Dana and Julie Go Abroad: Living among Mangalitza pigs

As the tractor pulled up beside the row of pens with a load of potatoes in the back, we got our first glimpse of the red, white and black pigs covered in full coats of hair. Mangalitza pigs.

Residing north of Vienna, the last family who graciously hosted Julie and I for two weeks raise and slaughter the rare, Hungarian originating breed of Mangalitza pigs. These hogs are either red, blond or sallow-bellied and are distinguished by their thick coat of hair and amazing fat producing capabilities. Lard is what these pigs are known for.

Julie and I spent two busy weeks cooking potatoes to feed to the pigs and tossing buckets or shovel-fulls of the potatoes over fences to be greeted by grunting and happy sows and boars. Because lard and quality fat are such important products of the Mangalitza pig, potatoes are one of the best foods to feed the pigs. They are all starch and help with fat production!

Not only did we cook and feed potatoes, we also spent many hours almost every day doing the 'green stuff' in the garden. When it was time to go weed the large garden and rows of vegetables, we were summoned to do the green stuff! Weeding may never be called weeding again by Julie and I! We weeded rows of salad, zucchini, cabbage, kohlrabi, berries with thorns, tomatoes, and pepper plants. The grass and other green stuff we pulled went to the squealing little pigs to enjoy!

With the garden and over 100 sows, our hosts work to be as sustainable as possible. This includes using all of the hog when they slaughter. Julie and I were able to watch the Dad of the family cut up a sow they'd slaughtered before we arrived. He uses a unique method for cutting up the carcasses he refers to as seam processing. This method allows for better usage of the whole carcass and produces better pieces for the drying and/or curing of speck.

After a sow is slaughtered and processed, the Mom of the family was always busy cooking up broth from bones, blood sausage using parts of the head as well, stew with lung, heart and tongue and grinding up little pieces for other sausages or recipes. One day we got to watch the making of lard. That was so neat!

We enjoyed amazing dishes each meal made from the family's pigs and vegetable garden, however, the sweetest treat we were able to enjoy was fresh from the hive honey! Both Julie and I watched the pulling out of the slats of honeycomb and learned about the male and female eggs growing inside the hives. We then watched the spinning of the honey out of the honey combs and enjoyed some natural 'bubble gum.' The gum was just some of the wax still with honey inside. We chewed the wax bits and enjoyed the sweet honey until all was gone. So super tasty good! We want bees now!!

Julie and I learned so much over the last two weeks and hope to see what we will be able to implement and try at home in just three months! Fat and lard will always be viewed a little differently from now on and I can never say again that I ate blood sausage and didn't like it! It was wild for me, but it really tasted good!

It was a very fun, learning experience! Thank you to the wonderful family that was our host!