Tag Archives: My Little Porkie

BBQ anathema, but it worked!

Posted on August 5, 2014 | Leave a comment

I’ve been watching an American reality TV show called BBQ Pitmasters, in which teams compete to cook the best and tastiest barbecued meats. We actually went to one of these cook-offs in Dodge City on one of our mid-west motorcycle tours, but at that time we didn’t really appreciate the nuances of competitive BBQ.

Anyway, inspired by the Pitmasters, we decided to do a family BBQ last weekend. We booked a couple of pitches at a campsite in rural Essex. We pitched the caravan on one, and the big frame tent on the other to act as an awning.
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My Little Porkie: Sausages

Posted on July 25, 2014 | Leave a comment

Well, the day came when Ethel was converted into joints of pork. She’d had a lovely life at Samphire at Sycamore Farm, so we don’t feel bad about eating the end product.

A couple of days before she arrived on our doorstep, we had a message from Karen Nethercott, who runs Samphire, to tell us that “Ethel was quite a big girl”. That sent us into a minor panic, since although we thought we’d cleared plenty of freezer space, we hadn’t bargained for a larger than average pig.

We made some backup arrangements, but we shouldn’t have worried. The pork arrived immaculately butchered, boned, packed, and labelled.

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Ethel the Little Porkie

Posted on June 8, 2014 | Leave a comment

We finally went to see Ethel, our little porkie, who is being raised on our behalf by Samphire at Sycamore Farm. You can see a video about the farm and My Little Porkie here.

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St Albans Farmers’ Market

Posted on November 17, 2013 | Leave a comment

We went to St Albans Farmers’ Market on 10th November, Remembrance Sunday. We joined the crowd for the Remembrance Day parade. These are always moving occasions, with everyone behaving properly. No-one broke the silence.

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My Little Porkie

Posted on November 6, 2013 | Leave a comment

We’ve had the first pictures of our adopted piglet:

© Karen Nethercott @Samphireshop 2013

© Karen Nethercott @Samphireshop 2013

We’ve subscribed to the My Little Porkie scheme run by the Karen Nethercott at the very wonderful Samphire.

So in around 6 or 7 months’ time, we’ll be taking delivery of quite a lot of meat, and making bacon, sausages, and paté. And maybe the odd pork pie, although I doubt they’ll reach the standard of Samphire’s delicious offerings.

I’ve toyed with the idea of converting our rarely-used barbeque into a smoker. This might just be the incentive to do it.

Via Twitter, I’ve just seen Kev Marriott’s blog, which has given us a degree of confidence in the project! If our experience is as good as Kev’s obviously was, we’ll be very happy.

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We’ve adopted a pig

Posted on October 13, 2013 | Leave a comment

The rain was lashing down this morning, so the chickens got to stay in their covered run until the day cheered up a bit. But we fulfilled a long-held plan, and visited St Albans Farmers Market, where we sought out Messrs Samphire, who specialise in rare breed free-range pork.

A very wet but welcoming St Albans Farmers Market

A very wet but welcoming St Albans Farmers Market

Samphire not only make delectable pork pies and sausages (which I have ambitions to emulate), but they also run a scheme called My Little Porkie whereby you adopt a piglet and commit to buy the meat once it’s fully grown.

So in around 6 months we’ll be taking delivery of forty kilos or more of rare breed pork. Meanwhile we’ll be able to follow the progress of our own pig as it grows to maturity. I’d love to rear a pig myself, but I have a suspicion that the council allotments officer would take serious exception.

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