The Sheppard Mansion staff focuses their efforts on utilizing not only fresh ingredients, but local foods whenever possible. Chef Little, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, is very direct about the importance of knowing the source of ingredients as well as the farmers themselves. The Sheppard family even provides meat from its own Scottish Highland Cattle. It's this interest in local agriculture that helped him earn the state's first Governor's Award for the Culinary Arts.

Chef Little obtains most of his pork products from Beau Ramsburg's Rettland Farm outside of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The Berkshire pork used in the terrine shown above is considered a heritage breed. The "black pig" livestock receive a large portion of their food from pasture grazing.