Goodies Rare Breed Pigs.

The Berkshire is the oldest recorded pedigree pig in Great Britain, known for its meat quality for three and a half centuries. Berkshire pork is succulent and incredibly juicy with a wonderful flavour and crackling that is second to none.

Berkshire pigs are black with white feet, nose and tail tip and perky prick ears. They have a great personality and a very placid nature so it's not just their high milk yields that make them excellent mothers.

They are ideally suited to outdoor living, having a naturally strong constitution, and being in open pens with straw bedding for comfort seems to suit the Goodies' girls very well.

To meet increasing demand for his pork Stuart has now added Saddlebacks and Large Blacks to his rare breed stock.

All the piglets are sired by Ginger, Goodies' 'gentle giant' Duroc Boar. Rare Breed pigs can produce pork that is a little too fat for most tastes and crossing with the Duroc eliminates this whilst retaining the flavour and succulence of the pork.

The piglets stay with mum for eight weeks and once weaned are fed on a cereal based diet, locally milled to Stuart's own special recipe to minimise fat and increase lean meat yields. The feed contains no hormones, no antibiotics and no growth promoters so Goodies Pigs come to maturity in their own good time, as nature intended.

When the time comes, at about 22 weeks or so, they are slaughtered at a local abattoir which minimises travel and hence stress for the pigs. The carcasses are returned to Goodies to be butchered in their in-house cutting room by master butcher, Peter.

Stuart is the first to admit this method of pig rearing has turned the clock back thirty odd years and is convinced that, for once, this was a step in the right direction! Not only is Goodies pork tender, juicy and full of flavour, customers have the assurance that it is raised in a healthy, happy, environmentally friendly way.