A day on a sustainable pig farm with The Farmers Butcher San Antonio
The Farmers Butcher
Custom meat shop, and home of South Texas heritage pork.
FInd sustainably raised pork, as well a good selection of local fare from farmers, ranchers, and producers in the South Texas region.
1602 E. Houston St. San Antonio, TX 78202
210-757-3620
@thefarmersbutchertx
For the best of South Texas Heritage Pork, The Farmers Butcher (1602 E. Houston St. San Antonio, TX 78202) is a great one spot stop.
Heritage Breed - the pedigree of a purebred animal that descends from a time before industrial farming.
Mark and Kelley Escobedo pig farmers raising South Texas Heritage Pork
Meeting with proprietors, and pasture-raising pig farmers Mark and Kelley Escobedo is a treat.
Mark is six-foot plus overalls wearing farmer with a bit to say about everything that happens on and around the farm. You may be deep in conversation of your own, when you hear Mark jaw-jacking and hollering some wisdom to anyone nearby enough to listen- and real wisdom is handed down to those that tune in for such a moment.
Meanwhile, wife Kelley seems a steady navigator with a constant line reaching for magnetic north.
They say the best way to develop a great sense of direction and having amazing navigation skills come simply from practice.
For many, the art of getting lost is actually the path to being found. And for these two farmers, slowing down to be intentional with their practice was that path.
Beginning with iron age heritage pigs, they have created a life around caring for the animals, and the people who end up with them.
And because face it, that end is oftentimes bacon- the pigs they work with are a cross of the Tamworth and English Large Black varieties, two of the best bacon pigs on the planet.
Slower pace leads to success with sustainable farming practices.
Another treat they brought with them from the iron age is a slowed pace. Something beneficial to pig, farmer, and planet alike.
Keeping the animals on pasture, where with the protection of livestock guardian dogs, the pig are able to forage at all hours, even the night as they are more so inclined to seek sustenance.
A slowed pace allows for farmers Mark and Kelley to notice signs, clues, and feel of their pigs. Looking around is a great teacher. Listening more.
One place they looked was the ancient Spaniards that raised swine, and one of the lessons from that region was that of patience and time.
The great flavor on their pigs associated as much to the terroir, as to the time that their animals were given to accumulate that flavor.
Spending years caring for pigs they’ve developed that intuition, a great sense of direction, listening for behaviors in pigs and observing patterns of which pigs will produce delicious marbling and flavor.
They have also noticed how keeping the animals on pasture i the most natural setting lends to a drove of polite pigs with better social structure amongst the herd, and
True artists finishing pigs that fit the fare at many of Texas’s finer establishments.
See more from Pineapple House here.
