FEATURE by Vicki Wood, newsroom@lakesunonline.com
From computer programmer to
pork producer
I
n the era of grocery store shortages, we all need to get to know our local, small batch food producers a bit better. In Eldon, we are fortunate to have Carl Blake, a transplant from Iowa, who has taken the craft pork world by storm. His farm, Rustik Rooster gives us another local heritage farmer drawn to the area. Luckily Carl has found small butcherers willing to process meat adding to the reason that he relocated his successful farm from Iowa to Eldon. Blake was featured on Bizarre Foods Delicious Destinations with Andrew Zimmern while still farming in Iowa in 2013. That appearance grew to other appearances on the national stage with articles in the New York Times, a guest appearance on The Stephen Colbert Report, and Somebody’s Gotta Do It with Mike Rowe. He even had a short run TV show on the Nat Geo channel titled “Little Pig Man” featuring his family farm in 2014. “Bizarre Foods was looking for iconic food people to feature from the state, and chefs that they had talked to referred the show’s team to me,” Blake shares about how his first television appearance came about. Blake is humble one minute, especially about his persona on television. “I have a face made for radio” he jokes. But he confidently struts around New York City in his signature overalls with one strap hanging off of the shoulder in his YouTube videos, while posing for pics with Times Square’s Naked Cowboy. It’s not what you would expect from a former Apple Computer company engineer — it is what you would expect a guy running a farm located between Eldon and Tuscumbia to don, even when visiting New York City. Blake is true to himself and where he is from, and supremely confident with what he is doing in life. Blake appeared on The Tiny Sirko Show holding and cuddling a baby pig and then had a documentary produced with the Jackson Wild Media company title Pork.0. Pork.0 follows Blake as he combats factory-farming by inventing his own breed of pig. A statement from Jackson Wild Media about the documentary describes him as “A former computer engineer who returned to the farm after a harrowing car accident, Carl is changing the pork system by producing some of the tastiest and happiest pigs, all using sustainable methods. He’s reached fame and success, but hasn’t finished his quest of making the perfect pig. Pork.0 is not only about a farmer who wants to bring accountability back to pork production, but also of a selfless man who will stop at nothing to change a flawed system. You see the scars of what the meat industry (especially pork) has done in the Midwest, and to tell the story of a guy that is successfully combating that by doing it the right way, and with a pig he invented himself, was something that really interested me.” Filmmaker Brett Kuxhausen was also quoted about the Pork.0 documentary when asked “What impact do you hope this film will have?” “I hope that it makes people think twice about where they are getting their meat from, and how it is raised. My goal isn’t to turn anyone vegetarian, but I think that we need to consume less meat and eat it more consciously. I also really hope that it challenges preconceived notions on what the contemporary American farmer is like,” Kuxhausen said. The Pork.0 Documentary can be found online at Vimeo. Blake began by raising pigs for county fairs as a young man. Then, he found a love for computers. His tinkering brain, even in middle school, led him to a career building internet portals for Apple. But farming still called Blake, and with an obsession to find the perfect pork taste, he took that ingenuity and parlayed it into cross breeding an exceptional tasting breed — one that is more meaty, smooth, and fatty than commercially-raised breeds. Blake crossed a Russian wild boar and a Chinese variety Meishan pig, and came up with his unique and exclusive Iowa Swabian Hall pigs. Restaurants and chefs nationwide have been knocking at his door for the delectable craft pork ever since his appearance on TV. Blake’s swine isn’t fed any normal diet. He raises
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November 6-December 3, 2020
VACATION NEWS 11
