here in vernon our growing season is pretty short. we only have about 90 to 100 days of frost free weather. raising animals out here we
snake river farms kurobuta ham, wanted it to be humane. and realized very quickly that the commercial breeds simply weren't bred to have
the traits that they would need to thrive. out in the harsh weather that we have and so we found through researching about the heritage breeds specifically the berkshire pigs. they're very hardy and
they do really well in the cold. it was christian and my dream since college to have, to always have pigs. so we used to sit up at night in bed with the little hobby farm magazine, and dream about having
our own farm. we started farming so that we could give our kids good meat that we knew what was in the meat. and the quality and what those animals were being fed. we get two responses. from the younger generation
they talk about the texture of the meat. we do allow our pigs to go out and run around. it tones the muscle. the older generation, they often approach us, sometimes tearfully.
as they experienced childhood memories that the flavor of our pork brings back to them. frody grew up in the old world in a very small village where the pigs were raised in similar conditions. to the way we're raising our
pigs. and so we feel like teaming up together as farmer and butcher. that we have a lot of control over the quality, and we believe that people here in utah are ready for a change.
salt and smoke, it's a business relationship first and then it's a friendship second. the french have a great word, charcutereur. but i grew up in the west part of austria on the swiss border. in austria we would call it a
"metzger" but people call me the butcher. so i'm the butcher. i make coppa, i make pastrami. i make pork belly which we call schpeck. i make probably 30 different types of sausages. so this kind of stuff i really,
i just love to go back to the old ways of doing things. after the war where people you know dug out their old recipes and everything was done by hand. it's an art and a craft. apprenticeship is definitely
necessary. you couldn't possibly learn this out of a book. you can learn a formula, you could learn a recipe, but hands on is the only way to learn this trade. christian was born in denmark. he has a european background
like i do. so the family itself, they are very much in tune with what's going on. they know a lot about food. they're just very passionate about their animals and their farm. i guess there is some,
maybe some sort of a spiritual element to what we're doing. i just feel like if we're going to be entrusted with the care of the animals and that we're ultimately raising them to eat them. that it's our moral obligation to provide them the best
lifestyle we can. i don't know i would hope that maybe people can see a little bit of the american dream and what we've done. we started with nothing and i'm a pretty firm believer that if you're passionate about something
you can find a way to be successful in just about anything in any industry. i think frodi loves to provide food for other people. i think for him it's just a passion of knowing where his food is coming from. for me it's a peace of mind
being able to be a good steward over the animals and the land. it makes me feel good to be a part of something bigger.
