You may not yet be familiar with the concept of "heritage" animals (a.k.a.: Why does my pork have a name?). Let us enlighten you: It's the same as "heirloom" but for meat. And as much as our plates and palates benefited in recent years from the arrival of beautifully marbled heirloom varieties of beefsteak tomatoes in a rainbow of colors, so we are now lucky to enjoy beautifully marbled heritage pork.

We first learned about this pedigree issue from our favorite local purveyors of all meats grass fed, organic, and otherwise clean and humanely raised, Prather Ranch Meat Co.

Not to be confused with Prather Ranch, which only raises cattle, the Meat Co., which does sell Prather Ranch beef, also sells meats and poultry from other small ranches, as well as animals they raise themselves. (See, we said this was confusing.)

By Julie, contributing