Nice to Meat You: Blue Dirt Farm

When you picture what a farm looks like in your mind, you probably envision endless rows of corn and a large red barn filled with livestock, but on Blue Dirt Farm there isn’t one which houses Scott Haase’s pigs. Instead, they roam outdoors in the abundance of natural foliage and trees that surround his farm.

“One of the reasons why I do things the way I do is to minimize chores,” jokes Scott. “I don’t have to muck out stalls. A line in the sand for me is I don’t want to clean out a barn.”

Inspired by nature combined with his passion for the environment and human health, Scott created Blue Dirt Farm in 2014 almost ten years after he started working on his family’s multigenerational crop farm with his brother in Blue Earth, Minnesota.

His dad joked Scott was the last one of his children he expected to return to the family farm, “But I ended up being the first one back.”

What started out as an adventure with five pigs has grown into a successful business featuring close to 100 hogs and turkeys available seasonally. 

“Getting it all to work together is still a challenge,” says Scott. “But where I get inspired is trying to see things from the animal’s perspective, from what would happen in nature, and mimicking that.”

It’s why he chooses to work with nature, as he puts it, and pasture and woodland raise his livestock.

“Pigs are omnivores,” explains Scott. “I feel like they belong out in the woods.”

His animals are frequently moved to fresh habitats around the farm along with their portable shelter about every week to maintain soil health and give them the opportunity to graze and forage from diverse plants.

Their spacious surroundings not only benefit the pigs, who can strengthen their muscles with the ample room to move around, but also the environment. With their strong snouts and instinct for digging, they lift and turn the soil and also fertilize it with their manure allowing for natural food production which they can later eat.

And all that sunshine they’re soaking up is said to lead to meat and fat richer in micronutrients, particularly fat soluble vitamins E and D along with higher levels of Omega-3s, which help maintain a healthy heart, lungs, blood vessels, and immune system.

For Scott, having healthier soil creates healthier plants, which he believes creates healthier animals and in turn makes for healthier people.

“I love moving the animals,” says Scott. “Removing that fencing I feel like an artist removing the scaffolding or the guidelines from my work of art.”

With their woolly coats, his Mangalitza Berkshire cross pigs are perfect for Minnesota’s cool climate and pasture and woodland raised lifestyle. Ranked as some of the tastiest pork in the world, this heritage breed is known for their superb flavor brought on by their reddish hue and highly marbled meat with butter like fat chefs often compare to the fat from the highly esteemed Kobe beef.

“My pork is easy to work with and can make anyone seem like a good cook,” promises Scott. “If you take a bite of fat with some meat or by itself it doesn’t have that chewy rubbery texture. It tends to melt in your mouth.”

Scott cares about how our food is raised, which is why he’s transparent about the way he raises his pigs and what he feeds them. It’s more than knowing what’s in our food, but also knowing what’s not in them.

“An understanding of nature guides you on what to eat, how to cook, where to source your food from,” says Scott. “Understanding our role in the ecosystem and the responsibility and power we have as consumers is key.”

In addition to natural forages, his pigs are fed non-GMO small grain legumes he grows on his farm free of pesticides and are finished on a soy-free feed mix.

“You go into a field like that you’ve got insects and monarch butterflies, birds. There’s all this sound and life around you,” says Scott. “That is a huge indicator that what I’m doing feels right.”

Besides working with the animals, Scott says his favorite part of running his farm are his customers.

“That’s a big reason of why I do this,” explains Scott. “It gives me the opportunity to get out and when people really appreciate the product it’s fun. The interactions with the customers and the appreciation people have keep me going.”

Expanding his connection with customers and challenging established norms around food consumption led him to partnering with The Meatery.

“I love the way The Meatery supports local farms,” says Scott. “I’m excited about the marketing opportunities and to get to know some of the other farmers involved. It’s what we need to disrupt the bigger food system which really needs disruption. You look at people and there are so many who are sick physically, spiritually, mentally, and food and connection play such a big role in that.”

It’s true Blue Dirt Farm doesn’t look like your typical farm or operate like one, and that’s exactly why Scott is proud of it.

“I love it here on this homestead,” says Scott. “You just see life all around you. I love watching the animals run around on the fresh greenery. I feel like the closer they look to wild animals the better job I’m doing.”