Pauly the butcher

So after a lovely summer on Gozo cooking lovely vegan food for all those healthy yogis, i turn bushy tail and head down a different route. November has found me in north Devon, on a 10 acre small holding in a small valley. Surrounded by farms and fields, rivers and streams, buzzards and starlings, there is a pedigree pig farm. It's only small, with 32 pigs, ranging from very cute little piglets, up to Gerry, nick named one-shot Gerry, who has put even the most barren of sows 'in-pig'. He's a big boy, as long as a cow and high as my hip, little tusks growing by his chops, he's soft as can be, but i wouldn't turn my back on him...
the pigs are Gloucesterchire Old Spot piggles, they are a rare breed, and on this farm there are two rare bloodlines, a male line Gerald, and a female called Primrose, so not only is the farm about producing meat, they are keeping alive a rare bloodline in this rare pedigree pig. Feeding them in the morning has fallen to me, which is mostly a pleasure, this morning in particular, i began just as the sun first crept up over the far hill, and the warmth grew as i fed and watered these lovely little piggles. They are a breed that is easy to over feed, and if they over feed, there will be too much fat, and too much fat doesn't make good joints, sausages nor bacon.
Along with learning the art of keeping rare breed pigs, i have also got to learn some butchery skills. When i arrived they had just picked up Dahlia from the abbatoir, and on monday i spent the day in their on site butchery listening to rock music and doing that what butchers do.
I learned where the bacon and chops come from (same place), the joints, the hams, hocks, tenderloin, belly. The knife skills were particular but easy to get the hang of, a big knife, a little knife, and a saw. It wasn't as gruesome as i had once imagined, and i thoroughly enjoyed learning how to cut her up into the different joints.
All the bones, once the majority of meat is taken off, is put in a bag for a husky rescue farm, proper recycling!
Tuesday brought sausage making, making batches of 5kg, we made traditional, apple and scrumpy, and my favourite, the christmas sausage, port and cranberry. I learned the art of 'linking' sausages, and although it wasn't that difficult, i was exceedingly proud of how good they looked, hanging up in the chiller.
Supper that night was the misfit sausages, and the port and cranberry were the winners, they also make maple cured bacon, and i'm hoping to get some maple cured streaky, with port and cranberry mini chipolatas, and make the best pigs-in-blankets ever!
The taste of the rare breed pork is without doubt superior to your everyday pig, which are kept inside, stuffed full of growth hormones, fed too much wheat to make them grow bigger. I hadn't ever really thought how different varieties of pig would taste different, this added to the outdoor hand rearing doesn't even compare. It makes me think what a ruby red t-bone steak would taste like, or what variety of sheep is the tastiest.
My time here has answered lots of questions about pig farming, but for every answer, i now have another 5.
I feel like i've tasted lots of ingredients, all of which i enjoy, but with only one meal to make, i need to decide how to combine those that i love...