Our Kunekune lard, rendered and canned by Happy Harvest Kitchen in Sanger, Tx.
Why We Love Cooking with Kunekune Lard
(And Why Your Body Will Love It, Too!)
At Dos Lobos Ranch, we believe in food that’s as real as the land it comes from. That’s why we raise Kunekune pigs on regenerative pastures, with a diet free from corn, soy, and GMOs. The result? Lard that’s not just delicious—it’s deeply nourishing.
If you’ve never cooked with lard before (or you’re just lard-curious), let’s break down why this traditional fat deserves a spot in your kitchen.
What is Lard, Really?
Lard is simply rendered pork fat. But not all lard is created equal. Our lard comes from Kunekune pigs, a heritage breed known for their sweet temperament, slow growth, and incredible fat quality. Unlike factory-farmed pork, our pigs spend their lives on pasture—soaking up the sun and foraging naturally.
That sunshine makes a difference.
Our two Kunekune sows when they were yearlings in Spring 2024.
The Health Benefits of Pasture-Raised Lard
1. Heart-Healthy Fat Profile
Lard is rich in monounsaturated fats, especially oleic acid—the same fat found in olive oil. These fats are known to support heart health and help reduce inflammation.
2. A Natural Source of Vitamin D
Here’s something seed oils can’t offer: Vitamin D.
Pasture-raised pigs naturally produce vitamin D from the sun, which is stored in their fat. Our lard could contain up to 1,000 IU of vitamin D per tablespoon, making it one of the few food-based sources of this essential nutrient. (I would love to have samples sent to a lab one day for official analysis! Goals.)
3. Clean, Whole-Food Energy
Unlike processed vegetable oils, lard is minimally handled and free of synthetic additives. It’s a stable cooking fat with a high smoke point (~375°F), which means it doesn’t break down into harmful compounds when heated. That beautiful, pure white coloring in lard? That's clean fat with minimal impurities. Why do processed vegetable oils look yellow? Impurities that cannot be removed. What are the impurities? I think that's a rabbit hole for another day...
4. Anti-Inflammatory and Gut-Friendly
Because our pigs eat a natural, corn-free and soy-free diet, their fat is lower in omega-6 fatty acids—those are the ones that can promote inflammation when consumed in excess. Instead, you get a better omega-3 to omega-6 ratio, which supports hormone balance and brain health.
Nutritional Snapshot (Per Tablespoon):
~115 calories
~13g total fat
~6g monounsaturated
~5g saturated
~1.5g polyunsaturated
~1000 IU vitamin D (pasture-raised only)
What Makes Kunekune Lard Special?
Kunekunes are a slower-growing, foraging breed that naturally puts on high-quality fat. Their lard is:
Creamy and mild in flavor (not “porky”)
Perfect for baking, roasting, and pan-frying
Softer and more nutrient-dense than commercial pork lard
Cooking with lard is more than a return to tradition—it’s a return to real food. With Kunekune lard, you're not just cooking better… you're fueling your body with something that’s deeply nourishing, clean, and full of flavor.
For my final thought as a biologist turned farmer, it drove me crazy for years reflecting back on what I learned in my college biology, chemistry, and biochemistry classes... the human body needs very few veggies/fruits/grains, needs more meat, and really NEEDS fat. So why then is it an afterthought on the food pyramid? I fully believed we've been fleeced for decades by certain interest groups that had their own agendas, and the oversight agencies went along with being their hand-puppets. Human health was not on that agenda. Getting rid of other oil waste products was, all while making bank on it was the true agenda. The human body, in their minds, was the ultimate garbage disposal. And while we've been able to handle all the junk we've been sold as "healthy" for decades and have still survived, we've hardly thrived. In our household, I rendered our first batch of lard in June of 2024 and have been using it ever since.
We've gone through about a gallon of lard in nearly a year, and a half-gallon of beef tallow rendered from suet I bought from our friends at Windview Chicken Ranch in Boyd, Tx. I'll be turning 40 at the end of this month. If there's anything I've noticed when eating our meat and our lard (especially when we started the carnivore diet in January of 2025), I can work outside all day and not get fatigued. I can get up from a sitting position on the floor without having to brace myself on the way up and fight the joint pain of feeling "old and rickety". The hinges are well-lubricated! I couldn't do that on the traditional Standard American Diet (SAD) 2 years ago when we first started the farm. My blood pressure was great at the doctor yesterday, too, and my full health work-up in 2021 after being on the Keto diet (also very high in fat) for 2 years was perfect at 36 years old. My boss at the time (who was a corporate attorney) was extremely concerned for me eating so much fat. "You should really get your engine oil checked," he would say. He couldn't believe the perfect results from the blood lab when I told him, including my perfect A1C. I was confident just because of what I know about the physiology of the human body. That's just my 2 cents. I'm an opinionated biologist, not a doctor.
I'm no healthcare professional, but I think most of the healthcare professionals did what I did when learning about these things in college... "The food pyramid says this, but the correlations I'm learning in class says otherwise... I must be wrong as there's decades of other professionals who have already done the work for me," and so we all go along with it. As for me and my family, we've pivoted, and I'm feeding us according to what I know of the basic demands of the human body, and fat and meat are on the menu!
Questions? Stop by our booth at the Sanger or Argyle markets, shoot us an email, or check out our Facebook for lard recipes and tips.
We've made mistakes in the past, such as believing what we read about breed tenderness, when in reality, not all animals are created equal. Here's what we're doing to target improvements.
