On Marin Sun Farms we raise our pigs on pasture and within free range paddocks. Pigs brought up with fresh air, sunshine, and fresh pasture under them, produce the highest quality, best tasting meats. Keep up to date on the latest news with our Production Blog.
Cuts and Pricing | Pork Packages | Recipes | Production Protocols
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The Environment
Our pigs graze and root pastures in planned rotations that provide the pasture plants and soil, the disturbance, nutrients, and rest/recovery needed to build additional soil, enhance bio-diversity, harvest solar energy, and demonstrate a more sustainable food model. From our coastal ranches with a variety of native grasses, to our inland valley ranches with planted and irrigated pastures, our livestock feed, converting stored solar energy within pasture plants into delicious and nutritious meat.
Winter – Off Season Production
During our wet season, from October through March, our pigs are sheltered within our barns to protect them from inclement weather and the pastures from their impact. Within our barns, the pigs are provided deep composting bedding (that produces heat) and plenty of space to roam and socialize.
The Diet
Our pigs ingest a wide variety of plants, bugs, insects, larva, seeds, grass, etc…from the pasture. We supplement their diet with a mixture of locally sourced grains, forage, root crops, proteins, kitchen scraps, and free choice minerals.
Our Pigs
Solano County Production: Sows, boars, and piglets are raised on pasture. They are finished with barley, wheat, and alfalfa grown on farm and on neighboring farms, pasture plants, grasses, and shrubs. This site provides continuous access to fresh pasture.
Sonoma County Production: Once weaned, piglets are finished with dairy products, breads, and grains from our local feed mills, within free-range paddocks, producing very rich flavored pork. There is limited availability to pasture at this site, so it is provided seasonally and periodically, but not continually.
The following breeds have frequented our farms: Duroc – Berkshire – Hampshire – Yorkshire – Wild Russian – Old Spot – Large Black
Our Pork
Our pork is full flavored, tender, and delicious meat. We produce fresh pork year round.
Organic? Local? Grass Fed? Pasture Raised? Humane?
- We are not certified organic.
- We use no herbicides or pesticides on our pastures.
- We use no hormones or artificial growth stimulants.
- Our pigs are free of antibiotics.
- Our pigs are pasture and free range raised.
- Our pigs are locally raised within the Bay Area Food-Shed.
- Supplemental feed specifics.
Supply Chain
MSF pigs are raised on ranches within the Bay Area Food-Shed. Pigs are slaughtered at Stagnos USDA facility in Modesto. The carcasses are transported to the F. Uri Meat Company USDA facility in San Francisco and butchered by MSF staff butchers for wholesale sales. Primal cuts destine for retail sale are then transported to the MSF retail butcher shops in Point Reyes Station or Oakland, for further fabrication, cutting and packaging. We also smoke, cure, and make sausages, hams, and bacon.
It is the connection and transparency from production to plate that is most critical in upholding the highest level of integrity. If you have any questions or would like clarification on anything, please contact us.
History
Pork production in the San Francisco Bay Area has all but disappeared but is beginning anew with efforts like ours. In the past, pigs were always a necessary component of our dairy production system. Pigs on dairy farms would ingest excess fresh cow milk, whey, and skim milk, all by-products of the on farm processing of milk, cheese, and butter. As the processing of these products became farther and farther from the farm and the more specialized the farms became, the pigs soon disappeared from our local landscape. The majority of all pork in the marketplace today comes from only a few highly centralized “Confined Animal Feeding Operations” CAFOs. These factory farms have divorced us from the pig and all that it has to offer to the farm, landscape, plate, and pallet.
