The Merry Pig ~ A Farmer’s Story

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The Merry Pig

Based in the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire our pigs are given the 5-star treatment they deserve. Our rare-breed British beauties live it up in the shadow of Coombe Hill where they get plenty of fresh air, wholesome grub and space to rootle about. They love their life. Our pigs are born and reared in an open and stress free environment where they can snout about in the grass and mud to their hearts delight. The welfare and happiness of our pigs is as important to us as the taste of our pork and we’re proud to look after them from pig-pen, to plate.

The breeds we work with are as local as they come: the Berkshires derive from the Thames Valley and are highly prized for their succulent pork; our other rare breed lovelies are Large Black pigs, renowned for the making the best bacons around. Large Black pigs are on the Rare Breed Survival trusts ‘Vulnerable’ list and we hope that we are making a small contribution to reviving the breed by promoting it as a traditional breed worthy of survival. We, along with other keen breeders, hope to keep these important parts of English farming history going.

At The Merry Pig HQ we only work with British and rare breed pork. The breeds we work with are as local as they come: the Berkshires derive from the Thames Valley and are highly prized for their succulent pork; our other rare breed lovelies are Large Black pigs, renowned for the making the best bacons around. Large Black pigs are on the Rare Breed Survival trusts ‘Vulnerable’ list and we hope that we are making a small contribution to reviving the breed by promoting it as a traditional breed worthy of survival. We, along with other keen breeders, hope to keep these important parts of English farming history going.

In September 2010, we settled down to have a romantic meal for two with some pork we bought from one of those supermarkets which is in every town. We parted with quite a few of our hard-earned pennies for a lovely home-cooked meal but were sorely disappointed to discover the meat was tough, tasteless and imported from overseas. Was there a way we could eat local, tasty and reasonably priced meat?

…And so The Merry Pig was born.

We don’t aim to compete with the big supermarkets but hope that we can reach out to a market of people interested in the locality, taste and welfare of the animal. All of this come at a price, but we’re confident that ours is a reasonable one. We are intentionally small scale. Our pigs have names not numbers which means we can focus on our favourite bit of the business; getting to know our animals and ensuring they have the best quality of life from pig-pen to plate.

Paddy and Hannah, pig farmers

Email: themerrypig@hotmail.co.uk

Website: www.themerrypig.co.uk

Twitter: @themerrypig