Delicious Gluten-Free Dinner & Desserts

In 1913, Julie Golden’s grandfather, Herman Mattern, took ownership of City Bakery in Ukiah. At 23-years old, Mattern, an enterprising German immigrant, grew the bakery quickly, selling hundreds of loaves of bread throughout the county and shipping confections throughout California. This was a source of inspiration when Julie first decided to open The Golden Pig. As someone who suffers from celiac disease (an autoimmune condition triggered by gluten protein found in most grains), it was important to Julie that...

March 4, 2020
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Meatless Mondays or Conscious Consumption?

Food fads come and go. Messaging about health and food are everywhere, and one we’ve been hearing a lot lately is the need to practice “Meatless Mondays.” In the conversation around climate change, meat, particularly beef, has been vilified as a major contributor of greenhouse gases. However, the arguments for meat as a major contributor of greenhouse gas emissions are exaggerated, and well-managed grass-fed cattle can actually help sequester carbon in soil.   It’s true that illegal deforestation of the Amazon...

September 18, 2019
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The Deal with Meal Kits

Whether you live in the Bay Area or rural Mendocino County, we all appreciate new technologies and services to help us get through the day. It’s no wonder that meal kit delivery services are the fastest growing food industry. Dozens of meal kit services exist, but they all have the same basic offering: order a pre-packaged meal as individual ingredients and cook an amazing meal at home. It sounds so alluring. Meal planning is fun on an enticing website. Cooking...

July 21, 2019
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Farm vs. Factory Part 2

When restaurants order meat through a distributor like US Foods, Sysco, or even Golden Gate Meat Company, the volume of meat production is so much bigger than one local ranch. Those distributors are dialed into a very efficient system of production, processing, marketing, and distribution. Product availability is the same all the time, hence it is easy to place orders for specific cuts of meat each week. Usually, these distributors have requirements, like minimum orders, as they are also...

June 12, 2019
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Have you ever received a chicken in the mail?

Baby chicks are a symbol of spring. If you visit a local livestock and agriculture store, you know it is springtime when baby chicks for sale are peeping up a racket. Around here, it is common for people to raise a small flock of egg layers in their backyard. Nothing beats eating fresh eggs for breakfast. For small- and medium-sized farms, typically, we purchased day-old chicks from a hatchery and receive them in the mail. Last September, we picked up...

November 13, 2018
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Farm vs. Factory Part 1

Which came first, the recipes or the cow? The answer to this question may determine whether a restaurant’s menu is Farm Driven or Chef Driven. In a typical restaurant, the food concept is created, a menu is devised, and ingredients are purchased to piece those recipes together, i.e. Chef Driven. The Golden Pig was founded to support its farm, Heart Arrow Ranch, in partnership with Mendocino Meats and other local farms in the area. First, we looked at the farm...

October 26, 2018
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Creating a Biodynamic Farm

Mendocino Meats and Golden Vineyards have been working together to create a Biodynamic® farm – integrating the different elements from our separate businesses to support a healthy whole, living farm organism. Golden Vineyards has been producing certified organic and Biodynamic winegrapes and olives since 1997. With Mendocino Meats’ livestock and food crops, we are complementing the Goldens’ winegrapes and olives. Together, we manage the entire system, including the wild lands, as a healthy whole. When Mendocino Meats arrived at Heart...

May 11, 2018
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