Pig Tales

Our first two little piggies arrived about four years ago. They were two Gloucester Old Spot crosses with slightly floppy ears and very cute faces. Peter had always wanted pigs and I just didn't have a good enough argument not to, so he won. We went to fetch the two darling little weaners who were about eight weeks old one Spring afternoon. They were the size of a small dog.

No names. Got to eat them at the end. We went to fetch them in our old Volvo and put them in a big cardboard box with straw in the bottom. The squeal they make is so loud when they are taken away from their mothers, it makes your ears ring - you can stop it by holding them upside down like a baby with a feeding bottle. I sat in the back of the car and held down the lid of the box to stop them jumping out, and we drove like the clappers playing Led Zeppelin loudly all the way home.

When we arrived home and installed them in their palatial home, a stable all clean and full of our own first crop of hay, I remember thinking to myself: "I will never eat pork again!" But as they grew bigger and started to push us around, we found ourselves looking at the hind legs and wondering whether they might be big enough for a ham yet.

The first two were so wonderful. We moved them around our plot like clockwork. In the morning we would shake a bucket of feed and trot with them following very obediently after us to the enclosure at the top of the garden, the first place to be cleared of nettles and brambles. At the end of the day we would fetch them and put them to "bed". They were very tame and our eight year old boy loved riding them like ponies. One day they escaped from the electric fence we had set up and ventured round to our neighbour's garden. I nearly had a fit when the phone call came: "Jess, we have a pig in our garden". I flapped around wondering how I was going do deal with this potential disaster - pigs can dig up a lawn in a matter of minutes. I was already worrying whether the insurance would cover us for this, and that our neighbours would hate us. My concern was unfounded, however, as Steve came striding back with the pig, just talking to it as you would to a naughty child, and it came trotting after, gratefully accepting my bucket of food as I put it back in its stable.

The whole subject of responsibly reared meat has been very much in the Press in last few years and on the whole I think people realise that to eat good meat, you have to know where it comes from and how it has lived and been treated during it's life. For us, we felt very strongly that we wanted to take it that step further and have now come the point where we eat very little meat from a supermarket and buy or swap local lamb or beef for our pork. We have all become too used to sterile meat that doesn't resemble the animal at all. Too much is wasted. Not so for us now. We spend days and days making our own salami and smoking our own bacon.

Our children are very matter of fact about the fact that we eat our pigs, but visiting children sometimes find it hard that we could eat our own animals. One Christmas fourteen little piglets were born to one of our sows, these little things just kept on coming. Newly born they are about the size of your hand. Our children let them crawl all over them and nibble their wellies, the mother was so docile as she had been used to us being around her. However, a mother sow is extremely dangerous if she thinks her young are threatened, so we only ever let the kids down there when we are with them.

If I let you believe it was all lovely and plain sailing, I would be lying. On cold and dark Winter nights neither of us want to go out to do the pigs. When we all had the flu it was completely exhausting, but you can't let animals go hungry, so we had to keep going out, even when our children had been whisked away from us because we were so ill. What I can honestly say though, is that I have never come back from being with them, either feeding them, or mucking them out, without feeling really good about life. They keep me firmly grounded and give me sense of reality that is often lacking in our hectic and materialistic life.

Article written for Spring 2009 issue by Jessika Hulbert

Recipe from The Free Range Butcher

The Free Range Butcher has recently begun trading in Crowborough, opposite Waitrose, with a warm welcome. People are pleased to see the fresh "happy" meat being sold, with a friendly helpful service. Orders can be made, with delivery if requested and meat is sourced locally as much as possible and all at competitive prices. All our bacon and gammon is dry cured by ourselves ensuring there are no additives or added water. We are in town every Saturday but hope to increase this if the demand is there. We also run a busy hog roasting/catering business, details are available on our website www.thehogwhole.co.uk

Here's a family friendly recipe for busy households - it feeds 4/5 people and provides an economic midweek meal.

Pork Ragu

A change to spaghetti bolognese using minced pork instead with child friendly vegetables!
1.5 lbs minced pork
5 rashers dry cured bacon
2 cloves of garlic
2 chopped onions
2 sliced carrots
2 sliced courgettes
Can of chopped tomatoes
Can of sweetcorn
Parmesan cheese

Put the minced pork, chopped bacon crushed garlic and onion in a pan and cook until the juices run, then increase heat and cook for 4 -6 mins. Add the carrots, courgettes, tomatoes and sweetcorn and simmer for 25 mins.

Serve with spaghetti and parmesan to taste.