What is a Red Wattle Hog? Red Wattle hogs are a breed of hog that is named for both its color and its distinctive "wattles" that hang from either side of their necks (similar to wattles in some goat breeds). They are a good sized hog with mature weights ranging from an average of 600-800 lbs up to some giants in the past that were reported to weigh close to a ton!! Red Wattles are gentle animals that are easy to handle and seem to really enjoy human contact, company and attention. The sows are good mothers that typically produce litters of 10-15 piglets.
Red Wattle hogs have a gourmet type of meat. They are somewhat like a cross between a beef and pork, with marbling throughout the meat that you just don't find in typical grocery store bought pork. That said, even with the marbling they produce a lean meat that is full of flavor (that's from the marbling!!) and health benifits.
Below is an excerpt from the website of fellow Red Wattle breeder, Marian Vanbeever of Five Ponds Farm, Missouri
Renowned
St. Louis chef Julie Ridlon (owner of
Chanterelle Catering,
co-founder of Clayton
Farmer's Market,
and founder of
Missouri Chef's Collaborative) reported the following:
"On Oct. 24, 2006 I hosted an industry pork butchering and blind
tasting,
which included around 20 cooks, interns and chefs (including St. Louis
area's Andy White and Ed Neil). We compared water content, fat color,
what the pigs were fed, varieties of heritage breeds....and of course
a loin from Sam's wholesale just to contrast.
We had 7 samples, all from small family pork farmers except for Sam's :
1) Berkshire fed Jersey whey, Rolla, MO.
2) Berkshire not fed Jersey whey, Cape Girardeau, MO
3) Duroc, Oklahoma
4) RED
WATTLE,
Kansas
5) Chester/Tamworth, Cape Girardeau, MO
6) Ossabaw, Chapel Hill, NC
7) Sam's wholesale loin...
The
RED WATTLE
entry won 1st
place in
the blind taste test.
We are waiting for a time when it is feasible to buy RED
WATTLE
wholesale
for our restaurants and catering businesses."
Editor's note: Julie told us after the taste test that most of the pork
samples were
fresh
slabs of meat, whereas the RED WATTLE meat
came to them frozen.
Red Wattle hogs are listed with Slow Foods USA on their "Ark
of Taste" list, which details both plants and animals that have
exceptional eating qualities not found in much/most of today's commercially
available foods.
Why Red Wattle Hogs ? We are often asked that as we embark on this grand adventure. Well, it all started with me saying "we need a pig" to eat the veggie scraps. And then Jim took a copy of Mother Earth News with him on a business trip. In that issue was an article on old, heritage breed farm animals and he came home all fired up to help save some rare breeds of animals, hogs were at the top of his list. Since I also wanted a "pig or two" around, we set about looking for some heritage hogs to bring home to our farm. Red Wattles were intriguing from the get go, and we were so happy when we found Marian and were able to get started with a threesome from her farm.
Meat quality was tops on our list for what we wanted in a hog, but temperament was also of utmost importance. Our Red Wattles are so gentle and easy to work with that we just can't imagine having a different breed.
We brought in a second group of RW's from a breeder in Iowa. Included were two bred sows due to farrow "anytime". Well that time arrived last week and we spent two anxious days watching the ladies do their thing. We now have 7 additional Red Wattles in Oregon. The whole process of birthing and then evaluating the newly born piglets has been a real eye opening experience and we have spent many many hours talking and refining our goals for the Red Wattle project.
Please see our sales page for what animals we have available for sale currently and in the near future!