I remember my college years. Freshman year, you get a meal plan and it’s all you can eat….three meals a day. Well, as you can imagine, I had to start watching what I ate, along with lots of my friends and classmates.

The extent of my “health foods” knowledge at the time consisted of portion control, lots of vegetables, and everything must be low-fat. Yogurt, milk, ice cream, cereal, granola bars, you name it, I always chose low-fat. That’s what our culture communicated to me was healthy. There’s even low-fat half & half?! So something that literally means half milk, half cream (which is fat!) has NO fat at all in it?! It’s basically milk mixed with additives to thicken it like corn syrup, no thank you!

After starting the farm, we began to really explore what we were eating and what’s actually good and nourishing for our bodies. We discovered that fat is actually not a bad thing, but something our body needs. And the best fats are the ones that are not processed but come from natural sources such as animals, especially those raised in their natural environments.

What Lard Is & How It’s Made

Simply stated, lard is fat that comes from a pig. You take the chunks of fat from a pig and cook it down, melting the fat. Once you strain out all the extra bits, the leftover liquid is rendered lard. It’s soft and is white in color.

Lard contains no trans-fat and lots of good fatty acids. It’s been used for centuries for cooking, yet in the 1900s, hydrogenated vegetable oil (shortening or crisco) started being developed. And the companies producing it basically started giving lard a bad rap, insisting their product was ‘healthy’. Science has proven this just isn’t true, but unfortunately people still tend to think lard is ‘bad’. I totally used to think this way!

Regular Lard Vs. Leaf Lard

Regular lard, the lard we’ve offered since 2020, is made by rendering the fat from the fatback of the pig. It has a subtle porky flavor and is great for cooking eggs, sautéing or roasting veggies, frying chicken, or for in savory pie crusts.

Leaf lard, a new product we began offering in 2022, is made by rendering the fat from around the kidneys. It’s a cleaner, whiter and more flavor neutral fat, meaning it doesn’t taste as porky. Leaf lard is great for dessert pie crusts, pastries, sweet breads and more!

Health Benefits

Lard, especially from pigs raised on pasture in their natural environment, is actually good for you. Did you know pigs store vitamin D in their fat? Vitamin D is fat-soluable, thus this type of vitamin D is more efficient for the brain to access as opposed to a supplement. Vitamin D also helps your body absorb calcium, regulate hormones and even boost your immune system!

Vitamin D can even can decrease your risk of depression. In a study that included more than 31,000 people published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, people with low levels of vitamin D in their blood were over twice as likely to be diagnosed with depression than those with high levels.

The dominant fat in lard is monounsaturated fat, the same fat abundantly found in oils made from olives and avocados and considered “heart healthy”, meaning it is linked to decreased heart disease. Most of the monounsaturated fat is actually oleic acid, a heart-healthy fatty acid found in olive oil.

Our brains actually need fat to function properly. Fat helps our neurons to make connections. The more connections, the healthier our brains & minds. This study published by the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease actually found that the chances of dementia decreased with increased fat intake!

Cooking Benefits

Not All Lard is the Same

Make sure to look for lard that is from pasture raised pigs, as this will be the most superior when it comes to nutrition and taste. Plus, you can be confident that you’re supporting a farm that is not only raising their animals in their natural habitat but restoring the land at the same time.

We are so thankful that our pork processor renders lard for us, which saves you and I the step of having to render it.

Add some regular lard or leaf lard to your next farm order from our online store here and ask us for recipes, you will love it!