With his bucket loader packed with pails of animal feed, Trillium Meadows farmer Hans Lindenmann slowly navigates the steep hills and sharp turns of the snowy pathway that lead to his herds of red wattle pigs and European red deer.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a piercingly sunny and bitingly cold February morning \u2013 -20C with the wind chill \u2013 and he has to knock on the pigs\u2019 shelters to get them to venture outside for breakfast.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe deer are fine outside all the time in this cold,\u201d Lindenmann says. \u201cThe pigs need some encouragement to come out.\u201d<\/p>\n
As he cleans out their concrete feed-troughs with a shovel, the massive, shiny red-coated hogs with their wiggly wattles, or tassels, dangling from their jowls soon appear.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re spurred to put a bit of porcine pep in the step of their cloven hooves: Lindenmann is dumping buckets of fresh produce \u2013 heads of lettuce and other greens, peppers, apples \u2013 on the ground in their enclosure.<\/p>\n
They scramble to munch the same food we eat: it\u2019s a cool connection.<\/p>\n
\u201cI go to Ark\u2019s Harvest in Vankleek Hill to get some of their food,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
The non-profit venture and store, with locations in Hawkesbury and Cornwall, is dedicated to food security and sustainability through their food-share program.
\nIt\u2019s a philosophy that Trillium Meadows espouses: Lindenmann collects leftover produce that is past its prime for us but which the pigs devour greedily.<\/p>\n
His regular trips to the store are part of Trillium\u2019s sustainable farming and form a closed-loop food system that reduces waste.<\/p>\n
Lindenmann grows hay elsewhere and purchases grains from local farms \u2013 Trillium Meadows is too hilly for successfully growing other crops \u2013 which he grinds for his livestock on-farm.<\/p>\n
From Switzerland to Vankleek Hill<\/strong><\/p>\n Hans and Marianne Lindenmann came from Switzerland in 1998 and bought the 100 acres that is Trillium Meadows. It\u2019s just the two of them and their son who work the farm.<\/p>\n In Switzerland, Lindemann was sort of forest ranger-manager and was involved with hunting, so he knows big game and forests very well.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I saw I saw the deer farm here, I decided I try to buy it. It took a year to get all the permits, and we did some upgrades.\u201d<\/p>\n Until a couple of years ago, Trillium Meadows raised wild boar, but across the province there was a backlash when the creatures would escape farms and do damage.<\/p>\n The province subsequently banned raising them.<\/p>\n Citing that the problem was mainly in Quebec, Lindemann says his stock was always contained, but the province would have none of it. He switched to heritage pigs.<\/p>\n \u201cI would have continued with wild boar because I had a huge clientele. People really liked the meat,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n He and Marianne searched for a unique breed, first giving consideration to the woolly Hungarian Mangalica before settling on red wattles.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were four heritage vendors at one market, but nobody had red wattle,\u201d Lindenmann says of the breed, the males of which can reach over 300 kgs.<\/p>\n Over his two decades in the business he\u2019s also had to teach butchers how to make the cuts.<\/p>\n \u201cI had to teach them how to separate the muscles because there are tender muscles and there are tough ones, and you don\u2019t want them on the same steak. Now I have really good relationships with the butchers.\u201d<\/p>\n Knowing where your food comes from<\/strong><\/p>\n The rich red-wattle meat is a fattier pork than commodity pork \u2013 and that means more flavour, according to Lindenmann.<\/p>\n \u201cThe difference from factory pork and heritage pork is huge in flavour and in structure and when you cook it. There\u2019s not so much water in it.\u201d<\/p>\n He adds that the farm has a significant customer base in Vankleek Hill, and that people are serious about wanting to support local producers and want to know where their food is coming from.<\/p>\n \u201cThe farmers\u2019 markets are great for that,\u201d he says. \u201cEach week, we talk to customers and answer their questions. They like that.\u201d<\/p>\n But raising the heritage breed \u2013 their origin is uncertain, but they\u2019ve been in North America since the 1800s \u2013 also means added cost to the consumer: commodity pork goes to market in less than a year, while Trillium Meadows\u2019 pork can take up to 14 months.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s a lot of feed and care,\u201d Lindenmann says, adding that his pigs are not fed commercial feed that accelerates their growth. \u201cThey grow slow.\u201d<\/p>\n The European red deer is an extremely lean meat, with no marbling and only five per cent fat.<\/p>\n \u201cThe meat is high in protein, minerals and vitamins. If you have health concerns with red meat, then deer is for you,\u201d he says (though he\u2019s not offering medical advice, of course).<\/p>\n The deer \u2013 about 200 of them \u2013 are in the fields all year with a primary diet of grass supplemented with barley, corn and hay silage.<\/p>\n Natural farming<\/strong><\/p>\n Depending on the season, the Lindenmanns sell ground meat and a variety of cuts like ham, shoulder bacon, pepperettes, sausages \u2013 spicy garlic and mild-smoked \u2013 and cold cuts.<\/p>\n They sell a specialty BBQ box of combined deer and red-wattle cuts, as well as a dozen individual deer cuts and 14 red-wattle cuts. Their deer antlers are also very popular for dog treats.<\/p>\n You can find Trillium at the Vankleek Hill Farmers\u2019 Market on Saturday mornings and the Ottawa Farmers\u2019 Market on Sunday mornings. You can buy products at the farm but by appointment only.<\/p>\n Before Covid-19, Trillium Meadows was served in five Ottawa restaurants; currently they supply product to Black Tartan Kitchen, Prohibition Public House and Little Mac\u2019s.<\/p>\n As we sit in the tractor, we have an elevated view of the stands of hardwood on the undulating hills: the snowy scene is pocked with deer hoof-prints \u2013 with coyote tracks nearby.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we do here is natural farming, or as close to natural farming as it can be,\u201d Lindemann says of the frosty idyllic scene.<\/p>\n \u201cWe try to do what nature does.\u201d<\/p>\n Food writer Andrew Coppolino lives in Rockland. He is the author of \u201cFarm to Table\u201d and co-author of \u201cCooking with Shakespeare.\u201d Follow him on Instagram @andrewcoppolino.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With his bucket loader packed with pails of animal feed, Trillium Meadows farmer Hans Lindenmann slowly navigates the steep hills and sharp turns of the snowy pathway that lead to his herds of red wattle pigs and European red deer. It\u2019s a piercingly sunny and bitingly cold February morning \u2013 -20C with the wind chill […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":105130,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-affaires"],"acf":[],"featured_media_global":[],"yoast_head":"\n