Cane Creek Farm: Handcrafted Hogs
by Cat Moleski, Features Editor, Weaver Street Market
Eliza Maclean is raising the cutest hogs on her eleven acres in Orange County. Three baby squealers rushed out to drink their morning milk before diving headfirst back into their bedding to sleep. Large mama hogs lingered outside the barn door, waiting for their grain. Picture-perfect pink, spotted, and brown piglets came running from several fields when they spotted Eliza with the feed bucket. Farming is never easy, but a small production hog farm can be profitable, according to Eliza. She’s been working her farm for two years now, growing her passel of hogs from five to fifty. With the spring farrowing, the number had jumped to 200, but she’s already busy marketing them. Hogs can farrow twice in a season, so by July she expects another batch of babies.
Eliza’s decision to raise hogs as naturally and sustainably as possible is a recent one. However, her love of animals began when she was twelve, working for the local vet as a kennel helper. Many years later, as a vet herself, she studied the seals in the waters off San Francisco and became concerned about the large number that were dying of cancer, which led her to Duke University to study toxicology in animals. After her own children were born, she volunteered with both the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association (CFSA) and the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (ALBC) in Pittsboro where she first learned about rare breed hogs. It was then she decided to raise a rare breed of hogs from Ossabaw, a small island off the Georgia coast, where the conditions are similar to North Carolina. The ALBC has identified the Ossabaw hogs as a critical rare breed, with fewer than 200 annual registrations and less than 2000 pigs worldwide. Her ability to raise and market these pigs successfully will ensure the survival of the species and their genetic heritage.
The hogs on Ossabaw are descendants of Iberian pigs that escaped from the early Spanish settlers. Later, English settlers planted live oak trees, inadvertently creating the same environment the pigs enjoyed at home in Spain, where they foraged for acorns and lived on grass. These pigs are highly prized for the taste of their meat and the quality of their fat, which has more monounsaturated fat and omega 3 oil (the good oils found in olive oil) than other breeds. The challenge in marketing the pork meat is that the fat breaks down quickly in transit. By cross breeding the Ossabaw to an American hybrid, the Farmers Hardy, Eliza hopes to create a unique hybrid that retains great flavor, good quality fat, and is more stable during transport. Ossabaw hogs are also a good choice for sustainability. The herds are rotated from field to field, allowing the pigs the best forage, while allowing the land time to recover between visits. There’s no need for a waste lagoon, as the hogs’ waste is manageable with field rotation. They also have big litters which they are good at caring for, making the farmers’ work easier and more productive.
This specialty pork is in high demand; Eliza sells to markets as far away as New York City. You’ll be able to visit Eliza’s Cane Creek Farm on the Piedmont Farm Tour this month to see her pigs and other farm yard animals. You can taste her very own hybrid Ossabaw pork raised without hormones or antibiotics, at Panzanella Restaurant. Chef Peter McCloskey says, “it’s very tender and tasty meat. You can taste the quality.”
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