Peaceful Pork is raising the best hogs in Texas
A staff retreat to our pig ranch showed us where our meat really comes from
A while back our team took a retreat to the ranch where we source our hogs. Loncito Cartwright and his family have had their ranch at Mt. Lucas, Texas for generations and have used the land for everything from oil and natural gas to lamb and now pork and beef production.
LeRoy and Lewis is a Texas barbecue truck and typically that means we would specialize in beef, and we do with items like our beef cheeks and Akaushi brisket. But the real star of the menu is the Peaceful Pork hog we bring in every week that makes its way into over 50% of the menu. We serve pulled whole hog and hop sausage with the most useable meat. The fat is ground, rendered, and used for refried beans. The skin is scraped, boiled, scraped again, dehydrated, and fried for ranch pork rinds. The little crispy bits of the cooked whole hog that are not quite perfect enough to serve are pureed along with its kidneys into a stock made from the pig’s bones. Leftover sausage goes into our Braised Cabbage dish. These hogs are literally all over our menu.
They have also been one of our main purveyors since we opened the truck four years ago. I used to receive half hogs in a Yeti cooler and have to cut them down immediately to fit into a reach-in fridge. We even won Cochon 555 Austin with a Peaceful Pork hog in 2017. Including all sausages and sides, we’ve made hundreds of dishes with these pigs.
Having such a reliance on these hogs, we had wanted to visit the place they were raised to give our staff a little time off and perspective at the same time. We went for Sawyer’s birthday and got treated to a fantastic weekend full of great food and peaceful relaxation.
Talking with Loncito and his soon to be wife, Julie, was the highlight of the trip. Just listening to someone so passionate about the well being of the animals and how wonderful it is to work with great chefs was inspiring. We recorded a conversation for a podcast and Loncito dove deep into why he does what he does, his successes and failures along the way, and his family history with the Mt. Lucas ranch.
We saw hogs of all sizes, from weeks old, to being loaded onto a trailer to go to harvest. We saw them root and run around, lounge, nurse their babies, be generally peaceful and happy.
The week after we came back there was a different appreciation for the animal were breaking down, smoking, and serving. It is really easy to forget that the rib or pulled pork sandwich we eat actually had a life. It’s the main reason we source the way we do and try to show our guests why we think that supporting local ranchers is the best thing to do. For the animal, the community, and for your own palate. These hogs simply taste better.
Check out our Patreon video for a farm tour and the Peaceful Pork episode of the New School BBQ Podcast.
