Niman Ranch Bacon Has Arrived!
150 lbs of Niman Ranch Bacon arrived today for Saturday’s festival. Ohhhh, BACON!
For all of you bacon lovers out there, here’s Niman Ranch’s story in the words of their local distributor, Cleverly Farms…
Over the past 10 years Niman Ranch Pork Company has grown from a network of less than 30 farmers to more than 600 farmers. Niman Ranch pork can be purchased locally at Gateway Market and in eastern Iowa at the New Pioneer Co-ops in Iowa City and Coralville.
Nationally, groceries from Whole Foods to Byerly-Lunds to Target to Safeway proudly carry Niman Ranch pork, both fresh and cured. Many local Des Moines restaurants feature Niman Ranch pork on their menus.
Their pigs are raised on small family farms with time-tested animal husbandry. No antibiotics, all vegetarian feeds, outside in pastures or in the winter months in hoophouses or old-fashioned barns. Always with access to fresh air and sunlight. Our farmers are held to the highest standards in the pork industry and work with Dr. Temple Grandin to ensure the pigs are treated humanely throughout their lives.
Our bacon is applewood smoked over real wood at Mary Ann’s Specialty Foods in Webster City. Niman Ranch bacon has won a number of taste contests across the country, including The Wall Street Journal, The San Francisco Chronicle, and Cook’s Illustrated. In fact, Cooking Light just named Niman Ranch the “Best Breakfast Bacon” in a blind taste test of over 20 bacons.
One slice of this bacon will remind you of what bacon used to taste like before the industrialized food system took the flavor out of pork and the artisanal craftsmanship out of the curing process.
Niman Ranch, I cannot wait to devour some of your delicious bacon.
One suggestion though: I don’t think “all vegetarian feeds” is a strong selling point for the Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival crowd.
Can’t we have some meat-fed bacon?
Bacon-fed bacon?
Cannibalicious…..