• 48% MONOUNSATURATED and
• 12% POLYUNSATURATED fat.

Lard is stable and is the preferred fat for frying because it does not easily turn into trans fats when heated. Foods fried in lard can therefore be cooked for a shorter time at a higher temperature resulting in a better taste, texture and less embedded oil.

Lard is a HEALTH FOOD that needs to be returned to its rightful place in the American diet!

There are two essential fatty acids (essential because our bodies cannot make them) and both are polyunsaturated, 18 carbon molecules. These are the OMEGA 3 and OMEGA 6 fatty acids, and there has been a lot in the media in recent years about them and their relation to human health.

OMEGA 6 is double unsaturated LINOLEIC acid and OMEGA 3 is the triple unsaturated LINOLENIC acid. The omega number refers to the location of the first double bond. Like other polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA’s) they are unstable, go rancid easily and should never be heated.

The healthful Omega 3 fats include:

1. CONJUGATED LINOLEIC ACID 9 conjugated linolenic acid (which is found in grass-fed animals especially ruminants).
2. DHA (the brain fat).
3. EPA which are found primarily in deep ocean fish.
4. GLA found in some plant oils.

Organically-raised, foraging, pasture-raised outdoor range hogs have the healthiest lard.

Commercially-raised, factory-farmed pork get virtually no exercise, live indoors (often in squalor) and eat no greens. Because of their diet, their lard is of equally low quality. The diet and lifestyle of the hog radically affects the quality of the lard! What a concept.

People always seem to be surprised by this, but I compare it to two humans, one of whom lives a livestyle as a couch potato, eating highly-processed, starchy foods and getting very little exercise and fresh air. In comparison, the second human is an exercise buff, who eats a diet rich in natural foods and spends much of his/her time out-of-doors. How do you think these two humans would fair in terms of their cholesterol levels and fat to meat ratio?

Confinement pork lard has similar OMEGA 6:3 ratios to feedlot beef with a 100gm serving containing about 8 grams of Omega-6 and 0.8 grams of Omega-3. That works out to a ratio of 10 to 1!

A much more healthful ratio of O-6:O-3 can be achieved by increasing the amount of fresh green forages. The O-3 content can be greatly enhanced by feeding flax seed, sea greens, green algae or fish oils but simply putting animals back on pasture can profoundly change their omega fatty acid to something approaching the quality of fish oils!

It should come as no surprise that hogs fed garbage will incorporate all the toxic trans fats, heavy metals or other toxins into their fat. By-products of commercial, processed food operations (think potato ship crumbs from the factory floor) are often touted as a ‘great source’ of cheap feed for hogs and even ruminants like sheep.

Over the past 100 years, the rates of heart disease and atherosclerosis have climbed significantly despite our move away from ‘bad fats’ like lard to ‘healthier’ fats like margarine. This despite the fact that our traditional diet contained high levels of fat (lard) and we had low-rates of heart disease. This has been further supported by the paradox of French cooking which combined high-levels of animal and other traditional fats with low-rates of heart disease.

Meanwhile, the health of Americans plummeted as dieticians recommended vegetable oils for cooking, especially partially-hydrogenated oils.

Shortening, for example, is a liquid oil until manufacturers heat it up under pressure and bubble hydrogen gas into it ! Can you imagine!!

Why do they do this you might ask? Because hydrogen added in the trans configuration increases shelf life of the oil and allows vegetable oils and corn oil not to go rancid in large, clear containers exposed to light and heat on the store shelves.

A lot of hydrogen added in the trans configuration solidifies the liquid oil, creating stick margarine or solid vegetable shortening, such as Crisco.

Polyunsaturated oils go rancid easily due to unstable double bonds.

Fats are made of FATTY ACIDS which are carbon-hydrogen chains (C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C) that latch on in groups of three to a glycerol backbone to make a TRIGLYCERIDE molecule, which are the basic molecules of which all fats are made. The length of the carbon chains and where, if any, double bonds (i.e. missing hydrogen molecules) occur differentiate the fatty acids one from another.

The more double bonds, the more unsaturated. One double bond gives you monounsaturated, many double bonds gives you a polyunsaturated, and no double bonds gives you a saturated fatty acid.

The main saturated fatty acids (from shortest to longest chains):

1. CAPRIC
2. LAURIC
3. MYRISTIC
4. PALMITIC
5. STERIC acids.

The main monounsaturated is OLEIC acid.

Olive oil contains 71% OLEIC acid and is heart-healthy, monounsaturated fat that we’re supposed to get more of.

Lard contains 44 % oleic acid, sesame oil (41%), corn oil (28%), walnut oil (28%), flaxseed oil (21%), cottonseed oil (19%) and sunflower oil (19%), grapeseed oil (15%) and safflower oil (13%), beef tallow (43%), butterfat (29%) and human butterfat (ie the fat of breast milk at 35%).

Like olive oil, lard contains 10% of the omega-6 fatty acid LINOLEIC acid, again, roughly the same as human butterfat (breast milk) at 9%.

1. Lard also contains 14%) of the 18-C saturated fat STEARIC acid, which has been shown in clinical testing to lower cholesterol.

2. Lard contains 2% MYRISTIC acid, a 14-C saturated fat that has been shown to have immune enhancing properties. Human butterfat is 8% myristic acid, cottonseed oil (1%) and the tropical vegetable oils (coconut oil and palm kernel) have zero.

3. Lard contains 26% PALMITIC acid (a 16-C saturated fatty acid) olive oil only 13%, and human butterfat contains 25%. Palmitic acid is antimicrobial.

So Lard’s basic fatty acid composition is comparable to the butterfat of human breast milk, with even less saturated and more monounsaturated fatty acids.

Breast Milk

Saturated 48%
Monounsaturated 35%
Polyunsaturated 10%

Lard

Saturated 42%
Monounsaturated 44%
Polyunsaturated 10%

Our bodies need saturated fats.

• Saturated fats make up over half of all cell membranes and give cell membranes stiffness and integrity.
• Bones require about 50% of the dietary fat to be saturated so calcium can be absorbed.
• Saturated fats lowers Lipoprotein-a in the bloodstream, an inflammatory marker directly associated with the risk of heart disease.
• Saturated fat protects the liver from alcohol, toxins and drugs and they enhance the immune system.

Omega 3 fats are retained in the tissue when the diet is rich in healthy saturated fats. Heart muscle contains rich deposits of stearic acid and palmitic fatty acids as energy sources during times of stress.

Many saturated fats have antimicrobial properties and protect us from harmful pathogens in the intestine.

There is no good scientific evidence to back up claims that saturated fat causes clogging of arteries per se.

In fact arterial plaque is only 26% saturated fat – the other 50+ % being polyunsaturated fat!

Our bodies need some cholesterol and it is only found in animal fat.

Cholesterol makes up a large portion of brain tissue and is the building block of all corticosteroids and hormones in the body, and is a precursor to vitamin D.

Cholesterol keeps our skin soft and moist, and makes the bile which we need to digest fat.

Human breast milk is very high in it.

Our bodies make over 2000mg of cholesterol daily whereas a maximum of only 100mg can be absorbed from the diet.

Cholesterol is required for proper function of serotonin (the ‘feel good’ brain chemical) such that low cholesterol levels are associated with aggression, violence, depression and suicidal tendencies.

TRANS FATS are one of the most dangerous foods in the world. They serve no purpose in the body except to cause inflammation, cancer and degenerative disease.

Trans Fats began to enter the diet of Americans in the early 20th Century which coincided with a new problem of heart disease in America. Nowadays, most Americans consume up to or more than 20% of their fat intake as trans fats.

Tranfats cross the placenta and are incorporated into fetal tissue, even the brain. Cell membranes are a bi-layer (two-sided) of fat with a thin protein coating on both sides.

Some people feel that if Trans Fats gets are incorporated into cell membranes, they become defective and won’t resist infection and are more cancer prone.

Trans Fats may cause problems in the brain as DHA or other brain fats cannot be made from it, and the stiff and straight abnormal molecule creates overly rigid membranes.

Consequently, some people feel there may be an association between a diet in Trans Fats and the incidence and clinical course of brain disease like MS, ALS, Alzheimers, Parkinsons and maybe even depression, schizophrenia, and other mental illnesses.

Lard can be obtained from any part of the pig as long as there is a high concentration of fatty tissue.

The highest grade of lard, known as leaf lard, is obtained from the "flare" visceral fat deposit surrounding the kidneys and inside the loin. Leaf lard has little pork flavor, making it ideal for use in baked goods, where it is treasured for its ability to produce flaky, moist pie crusts.

The next highest grade of lard is obtained from fatback, the hard subcutaneous fat between the back skin and muscle of the pig.

The lowest grade (for purposes of rendering into lard) is obtained from the soft caul fat surrounding digestive organs (the omentum), such as small intestines. Caul fat is often used directly as a wrapping for roasting lean meats or in the manufacture of pâtés.

Lard in history and its use in food.

Lard has always been an important cooking and baking staple in cultures where pork is an important dietary item, the fat of pigs often being as valuable a product as their meat. Obviously, it is also prohibited by dietary laws that forbid the consumption of pork, such as kashrut and halal.

During the 19th and first-half of the 20th Centuries, lard was used in a similar fashion as butter in North America.

As a readily available by-product of modern pork production, lard was previously cheaper than most vegetable oils, and it was common in many people's diet. During the industrial revolution, new techniques were developed for the production of vegetable oils and they became more common and more affordable.

NB: Bear in mind, this would have been for the first time in human history!

Vegetable shortenings were developed in the early 1900s, which made it possible to use vegetable-based fats in baking and in other uses where solid fats were called for.

Toward the late 20th century, lard began to be regarded as less healthy than vegetable oils (such as olive and sunflower oil) because of its high saturated fatty acid and cholesterol content.

NB: Despite its reputation, lard has less saturated fat, more unsaturated fat, and less cholesterol than an equal amount of butter by weight.

Unlike many margarines and vegetable shortenings, lard contains no trans fat.

Lard’s lost popularity as it became viewed old-fashioned, unhealthy, and something poor people ate.

Many restaurants in the western nations eliminated the use of lard in their kitchens because of the religious and health-related dietary restrictions many of their customers demanded in an effort to ‘eat healthy’.

Many industrial bakers began substituting corn-fed beef tallow for lard in order to compensate for the lack of mouthfeel in many baked goods and free their food products from pork-based dietary restrictions.

Luckily, following this disasterous switch to high-trans and hydrogenated fats in the 1960’s and 70’s, the unique culinary properties of lard were rediscovered (never having been forgotten by French chefs) leading to a partial rehabilitation of this fat among "foodies" and chefs in this country. This trend has been partially driven by negative publicity about the trans fat content of the partially hydrogenated vegetable oils and in vegetable shortening.

It is also again becoming popular in many countries as people have explored and rediscovered the virtues of traditional cuisine over modern ‘healthy food’.

Lard is one of the few edible oils with a relatively high smoke point, attributable to its high saturated fatty acids content. Pure lard is especially useful for cooking since it produces little smoke when heated and has a distinct taste when combined with other foods. Many chefs and bakers deem lard a superior cooking fat or shortening because of lard's wide range of applications and taste.

Because of the relatively large fat globules found in lard, it is extremely effective as a shortening in baking. Pie crusts made with lard tend to be more flaky than those made with butter.

Lard was once widely used in the cuisines of Europe, China, and the New World and still plays a significant role in British, Central European, Mexican, and Chinese cuisines.

Lard consumed as a spread on bread was once very common, especially those areas where dairy fats and vegetable oils were rare. A slice of bread spread with lard was a typical staple in traditional rural cuisine of many countries.

As the demand for lard grows, many small farmers have begun to specialize in heritage hog breeds with higher body fat contents than the leaner, modern hog. These were the traditional ‘lard pigs’ of history that were raised just as much for their valuable lard as for their wonderful, flavorful meats.

http://lardlovers.ning.com/

www.westonaprice.org

www.eatwild.com

The British are Coming! The British are Coming!

Well, British hogs that is...and well, they've already arrived!

Do you think it would to obvious to call her 'spot'?

The Gloucester Old Spot Hogs have arrived at Whitmore Farm!

Thanks to Rich Tilyou, a breeder and real champion of this rare English breed of hog for providing us with breeding stock for what we hope to be the epicenter of rare breed hog-dom in Maryland.

Check out Rich's home page featuring his excellent Tamworth and Gloucester Old Spots (from hereon to be referred to as GOS's) at http://www.heritagebreedsusa.com/TMeadow.html

Commonly called the orchard pig, they were often finished on fallen fruit and other agricultural byproducts like whey. Old-time farm stories from Britain describe their black spots as bruises from falling apples.

The breed originated around the Berkeley Vale in Southwest of England and is thought to have been derived from the original Gloucestershire pig (a large white pig with wattles) and the unimproved berkshire (a sandy colored, prick-eared pig with spots), both of which forms are extinct at present.

Old Spots are hardy and do well on pasture, are known to have an easy disposition, and at one time, came close to extinction. The breed hit its high point in popularity in Great Britain just after World War I when its lean meat was preferred.

This is how we raise our pork...on pasture as nature intended it! Here we have our herefords from December and our new stock of GOS's.

Old Spots continued as the pork of choice for discerning pork-ophiles and in livestock shows throughout the 1920’s and early 1930’s. However, after World War II, the breed became increasingly rare with a shift to intensive pig production and reduced interest in pigs that could thrive out of doors. The remaining population nearly became extinct in the 1960s, though it has been increasing slowly since then, thanks to the work of people like Mr. Tilyou. Even now, the genetic pool is quite shallow especially in the United States and breeders in this country look to introduce new genetics from the U.K.

Gloucestershire Old Spots pigs were first imported to the United States during the 1900s, and they made genetic contributions to several American breeds, including the American Spot and the Chester White. The breed never became numerous in the United States, however, and was practically extinct by the 1990s when twenty Gloucestershire piglets were imported to reestablish a purebred population in America. A breed society was founded, and the number of animals in the United States is increasing.

As of 2009, there are less than 1000 Gloucestershire Old Spots in Great Britain and fewer than 200 breeding animals in the US. The breed notably benefits from continued support of the British Royal Family who favors pork from these pigs for their table.

The Gloucestershire Old Spot pig is known for its docility, intelligence, and prolificacy. Boars reach a mature weight of 300 lbs (136 kg) and sows 275 lbs (125 kg). The pigs are white with clearly defined black (not blue) spots. There must be at least one spot on the body to be accepted in the registry. The breed’s maternal skills make it able to raise large litters of piglets on pasture. Its easy disposition and self‑sufficiency make it an attractive hog for small farmers raising pigs on pasture.

The pigs are so darn friendly...its impossible to get a good picture! They love to be scratched and talked to...

The Gloucester Old Spot is listed as critical by the American Livestock Breeding Conservancy, an organization dedicated to the preservation of rare breed livestock animals.

http://albc-usa.org/

As with many other areas of the world economy, the consolidation and industrialization of agriculture has led to a move towards monocultures of livestock. This has proven to be disastrous for traditional and landrace varieties of livestock, many of which developed over many centuries and created unique qualities, disease resistance, or traits that are not easily recreated if lost.

Much as with wild animals, the ALBC and heritage livestock breeders work to protect these unique lines of animals from extinction. That is one of our goals at Whitmore Farm in breeding rare breeds and educating farmers as to the many advantages they have over industrial stock.

Oftentimes, the ONLY disadvantage they have over commercial livestock is they don't perform well in confinement, cages, and other unhealthy environments that have become the norm for factory farms.

This is how we raise our animals...fresh air, sunshine, shade on hot days and a natural wallow. The wallow (a mudpuddle) allows the pigs to coat themselves with mud which protects them from biting flies and a sunburn.

What the heritage breeds DO typically excel at are traits like:

1. Extreme hardiness to cold, bad weather and other adverse conditions.

2. Good natural resistance to disease.

3. Strong maternal traits.

4. Calm disposition making them easy to work with.

5. Excellent flavor.

6. Good feed conversion on pasture and an ability to survive on relatively 'thin' rations (i.e. poor quality grass for example).

7. A sense of what the French call terroir, where unique foods come from unique places. Think of the vidalia onion or a coney island hot dog.

This sense of terroir is one of the things that make foods exciting and interesting. We are happy to be working to protect this breed in the United States and look forward to offering our customers a 'bit of Old Spot' pork in 2011 and onwards.

One of our areas of interest is smoking and curing our own meats. We are currently working to perfect our first year of Maryland proscuitto!

It is a beautiful sight to see animals on pasture!