Pork Butchery Course

Mike and I had a great day yesterday in the Yorkshire Dales.   We had signed up for a pork butchery, charcuterie and sausage making course run by Nigel and Chris Wildman of Paganum Produce www.paganum.co.uk.  We had intended to stay over there on Thursday night but as with the best laid plans of mice and men... we didn’t!  So we had a shockingly early start as we had to get all our animal chores done very early before we could set off.  The alpacas did look a bit confused at being woken up in the dark to be given their breakfast.

We wanted to go on this particular course as the Wildmans not only breed Saddlebacks and Oxford Sandy and Black pigs  which are the breed that we are getting, but they are very experienced butchers going back five generations in the same area.  It was so good to be able to see the sow and the boar and their weanlings.  They are the funniest creatures.  This particular breed is noted for their gentle natures and good meat – a winner!  

Many people have wondered if we would be able to slaughter and eat our own pigs.  The answer is always a resounding “Yes”!  I know that I’ve always said that I couldn’t eat our alpacas, but that’s because I never started breeding alpacas with the intention of eating them. 

 

We learnt so much yesterday from butchery, through charcuterie to sausage making.  Mike was concentrating on butchery and learning about charcuterie, whilst I focused on charcuterie and sausage making as well as honing my knife sharpening skills.