By Susie Timm, Head Cheese
Pork on a Fork, one of Downtown Phoenix Public Market’s newest vendors, initially started in the farmer’s market scene in September of 2009 at the Roadrunner market.
Slowly they expanded their business, and today they can be found at 10-14 markets per week.
“I’ve always wanted to work with the Downtown Market, but we never had capability with supplies and staff in the past,” said co-owner Justin Erickson.
An ex-mortgage banker, Erickson created the company while keeping his day job at Bank of America.
Once he and his partner Wes Hansen brought their spectacular pork products to the farmer’s markets, they saw a huge demand and Pork on a Fork became their full time jobs.
“Based on the quality of the products we offered, demand was very high. So we started growing as quickly as we could within our early budget,” said Erickson.
Erickson says he owes almost 100% of his success to farmer’s markets.
“Farmer’s markets are the main reason if not the only reason we’ve been so successful. They are great venues to interact, sample our food and to tell our story. We owe everything to them,” said Erickson.
Both Erickson and Hansen grew up on hog farms in Nebraska so they are pork experts.
“The hogs come from my brother’s farm in Nebraska. They are raised without antibiotics or hormones,” said Erickson.
Erickson’s brother is the only one who works with the hogs and he hand raises all of them at his very small farm. The quality of the meat is high because the environment is much less stressful than commercial farms.
The Erickson farm has been family-owned for 4 generations. In Nebraska, there is a big demand for hogs in their local community.
One year during a trip to Arizona, Erickson’s father noticed there weren’t a lot of pork products offered at local farmer’s markets.
The Pork on a Fork crew started by having a few hogs shipped to the desert southwest. The food went over so well they kept increasing production.
“People love our pork chops, bacon and sausages. We are able to offer great products and support small processors and farms,” said Erickson.
Their Farmer’s Market success helped propel them into restaurant ownership. Erickson and Hansen opened a storefront in the Deer Valley Airport area a little over a month ago.
“We sold pulled pork sandwiches and biscuits and gravy at farmer’s markets and decided we’d like to have our own restaurant to sell our hot food at,” said Erickson.
Family recipes comprise most of the menu at Pork on a Fork BBQ Grill. They boys use pecan wood and mesquite charcoal for their lip smacking BBQ goodness.
Taste some of Pork on a Fork’s meat products on Wednesday and Saturday at the market or find them at their restaurant located at 1515 W. Deer Valley Rd Suite B-102 in Phoenix.
