We Took One Bite in Barcelona. Everything Changed.

My wife Sherryne and I were in Barcelona when we tried Iberico pork for the first time. We had no idea pork could taste like that. Rich, marbled, full of flavor — nothing like what we'd been eating our whole lives.

We came home and did something a little obsessive. We ran a blind taste test — Berkshire, Kurobuta, Iberico, and Mangalitsa. Bacon, chops, ham, roast from each breed. Berkshire won on ham, we'll give them that. But on every other cut? Mangalitsa wasn't a competition. The difference is visible before you even cook it. I tell people at the farmers market: think of the nicest pork chop you've ever seen at a butcher. Then I show them our rib chop and ask one simple question — ever seen pork this red?

That's intramuscular fat. That's what flavor looks like.

We started with six Mangalitsas — Pumba the matriarch and five piglets: Hamlet, Miss Piggy, Babe, Curly, and Piglet. Babe arrived already bred and in November we welcomed our first births — Whistle and Belle. Whistle, our gentle giant boar, was so good-natured he became our logo. Today our herd includes Imre, a registered Red Mangalitsa, and Oreo, a registered Swallow Belly. When I'm not fixing fences I'm sitting in the field getting cornered by Wilbur and Whistle — our boars who've decided belly scratches and ear rubs are non-negotiable. These aren't production units. They're animals we know by name.

Our family has raised beef and hair sheep for generations. We came to Mangalitsa after our Red Angus cattle struggled to climatize from Kansas to the Texas heat. That experience taught us something important — raise animals bred for where you are. Mangalitsa thrives here. And our land works with us: lake access keeps them cool through brutal Texas summers, and our acres of live oaks drop acorns every fall. Natural acorn finishing on Texas pasture — the same practice that makes Spanish Iberico pata negra the most prized pork in the world. We didn't engineer that. The land just works with us.

A Breed Nearly Lost. A Mission Worth Keeping.

Most people don't know how close we came to losing the Mangalitsa forever. By the 1990s fewer than 200 remained worldwide. The decline started in the 1950s when industrial agriculture decided lean and fast was good enough. Of the original varieties, the Black Mangalitsa is gone forever. We work directly with Mangalitsa breeders across the US to help bring this breed back. Every animal we raise is part of that mission.

We raise about 250 animals a year — that's it. Our sows breed once a year, and Mangalitsa litters run just 5 to 6 piglets, not the 10 to 15 of commercial breeds. We're present for every single birth. No antibiotics. No hormones. No soy. No shortcuts. 16+ months slow grown.

Commodity pork is fed corn and soy for six months until they're ready to process — essentially pork veal, bred ultra-lean with no flavor. They say Mangalitsa isn't commercially viable at 16+ months. They're right — if you're rushing them. We're not.

Here's something the food industry won't tell you: fat was never the enemy. Mangalitsa fat is compositionally different from commodity pork — higher in oleic acid, softer, richer, with a melting point so low it dissolves on your tongue. Traditional European cultures prized this fat for centuries. We're not reinventing anything. We're just going back to what pork always was before industrial agriculture decided lean and fast was good enough.

Veteran-Owned. Community-Rooted. Farm Direct.

Honey Pot Farmstead is a veteran-owned farm. I'm a service-disabled Navy veteran, and giving back to the people who serve our communities is part of who we are. We recently donated a whole Mangalitsa to the Purdon Fire Department to help them purchase a new water truck. Veterans and first responders always receive 10% off — no exceptions.

When you buy from Honey Pot Farmstead you're not buying from a warehouse or a distributor. You're buying directly from the people who wake up every morning, fix the fences, sit with the animals, and care deeply about what ends up on your table.

Happy lives. Happy pigs. Extraordinary pork.

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