25 Aug

On the road

Posted By Anthony @ 6:48 pm in Uncategorized

  The Blue Pig Company is on the road over the bank holiday weekend. We are at Malham Show on Saturday almost in the shadow of the spectacular cove. This is a traditional Dales show and we can be found in the food marquee.  Then on the following  Tuesday  we will be in the equally scenic Kilnsey in the farmers market tent. Last year we were stood in water half way up our legs so here,s hoping the weather is kinder than it has been the last couple of weeks.

  Sandwiched  between these two shows we will be taking over the kitchen at Harewood house. We will be showcasing our range of sausages, bacon, fresh pork and black pudding  . We will also demonstrate sausage making , have hot samples to try and are going to show four ways with belly pork. But not to spoil the surprise you will have to come along to see what the “four ways” actually are. Hopefully we can show what you can do with a good piece of meat, but also how versatile pork is from the every day to the special, from substantial meal to moreish snacks. But perhaps we are giving away too much already.

Please come and say hello and we hope to see you somewhere on our tour.

05 Aug

Think Pig

Posted By Anthony @ 7:32 pm in Uncategorized

There has been some coverage in the media recently regarding the welfare of pigs. Much of this has come on the back of the RSPCA campaign “Think Pig”. We share many of the RSPCA,s concerns and aims as many of you know. The RSPCA  wants consumers to look out for free range pork just like ours and it is worth repeating that pork tastes much better if it is free range. Our pigs have spent the summer digging and grazing, but interestingly not much digging in the drought. Although that changed when it did rain and much porcine fun was had rooting out the risen worms.

           Our pigs have shelter from the worst of the weather in pig arcs but, during the long sunny days of this summer, have spent a lot of time wallowing in the beck.  We also like to let our sows farrow indoors in roomy sheds with lots of straw when the weather is against us. New born piglets soon get exposure if they have rain on their backs and we get lots of rain in the Dales. But as soon as they are old enough to stand getting wet out they go again.

  So please, if you want free range pork, check out the online shop  on this site and we are sure you will tick the RSPCA boxes. Whats more you will be able to savour the extra flavour that comes from free range, rare breed pigs.

12 Jul

Free Sausages at The Great Yorkshire Show

Posted By Anthony @ 12:19 am in Blue Pig, Markets

For those of you who are a little nervous about buying on the Internet and especially those who have never bought fresh meat on the web, now is your chance to see just how painless it can be. During the Great Yorkshire Show, if you visit the Blue Pig Company stand in the food hall we will show you how to order just what you want from our website using the laptop there.

You will be talked through the whole process, from choosing what you want, specifying delivery and of course just how easy it is to pay for it! You can even see the type of box and cold packaging your order will arrive in. But perhaps most importantly, ALL orders placed at the Yorkshire show will receive two FREE trays of Classic pork sausages, to be included with your order.

So come along and say hello and grab some free sausages.

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17 Jun

Proper Crackling

Posted By Anthony @ 7:08 pm in Uncategorized

roasting pork loin 001

We get asked quite regularly how do you get proper crackling? Clearly the answer always starts with making sure you have some good pork. The joy of rare breed pork is the extra fat compared to a modern pig and that helps no end. So here is what we do to get that crackling  perfect.

        Here at the Blue Pig Company we always score the skin prior to sale. That is not to help the cooking, its to help you carve it afterwards. If you have time take your pork out of its packaging and sit it on a plate, uncovered, in the fridge, preferably overnight. This will help the skin dry out which is a good thing.  Then place the meat in your roasting tray and rub the skin with a little oil or butter. This is to help the salt, that you add very, very, generously, to stick to the skin.  Then roast at 180C till done which will be about half an hour per old fashioned pound. The other way to tell is to poke a knife into the middle of the joint for 30 seconds and when you pull it out, if the knife point is too hot to hold, its cooked.

roasting pork loin 009

If you find the meat is cooked but the crackling is not crispy enough, turn up your oven as high as it will go and give it another 15 minutes blast. We find that usually does the trick.You will see lots of fat from this roast loin. Save it and use it to roast your spuds and they will be the crispest ones ever.

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29 May

Red Bull

Posted By Anthony @ 3:59 pm in The Farm

bull 004web Well actually red and a little white and not an invigorating fizzy drink. Unfortunately our resident bull, Thomas, has been found  to be infertile. He only has one job and he was failing to deliver the goods as it were. So much like an apprentice, he has been fired. This did mean a trip to Carlisle and the excitement of trying to buy a new Beef Shorthorn bull. There was a smallish sale of pedigree Beef Shorthorn cattle and we had identified a likely candidate in the catalogue who was a red ( and a little white ) bull.

We got there early to inspect the line up and make sure the one we were after was the right bull for the job. The fly in the ointment is that there are lots of other farmers all judging the same cattle and arriving at the same conclusion as us. So when our chosen one arrived in the sale ring its squeaky bum time when we have to hold our nerve, outbid our rivals and not get auction fever and spend more than our budget.  We managed on all counts and the hammer fell to our bid.

We paid up and came home leaving instructions to the auction market to organise the bull his transport home as our truck has a poorly clutch. But we had a phone call at 8 30 in the evening that they could not get him delivered as no one wanted to go so far from the motorway network. Frantic phone calls got the loan of our neighbours land-rover and setting off on a dash up the M6 at 9 45pm.  When we got there the night watch man had a bloody face and a black eye after getting kicked by a bullock so he was having a bad day too.  Returning home we were stopped by the police because they thought we were cattle rustlers! But finally Beef Shorthorn Hallsford Dustbuster walked out in to the dark at 2 am. We hope he was worth the effort.

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24 May

There,s nowt growin

Posted By Anthony @ 2:59 pm in The Farm

sheep-001 The daffodils have flowered, the swallows are back, the primroses are out. Every things says its spring but until the last couple of days its been very cold and grass growth is almost non existent. Hence the greeting from farmer to farmer at the moment is: ” there,s nowt growin” We reckon that spring is probably three weeks later than last year and to compound the cold it has been very dry too.

Our lambs are growing more slowly as a result so the first ones will not be ready till the second or third week in June. But when they are, we plan to make them available to you via this website and online shop. Proper grass reared lamb from our traditional sheep hung for a week and butchered  to your requirements. We reckon that you might like chops, steaks and diced lamb for the BBQ. Legs, shoulder, mince for Shepherds pie for a quiet night in with a glass of red wine. Even racks and cushions of lamb for a classy dinner party.

May be you want something else so please let us know. 4 weeks or so and counting.

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15 Mar

Is it spring yet?

Posted By Andrew @ 11:16 pm in The Farm

It is only 8 weeks but the view here has changed from

mearbeck 002.jpg web

to this

New Lambs at Mearbeck Farm

As you can see lambing has started so it must be spring! All we need to do now is put up with a little sleep deprivation for a few weeks and the farming year will begin again. It’s a time for optimism, the days are getting longer, we have even seen a bit of the sun and despite the colour in the picture the grass is getting greener.

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23 Jul

The Great Yorkshire Show

Posted By Anthony @ 8:55 pm in Markets

The clue is in the title, it is great and we had a great time. The show was attended by Rosie Winterton MP who is Minister for Yorkshire. Rosie remembered meeting us last year at another event and so she was talked into buying some smoked bacon this time. We are glad she paid as we did not want to become embroiled in an expenses row. Its a delicious thought that the aroma of Blue Pig bacon is wafting through the corridors of power.

We were also flattered when celebrity chef Brian Turner cooked our gammon steak and black pudding in his demonstration. Even better when he said he had enjoyed eating it too. It was a joy to watch him work as he is a consumate professional. The audience lapped him up.

Apart from the name dropping its good to see friends that you have not seen for a while. We also found it useful to pick other producers brains. Then if you need a leg stretch there is lots to see. So much in fact you really need the whole three days to see it all. We also spent a lot of time talking to the public about what we do and promoting our new online shop. So if you have found this site after talking to us at the show welcome, well done and we hope you like what you see.

12 Jul

Come Meet Us at The Great Yorkshire Show

Posted By Anthony @ 8:52 am in Markets

We’ll be at the 151st Great Yorkshire Show selling sausages, bacon and pork cuts. We’re there all three days, Tuesday 14th to Thursday 16th July.

The Great Yorkshire Show is a major event up here, at the Yorkshire Showground in Harrogate it is spread over 250 acres. It was started, and still is, an agricultural show. It will be filled with animals, demonstrations, activities and the Great Yorkshire Cheese & Dairy Show. Plus there’s fashion, rural crafts and lots of food stalls. You can find out more at www.greatyorkshireshow.com.

If you’re coming, pop by and say hello.

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08 Jul

Red cows

Posted By Anthony @ 9:52 pm in The Farm

You will see from the rest of the site that our Grandad used to farm here too. Well he started farming in his own right in the 1930s with a breed of cattle called Shorthorn. These cattle were the native cattle from our part of the world and were originally dual purpose cattle. That means they were dairy cows that were good for beef too. They came in a range of colours from red through roan ( a sort of mottled red and white ) to white.

They were cattle that could thrive under even the most difficult of conditions and were exported around the world. But during the 1950s they started to fall out of favour as dairy farmers specialised and started to use Friesians. Then the Shothorn breed split into two, Dairy Shorthorn and Beef Shorthorn which is probably nearest to the cattle Grandad had.

So a couple of weeks ago Andrew and I went to a Beef Shorthorn sale in Carlisle. We have been talking about returning to the breed for a while as we feel they will suit a post peak oil style of farming when artificial inputs will be limited. Any way we got two pedigree red heifers and so Shorthorns have returned to Mearbeck after nearly 60 years. We are inordinately and idiotically proud of these animals. We hope to breed and sell pedigree Shorthorns eventually but they will make really good eating too. It also feels like the wheel has gone full circle. If our father and grandfather were alive they would probably think we were bonkers. They might be right.

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