The Piggery

Ithaca, New York

Here at The Piggery, we’re a different kind of farm. We’re doing everything we can to create pork that is good for the people, good for the land and good for the pigs, with a focus on minimizing our carbon footprint. We raise heirloom breeds of pigs on pasture & woodland, supplemented with locally-raised GMO-free small grains (barley, wheat, triticale, peas).

Heather Sandford and Brad Marshall met at Cornell. She studied engineering, he studied genetics. After graduation, they individually moved New York City, where Heather put her engineering degree to work by getting a job in the record industry. Brad attended the French Culinary Institute, with plans of putting his genetics degree to work by becoming a chef. And soon thereafter, Heather and Brad became “an item”. These things happen. They moved to an apartment within walking distance of the Union Square Greenmarket, and they started a mutual love affair with farmer’s markets and local foods.

Next it was off to San Francisco- jobs in computer programming, a few dot-coms, eventually real estate, and great local, fresh foods all year round… and only a days drive from Mexico (Mexican food is Brad’s not-so-secret passion)! Five years of local feasting followed, culminating with Heather’s infamous statement, “Hey Brad, I saw on E-bay that someone is selling a whole hog. Isn’t that funny?”

“Hmmmmm… Whole hog, you say?” You can imagine where it goes from here. The plotline is ludicrous. Anyway, after the hog experiment we ended up buying a farm, getting hitched and now we’re pig farmers/charcutiers. Which, hopefully, is a good thing for all of us. We’ll see.