The thought of packing prosciutto into my carry-on has occurred to me. It is, of course, illegal to bring cured pork products into the US from Italy. But, returning to the US without a hunk of Tuscan salami or Prosciutto di Parma is always a bummer.
Fortunately, authentic Italian cured pork products exist in Vermont’s Champlain Valley. Meet Ale, the founder of Agricola Farm. She and her partner, Steo, raise the pigs behind their award-winning Monti Verdi salumi and prosciutto. “We are trying to marry the Italian tradition [of meat curing] with Vermont terroir."
Set in Panton (west of Middlebury and south of Burlington), Alessandra (Ale) Rellini and Stefano (Steo) Pinna manage a tightly packed 60 acres. On the farm, they raise 250 pigs, 100 sheep and a lot of chickens (Ale didn’t venture to put a number on the chickens). “I was teaching at UVM [University of Vermont] when it all started with a few chickens in my backyard,” Ale said.
Chickens were the gateway farm animal. “Not long after, I had three pigs, four sheep and a dozen chickens and knew I had to find a bigger property.”
She found the farm in Panton in 2015 and set about looking for help. Stefano had just completed his studies at the University of Torino. He responded to Ale’s ad and came to Vermont. Their partnership has seen the business grow while “respecting the animals in every facet of their lives.”
Neither Ale’s nor Steo’s families are agricultural. While navigating the USDA process, they worked with nomadic butchers back in Italy and learned various traditional techniques and recipes. “It’s all incredibly hands-on. Every village has a cave or cellar in which the meats are cured. And everyone knows which window needs to be open when the wind blows in a certain direction," said Ale. "That level of attention creates optimal conditions for curing. It’s timeless and incredibly specific to the place. We have brought that same commitment to terroir to Monti Verdi Salumi.”
Respect for terroir and the animals are reflected in their cured meats. However, that ethos did not make starting their farm business any easier. “It took us three years to convince the USDA to approve our processing facility,” Ale said with a shrug. The traditions from Italy, which they employ in creating their products, were surprisingly alien to USDA staff.
“Look,” Ale said, “large US producers are all about fast development of their products. A domestic prosciutto typically is aged for three weeks.” To hit that timeline, the pork is pumped full of salt and other curing agents. “Our products are not ready for at least 12 months. They are only pork and salt. Italian producers over the centuries have realized that aging takes care of any microbes.”
Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn, in their book Charcuterie point out that salt dehydrates the meat and microbes and the aging “finishes off the dehydration process.” The technique is simple and ancient, yet Ale said they had to educate the USDA.
After years of navigating the system, they met someone who knew about and understood traditional Italian techniques. Ale and Steo finally received the go-ahead to bring their products to market. Keeping the USDA in the loop, they go above and beyond in testing and reporting. “We test every lot that we produce; whereas large producers only need to test once a month while their production is 100s of times larger than ours.”
At Agricola, the pigs are central to the whole operation. “We know them—some even have names. We have the same schedule as them—when they nap, we nap,” Ale laughed. “We know our animals as individuals. Every once in a while, we have a neurotic pig, and those neurotic pigs don’t develop the same meat—it is overly lean, usually pale. We use that meat for sausage.” Then she reminded me of the old ad campaign, Pork…the other white meat. “Pork should be pink!” she exclaimed. “When it's white, it is a sign that the pig was so stressed during its life.” Humanely raising and processing their pigs is the cornerstone of Agricola. “For so many reasons, flavor among them, it is the right thing to do.”
Depending on the season, they have three to six farm assistants who gain valuable insight into Agricola’s regenerative farming practices during their 10-hour per week commitment. Everyone develops a relationship with the animals. “We have one assistant who has been with us for four years. She tells us she loves the connection to the land and the animals,” Ale said.
You can catch a glimpse of life at Agricola during their monthly dinners, hosted in their 1850s farmhouse. “We put on a traditional Italian meal, in the sense that ingredients are simple and each dish is prepared with great care.” The meals span three hours and take Ale and her crew several days to prepare. Dishes can be paired with wines from Lincoln Peak Vineyard, in nearby New Haven, VT. “They have the same sense of terroir as we do,” Ale noted, adding that their wines are the ideal accompaniment for the food.
Since earning USDA approval in 2018, Monti Verdi Salumi has offered a variety of cured pork products. Their salumi and prosciutto have won serious consideration. For example, their Prosciuttino Champlain is “specific to our land, pasture raising the pigs centers the flavor on our location.” The pancetta, salumi and lanzo (a cured loin, not widely produced, even in Italy) are all made with great care. “We do it all by hand. From breaking down the animal to tying—we have no big machines.”
This Italian artisan sensibility has found a home in Vermont.
