Childhood memories, be they ever so fleeting, often have an extraordinary impact on our adult lives. Susan Ortloff knows this like she knows the consistency of the mud on her boots. 

During her junior year of high school, Susan’s parents settled their family on a small but magnificent farm in the Dundee Hills. 13 beautiful acres set among rolling hills, it was simply another place to call home after years of bouncing between naval bases. For an instant, at least. Susan soon bounded off to university in Europe, where she would live, work, and raise a family over the next decade plus.



Fast forward to 2007, when Susan got “the call.” After settling in Zurich with her husband, Wolfgang, and raising three daughters, Susan hadn’t given the farm much thought. Occasional visits continued to build upon her fond memories of Dundee, but she never envisioned settling there herself. Yet here were her parents, on the line, explaining that they’d decided to sell the farm where she’d enjoyed a few, brief moments of her childhood.

Replacing the phone in the cradle (this was 2007, after all) Susan turned to her husband and began a discussion. Could they move back? Should they move back? Knowing this opportunity would not come around again, they took the plunge and moved the family to Oregon. They envisioned, and enjoyed, a hobby farm, with the usual passel of cats, dogs, chickens and goats.



Those of us who frequent the Dundee Hills will hardly be surprised at the turn this story takes. The valley's most notorious kindler of food ideas, David Bergen of Tina's fame, was looking for a source of locally raised pork. He also happened to have a regular, rotating heap of vegetable scraps from the restaurant available to whoever might take him up on this idea. Wolfgang, who fondly remembered his uncle in Bavaria that raised the occasional pig, suggested they give it a go. It would be an important life lesson for their girls, knowing the true origins of their food.



From those first three young pigs grew a small "empire" of humanely raised pork. Currently, with help from their tiny breeding program numbering three sows and a boar, Susan and Wolfgang raise and process about 100 pigs per year.

Today, Worden Hill Farm, located just a stone’s throw from the Inn, is heralded as a source of the finest pork products raised in Oregon. Their list of restaurant clientele is truly a “who’s who” of the industry — a wealth of nationally recognized chefs who marvel at the quality of the meat they deliver to the kitchen door. And while chefs in many circles may speak of “finishing” hogs with various fruits and nuts, the hogs at Worden Hill are raised all year long on such delicacies. Collecting spent grain from local breweries, whey from a local goat cheese producer, and windfall fruits and nuts from neighboring farms, Susan and Wolfgang’s hogs are free to graze the pastures and troughs at leisure. The resulting meat is not only sustainably raised, but possesses a flavor like no other. 

Susan tells us that raising animals sustainably and humanely is hard work, but is ultimately satisfying in ways she never imagined. We imagine you’ll appreciate their work as well, a feature of many a meal crafted by chefs Chase and Zack in the Black Walnut Kitchen.



All images provided by Worden Hill Farm.