Our Tamworth pig

I went to Bill Quay Community Farm in Gateshead yesterday to have a look at the Tamworth pig we are going to buy from them. At this point in our plans to become self-sufficient, we are not in a position to keep a pig ourselves. To do that, we will need to have a bit more land. We are looking for some. However, before becoming a pig raising concern, we need to learn how to deal with a large quantity of pig meat. We have bought an additional freezer just to store meat. The pig itself (see picture above) goes to slaughter in about a week's time. After about 8 days, we get back the meat.

The animal will be fully butchered. Bacon joints will be sliced and some sausage meat will be turned into sausages. We have asked for some of the sausage meat to be left for us to turn into sausages ourselves. We are going to learn how to do curing and smoking ourselves. We will not be getting back the blood (making black pudding is something for the future) or the head but we will get back everything else, including the trotters.

Bill Quay Farm is a centre for breeding rare breeds and has an ethical policy towards the raising of livestock. That, plus the fact we do volunteer beekeeping there have attracted us to the idea of buying a pig from them.

We also have an offer from friends to swap pork for some of their lamb. They have a bit of land next to their house where they keep their sheep. We will definitely be taking up the offer!

So watch this space. There will be lots of pork and bacon recipes coming up.