Whisper Ranch Pasture Raised Pork
We are excited that you are considering putting some of our pork on your fork! We are entering our 13th year of raising pastured pork. We have had fun and rewarding seasons raising hogs in a very sustainable, pig friendly environment. Our pigs are happy just being pigs! This almost started by accident years ago using the age old method of using pigs to prepare our land for a new garden. It turned out to be a fascinating and yummy lesson in pastured pork production.
We raise heritage cross breeds of pigs. These are very old bloodlines that are noted for their amazing ability to forage and for their flavourful meat. Once you taste heritage pork that has been raised on open foraging pasture you will likely not want to buy commercially raised pork again. It takes time and effort on our part to raise our pigs like this, but it's worth it for the smile on your face and the pork on your plate! While being rotated through fresh forest pastures, our pigs eat up to 45% of their diet from the bounty of nature. The balance of their feed is from non-GMO, certified chemical-free sources. They receive no antibiotics or hormones. They receive unlimited and untreated mountain water to drink and to play in. Pigs do like the mud! They sleep in portable pig shelters filled with fresh straw to keep them warm and to keep the big bad wolves away. They come and go at their leisure. Pigs love sleep-ins with lots of naps! This fresh mountain life creates an exceptionally marbled meat which will get your taste buds singing mountain melodies.
Our pigs arrive on our ranch in the spring and are ready for your freezer in the fall. During those months you are welcome to come by and visit. The pigs are butchered in a certified facility and cut to your specifications. We welcome any questions and value transparency.
A few nutritional notes: antibiotics and hormones aside – as I think we have all heard about these and some of the related problems – we don’t use them, end of story. A major problem with the diet of factory farmed pigs is arsenic. Arsenic is a powerful carcinogen to humans, but routinely fed to chickens and pigs to make them grow faster and improve the colour of the meat. This ends up in your meat which ends up in you. Enough said we think. They also eat a disgusting variety of waste products and whatever else the agricultural industry needs to get rid of. These things include meat judged unfit for human consumption, liquefied puppy chow, manure (did you catch that? They eat their own poop), and even plastic (supposedly to replace natural sources of fibre like grass and leaves). They’re also stuffed full of just about anything that might make them grow or gain weight more quickly, no matter how toxic it might be down the line. In pork, a big issue is fat quality. This comes directly from their diet. In nature, pigs eat pretty much anything they can get their snouts into: roots, grass, leaves, grubs, nuts, berries and fruit, and bugs. Omega-3’s are found in high concentration in grass and leaves. This leads to very high Omega-3 fat content in pastured pork which is good for you! Contrast that to factory-farmed pig’s diets which are largely based on corn and soybean meal, together with all sorts of disgusting chemicals and garbage. This feed is very high in Omega-6, and the more Omega-6 fats in the pig’s diet, the more will be in the meat. Too much Omega-6 is not good for you! Our smoked and cured products can now be selected to be processed with natural nitrite or nitrite free. Most people find the appearance of meats cured without nitrite to be unappealing from a colouring perspective.
We raise heritage cross breeds of pigs. These are very old bloodlines that are noted for their amazing ability to forage and for their flavourful meat. Once you taste heritage pork that has been raised on open foraging pasture you will likely not want to buy commercially raised pork again. It takes time and effort on our part to raise our pigs like this, but it's worth it for the smile on your face and the pork on your plate! While being rotated through fresh forest pastures, our pigs eat up to 45% of their diet from the bounty of nature. The balance of their feed is from non-GMO, certified chemical-free sources. They receive no antibiotics or hormones. They receive unlimited and untreated mountain water to drink and to play in. Pigs do like the mud! They sleep in portable pig shelters filled with fresh straw to keep them warm and to keep the big bad wolves away. They come and go at their leisure. Pigs love sleep-ins with lots of naps! This fresh mountain life creates an exceptionally marbled meat which will get your taste buds singing mountain melodies.
Our pigs arrive on our ranch in the spring and are ready for your freezer in the fall. During those months you are welcome to come by and visit. The pigs are butchered in a certified facility and cut to your specifications. We welcome any questions and value transparency.
A few nutritional notes: antibiotics and hormones aside – as I think we have all heard about these and some of the related problems – we don’t use them, end of story. A major problem with the diet of factory farmed pigs is arsenic. Arsenic is a powerful carcinogen to humans, but routinely fed to chickens and pigs to make them grow faster and improve the colour of the meat. This ends up in your meat which ends up in you. Enough said we think. They also eat a disgusting variety of waste products and whatever else the agricultural industry needs to get rid of. These things include meat judged unfit for human consumption, liquefied puppy chow, manure (did you catch that? They eat their own poop), and even plastic (supposedly to replace natural sources of fibre like grass and leaves). They’re also stuffed full of just about anything that might make them grow or gain weight more quickly, no matter how toxic it might be down the line. In pork, a big issue is fat quality. This comes directly from their diet. In nature, pigs eat pretty much anything they can get their snouts into: roots, grass, leaves, grubs, nuts, berries and fruit, and bugs. Omega-3’s are found in high concentration in grass and leaves. This leads to very high Omega-3 fat content in pastured pork which is good for you! Contrast that to factory-farmed pig’s diets which are largely based on corn and soybean meal, together with all sorts of disgusting chemicals and garbage. This feed is very high in Omega-6, and the more Omega-6 fats in the pig’s diet, the more will be in the meat. Too much Omega-6 is not good for you! Our smoked and cured products can now be selected to be processed with natural nitrite or nitrite free. Most people find the appearance of meats cured without nitrite to be unappealing from a colouring perspective.
