Consumers squeal for rare little piggies

If the many varieties of North Carolina barbecue are any indication, the Old North State knows its pork.

So it’s no surprise that Mebane is home to one of only four Ossabaw pig breeders in the nation and the sole breeder in the state.

Lantern, Magnolia Grill and Barbecue Joint are just a few local restaurants that use pork produced at Eliza MacLean’s Cane Creek Farm.

“The fat is very creamy, rather than being greasy, and has a very pure, nutty flavor,” says Andrea Reusing, owner of Lantern in Chapel Hill. “It’s delicious.”

About 500 years ago, Spanish conquistadors deposited a group of pigs on Ossabaw Island, off the coast of Georgia, explains Don Schrider, communication director at the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy in Pittsboro.

Part of the conquest of the New World involved leaving livestock on islands and peninsulas so conquistadors didn’t have to cross the Atlantic every time they needed food.

The pigs remained on the island and are known today as Ossabaw pigs. Part of the attraction of breeding the pigs in the United States is their similarity to Iberian pigs in Spain.

Iberian ham is “wonderful,” Schrider says, and sells for about $45 a pound overseas, generating enough revenue that it isn’t often exported to the United States.

The livestock conservancy worked with Chuck Talbott, professor at N.C. Agricultural & Technical State University, to move 50 of the hogs from Ossabaw Island about 15 years ago.

Talbott then worked with MacLean, a former N.C. A&T professor, and she agreed to breed a herd of Ossabaw pigs beginning in September 2003.

The pigs can no longer be transferred directly from the island because of the risk of disease, but there are about 250 already in the continental United States.

“I planned on being a wildlife vet,” MacLean says. “When people ask me what I do, I say, ‘I’m a hog farmer,’ and it’s hilarious to me.”

A native of the Philadelphia area, MacLean stayed in North Carolina after graduating from Duke University with a major in environmental toxicology.

She has been raising goats on her farm as a hobby since 1998 and started becoming interested in pigs after a few years of that.

“Pigs are raised in an inhumane way,” she says. “I got interested in rare breeding and eventually decided to have it be my career.”

MacLean’s pigs – of which there are more than 200 – are kept in large pens and are given ample space to roam the farm in warm weather.

And restaurants in the area have taken notice of these little piggies.

“It’s really climbed,” MacLean says of interest in her pigs. “It’s gotten to the point that it can pay my bills. . Getting it out to the public has been interesting.”

MacLean visited restaurants in the area to sell her product, finding customers in restaurants such as Elaine’s on Franklin, Crook’s Corner and Magnolia Grill.

“It’s a particularly flavorful hog with a really heavy fat cap on them, which is a positive adjective despite what some might think,” explains Ben Barker, owner of Magnolia Grill in Durham.

Part of the reason the pork is so flavorful is the pigs’ diet, which is almost entirely nut-based and allows for a unique flavor, he adds.

“We try and work with local ingredients as much as we can, because you can have a relationship with the grower and an understanding of the husbandry they utilize to give you a healthier, happier, better-flavored animal,” Barker says.

In addition to her work on the farm, MacLean works as an agent at Niman Ranch, a meat distributor, and is the single mother of five-year-old twins- son Quinn and daughter Enid.

She was recently accepted into the Carrboro Farmers’ Market, which will be held on Saturdays starting March 18 and Wednesdays starting April 12, where she says she will sell chicken, eggs, pigs and vegetables.

“It’s nice to think you’re eating something all organic that was grown in the area,” MacLean says.

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