Meat Heads
Hard-core carnivores trade tips on the best sources for grass-fed heritage breeds. Now they’ve upped the ante, going straight to the farm for prime cuts By Chris Nuttall-Smith
Image credit: Jenna Marie Wakani
It started with the meat cutters. With the rise a few years ago of quality-focused specialty butchers around town, home cooks discovered the difference breeding, feed and provenance could make on their dinner plates. Now some eager foodies have begun going directly to the farmer, where they’re able to see exactly how their dinner was raised. One of the best sources is Dingo Farms, run by Dennis and Denise Harrison, who converted their commercial hog-feeding operation (just off Highway 400 in Bradford) into a much smaller—and more sustainable—specialty one. A year and a half ago they started raising Berkshire pigs—the full-flavoured, fat-laced heritage breed that’s a favourite with chefs—and produce no more than 140 butcher-ready animals annually. The pigs are raised without hormones, antibiotics or GMO feed; they spend most of the year rooting around in the pastures outside. Cowbell’s meat-obsessed chef, Mark Cutrara, left with one of the first batches of their pork and made the Harrisons a regular supplier; other city chefs, as well as the Healthy Butcher, have since come calling. Home cooks who until recently did not want to know where their meat came from now buy cuts and even sides of pork at the farm gate, asking questions about butchering (it’s done at the same provincial abattoir Dennis’ father used to take him to as a child) and traceability (each pig is tattooed with the farm’s number) before they put their money down. The Harrisons want people to come and see how their animals are treated, and to feel free to ask any question they want. Which is kind of the way things used to work, they imagine, when Dennis’ ancestors settled the farm four generations ago.
Sides of pork are about 100 pounds, custom cut and wrapped to the customer’s specifications. $3.65 per pound. Grass-fed beef, lamb and free-run poultry also available. 905-775‑5520, www.dingofarms.ca
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