Farm Of The Week: Rare breed that loves to go on the run

BERKSHIRE pigs don’t figure on the average John Lewis wedding list. But they were just what Jonathan and Charlotte Clarkson wanted when they got married, in 2005.

The gift was the foundation of a business called Three Little Pigs which has found a niche in the market dominated by fast-fattening new breeds.

Jonathan and his wife and father run Kiplingcotes Farm at Dalton Holme, near Beverley – originally taken on by Jonathan’s grandfather in 1928.

“We always used to have animals but when I’d finished university and moved back to the farm, we were down to just a few sheep, and a farm without animals doesn’t feel right really,” says Jonathan. “We were talking to a neighbour, looking to get some pigs off him, and he said ‘Would you like them for a wedding present?’ Two gilts arrived, and they were artificially inseminated, and while they were waiting, we got three little pigs off him to fatten, hence the name.”

The farm is 480 acres of land which is described as “thin wold”, a mixture of chalk and flint with a “bit of soil” thrown in. Most of it grows oilseed rape, vining peas, potatoes and wheat, but the pigs are an increasingly substantial sideline. They have 10 breeding sows and about 90 pigs being fattened for the butcher at the moment.

Berkshires are a traditional breed, classified as “at risk” by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, which means there are less than 500 breeding females in the country.

“They are lovely pigs. They’re sweet natured, easy to get on with, gentle ... but incredibly difficult to keep where they are supposed to be,” Jonathan says.

He spends a lot of time dealing with regular breakouts from the free-range paddocks where the pigs live, kept in by electric fencing.

“They seem to have a love of electric shocks. I’m forever rounding them up off the wheat, the potatoes and the vining peas.

“When they’re about three months old they stop, but until then they’re a nightmare to keep in.”

He believes, of course, that the Berkshire makes particularly good pork.

“Along with the Middle White, they are the only pigs that have marbling in the meat. None of the commercial breeds, no matter what the industry tells you, have proper marbling within the meat.”

But getting good meat isn’t straightforward, and getting the feeding right is essential, he adds.

“If you feed commercial high-protein feed to a Berkshire it will just turn into a tub of lard. You can’t make them grow fast. You can feed them and they’ll eat it, but all they will do is put on fat, so you need to just keep them ticking over nicely. It’s taken me three years to start getting it right.”

His wife says: “The pork is fantastic. Nowadays, if I eat any pork that isn’t ours I just find it tasteless.”

With three young boys under five, she doesn’t spend as much time as she used to working with the pigs, but she still goes to the three farmers’ markets, at Goole, Driffield and Humber Bridge, where the meat is mainly sold.

“We only do three now because farmers’ markets have taken a pounding through the recession, and maybe because there are too many of them around at the moment,” says Jonathan.

“We’ve tried mail order. The only reliable service is Parcelforce – Royal Mail. Others are cheaper, but it’s whether the driver can be bothered to deliver or not.

“They won’t insure it because it’s perishable, so you lose the product, and that’s the profit of five or six orders just gone, so we stopped doing it because of that. Parcelforce were just too expensive and they were the only ones you could rely on.”

The latest development is turning meat from the pigs into dried continental-style sausage.

Jonathan says: “I’ve started making salamis, and chorizos, which are going down well. The rare breeds are suited to it because of the high fat content. The technique is basically a mixture of fermentation and drying. You mix your meat with your spices, with nothing else added, and you trim and try to remove all the sinews from your meat. Then you add salt and spices, wine, and put it into a casing. You tie it and ferment it at around the mid 20s (Celsius). The fermentation causes lactic acid to breed and the acidity makes survival impossible for the spoilage bacteria or the food poisoning bacteria. The high salt content also causes the meat to dry out and that also prevents spoilage.”

Several local farm shops are selling the salami – Drewtons at South Cave, Manor Farm at Cranswick and Langlands at Shiptonthorpe.

Roberts and Speight in Beverley and Dolly’s Country Larder in Cottingham take bacon, sausage and salami. And the Tickton Grange Hotel, Beverley, has the chorizo on its menu.

Jonathan says: “I wanted to be a bit further on with it, after four years of trading, than I am. However, we are going through a recession and I’m keeping my head above water and if we can come out the other side, hopefully it will be OK. Food tastes are changing in this country and hopefully they will continue to go in the direction of more quality and less buying on price.”

He no longer uses artificial insemination on his pigs, having bought in four boars.

He says: “I’m sometimes tempted to go back to AI because sometimes the boars are a bit lazy. I really ought to get rid of two, but I can’t decide which. The one I thought was all right has been in with the sow for six weeks and has never taken any interest whatsoever.

“In short, they can be a bit tricky. But having worked out which boars will throw big litters, I get an average of about nine a litter and it’s generally easier. The problem with AI, especially on this small scale, is I’ve got nowhere to store it when it comes, so I’ve only got a couple of days to get it used.”