Anna trots off with leading pig award

Anna Longthorp of Howden was named Pig Producer of the Year at the recent annual Pig & Poultry Marketing Awards lunch.

Anna, 27, got the award for Anna's Happy Trotters, a business supplying free-range pork direct to butchers – and marketing material to go with it – which she set up as a sideline to her parents' mainstream pig farm. Two years on from start-up, she is selling 100 pigs a week through a network of 35 butchers.

She recently got a grant from Yorkshire Forward to set up a processing unit employing two butchers, to make bacon, sausages and ham, and is now trying to make her own versions of Continental-style ham and salami.

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She said: "I looked up Parma ham on the internet, and almost choked when I saw a single leg selling for 150. I've been experimenting since last August, trying different mixtures of garlic and herbs. I'm still working on the idea but I'm thinking I would call mine Farma ham."

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