OUR BREEDERS
The source of the products
DISCOVER OUR WORLD
Our Noir de Bigorre meats come from the Padouen collective.
The Padouen collective brings together 60 breeders from Gers, Haute-Garonne and Hautes-Pyrénées who believe that excellence only exists through unique extensive breeding.
The Padouen spirit is an irreproachable quality that has led to the creation of two Protected Designations of Origin: “Jambon Noir de Bigorre” and “Porc Noir de Bigorre”.
A PDO guarantees the authenticity of the products through the link to the land, the ancestral know-how of women and men, the cultural and heritage dimension.
Too fat, too slow, too unproductive, unsuited to intensive breeding conditions and industrial consumption standards, the Noir de Bigorre breed almost disappeared after the Second World War. In 1981, there were only 34 sows and 2 males left!
Thanks to the hard work of a handful of enthusiasts, the Black Pig of Bigorre has taken up the challenge of its sustainability. In order not to distort the original qualities of the product, the breeders have made no concessions regarding the breeding and feeding conditions.
Today it is enjoying growing notoriety, with the Jambon Noir de Bigorre being recognised as one of the greatest European hams.
Learn more about the Padouen collective
Instagram Black of Bigorre AOP
Our terrines, rillettes, sausages, chorizos and Noir de Bigorre hams come from Vignécoise, Maison Coustalat.
The Coustalat family took over the family farm in 1985 with a breeding of fattened ducks and cattle, then moved towards the Noir de Bigorre pig around twenty years ago.
In order to put their products on the market, and more specifically the Black Pork of Bigorre, they created their own cannery and offer natural preserves, without additives, with authentic flavors of the Pyrenees, including various rillettes and terrines of Black Pork of Bigorre.
This farm with exceptional products plays a major role in preserving living heritage, like all the Noir de Bigorre breeders who have collectively created this sector of excellence. Jean-Michel Coustalat, head of La Vignécoise, is also the president of the Consortium du Noir de Bigorre and is part of the Padouen collective.
Learn more about Vignécoise, Maison Coustalat
Instagram La Vignécoise, Maison Coustalat
All our Iberian pork comes from Castro y González.
The Castro y González Bellota Iberian ham company is one hundred years old, dating back to 1910. It is a 100% family business run by the fourth generation of the family.
Castro y González was founded at the beginning of the 20th century by the great-grandfather of the current generation, when the business was limited to slaughtering two pigs a week for local sale.
From then on, the aim was to offer a very high quality product by rearing pure Iberian animals in the wild, fed on acorns and grass.
The company grew in the 1940s thanks to its founder, grandfather Aurelio Castro Benito, with an increase in national distribution through wholesalers.
The Castro and González family are committed to what is now their main motto: control of the herd thanks to a farm of their own Iberian dams, which guarantee quality and consistency in all the Iberian products they process.
Find out more about Castro y Gonzálès
Instagram Castro y González
