Piggalino

Well Happy New Year!

By way of starting the new year in the way we'd like it to continue, we went to the farm at Yorkshire Meats to pick up our little pig.

"What pig?" I'm sure you're asking. Well, 6 months ago we put a deposit down on a pig at the farm. This week we were told that the pig was going to the abattoir and the meat would be ready at the weekend.

So, off we went to the farm - just outside of York - and met Duncan, who was expecting us. He initially took us to meet the 3.5 month old pigs out in the field.

They came racing out to meat us and as we stepped in to the field they were snuffling around our legs and leaving little nose prints on our jeans! They were SO cute, but the most surprising thing about them was that they were ORANGE! No pink here, or at least not much. They were all shades from a pale peach to a dark orange!!! The breed is called the Oxford Sandy and Black. The breed description reads....

• Medium to large pig
• Lop or semi-lop ears
• White blaze, feet and tassel are characteristic
• Head moderately long with a slightly dished muzzle
• A good sandy coat (ranging from pale sandy to rust) with random black patches

Dan made a particular friend (as you can tell by the close-up!) as he was knelt in amongst the little creatures. They were all snuffling around him and eating his shoe laces! Very cute!
So then we went to have a look at the 2 sows. Both of them had had piglets in the last month. They were adorable!!!

The photo doesn't really do them justice as the warming lamp was making the light a bit wierd in the pen. Here are pics of another of the sets of piglets from the website --> piglets. I wanted to nick one and put it in my bag....I liked the little ginger ones the best!