Regenerative agriculture puts soil health and ecological balance at the center. While there’s no single definition, most regenerative farms avoid synthetic pesticides, focus on biodiversity, and use practices that improve the land rather than deplete it. The goal is not just to grow food, but to grow it in a way that restores what industrial systems often strip away.
At HertaBerkSchwein Farms, they raise heritage Berkshire and Hereford pigs outdoors with access to grass, natural forage, and mud wallows—things pigs are meant to enjoy. The farm avoids added hormones, unnecessary vaccines, and industrial feed. Instead, they mix their own natural grains, and process animals on-site at their own USDA-inspected facility.
More info: HertaBerkSchwein Farms
Traditional flour tortillas were made with real lard, not shortening, not canola oil. Properly rendered pork fat gives tortillas their softness, mild richness, and signature flexibility. It’s the ingredient that makes the difference between a tortilla that tears and one that wraps, bends, and browns just right.
Rendered lard from well-raised pigs doesn’t taste “porky.” It melts cleanly and carries flavor. It also performs better in a hot pan than seed oils, helping tortillas puff slightly and brown evenly without becoming greasy or stiff. Lard comes 3 different ways, back fat, leaf fat and caul fat. We use leaf lard: Obtained from the visceral fat surrounding the kidneys, it has a mild flavor and is ideal for baking and pastries.
We’re not guessing. We’ve tried the alternatives. Nothing compares.
Read More: https://soulyrested.com/complete-guide-to-pork-lard/
Most commercial tortillas are made with hydrogenated or refined seed oils: canola, soybean, cottonseed. These are cheap, mass-produced, and help prolong shelf life, but they weren’t made for tortillas. They often:
There are also health concerns. Studies suggest excessive intake of industrial seed oils may contribute to inflammation and oxidative stress. While science is evolving, we choose to keep them out of our product entirely.
Local Sourcing Is a Choice
We could buy shelf-stable lard from commodity producers. We don’t. We buy directly from a Florida farm that knows every animal by sight.
By sourcing lard from HertaBerkSchwein Farms, we:
The relationship is personal. We know how the animals are raised, how the land is managed, and how the fat is rendered. That kind of visibility just doesn’t exist in the industrial model.
When you eat one of our tortillas, you’re tasting more than flour and fat. You’re tasting a process that begins on a farm, not a factory. A tortilla isn’t just a wrapper. It’s part of the meal. It should be made with ingredients that hold up to real food, real cooking, and real values.
At First Bake, we make tortillas the way they’re supposed to be made: soft, flavorful, and built from good decisions at every step. That’s what soil to skillet really means.
Taste the difference real ingredients make. Shop our fresh tortillas here.
