Cairngorm Pork - Our Story
It all started on a cold January day. I had been working for an executive jet company whose business had been badly affected by the economic downturn. So bad in fact, that I had only worked 4 weeks in 5 months! One weekend we fancied a piece of belly pork only to find that trying to obtain good quality pork in the local area was well nigh impossible. Eventually, we found a piece, and consulted a famous double-barrelled chef’s cookbook to find that it is supposedly easy to raise your own pigs - if you just had a little land. My instant reaction was no, purely because I could not contemplate the thought of taking the animals to slaughter. However my wife, being a hardier type, promised that she would do the dirty work. The belly pork was duly cooked, but the taste was very disappointing.
We researched what was needed and then set about changing our scrubby woodland into an area suitable for raising rare-breeds pigs.
The first big decision was which pigs to go for! Being complete novices we selected breeds that were described as placid and easy to handle. Given our location, the pigs had to be fairly hardy and so we elected to go for Large Blacks and Oxford Sandy and Blacks (OSB), both breeds being renowned for their very tasty pork. They are also described in many books as “ideal beginners’ pigs”!
However, there is a reason why they are described as “rare breed” – they are actually very difficult to come by. It’s not as if you can just pop down to the local livestock market and choose what you want, and this was the biggest hurdle we faced. Eventually after numerous emails and phone calls, we finally identified some weaners to get us started and some breeding stock, all of which involved travelling many hundreds of miles.
You can keep track on the progress of our pigs in the pig diary featured on the home page.
Our Breeds
Large Black Pig
The Large Black pig is Britain’s only all black pig and is thought to date back to the Old English Hog from the 16th and 17th centuries. Its breed society was formed in 1889, but like other traditional breeds, its popularity declined in the post-war years, with the introduction of intensive more commercial pig farming methods. Although there has been a recent surge in interest in the breed, it is still classed by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust (RBST) as “vulnerable”, meaning there are less than 300 breeding sows in the UK. The large black pig thrives on outdoor living, the sows are renowned as excellent mothers and its pork is succulent and of superb quality.
Oxford Sandy & Black Pig (OSB)
The OSB is thought to be one of Britain’s oldest pig breeds. However, its exact origin is lost in antiquity and it has a chequered history as it has reached crisis point at least twice, when numbers dropped so low that extinction was a real possibility. Were it not for a few dedicated breeders, the breed would have been lost, and it was not helped by the fact that on its formation in 1973, the RBST decided not to recognise the OSB as a distinct breed. Its decline continued until 1985, when some enthusiasts created the current breed society and herd book, which has now been transferred to the British Pig Association. This has already brought the hoped for benefits of increased publicity and opportunity to compete in BPA-recognised shows. The OSB particularly enjoys woodlands, is hardy and is less prone to putting on excess fat than some of the other traditional breeds.
Our Pigs
Wilbur – OSB boar
Milly – OSB gilt
Bose – OSB gilt
Tickles – Large Black gilt
Smoky – Large Black gilt
