The Luckiest Acorns

La dehesa is the famous ecosystem on the Iberian Peninsula, covering 20,000 square kilometers in south-central Spain and southern Portugal. It is rich in oak trees, providing ample amounts of acorns (or bellotas) for the Iberian pigs. These aren’t just any acorns, though. There are only a few types of oaks that produce the particular acorns with the right composition of oleic acids (specifically at concentrations higher than 50%) to be appealing enough to the Iberian pigs. We were lucky to find a similar setting for our own Ibericus pigs deep in the heart of Texas.
They may not seem like the most lavish of ingredients, but without the acorn, jamón ibérico de bellota is simply, well….regular jamón ibérico. The ‘de bellota’ is the humble phrase that signifies its supremacy.
For the first time, the Ibericus pigs have begun to flourish in their new home at the Acornseekers Farm in Flatonia, Texas. Here, these pigs have plenty of sweet bellotas to snack on. As you can see from our name, these acorns are truly the unsung heroes, so we’d like to honor that with a brief explanation of why we think our acorns are the luckiest of all.

Sergio Marsal Colom, President & CEO Acornseekers