FARROW TO FINISH — CHESHIRE
The animals we’ve chosen to raise are all rare or heritage breeds. Slower-growing, harder to find — each one carries a piece of farming history that nearly disappeared in the rush to make meat cheap.
The largest of the British pig breeds, and one of the rarest. Large Blacks nearly vanished entirely — by the 1960s the breed was critically endangered. They’re back, slowly, because farmers think they’re worth it.
They’re docile, hardy, and completely at home outdoors. Good mothers. They forage well and carry condition without needing much intervention. Everything a rare breed pig should be.
One of the oldest British pig breeds — and very nearly lost for good. The Oxford Sandy and Black was taken off the rare breeds register in 1985 after numbers collapsed. A group of dedicated breeders brought it back.
Sandy-coloured with black patches, they’re friendly, curious, and well-suited to outdoor systems. They do well on pasture and produce excellent meat with good fat cover — the kind of flavour you don’t get from commercial breeds.
Kune Kune means ‘fat and round’ in Māori — and they live up to it. Originally from New Zealand, they’re one of the smaller pig breeds and one of the most characterful. Friendly to the point of being underfoot.
They’re grazers, which is unusual for pigs. They do well on grass with minimal supplementary feed, which makes them well-suited to a pasture system. Slower to finish than commercial breeds, but the meat is worth the wait.
One of the oldest hill breeds in Britain. Small, dark-fleeced, and completely unimproved — Hebrideans have barely changed in centuries. They don’t need to be. Hardy enough to thrive on rough grazing that would defeat most modern breeds, and good enough on their feet to stay out year-round with minimal intervention.
They’re conservation grazers as much as livestock — brilliant for managing pasture without chemicals. The fleece is coarse but characterful, and the meat is lean and well-flavoured. A breed that earns its keep quietly.
We rear chickens for the table. Slow-grown, properly fed, the same ethos as everything else here. No shortcuts, no overcrowding — just birds raised the way they should be, outside, with space to move.
They’re available through Owl Farm alongside the pork. If you want to know exactly how your food was raised, this is about as straightforward as it gets.
