Julia Rylands: Muddy Feet Farm

Cowichan Valley, BC

 

A chance encounter and an introduction through a mutual friend led us to Julia and her exceptional, happy pigs.  The small number of Berkshire/Tamworth cross pigs that she breeds and raises each year are free to roam on eight wooded acres, rooting, foraging, and engaging in behaviours that come quite naturally to a pig, but which we rarely associate with commercial pork production.  

 

Their natural diet is supplemented with whey and extra cheese from Haltwhistle Cheese, spent grain from Ampersand Distilling, and vegetables from the Cowichan Green Community’s food recovery program.  The result is not just more sustainable and humanely raised pork; it’s also the most delicious pork any of us has ever tasted.  

 

Only eight of these beautiful animals go to market each year in the spring.  Hudson’s gets one of them, which makes its way into our charcuterie, and very briefly, onto our dining room menu.  To eat Julia’s pork is a celebration of terroir, of sustainability, and of the uncompromising integrity that makes small artisan producers such as herself so special.