A small artisanal purveyor
of fine, pasture raised Berkshire Pork
Wayne's Fine Swine
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About Us
Diana Elwyn graduated with a Grande Diploma from Tante Marie's Cooking School in San Francisco. She now owns her own business as a family therapist, but never lost the love of cooking and entertaining. She enjoys making up recipes with the high quality ingredients that she and Wayne produce from their beautiful 2 acre piece of land in Aromas. She has passed along her love of cooking to her daughter, Camille, who helps out with gardening and animal husbandry.
Wayne Holman grew up in a family that raised animals for their own meat consumption. He also raised animals and won prizes in his local 4-H club. He learned the fine art of slaughtering and butchering a pig from helping his father. He continued the tradition of raising his own meat when his own kids were young. They had jersey milk cows, beef, lamb, chickens and pigs. Currently, Wayne is focusing on Berkshire pigs. He puts a lot of time and effort into their care and feeding. Wayne's eye to detail and quality has served him well in his career as a building and general engineering contractor. This also comes through in his love of raising Berkshires, it is a hobby and a passion that he enjoys sharing with anyone interested.
Wayne's Fine Herd
Wayne raises his pigs in the most humane of conditions. He raises them in small batches in a large pasture wooded with oak trees. They are able to forage for their favorite food, acorns, and are fed a high quality NON GMO feed out of a free access feeder.
They are supplemented daily with NON GMO corn soaked in water or goat’s milk, fresh (often organic) veggies and fruits from the excess of local farms as well as treats from generous neighbors and friends. Wayne recently constructed a fodder system to provide them with sprouted grains as a supplement.We interact with them daily with affection and much spoiling.
We have two purebred Berkshire sows, June and "Little" Debbie, and their broods. They have more than an acre field for foraging, with access to a small sheds for protection from the element. There is a“farrowing” house, for the sows to give birth in a protected but natural environemnt, with its own attached field for exercising.
June, our American Berkshire Association registered sow
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Generally our pigs live a much longer life than the average market pig, which is slaughtered at about 220 pounds. At 220 market pigs have reached the peak of efficiency and from there become too expensive to feed in proportion to the rate of weight gain. Most of Wayne’s pigs live about 9 months to a year old, reaching a weight upwards of 350 pounds.
This extra time and size allows for the development of flavor, more marbling and more fat, although Berkshires have remarkable taste and marbling at all stages. When it comes to pork, fat is flavor!