Goode and Local By Don Rodrigo

Don Rodrigo operates a modern 12 acre farm in Sussex, New Jersey and several satellite fields in Warren counties. There, he raises both crossbred and pure-bred Alentejano hogs as well as the Mangalitsa pigs.
Free to forage the grains and grasses that carpet the landscape, the hogs are also fed an ample supply of blueberries, broccoli, bell peppers and other excess locally grown fresh produce, along with leftover artisanal bread from Teixeira’s Bakery in Newark.
Duarte also supplements the hogs’ diet with the foods that the breed has traditionally been raised on—chestnuts and acorns from Iberia’s Extremadura region. The taste of the meat from his hogs, he says, “comes from nature, from the farmland, whatever herbs and flavors they eat.”
Acorns, in particular, are rich in oleic acid (a monounsaturated omega-9 fatty acid), which penetrates the muscle fibers of the ham as it sweats during the curing process.