Curing Tamworth Ham

My Cured Ham

Well, it was not exactly timed to perfection.  I hoped for a ready cured ham of lovely Tamworth by 26th December 2012.  I did not start it in time unfortunately, so today the 4th January 2013 is the day.

I mentioned recently that I cured some belly pork to make streaky bacon.  This was a huge success and majority of the credit has to go down to the fantastic pork supplied by Liz Shankland at Tudful Tamworths.

I can vouch for the quality of the Tamworth as I have recently cured some supermarket belly pork using the same cure mix bought from www.sausagemaking.org.

Now the cure is great, but the supermarket pork is not nice!  I don't think I have been spoilt, I think I have been shown just what poor taste the fast maturing intensely bred pigs produce. Its no fault of the pigs, it is what we have done due to demand for the cheapest meat ever available.

As you can tell, I am converted to eating quality pork, in fact any quality meat.

I genuinely do not want eat supermarket pork again and would only eat rare breed pork monthly to ensure I am eating a tasty meat and helping in the survival of a rare breed animal.  

So, back to the ham.  I decided to use the bacon cure on a join to try and produce a ham.  It is looking rather good and will be boiled in cider and then baked in the oven in the next day or so. 

I'm sure I will be eating like a king for a while!

Thanks for reading.

Royal Welsh Winter Fair 2012

Two Saddleback's having a cuddle!

I have to be honest, this entry is not 100% poultry related but I hope you enjoy!

I had a great day on Tuesday at the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society's Winter Fair!  Its a two day event, and this year ran from 26th November to 27th November 2012.

I decided to make the effort and go, firstly because the drive up from Cardiff over the Brecon Beacons is beautiful and secondly, there was a poultry show and pig show on the Tuesday.  Two areas I have become very interested in!
As Liz Shankland recently put it, I'm on that slipperly slope into Smallholding!

It really got serious for me when I attended Liz's Smallholding Course at the Humble by Nature farm.  So really I could blame Liz!!! :-)

A great course, and one I would thoroughly recommend.  I have one slight problem in that my back garden can only just cope with 3 young boys under 5 years old along with 5 hens.  So I'm a little stuck until I find land.

Anyway, back to the Winter Fair!  I was fortunate with the weather, dry but cold.  There was ample parking and it seemed very well organised.  I arrived at 11am and had a stroll around the Christmas stalls selling mulled cider, welsh honey and wax candles, cheese, meats, dog treats, everything and anything you could think of and majority if not all stalls were Welsh.  It was to be fair, a fantastic offering and shows how diverse many of small and medium size business's are in Wales.  Its great to see so many still going.

I was keen to get to the animals, if fact as excited as a child, although I seem to get more excited about animals than my 3 boys do. 
I visited the pig's first of all. 

Gloucestershire Old Spot having a snooze

Now I'm not a Welsh speaker, but the first thing I noticed was that Welsh for pig is "Moch".  I made a mental note and thought I can remember that!  That was until I arrived home and discussed this fact with my wife.  My pride at remembering some welsh did in fact take a little dent when Rachel advised me that Pig in welsh can be Moch, Mochyn or Mochin.
I had enough trouble with the English language, but having 3 spellings for pig suggested I may have no chance with Welsh.

Back to the Fair, and there was a variety of pigs on show and on sale, from Gloucester Old Spot's to Middle Whites, and Saddlebacks.  There was also a guess the weight competition for two Tamworths (see below).

They were owned by Barbara Warren who was chair of the Wales and Border Counties Pig Breeders Association.  I had a great time chatting with Barbara, Liz Shankland and Wendy Scudamore who breeds Kune Kune pigs.

All in all, it strengthened my desire and drive to keep and rare breed pigs.  The shortlist is Tamworths, Berkshires and I can't help but like the idea of a couple of Kune Kune's! 

From the pigs I moved onto the poultry show.  There were some lovely birds there, chickens, geese, turkeys, ducks.  Some for sale but majority for show.  I took some photos of a few that caught my eye.

To the left were light sussex bantams I believe.  They were beautiful, and took first place in the any Bantam category!


Below was a cockerel that caught my eye and ear as I got a little to close without ear defenders!!
I'm not sure of the breed to be honest.  I will have to look it up!

This chap on the left  reminded me Christmas coming all to fast.  Gobble Gobble!

Talking of Christmas, every Christmas Fair should have them................................ drum roll please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The reindeer!!

A great way to finish the day and I would recommend that you go along and have a look for yourself.  They hold Spring, Summer and Christmas gatherings, so plenty of opportunity.

Thanks for reading!

The search for land

My search for land has been ongoing for a long time, it seems to have turned into an epic!
It picked up pace after I returned from a Smallholding Course at Humble By Nature  delivered by Liz Shankland.
I haven't quite given up on finding some close to my village, but it is proving very difficult.

I have been talking to farmers, the Community councils City council, local poultry keepers, my allotment association and searched various property websites.

I have discovered that the ideal land is too far away at circa 9 miles, and land prices for agricultural use vary a great deal.  I have seen prices quoted at £7,000 -£10,000 per acre for 4-7 acres, I have also seen asking prices of £15k per acre.
I have not really seen any land to rent.
It's not easy!

If anyone else has tried this rather than moving home to a house with land, I would be interest to know how you approached it and if it worked for you?
If you did find land are you treating it as a hobby or trying to make some sort of living out of it?  How did you go about establishing if there was a demand for your service?

You should be able to leave a comment on this entry or if you are on twitter I am @Homer_Andrew and my facebook page is www.facebook.com/backgardenpoultryhatcher

Thank you for reading.
Next entry will have some photos of the little Wyandotte chicks.  I am also pondering whether to try and train one of my hens!!  

Smallholders Course at Humble by Nature

Slight detour from hens and eggs today.  Promise I will be back on track next entry.

Kune Kune Pigs (Photo from Wikipedia)

Saturday morning saw me travelling into Monmouthshire to The Humble by Nature farm owned by Kate Humble and Ludo Graham.
Its a fantastic place and very accessible.
They run a variety of courses that cover working with animals, rural skills and food and cookery.  I went to check out the Smallholding course "oink, cluck and baa".
I was not disappointed and would recommend it to anyone with an interest in these areas.  At the same time as learning a great deal and relaxing for the first time in a long time I met up with some brilliant like minded people who owned smallholdings, others that were interested in buying smallholdings and others like me who have chickens and fancy expanding.

Tamworth Pigs (Photo from Wikipedia)

Liz Shankland was running the course and it was a great introduction to smallholding, some of the animals you can keep and some of the regulations and issues to consider before you take the  plunge.

They didn't put me off mind you, however it made me consider some key points, the main one being, if I take on animals do I have a back up plan.  What if I am unable to tend to them due to illness for a period or what if I want to go on holiday?
I can't see a simple answer to this one.
It would be unfair or rely on friends and family constantly.



Cavapoos - Roco & Max

I am aware of a service local to me similar to an animal sitter.  They look after a variety of animals in their own surroundings for people who go on holiday and also provide walking services for dogs.

They will look after hens in your garden and have even offered to look after hens on my allotment in Morganstown
Would they even visit pigs to feed and water?
Even if they would, would it be viable financially?

I suppose if you have a dog you accept that you put them in kennels or take them with you?  Rachel would not want to share our holiday with hens however much I enjoy keeping them or pigs for that matter so I guess, unless you have a friendly farmer or smallholder neighbour, there is very little option but to pay someone.  If you are running a business I guess it's a running cost to factor in when pricing your product.  If they are a hobby or pets then its just like owning a dog!!

If anyone has any other ideas let me know.

Thanks for reading.