Zingerman’s Ari Weinzweig waxes poetic about the perfect bacon strip

Vegetarians might want to avert their eyes while perusing this month’s The Atlantic. Zingerman’s co-founder Ari Weinzweig is a guest writer and he explains how the ‘threatened’ Tamworth Pig was bred to make bacon. You can get a taste, of course, at the Zingerman’s deli.Excerpt: “”Unfortunately,” Herb continued, “when we went back to get more meat, we couldn’t find any. The breed is classified as ‘threatened’ and there aren’t that many of them to be found—just a few here and there. Russ Kremer, who is one of our favorite—probably now our favorite—pig farmers, because he really does offer his pigs a place to roam outside on the hillside once they are out of the nursery, is also is a Tamworth enthusiast. He has Tamworth lines that he has kept free of the modern pig breeding that has made pork too lean and caused the animals to become prone to stress. After four years of asking, begging, pleading, cajoling, guilt-tripping, and visiting … we finally got a Tamworth program going with him. Our first delivery was October 2010. Now we buy all of the legs and bellies he’s got!” “Read the rest of the story here.