Niman Ranch producer Dennis Abbas enjoys raising pigs outdoors. His animals are shipped to both coasts.

Diners at Alice Waters' world-famous Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, California probably know more about how Dennis Abbas raises pigs than do his Franklin County neighbors. But that's okay with him.

After 25 years, Abbas has found a comfortable niche. He pasture farrows 600 to 800 pigs every year, finishing them in two hoop buildings he built four years ago. He doesn't use growth hormones or antibiotics, or feed animal by-products to his pigs.

As a result, his animals qualify for a $6 per hundredweight premium offered by Niman Ranch Pork Company, or about $15 for every animal that Abbas markets. The Iowa-based firm, managed by Iowa hog producer Paul Willis of Thornton, purchases about 1,500 head every week. The hogs are processed by Sioux-Preme Pack in Sioux Center and shipped fresh by truck to California where they are used by chefs at a number of upscale restaurants. Some also are shipped to East Coast supermarkets.

Abbas is one of the 150 producers, mostly from Iowa, who are part of the Niman Ranch network. Niman Ranch pork recently was featured in the New York Times and San Francisco Examiner magazine, and in national culinary publications including Saveur, Bon Appetit and Food and Wine.

All of which leaves Abbas unfazed. "I just love pasture farrowing," he says. "I love to be outdoors so I know this is for me."

He got started about 10 years ago, when a friend sold him his first group of sows for breeding.

"I thought it would be a lot of work and I was worried about hogs chasing me out of the field," he said. "I guess the meanness has been bred out of these pigs because they're quite gentle. Handling the manure is a breeze -- the pigs spread it themselves."

In November, Abbas moves the young pigs to low-cost hoop buildings located nearer to the house. He uses large round bales of oat straw and cornstalks for bedding. Decomposition in the bedding keeps the pigs warm in unheated buildings, even during Iowa's record cold winter a year ago, he said.

"When I needed more room a few years ago I looked into large, curtain-sided hog units but that's a different way to go," he said. "Hoops are low in cost so they can sit empty a few months of the year. And if for some reason I didn't want to raise pigs anymore, I could use them for other things."

What Abbas calls "this pig project" also works well with the organic part of his farming operation. He raises corn, soybeans and small grains conventionally on 320 acres, and has another 160 acres certified organic, some of which is going into its seventh season.

"I really enjoy the organic way of raising crops, it's almost addictive at times," he says. "The pigs provide fertilizer for the crops and extra income for me."