Sam Leach & Mary Holbrook – Rooting For Real Farms

Mary Holbrook’s battered white van drew up outside Sam Leach’s Birch Restaurant in Bristol to deliver a half British Lop pig. Sam heaved it out and into the kitchen where he carefully and skilfully divided the cuts while explaining the different ways he uses the head, fat, bones, liver, tail and trotters. On the blackboard menu for that day was Pig’s Head Fritters and British Lop and Cider Pie – the pastry made from fat reclaimed from the carcass, the rest of the fat being used to roast potatoes or rendered into lard.

British Lop is the traditional breed of English pig that Mary breeds on a windy hillside in Somerset. The pigs have plenty of space and grow slowly allowing their muscle and fat to develop in the right proportions for the traditional nose to tail dishes that Sam creates.

It’s through the specials board that Sam offers the cuts that you rarely see on a menu. Each half pig’s two trotters, are stuffed, or added to the brawn (pig’s head in aspic) or reduced for stock. Likewise Sam brines and braises the tail, then fries it in breadcrumbs as a starter. The ear will be poached then deep fried as a snack. So the half carcass will be used to its full potential.

MaryMary with her free range pigs

‘What I really like about buying the half animal is that the menu has to change in order to use every part of the animal from the head to the trotters and everything in between. That’s a satisfying thing for a chef and an interesting thing for a customer, and it means that you’re doing the animal justice because you’re using everything.’

But for Sam it’s the fat from Mary’s pigs that guarantees the flavour due to its active, slow-grown and healthy life on the farm. Mary makes a traditional goats cheese from her herd of goats that crowd around, nuzzling and nibbling your clothes and anything else within reach. She feeds the whey from the cheese-making to the pigs, making their fat textured and full of flavour.

SamSam preparing pork at Birch, Bristol

Mary explains, ‘it gives a really lovely creamy fat really good flavour and lays on a nice thickness and it’s not excessive. I think in more commercially raised pigs, (even though there often isn’t much or any fat at all), when there is the fat, it is usually not very tasty. I would rather eat fat than margarine that’s for sure, in terms of health.’

Once a fortnight Mary loads up the van with cheese and pork and heads to London to make the rounds of the restaurants lucky enough to have discovered the exceptional quality of her produce. By selling and delivering direct to the restaurants she gets a premium price that allows her to grow her pigs slowly and give them space to exercise and thrive in the fresh air and sunshine. ‘Actually’, she says,’ I’m not a country person, I was born in London suburbia, I really like going to London.’

Share This Article

Related ArticlesView All

March 28th, 2024
Rooting for Real Farms: Genevieve Taylor & Fred Price (Gothelney Farm)

Fred Price Gothelney Farm is a 150-hectare family farm looked after by Fred Price and his large, and growing, extended… Read More

January 26th, 2023
Rooting for Real Farms: Paul Askew & Luke Hasell (The Story Farms)

Post Retweet Since 2007, Luke Hasell has continued his family’s 100 years of farming, raising pigs and cattle to organic… Read More

December 20th, 2022
Rooting for Real Farms: Darren Broom and Andrew & Sarah Parry Norton (Storms Farm)

Post Retweet Darren’s seventeen-year career as a chef includes spells with Michael Caines, Marco Pierre White and as a much… Read More

November 15th, 2022
Rooting for Real Farms: Nic Day and Alastair Butler (Blythburgh Free Range Pork)

Post Retweet Nic Day, formerly Executive Chef at Sixes Cricket Club Restaurant in Fitzrovia, believes that the taste of the… Read More

October 15th, 2022
Good Food, Good Farming March 2022

The Landworkers’ Alliance ‘Good Food Good Farming‘ London march was one of a growing number of worldwide farmer protests against… Read More

September 9th, 2022
Rooting for Real Farms: Olia Hercules & Annie Landless (Hampton Gay Farm)

Post Retweet Olia grew up in a large bustling household filled with her numerous extended family including most memorably Mamushka,… Read More

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*
*