Three or four years ago, Anne decided in her infinite wisdom that it would be an interesting experience to keep a couple of pigs, raise them, slaughter them, and then  go thru the process of breaking down the carcasses and learning about the possibililites of charcuterie.

So we did. We bought 2 piglets from Gina and Robert down the road, got a fenced in area and shed created down below, and fed the pigs twice daily for the next few months.

When the man arrived to do the homekill, I pathetically stayed in the house, and Rick somewhat more realistically went down to give him a hand. Which was brave of Rick becos he doesn't do blood, and with killing pigs theres a lot of blood, becos they need to be bled immediately.

The carcasses were removed unceremoniously on the back of a trailer, and returned to us, gutted, but otherwise whole.

Both of us decided that it had been one of lifes experiences that we were happy to tick off, but really, unless you had the space, maintaining lifestock was a significant committment, that maybe after all, we didn't really want to get into...

We have close friends who are farmers. We are under no illusions about how hard they work. It isn't something you can pick up and dabble in when the urge takes you - its a fulltime, full on committment.

So instead we got into the habit of buying our pork, again as whole carcasses thru the local FreeRange  Farm, becos we knew the pigs were farmed free range.

They are of English breed origin, whereas this video links to the farming in New York state of a European breed that I've never heard of before, but which traces back to the wild boar.

Thought the look of the darkness of the meat, and the amount of fat was just fascinating. Belly that is 20% meat, and 80% fat?! - we would get too many objections if we tried to serve that at Somerset.

As a culture we have moved on from the abomination of a couple of decades ago, when pork was marketed as low fat. The public have caught up with the idea that good pork isn't meant to be low fat. That is actually a contradiction in terms, and if you are going to eat pork you can realistically expect it to be rich meat.

But I'm not sure we've moved so far in the direction that all our customers would be prepared to accept meat with that sort of fat ratio.

I still see, primarily women, pull aside the poultry skin from their main courses and not eat it. People still have an aversion to eating fat. (Coincidentally though - some of those women who are most disciplined about removing the crispy chicken skin, are the same people who eat pork belly with complete relish. It is almost as if, they are constantly vigilant in their diets about not having too much fat, so that when they decide they are allowed some, they then want to indulge in the most fattiest cut of meat they can get!)

It is changing though. The 'anti fat at all costs' movement has definitely lost some momentum over the last little while, and  from my anecdotal observations in the restaurant and in cookschools people are starting to be a little more balanced in their approach to the food that they eat.

So maybe there is room for this breed to be farmed in NZ.....