Did you know that many of our charcuterie products are made from Iberian Pigs? Check the website description or product label to find out.
Iberian Pigs are an ancient Mediterranean breed of pigs that have been farmed for millennia in a free range manner in specially designated areas including National Parks on the Iberian Peninsula. The stocking rate is around one pig per five acres of oak fields.
The characteristics of this breed offer unique iberico products. The pig has a natural ease for shepherding, an outstanding metabolism and grazes on acorns.
Very few animals have a phisiology that enables them to infiltrate fat in their muscles, a characteristic that allows their meat to be one of the finest and most recognised foods in the world.
Iberian Pigs are unmistakable due to their very dark colour, lack of fur, thin legs, black hooves, long snout and floppy ears.
Iberian Pigs are born and grow up in fields, known as “The Dehesa” an ideal natural environment, which consists of extensive areas of forest with holm-oak, gall oak, and cork oak woodlands.
Grazing in vast fields allows the Iberian Pig to physically develop in a stress-free environment, without the need to put them into stables.
Spain has more than half of the world's oaks, and it's there, that the Iberian Pig eats only acorns and grass during the last 5 months of the fattening process.
These animals move freely in the pasture, a fact that contributes significantly to the formation of their muscles. This means that they acquire a perfect ratio of meat and fat, making their produce recognised as one of the most delicious foods in the world.
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CREDITS: Photos and video from Barcelona Deli producer estates.
Photos supplied by Calderon y Ramos
Video supplied by España e Hijos showing the pigs in “montanera” eating acorns in autumn-early winter.