He's had a television show on National Geographic Channel and is featured in an upcoming documentary, "Pork.0."
He's performed close to 500 hog roasts, tangled with wild boars and nearly talked celebrity Stephen Colbert into arm wrestling him on national television.
Carl Blake has become a "bear of a man" in the culinary world with his national award-winning brand of pork and quick rise to television fame as a result. However, at his roots, the pig farmer is as pure, honest and rich in life as the hydroponic-style food he feeds his unique Iowa Swabian Hall pigs.
This year, Blake moved his Iowa-based pig farm to Central Missouri, near Tuscumbia, to ensure his pigs' health stays strong with warmer temperatures. He continues to revolutionize the farm industry and will introduce the Lake of the Ozarks region to his pork and popular hog roasts at the upcoming Fall Fest Concert Series events starting Saturday at Shawnee Bluff Vineyards in Eldon.
Creating his brand of pig
Farming in Iowa, Blake decided to recreate a pig long popular in Europe, the Swabian Hall.
In their purest form, the Swabian Hall pigs are only located in Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany. King Wilhelm decided to crossbreed a Meishan swine with a Russian wild boar, which were indigenous to Germany, according to Blake's Rustik Rooster Farms website. The king did this because the indigenous pork of the boar was too lean and too dry. In mating it with the Chinese heritage breed Meishan, which has more lard than most other pigs, he was able to gain the perfect balance of fat and meat.
"If a king invented the pig, created the pig and won four World Fairs with it, the pig would be good enough for us in the Midwest," Blake said. "I tried to recreate it here and I got as close as I could get. My close to getting that pig set us so far apart from all the other pigs that there are none of them that have been able to beat us at contests."
The first contest Blake entered, the 2009 Cochon 555 in San Francisco, put his Iowa Swabian Hall pork on the map. He knew he needed to get in front of "foodies" and put the pig on a national stage.
After winning the competition alongside Chef Staffan Terje in San Fransisco, Blake's Iowa Swabian Hall swine have gone on to win several other contests and draw high demand from award-winning chefs across the country.
From farm to fame
Word spread in the culinary world about Blake's pigs. Production team members for Andrew Zimmern, host of "Bizarre Foods" on the Travel Channel, asked to feature Blake's "iconic food" on his show. Once Blake decided to appear on that show, he said more than 40 different production houses called wanting to work with him. He settled with working with members of Zimmern's production team again for a show called "Little Pig Man" on the National Geographic Channel.
Filming the show was an interesting experience for Blake, who said he just wanted to raise pigs.
But as he explained his brand of pig farming, he also shared why he only wears one strap on his signature overall apparel. One day he was attempting to snag a loose piglet before it was trampled in the wild boar pen. Before he could get out of the pen, a wild boar knocked him clear off his feet. Trying to escape, he couldn't get out because his left arm strap fell down and he couldn't raise his arm.
As he struggled he fell on the fence, flipped over and landed on top of the boar.
"I knew that I had a chance now. I got up and he tried to get at me again, I had a knife and stabbed him three times," he said. "When he figured out it was his own blood instead of mine, I went over the edge pen and climbed out. ... From then on, I never wore my strap down because it kept falling down and I said heck with that."
Blake's celebrity in both the culinary world and television arena landed him even more media attention from national newspapers, magazines and online blogs, as well as a trip to New York City to appear on "The Colbert Report."
Connecting to the community
Even with the upcoming "Pork.0" documentary expected to wrap up production this year, Blake still does what he does best: raise award-winning pigs, sell his brand of pork and connect with the community through hog roasts.
Severe winters led to Blake's decision to move his operation south. After meeting a young woman and fellow pig farmer from the Tuscumbia area, Blake moved to Central Missouri last February.
While living in Missouri, Blake was able to continue his use of hydroponics at his 40-plus-acre local farm.
"We pasture the pigs and pioneered hydroponics, which is a move to feeding the pigs with homegrown food. We grow our own feed every day, about one ton a day," he said. "We are hoping to do that for locals around here, with lettuce, wheatgrass and other stuff."
Blake said he has two large chambers, possibly some of the largest in the Midwest, where the hydroponically-grown food is on his farm. The difference in the food is the root mass that is used in his feed, which stores the "white, sweet stuff with all the vitamins and enzymes in it," he said.
Being already connected to the Osage Beach Farmers Market, Blake hopes to also expand another part of his business, hog roasts, to the Lake Area.
In finding a venue to prepare hog roasts locally, he was turned on to Shawnee Bluff Vineyards, which can serve 1,400 and was seeking a vendor for its Fall Fest Concert Series.
Gail Griswold, vice president of operations at Shawnee Bluff Vineyards, said when she met with Blake, she knew he would be a good fit for the venue and its upcoming fall and other events.
"I was always looking for a good vendor to add that piece of the pie here at Shawnee Vineyards and Shawnee Bluff Winery. We are happy to have Carl here with us," she said.
For Blake, he is happy to deliver his brand of pork to a new community, become part of the Lake of the Ozarks professional environment, and have a new place to call home.
For more information about Blake, visit rustikroosterfarms.com.