The Green Fork is the official blog of the Eat Well Guide. Click here to Find Good Food.

Eat Well regularly features a ‘Local Spotlight‘ on our website, where we highlight the work of groups and individuals who are plowing new ground in the sustainable food movement. Presently, our attention is on Mike and Elsa Betit, farmers and owners of Tamarack Hollow Farm in South Wheelock, Vermont. Interview by: Eat Well interns Rebecca Stack and Chelsea Miller.

Please be in touch (info@eatwellguide.org) if you’d like to be featured or have a suggestion for who we should put the Spotlight on…

“Vegetarians turned pig farmers.” The phrase encapsulates the lives of Mike and Elsa Betit, owners of Tamarack Hollow Farm, a farm which specializes in pasture-raised meats.

In 2001, at the suggestion of their neighbors, the vegetarian couple decided to raise two pigs on their newly purchased land. The first year, they gave away the majority of their meat to family and friends. The next, when a group of friends asked them to raise more meat (the pork was that good!), they decided to buy ten pigs, then thirty pigs, then fifty pigs. Currently, they are up to about five hundred pigs a year and have expanded to pastured chickens, turkeys and sheep.

Subsequently, the Betits became meat-eaters and they have adopted the highest standards for raising their pork. By choosing to practice sustainable farming techniques, such as limiting the number of animals raised to preserve each animal’s quality of life, promoting pasture foraging and open air roaming, and using organic grain as supplementary feed; the Betits have an established philosophy behind their farm that continues to produce some of the best pork, lamb and poultry one can buy. The Betits’ love for the small farm philosophy and lifestyle has maintained Tamarack Hollow Farm. Mike and Elsa know that all buyers should have the assurance that they are consuming the best products available–and that is what they strive to deliver.

From certified organic kielbasa and sweet Italian sausages to marbled pig shoulders and chops, consumers have a plethora of choices, all which will elicit mouth-watering satisfaction. Tamarack Hollow Farm sells their meats at the Greenmarket in New York City as well as at markets throughout Vermont during the week. They also offer a ten-month, all meat CSA program that delivers throughout northern New England, and mail order is seasonally available.

Click here to find out more about Tamarack Hollow Farm or visit their website.