Bloomington's Mkono Farm produces pasture-raised pigs in a humane way

"Come on pig, pig, pig, pig, pigs," Amanda Hand called on a recent Wednesday morning.

From across the grassy pasture, snorts and squeals from 21 Kunekune pigs erupted. They ran through the tall grass to the feet of Hand and her visitors on her farm southwest of Bloomington.

"They're like potato chips. You can't have just one of them," Hand said as she reached down to scratch the back of one of the year-old pigs.

Hand and her husband, Jason, began raising small-batch heritage pigs in 2018 while living in southern Maryland. In August 2021, they moved to southern Indiana, finding a place on Duvall Road and returning to the state they consider home.

The name of their farm, Mkono Farm, is Swahili for hand, the couple's last name. It's also part of a phrase they embrace: "Mkono ma bwana," which translates "the hand of God."

The Kunekune pigs are a New Zealand domestic breed that are true grazing pigs. In their native homeland, the pigs graze all year, Hand said. The pigs have ample fat and are social and docile. They are also "easy on the land," doing less rooting and digging and instead eating just the grasses and plants available to them.

With rotational grazing, the pigs are able to give back to the land, fertilizing it while cutting the grasses as they go. Moving them from one pasture to another is easy, Hand said. "They are really a joy to raise."

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All the pigs are raised for their meat. The pigs are pasture-fed and also eat small portions of a non-GMO custom feed specially made at Bedford Feed and Seed that is high in nutrients. The pigs receive more of the custom feed pellets in the winter, but even then clover- and alfalfa-rich hay is the largest part of the pigs' diet.

Federal grant helps with the pigs' food

The Hands received $3,000 from the Fund-A-Farmer grant program through Food Animal Concerns Trust in Chicago to purchase seeds and grow a variety of protein-rich grasses and tubular plants so some of their approximately 100 pigs will eat in a wooded area on their farm. Currently, the Hands own 18 acres and lease another 40 to provide grass-filled fields for grazing.

Mkono Farm was one of two in Indiana to receive funding through FACT this year. Since 2012, FACT has awarded $857,000 in grants to farmers in 44 states to help improve the welfare of an estimated 735,000 animals. This year, 87 farms received grants, according to Larissa McKenna, humane farming program director with FACT. The grants fund farms that use humane farming practices and want to increase pasture-based livestock production.

Although the Hands received the grant in April, dry weather in May and June kept the couple from planting all the seeds. There are two pens that have the plantings and are test plots for the silvopasture, which is a forested area where pasture animals graze. One of the pens has Keturah — Hand's favorite sow — and Duke, one of two award-winning boars on the farm.

An additional veteran's coalition grant of $1,000 allowed them to purchase tractor implements needed to plant the silvopasture. The planting should be complete by the fall and will not only expand the area where the pigs can eat nutrient-dense plants but also promote soil health and control erosion.

Some of protein-rich grasses and root plants at Mkono Farm include Korean lespedeza and six other forms of clover, hairy vetch, chicory, field peas, dwarf Essex rape, daikon radishes and shade grasses.

Sharing the pigs at farmers' markets and elsewhere

The Mkono Farm is at the Bloomington Community Farmers' Market every Saturday selling bacon, pork chops and loins, sausage, brats and salami. Six new flavors of salami will soon be added to the list, according to Hand.

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In the winter months, Mkono Farm products will be sold at the Bloomington Winter Farmers' Market. Other summer markets where the farm sells its products are the Bargersville farmers' market on Wednesdays and Broad Ripple Farmers' Market on the first and second Saturdays.

Customers can purchase small roaster pigs from Mkono Farm and have them custom-processed. Hand said Kunekune pigs' meat is rich and the fat tastes sweet. She said the meat has more flavor than most of the pork people buy in grocery stores.

"The fat just melts in your mouth. It's so good."

Since Mkono Farm is new to the area, Hand is hopeful to add more customers through online orders at the farm's website and restaurants and butcher shops. Hand is searching for restaurants that will use the animals "nose-to-tail" in dishes.

Hosting popup dinners on Mkono Farm

On July 15, Popup Bloomington and All Creatures Yum! hosted "Summer Delight: a study in pork" at Mkono Farm with chef Jeremy Chasteen providing dishes made from the farm's meats. The event included signature cocktails and live music for 24 guests.

Hand anticipates more farm-to-table dinners and events at the farm, with two planned for later this summer and another in the fall.

What's next at Mkono Farm?

While the Hands enjoy raising the Kunekune pigs, they are looking to branch out by adding Churro sheep. The heritage sheep are a hardy breed that is disease-resistant and doesn't need much pampering. The breed is sometimes called Navajo-Churro because the Navajo, Hopi and other Native American nations in the Southwest bred the sheep that were originally brought to the United States by Spanish colonizers.

"We've had tons of people asking about lambs," Hand said, adding sheep are the one type of livestock she's never raised.

Even so, Hand expects to add lamb to not only the pastures at Mkono Farm but the products it sells. The lambs are expected to be on the farm on Aug. 22.

You can stay at Mkono Farm in your RV

Mkono Farm allows people traveling in a recreational vehicle or trailer to spend a night at the farm through the Harvest Host group. The program allows people traveling through an area to spend the night at a farm, brewery or winery after they sign up online at harvesthosts.com. Anyone who wants to add an extra night at Mkono Farm can do so through the farm's website.

One of the suggestions on the Harvest Host website is that people staying at a site purchase some of the items from the farm, winery or brewery. In addition to the meat selections at Mkono Farm, there are also farm-crafted jams created to accompany charcuterie boards and dessert boards, Hand said. Other items for sale include soaps, candles, lotions and healing salves all created with the Kunekune lard.

Contact Carol Kugler at ckugler@heraldt.com, 812-331-4359 or @ckugler on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Bloomington's Mkono Farms produces Kunekune pigs in a humane way