Princely Pigs, Fancy Fat and Farmers

I've recommended Farmer's Markets and getting to know your local producers; not only do you get to know where your food is coming from but building relationships with the producers is invaluable. Not to mention that they are generally darn nice and often interesting people. As an example this week we got twenty pounds of premium naturally-grown Berkshire pork for $5 a pound.  Plus he threw in about 5 lbs. of gourmet Mangalitsa pork fat for us to render into lard. Yes, there is 'gourmet' pork fat. If we could find this stuff in a store it would be $15-20 a pound.  How? We met the producer at the West Seattle Farmer's market years ago and got to know about him and his business.  When we had a few dollars to spare for meat we called him and asked for a deal.

He also very generously included a 2 lb. slab Lardo- not to be confused with Lard.  Lardo is a type of salume (Italian cured meats generally made from pork.) Lardo is made by curing strips of fatback with rosemary, herbs and spices in coffin-shaped basins of Carrerra Marble.  The most famous lardo is from Colonnata in Tuscany where they have been making it since Roman times but this product is very difficult to import.  The product that we were given is made in San Diego, California by Knight Salume Company. We tried it and the flavor is phenomenal... but the texture?  It's fat and no matter how yummy it is super-rich and greasy; very much of it by itself would make us feel ill.  Further research reveals that among the various ways it is served is sliced paper-thin as part of an anti-pasto, melted onto bread, stacked on crackers with assorted veggies etc.  It is also used as an ingredient in various dishes.  I am very excited over the potential for cooking with this stuff; imagine slow-cooking a pork roast covered in thin slices of lardo.  Or mince the lardo, melt it and sautee spinach or other greens... *drool*  I'm looking forward to exploring the possibilities. 

Similarly we have gotten cheeses, vegetables, goat's milk, free-range eggs etc. by meeting the producers and getting to know them. Yes, we still have to pay for these things and yes some of them are more expensive than their supermarket equivalents but they taste better, are better for us and we're helping local small businesses.  All good things.

We're loving the summertime; mining the Renton farmer's market has been a treat; we have a variety of fresh, pesticide-free produce, we try new things and for about $40 we have fruit and vegetables for a week.  Fabu!