This Sunday, I made a trek up north to Hogwash Farm to get ten frisky, squealing, Tamworth/Gloucestershire Old Spot feeder piglets. I consider this a near perfect cross. Lots of vigor, rich dark meat, friendly disposition, and self-sufficient in field or wood: these pigs are ideal for the smallhold farmer with semi-tamed land.
The Tamworth provides a long, lean, bacon-type body shape with lots of genes carried forward from the ancient wild British Isle boars. They are not particularly large and have fairly narrow shoulders. Tamworths are considered the oldest and most pure continuously bred line of pork. They have survived in large part because of their rarified genetics. Since most other “modern” or “improved” varieties share a lot of genes with China pigs, crossing one of them with a Tamworth provides the farmer more “hybrid vigor” then if crossed with another modern breed. Even in their own right, Tamworths were considered a great “bacon type” right into the 1950s since they tend to make long, meaty bacons - far better bacon than a typical “pink pig.” But like so many of the superstars of the old-school farmyard, the industry passed over the Tamworth for breeds that did better in dense confinement eating mostly corn. In fact, in the 1970s the USDA promoted the idea that hogs should be raised near large factory corn operations to help prop up the price of corn on commodity markets. This is not the environment nor the diet where Tamworths thrive. Their numbers declined at an alarming rate until they eventually became listed as “endangered” on the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy’s watch list in 1977. Fortunately, the Tamworth is making a comeback. While still listed as “threatened”, so many small farmers have rediscovered the virtues of Tamworths that their numbers are increasing nicely.
Gloucestershire Old Spot, on the other hand, are large and affable foragers. They provide some of the girth and marbling in the crosses; improving the butts and hams and rounding out the compact Tamworth frame. Another very old breed of questionable origin, the GOS was known as an “orchard pig” since it was used to clean up the windfall apples and pears in the orchards of Gloucestershire, England. Unfortunately, their numbers are even smaller than the Tamworth with a “critical” designation on the ALBC watch list.
Anyone who has eaten pork from these breeds (or their crosses) knows that it shares precious little with the dry, faintly flavored, “white meat” of supermarket pork. It is truly another type of food entirely. So rich and flavorful, tender and marbled: there can be no more stark an example of why preserving older breeds is important work. As a consumer, the superior quality of the meat alone should be enough. For me as a farmer, its the whole package. Livestock that can be productive on forage and wholesome leftovers from other farm activities -- rather than mountains of grain -- is an important start. But more interestingly, it is precisely the things that make these pigs thrifty that define their quality on the table -- a nice example of how sustainable agriculture improves human culture in a simple, tangible way.
This is why I admire folks like Nancy LeRowe and Dave Yesman of Hogwash Farm. Unlike folks like me who buy in feeder pigs in the spring and then take a break in fall through the winter, keeping a herd of registered stock requires a deep ongoing commitment to the breed. These are some mighty fine piglets. My hat is off to you Nancy and Dave -- thanks again.
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