FLOWER POT KITCHEN: RAISED ROOTLED AND LOVED GLOUCESTERSHIRE OLD SPOT PIGS

18 Oct 2015

RAISED ROOTLED AND LOVED GLOUCESTERSHIRE OLD SPOT PIGS

Our first rare breed Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (see blog post Oct 2016 the start of our self sufficient life for our full story), meet the pink ladies, Splodge, Pinky, Delila and Squealer, aptly named for when we carried her from the trailer to the ark she squealed and squealed and squealed, fortunately as soon as you put a pig down they stop and start to rootle and investigate! These ladies were 11 weeks old when we picked them up from our local long time experienced breeders Mark and Debbie Dallaway at Trewint Farm in Hawkhurst, Kent the garden of England.

The journey back to our small holding was full of excitement with a hint of positive/scary hesitation that we are really doing it...we have just brought four pigs!!! But the excitement won with the great feeling that we as a family are fulfilling our dreams and doing exactly what we have been aiming for, the next level to an almost totally self sufficient life, along with the privilege of being able to spoil our animals and enjoy every day with them, great for them and great for us too.

We are now becoming as fully self sufficient as we can, along with foraging and trading with other self sufficient folk, we may be able to remove the shops from our life, well almost I suppose if we are honest we can not do without loo roll! We do make all our own deodorants, shampoos and soaps, moisturises, toothpastes, mouthwash, laundry detergent, household cleaners etc, but I still have to buy the natural organic ingredients for these, making our own just helps us know what is in what we are using.

Knowing that we will be giving our pigs, sheep and chickens the very best pampered and loved lives and a longer life as they will be ready when their ready or when were ready and knowing that our animals are eating a natural diet from the fields they live in along with foraged acorns, apples, pears, homegrown carrots, cabbage, parsnips and supplemented with the organic river cottage feed we are really finally living and working our family dream life,

Meet Pinky she has such a personality and a very mothering attitude, this has made an easy decision for us to keep Pinky to be our future breeding sow next year.

Pinky always like to come over for a face rub and to say thank you for their afternoon treat

Our pink ladies are now eight months old and that mixed emotional time has come where two are leaving the farm, we work on the facts the biggest go first, therefore it is not up to us to actually choose, whom I kidding !!! Each time we go through this process we do get a bit more accustomed to the buffet of emotions, a little less emotional sensitive and a little bit more comfortable ish! there is a lot of excitement for the pork that will feed us, sadness and guilt for the life we are taking, justification on the life we have given them and so many more feelings that do go on for a few days.

All the research we did and the so important great information from the breeders with all their experience (this is so important) on raising pigs has been a huge benefit helping us raise our ladies to the highest standards. Even though we had done all our homework and new how to raise our pigs it is a great benefit to hear real long term experienced information from your breeder on behaviour and tips on pig attitude and handling.

Meet our four new weaners, these are Oxford Sandy Black x Gloucestershire Old Spots and one Duroc x Gloucestershire Old Spots, the chestnut pig in the middle, eight weeks old and a bundle of trouble already! No respect for the electric fencing and giving us great entertainment, these guys are adorable and now eating from our hands and getting used to being brushed and pampered.

Coming soon our Old Spot Sausages!

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LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.