Don and Hamelot...my Wessex Saddleback Pigs.

I give my two little pigs a very hard time. I spend too many a post dwelling on their excavation talents, and not enough time on them as my two little pigs.

For starters, they are no longer so little. When the boys first arrived, they fit on my lap. Those days are over. There is now considerable bulk and spillage. They simply no longer fit on my, or anyone elses, lap. They also squirm a little bit too much, so all of a sudden you are trying to contain a 25 kilogram bowl of jelly (without a mould) within the confines of your lap. Good luck with that one!

There is some seriously good eating on these little fellows, and we have nurtured them for exactly that purpose. That is never far from our minds when we interact with them. Their sole purpose is to fill our freezer. They are fed well, kept well, we keep them in wallow when the weather is not forthcoming, but we always keep our distance. These boys are not our pets, they are our eventual food.

This has been quite a confronting experience for me. As a confirmed animal lover, it has been difficult to maintain that professional distance and not mother them, as cute as they were, and still are. They have distinct little personalities. They are happy to see us when we arrive with their breakfast and dinner. They come bounding up to the gate, ecstatic to see us (dinner, that is) there is much snorting and squealing at seeing us. Their backs arch up to receive back scratches and they LOVE nibbling on rubber wellies.

Raising happy meat is not for everyone. It is for us, as we would rather know that our happy meat has really lived a happy life and their slaughter and butchering will be fully appreciated and respected. Our pigs will not be a part of the consumer anaethetisation where you have no idea of the conditions under which your produce has existed for your purchasing and eating pleasure. Our pigs will never be subjected to inhumane living conditions that redeuces them to only the choicest cuts at your local supermarket and the rest is cast off to blood and bone or feeding your dog. We plan to waste as little as possible from these two little pigs and respectfully and ethically consume them from nose to tail.