Traveling to the Source of Spain's Jamon Ibérico

13.07.2024 - 05:30 / cntraveler.com / Don Quixote

The meadow is a vibrant shade of green, with stately trees rising high above a backdrop of rolling hills. The holm oaks spread their branches wide, like an eagle displaying its wingspan, while the cork oaks stand sentinel, their knotted limbs bearing witness to the passage of time. I am standing on Rosa González Nieto’s pig farm in the Sierra Morena of southern Spain, and the scene defies preconceptions. While modern-day livestock operations can be a litany of horrors, the production of Ibérico pork is an outlier—a meat industry that simultaneously protects and relies on its natural environment, provides its animals with a good quality of life, and creates one of the most exquisite products in the world.

The term “pig farm” doesn’t begin to capture the complexity of this place, an ecosystem shaped by humans more than 6,000 years ago. To survive on semi-arid land that was unsuitable for farming, the people who lived here converted the Mediterranean forest to la dehesa (in English: grasslands with evergreen oak trees). It’s a landscape of serene beauty that also happens to be ideal for raising livestock in a sustainable way. For Spaniards, the resulting jamón Ibérico is as much of a cultural symbol as Picasso’s Cubist art, the red wines of Rioja, or Don Quixote’s windmills.

Rosa González Nieto runs the pig farm she inherited from her grandfather in southern Spain.

The pigs that make jamón Ibérico live in harmony among oak trees and grassland.

The star of the dehesa is the Ibérico pig, and as I walk around González Nieto’s property, I snap photo after photo of the animals, like a zoological paparazza, to remind myself that I am on a working ranch. But González Nieto, who inherited the farm from her grandfather, is a full-time veterinarian and committed to raising her livestock with care. An indigenous breed of pig, these hardy animals are free range and spend their lives outdoors, foraging for their meals—a combination of grass and acorns (bellotas) produced by the various oaks. Their genetics, movement, and diet result in meat that is nutty, creamy, and slightly sweet, with excellent marbling.

While the Ibérico pig is the headliner here, it is supported by a diverse cast of characters, a web of life that relies on the health of all its members. During my visit, I spot mushrooms sprouting from the soil, learn about honey production, and watch small herds of sheep and cattle happily chomping on plants. These grazers are a fixture on local pig farms, as they thin out excessive greenery, preventing fires and keeping the pastures accessible to the pigs.

But it’s the trees that are the silent heroes of this landscape. Beyond the acorns they produce, majestic oaks offer much-needed shade during hot summers and