The Heartbeat of Iowa

Welcome to a special edition of Kitchen Parade, an introduction to Iowa 'pioneers' who are raising pork for Niman Ranch with new-but-old practices. If you like, skip straight to this week's featured recipe for Thick Chops with Mustard Crust , a 2003 column published online today for the first time. Otherwise, prepare to meet some happy pigs ... If there is a single place from which this country emits a steady heartbeat, it’s the swells and dales of Iowa, the state that means ‘beautiful land’ in the language of one its native tribes, the Ioway. Lub-dub, lub-dub. The more urban our country, the further the separation from our agrarian roots. And thus we must travel farther — or stretch deeper like trees reaching for water during drought — to seek out and understand the sources of our nourishment. Lub-dub, lub-dub, lub-dub. In early September, Elise Bauer and I joined a group of chefs and other passionate food people in Iowa as the guests of Niman Ranch , the m