Hanabatakebokujō and the whey pigs

Hanabatakebokujō is taking care of a pig farm (breeding them for consumption meat). Those pigs are called "whey pigs".

Whey pigs

To begin with, Hanabatakebokujō had the chance to start the pig farming because of the milk.

In fact when they began to produce milk, there was some remaining liquid, this is why it came to their mind to find a solution to use it for something.

The whey is like the liquid above in the yogurt you can buy in supermarkets.
The portion of the raw cheese to make cheese is just 10%, the 90% remaining becomes whey. However the remaining whey still contains nutrition ellements, so it does not have to be thrown away.

Parma Ham (Prosciutto) is a famous ham in Italy and the traditional way to make it is to make the pigs drink whey. Knowing this, the company president Yoshitake Tanaka naturally studied a solution for the farm.

Yoshitake Tanaka and the whey pigs

And in 2008 spring, Hanabatakebokujō began to take care of a pig farm. To make those pigs drink whey, you have to act cool and in a tender way for this animal.

Then for the cooking, they use a charcoal fire to grill it passionately. You can eat after the famous whey butadon (rice cover with pork and vegetables). The result is salty and sweet, really GOOD!

The efforts of Hanabatakebokujō to raise well the whey pigs deserve you to try to eat these dish!!

Hanabatakebokujō and the shops

The ranch of Hanabatakebokujō is in Hokkaidō but there are several shops all over Japan.

At the New Chitose Airport of Hokkaidō, there are two shops of Hanabatakebokujō (2nd and 3rd Japanese floors).

Shop in the airport

So if you are hungry, what do you think about eating a pizza of Hanabatakebokujō? They use 100% of raw wheat flour from Hokkaidō.
To cook the pizza in the authentic style, the pizza oven is made of stone.

Pizza oven

But the ingredients are quite simple : lots of hand-made cheeses (caciocavallo) or cream of caramels with nuts above. So we can recommand this pizza for lunch, with the nice aroma it will be perfect!

Pizza with caciocavallo

Pizza with caramel cream and nuts

It is of course also possible to buy takeaway original and soft ice creams. So do not hesitate to take a look if you have the opportunity. All the staff is waiting for you!

For the other shops like Roppongi, Karuizawa, please take a look on the following link:
http://www.hanabatakebokujo.com/retail/

Hanabatakebokujō and the animals

This time I will introduce you the animals of the ranch. The ranch of Hanabatakebokujō has an area of 23 hectares. Inside this big ranch, there are many animals who are living peacefully together.

Hanabatakebokujō is practicing animal husbandry with Jersey cattle, a light brown race cattle. And thanks to this cattle and the grass of the pasture, Hanabatakebokujō produces a really good milk's cow.

Jersey cattle

Moreover, horses and miniature horses, pigs, dogs, rabbits and many other animals are living in the ranch.

Miniature horses

You can even see Llama ! From the family of the camel, their physical characteristics are a long head and the fiber is extremely delicate. You have to be careful because they can suddenly spit. But inside the Hanabatakebokujō' staff, this is the favorite animal.

Llama

Usually the weather of Hokkaidō is quite cold but in summer, the flowers are in bloom and during the whole season the pasture is green. So if you can go to Hokkaidō in the summer, you will keep a beautiful memory of it !

Pasture

Hanabatakebokujō and the ice-cream

In 2009, Hanabatakebokujō began to produce in its own factory handmade ice-creams for children and also adults.

When we use a lot of Hokkaidō's milk cow, then it becomes really dense but as soon as you put it in the mouth, in a blink of an eye, it completely melt.

Ice cream

For the Premium Caramel ice cream, inside the vanilla ice cream, it is full of grains which makes it really special. This is the characteristic of Hanabatakebokujō.

Nama caramel ice cream premium

After the ice cream melt in the mouth, the caramel itself takes its time to melt.


In 2010, Hanabatakebokujō began to sell the Caramel Potato ice cream. So of course inside you have the caramel taste but above you have a special type of potato. In fact it can surprise you to have caramel and potato altogether but there is a real affinity between those two flavors and thanks to the crunchy potato touch, it is much more amplified.

Caramel and potato ice cream

To conclude this article, if you come to Japan, by all means you have to try to eat those products from the factory of Hanabatakebokujō!!

Hanabatakebokujō and the cheeses

In fact Hanabatakebokujō is not just producing caramels. If there's a ranch, this is also because of the handmade cheeses.
Among the famous cheeses, there is the Caciocavallo (カチョカヴァロ).

Caciocavallo

Originally, the Caciocavallo is from Italia but Hanabatakebokujō uses its own Tokachi's milk cow, really famous, to create this cheese.

Once again the passionate workers take their time to create those cheeses with this special form.

Preparation of the caciocavallo

We can recommand you to eat it grilled and then cut it in slice. Then, put them on toasts.

Like this, the exterior will become crunchy and the inside will melt, so delicious!!

Recommanded preparation

Moreover, Hanabatakebokujō also produces mozarella (モッツァレラ), raclette (ラクレット), scamorza (スカモルツァ), etc.

In Japan many people love cheese so if you come in Japan try the ones made by Hanabatakebokujō!!

Official website of the Hanabatakebokujō.

Hanabatakebokujō

Hanabatakebokujō, what a difficult name for a title...
In fact, I think few people know that Up-Front is a group not only working with great artists, but there are many other activities!!


So Hanabatakebokujō is a branch of Up-Front Group.
Hanabatake (花畑) means flower fields and bokujō (牧場) means ranch.
The ranch of Hanabatakebokujō is based in Hokkaidō (more precisely in Tokachi) and includes many animals like cattles, horses, pigs, etc., everything to prepare handmade sweets, cheeses, ice-creams, etc.

Entrance of the ranch

Cattle

Among all of those productions, there are the caramels (”nama caramel”): as soon as you put them in the mouth, they instantaneously melt and you can feel a whole new sensation.

Caramels

To prepare those caramels, you need a lot of fresh cream and Tokachi's milk cow. And the passionnate workers take their time to prepare them in the copper saucepan.

Preparation in the copper saucepan

If you have the opportunity to eat them, do not hesitate, this is really delicious, believe me!!

Official website of the Hanabatakebokujō.