Vande Rose Farms bacon starts with a Heritage Duroc hog raised crate free on an Iowa family farm and ends as a thick cut slice smoked over real applewood, in one of two cures: dry cured, or uncured with celery powder. This is the whole path, hog to cure to smoke to slice to your door, told from our own pages.
Every claim below is on our story, our process, our Porkology page, or a product page in the bacon category. Where a page does not say something, like where the smokehouse stands, neither do we.
Vande Rose Farms bacon starts with the hog
The breed is the Duroc, which our Porkology page calls a “175-year-old Duroc Heritage Breed” and describes as “known for its rich red color and celebrated for its juicy, tender and flavorful meat.” “Heritage Duroc” is our product language for that history; the Duroc is not on the Livestock Conservancy’s priority list, so it does not meet that group’s heritage definition, and we say so.
The raising is on our story page: an Iowa pork producer working with a network of small family farms, under “No Antibiotics Ever and crate-free production methods,” with regenerative farming practices as the standard. Porkology adds the specifics: no gestation crates or farrowing crates, and never any animal by-products in the feed.
Our wholesale page names the programs behind those claims: HACCP, SQF Level III, and PQA+ (Pork Quality Assurance Plus), each described on the page. Our older post on the four pillars of Vande Rose Farms puts the breed, quality, sustainability, and commitment in one place.
The two cures, side by side
| America’s Best Dry Cured Bacon | America’s Best Uncured Bacon | Peppered Uncured Bacon | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ingredients (product page) | Brown sugar, salt, black pepper, sodium erythorbate, sodium nitrite | Water, salt, turbinado sugar, celery powder | Pork prepared with water, salt, turbinado sugar, cultured celery powder (sea salt, celery powder), coated with black pepper |
| Cure type | Dry cured | Uncured (USDA label sense) | Uncured (USDA label sense) |
| Smoke | Real applewood | Real applewood | Real applewood |
| Cut | Thick cut | Thick cut | Thick cut |
| Packs | 12 oz, 6 or 8 per box | 2.25 lb, 2 or 3 per box; or 12 oz, 6 or 8 | 12 oz, 6 or 8 per box |
| Availability | Check the product page | Check the product page | Check the product page |
Both cure words carry USDA meanings. The USDA bacon page says dry cured bacon has a measured cure mixture rubbed onto the belly, with sodium nitrite capped at 200 parts per million; uncured bacon has no nitrite added as a curing agent, and must carry the label statement about naturally occurring nitrates from ingredients such as celery powder. We explained the dry cure in dry cured bacon and the label words in uncured bacon vs cured bacon.
Our process page describes the approach behind both: “we use only hand-crafted rubs and traditional curing methods,” and “dry aging, wood smoking, and simple blends of herbs and spices” are what give the meats their texture and taste. The page does not give cure times or batch sizes, so we do not.
The smoke and the slice
Every bacon product page says the same thing about the smoke: slow smoked over real applewood. Our process page, which describes the smoking in general, adds one number: “Smoked for over 22 hours.” The product pages do not repeat it, so we credit it to the process page and not to any one pack. What a named wood does and does not tell you is in applewood smoked bacon.
The slice is thick cut on every line. The pages do not print a slice thickness in inches, so we do not either; thick cut bacon covers what the label means and how to cook a thick slice. Our older post on the artisanal bacon experience is the longer, warmer version of this story.
The box: how Vande Rose Farms bacon reaches you
Our shipping page says orders placed Tuesday through Friday deliver by FedEx the following Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, frozen with dry ice, left at the door with no signature; holiday weeks are excluded, and we do not ship internationally or to PO boxes. Put the packs in the refrigerator or freezer the same day, per the same page.
USDA’s bacon page gives the storage clock: 7 days in the refrigerator and 4 months in the freezer for bacon, 3 weeks and 6 months for bacon cured without nitrites, and the package date wins. Where to buy, pack by pack, is in where to buy Vande Rose bacon; our site names no retailers, so that post points to the shop.
Questions people ask about Vande Rose Farms bacon
Where can I buy Vande Rose bacon?
In our own shop, in the bacon category, shipped frozen with dry ice by FedEx. Our site does not name retailers, so we do not either.
Is Vande Rose Farms bacon dry cured or uncured?
Both, in two lines. The dry cured line lists brown sugar, salt, black pepper, sodium erythorbate, and sodium nitrite. The two uncured lines list water, salt, turbinado sugar, and celery powder, per the product pages.
What brand of bacon is the least processed?
We do not compare brands on that. USDA’s bacon page says uncured bacon can be labeled natural, meaning minimally processed with no artificial ingredients; our uncured line’s ingredients are water, salt, turbinado sugar, and celery powder.
Which is the healthiest bacon to eat?
We make no health claims. What we can give is the ingredient list for each line and USDA’s label definitions, which we did in is uncured bacon healthier.
Hog, cure, smoke, slice, box. That is Vande Rose Farms bacon from start to finish, and every step of it is written on a page you can read before you order.
Order from the bacon category, or read our process and our story first.