Last week we headed up to North Yorkshire where the animals who become
Hawksmoor steaks are lovingly reared and sensitively dispatched.
Our host and guide was Tim Wilson, who accidentally started farming
fifteen years ago when a few pigs he bought to bring some life to an
old farmhouse he was living in quickly multiplied.
He had to do something with the meat he was producing, so he opened a
butcher’s shop and named it The Ginger Pig after his favourite breed of
pig, the copper coated Tamworth. Unlike most farmers who rely on modern
cross breeds and intensive farming methods to produce supermarket approved
lean meat as cheaply as possible, Tim only rears traditional British breeds
which grow slower, put on more fat and, most importantly, have much more flavour.
It really is amazing the lengths Tim goes to to produce great tasting meat,
regardless of the costs involved. He is about to replant 150 acres with old
fashioned grasses so that his traditional breed animals are grazing on the
kinds of grasses they would have eaten 200 years ago. Most farmers nowadays
use an Italian rye mix which costs about £35 per acre to plant, Tim’s traditional
mix which will include Cock’s-foot and Yorkshire Fog will cost £450 per acre.
He’s confident that the meat flavour will get an extra boost and, importantly,
that the old fashioned grasses will attract a wide range of insects which will
feed on unwanted greenfly and the like.
Our tour started with his latest obsession – chickens. Tim has recently added
5 traditional chicken breeds who will soon be laying enough multi-coloured eggs
to sell in his shops. From the pale cream of the Light Sussex to the terracotta
of the Welsummer and the blue of the Aracuana. We moved on to see his sheep,
North Country Blackface and Dorsets, grazing on wild heather moorland. And then
his beloved pigs – Tamworth, Old Spots, Lops and Saddlebacks – playing in the mud.
But the highlight for us was the cattle. Tim started breeding Longhorns to help
save a magnificent breed in serious decline because it is unsuited to the rigours
of intensive farming. He now has the largest herd in the country. In the same way
he has recently started to build up a herd of Riggits, an archaic strain of Galloway
with a white stripe running down their spine, that was thought to have died out at
the beginning of the 20th Century. A few survived and of the sixty or so in the
country, Tim has seventeen.
It seems strange, but the best way to preserve these rare breeds is to eat their beef.
Farmers will only go to the extra expense and effort of rearing these animals if there
is a market for their meat. The more we eat, the more the stocks will grow. We won’t
have Riggit on the menu anytime soon, but once Tim has built up his herd it will start
to make an appearance as one of our rare breed specials. In the meantime, come and eat
Longhorn and the other breeds Tim sends us every now and again. We’ve blind tasted
beef from dozens of different breeds and suppliers and Tim’s traditional breeds win
every time.
After a peaceful night on the farm we headed to Whitby for fish and chips at the Magpie
Café and then popped to Castle Howard which was built, in part, by our namesake Nicholas
Hawksmoor, before heading home. And as you can see from the photos, the weather throughout
was surprisingly kind. Perhaps the sun really does always shine in Yorkshire.
The Ginger Pig’s Butcher’s Shops:
Borough Market
SE1 1TL
Tel: 020 7403 4721
8-10 Moxon Street
Marylebone
W1U 4EW
Tel: 020 7935 7788
99 Lauriston Road,
Victoria Park Village
E9 7HJ
Tel: 020 8986 6911
