Hog Wild

WORDS BY KARINA MACKOW | PHOTOS BY KARINA MACKOW, ZANZENBERG FARM & MACKENZIE WADE

Last summer was one of our state’s hottest on record — July alone was the second hottest month in Texas since 1895.

Second to what? August 2011. In fact, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that in 128 years of record-keeping, Texas had never had a hotter July.

Huge swaths of the Lone Star State suffered under extreme heat or exceptional drought conditions, and the impact has been felt by many in the form of cattle sell-offs and auctions running overnight to wildfires catching not only dried grasses but shrubs and trees, as fire departments struggled to find adequate water supplies for their efforts. Everyone — farmers, firefighters and residents alike — had been hoping and praying for rains to replenish the groundwater and set the stage for a better growing season in the next year.

This story is all about Zanzenberg Farm, however.

And you may be wondering what this small pig farm in the middle of central Texas has to do with any of this. On a dusty, hot morning a few months ago, I braved the backroads to Zanzenberg Farm to find out.

Kayte and Justin Graham, owners of Zanzenberg Farm, rotate about 80 heritage hogs through a mix of degraded pasture, scrub oak trees and a recently rehabilitated Pecan orchard. It’s hardly a landscape lush with forage for grazing livestock — and that’s exactly the point. The Grahams work with their pigs to improve soil biology and hydration through targeted doses of the animals’ intrinsic behaviors: rooting for tubers, wallowing in pools of water, trampling manure into the ground. These actions break the surface compaction of the soil that causes rainfall to run off rather than infiltrate, and begin to stimulate the microbiota required for plant growth. “Pork is the byproduct of what we do, not the goal,” Justin repeats often during my visit. The goal is regeneration.

This progressive approach, where animals help improve the land they’re raised on, is how Kayte cut her teeth on farming in the first place. “I was [initially] drawn to agriculture from a nutrition standpoint, wanted to remake the food pyramid, solve childhood obesity,” she chuckles, recalling some of her idealism as a nutrition undergrad at Texas State University. After reading “Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Michael Pollan and about the work of Alan Savory on reversing desertification using mob grazing in Africa and West Texas, she began to see a bigger picture. One where livestock management can not only provide nutritious sustenance for communities, but also improve the environment for future generations.

Justin, on the other hand, grew up in Uvalde, Texas, in the cradle of conventional agriculture — where heavy synthetic inputs and plowing the soil were a way of life. He didn’t see any examples of regenerative systems or intensive, rotational grazing where strategic impact is followed by long periods of rest and regrowth.

“After WWII, Texas brought in angora goats and sheep, seeing a profit in supplying the clothing industry and overgrazing the land,” he explains. He rejected the traditional ranching world and went off to Texas State University to study art history and anthropology. There he met the love of his life, Kayte, and an entirely different way of doing things.

“What do you know about mob grazing?” Kayte had asked Justin, intrigued at having met someone at a college party with a background in ranching. “Mob … you mean, like the mafia?” Justin had followed up, only half-jokingly.

After graduation, they both landed jobs far from one another but stayed connected with the occasional visits and long, philosophical Facebook chats in between. Kayte was working for Betsy Ross, a pioneer in holistic cattle management, and Justin had been hired on as a ranch hand in West Texas. He was also slowly accepting his fate as a steward of the land, not exactly the lone painter/wrangler he had envisioned as a young man. After reconnecting, the two were married and started to contemplate their future together.

Using money saved up over many hardworking summers, the Grahams were able to find 2.75 acres in Center Point just within their budget. Newly married and with a baby on the way, they bought it together and immediately started building a chicken coop. At that point, Justin had a well-paying fracking job and the couple’s plan was to build a nest egg while homesteading for their growing family: another boy was on the way. But Justin’s oil job dried up, and they had to pivot. What if the farm could produce enough to support them financially? Could they use the methods they had learned from Betsy Ross and practiced on a smaller piece of land? The answer was yes — but with pigs.

They started with two registered pure-bred GOS, or Gloucestershire Old Spots, a heritage breed prized for its docile temperament and long, broad-shouldered backside that yields more than your average-sized chop. Over the years, this evolved into a “farm cross” utilizing other breeds like the Texas Red Wattle and Berkshire for particular traits like tolerance to sun exposure and strong mothering instincts. Soon, demand outstripped supply and they took on a neighboring 72-acre lease to increase production and establish their own breeding program.

Through my visit, Justin waxed philosophical, often taking a broad and optimistic view, committed to the value that a small farm integrated with its community can bring. He is driven by a desire to make dynamic contributions to the community’s economy and culture. Currently, Zanzenberg Farm partners with several local businesses to divert food waste to growing pigs and feeding humans. They pick up 700 gallons of spent curds and whey from River Whey Creamery every other week that would otherwise go in a landfill, and instead give it to their pigs to give the pork a distinctively clean, sweet finish that customers love. Pint & Plow Brewery Company in Kerrville also benefits from a relationship with Zanzenberg as their spent grain are fed to the pigs, which adds a welcome infusion of presoaked kernels into the soil seedbank and their hungry bellies.

One of the most appealing aspects of raising pigs compared to other grazing animals is how much of the animal can be used. Kayte takes full advantage of this with a lengthy sausage menu, robust paté and ambitious goals for a pecan-finished cured meat program. When it rains enough for the pecan orchard to produce large, saleable nuts, they harvest, shell and sell those as well.

Like any small farm, diversification is a major key to success and the Grahams have fully embraced that understanding. In 2015, the city of Kerrville welcomed them to start a farmers market in their historic downtown Water Street. It continues to this day, every Friday afternoon from 4 to 7 p.m. with Zanzenberg Farm as its founding vendor. Pint & Plow serves up beers, Joju Baker slings neapolitan-style pizza pies, and the community comes out for fresh food, social connection and the opportunity to support their local farmers. The Grahams have also renovated a sprawling ranch house on their leased property into a group Airbnb, close enough to the Guadalupe River and Fredericksburg for day trips but still far enough in the country that the stars still shine quietly at night. It features a hot tub and add-ons like a box of their pork to cook during your stay, farm tours and even “dinner with your farmer,” a unique chance to share a meal and conversation with the Grahams themselves.

The talented chef Jesse Griffiths of Dai Due, an Austin butcher shop and restaurant that champions hunting and eating wild hogs coined the phrase “Eat a hog, save the world.” Will eating a hog really save the world? By taking them out of the fields where they cause so much destruction and onto your plate (in ridiculously delicious fashion), Griffiths highlights our ability to provide food and environmental benefit at the same time.

Zanzenberg, and the many dedicated, progressive farms like them, accomplish the same end from the domestic side of the equation. By harnessing pigs’ indisputable impact on the land for regeneration rather than depletion, they are at the forefront of what it will take for us to eat meat in a more sustainable way.

Chilled Zucchini and Roasted Poblano Soup

Courtesy of Cappy’s: Cappy Lawton & Trevor Lawton

Serves 6–8

Roasted Poblano

1–2 poblano peppers

Roasting Instructions

Preheat oven to 400°F. Roast poblanos in the oven for 25–30 minutes, rotating occasionally, until skins are charred. Transfer peppers to a plastic bag or a bowl and cover. Set aside for 15 minutes to cool, then peel, seed, and coarsely chop. Set aside.

Zucchini and Roasted Poblano Soup

3 tbsp butter

1 large onion, roughly chopped

4–5 zucchini, roughly chopped (4 cups)

2 cups chicken stock

1/4 tsp sugar

Roasted Poblano

1 cup half-and-half, plus extra if needed

1 tsp kosher salt, plus extra to taste

1 tsp black pepper, plus extra to taste

1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Kosher salt and black pepper

Zest and juice of 1 lime

Soup Instructions

Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and sauté for 5–10 minutes, until slightly caramelized. Add zucchini and stock and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce to low heat and simmer for 10–15 minutes, until zucchini is fork tender. Remove from heat and stir in sugar to dissolve. Transfer the mixture to a blender, and add remaining ingredients. Purée until smooth. Season with more salt and pepper. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and set aside to cool to room temperature. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

Taste the chilled soup and season to taste. Pour into chilled glasses or small bowls. Finish with a pinch of salt and pepper and a squeeze of lime juice.