SOIL IS THE STRATEGY.
The Piggy Box — Oxford Sandy & Black Pork
Mid November
£80.00
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The Piggy Box — Oxford Sandy & Black Pork
£80.00
Kids getting excited for a sausage box again... supermarket meat does not compare...” — G C
5kg of proper farm pork
Proper pork with proper flavour. A useful mixture of roasting joints, chops and sausages from our Oxford Sandy & Black pigs, raised here at Lower Blakemere Farm in Herefordshire.
Low stock
Approx. 5kg
About one freezer shelf
Local hand delivery
Nationwide chilled delivery
Farm collection available
This is a pre-order. You're reserving a Piggy Box from our next pigs and we'll confirm the precise delivery or collection date nearer the time.
From our award-winning Herefordshire farm
Click & Collect from Lower Blakemere Farm
Order online and select Click & Collect at checkout. We’ll contact you when your box is ready and arrange a convenient collection time. Please wait for confirmation before coming to the farm.
Sunday lunch, a quick supper and something worth making room for in the freezer.
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From our own pigs, raised outdoors on our Herefordshire farm.
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A useful mix of cuts, for roasting, frying and everyday cooking.
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Locally butchered by Griffiths of Leintwardine.
Reserve Your Piggy Box
Choose your batch to see when your pork will be ready.
This is a pre-order. You’re reserving a box from an upcoming batch, and we’ll confirm the precise delivery or collection date nearer the time.
What You’re Buying
Your Piggy Box contains at least 5kg of mixed pork, including:
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Roasting joint or joints — for Sunday lunch and useful leftovers.
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Pork chops — for the frying pan, grill or oven.
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Farm sausages — made for us by Griffiths of Leintwardine.
The exact selection and individual pack weights vary between boxes. We aim for a balanced mixture that you’ll actually use.
We’re dividing a whole animal into useful food, so every box won’t look identical.
Three Very Good Reasons to Choose a Piggy Box
1. You know where your pork came from
These are our pigs, raised on our farm. You can see where they live, follow what we’re doing and ask us about how they’re kept.
2. There’s more than one supper in it
A roast for the weekend, chops for a quicker meal and sausages for those evenings when nobody has thought about dinner.
A mixed box gives you variety without having to buy half a pig.
3. It makes buying from the farm straightforward
Choose your batch, reserve your box and arrange delivery or collection. Keep what you’ll use shortly in the fridge and freeze the rest.
Good food ready when you need it.
Our pigs are Oxford Sandy & Blacks, one of Britain's traditional native pig breeds.
They're sometimes known as the Plum Pudding Pig, thanks to their sandy colouring and distinctive black patches.
They're hardy, intelligent pigs, well suited to outdoor life and foraging – which makes them particularly useful for the way we farm.
They're also valued for producing flavoursome pork with good fat cover.
They grow differently from the highly selected commercial pigs used in intensive production, but we're not trying to run an intensive pig unit.
We want pigs that suit our farm, can express their natural rooting behaviour and produce really good pork.
And there's another significant advantage.
They look magnificent.
Not technically an important production characteristic, but we're keeping it on the list.
Our pigs aren't simply kept here waiting to become sausages.
They're part of the farm.
Pigs are extraordinary natural cultivators.
Give them an area to investigate and they'll root, rummage, eat vegetation and disturb the ground with an enthusiasm that would make a rotavator feel inadequate.
We use ours particularly on banks, rough ground and awkward areas of the farm that aren't suitable for our arable crops and can become dominated by vegetation and brambles.
Their natural behaviour can help us open up and manage selected areas.
That doesn't mean putting pigs everywhere is somehow magically regenerative.
Leave too many pigs in the wrong place for too long and they'll make an almighty mess.
Like most things in regenerative farming:
It's not simply what you've got. It's how you manage it.
In the right place, at the right time, pigs can be extremely useful.
Fortunately nobody has yet had to explain their job description to them.
We raise the pigs. Griffiths of Leintwardine does the specialist butchery.
The pigs go through a licensed abattoir process, and the pork is professionally prepared for your box.
Our job is farming. Their job is turning that pork into joints, chops and sausages you’ll enjoy cooking.
Roasting joints: A proper Sunday roast. Use the leftovers for sandwiches or another supper.
Chops: Good with mustard, apples or a simple pan gravy. Follow the cooking method suited to the cut supplied.
Sausages: Sausage and mash, toad-in-the-hole, a casserole or a tray bake with potatoes and onions.
You don’t need an elaborate recipe for everything. Sometimes deciding what’s for supper is quite enough.
Why Sell Sausages by the Box?
Because pigs don't arrive conveniently divided into supermarket
bestsellers.
If we're going to raise an animal for food, we believe in making
proper use of it.
Sausages are an extremely practical part of that.
They're also one of those rare foods that seem to work for almost
everybody.
Children.
Grandparents.
Breakfast.
Lunch.
Supper.
Barbecues.
Christmas morning.
Tuesday evening when nobody has thought about dinner.
Selling a useful quantity directly from the farm helps us make good use
of our pork and gives you something genuinely useful in return.
Farm-direct buying without having to find freezer space for half a pig.
A Few More Things to Do With Them
Sausage & Mash
There is a reason Britain hasn't given this one up.
Toad-in-the-Hole
Cheap, filling and extremely difficult to improve upon.
Sausage Casserole
Proper winter food.
Make twice as much and freeze some.
Pasta
Take off the skins, crumble the sausage meat into a pan and use it in a
tomato or creamy pasta sauce.
Tray Bake
Sausages, potatoes, onions and whatever vegetables need using.
Into the oven.
Done.
Sausage Rolls
Take the skins off and you've already got the important ingredient.
Breakfast
Obviously.
Emergency Supper
Possibly the sausage's greatest contribution to British life.
Pigs, Soil & Regenerative Farming
Lower Blakemere is a mixed family farm in Herefordshire on a regenerative mission where soil is the priority.
For us, regenerative farming isn't about putting the word regen in front of everything we do and declaring it environmentally wonderful.
It's about looking at the whole farm as a system.
What can we grow? Where can cattle graze? Where can pigs be useful? What can become animal feed? How do we keep living roots in the ground? How do we return nutrients and organic matter?
How can manure reduce some of what we'd otherwise need to bring onto the farm?
And ultimately: How do we produce good food while improving the land we're farming?
Our pigs are one small part of that bigger picture.
They can make use of vegetation and areas that don't suit arable cropping, disturb selected ground through their natural rooting behaviour and return manure and organic matter.
They're not a silver bullet. They're pigs.
But managed thoughtfully, they can have a very useful place on a mixed regenerative farm.
From Our Farm
Lower Blakemere Farm is a family-run mixed farm in Herefordshire on a regenerative mission where soil is the priority.
We grow crops, keep cattle and pigs, produce birdseed and run several businesses from the farm.
Increasingly we're trying to make those different things work together.
Crops can feed animals.
Animals produce manure.
Manure feeds soil.
Healthy soil grows grass and crops.
Cattle can graze land that can't easily be cropped.
Pigs can tackle particular rough areas.
And ultimately the farm produces food for people.
Nature worked out circular farming rather a long time before somebody
invented a PowerPoint presentation about it.
Packing & Delivery
Collect from Lower Blakemere Farm: Select collection at checkout. We’ll contact you to arrange a time when your box is ready.
Local delivery: Available within our local delivery area.
Further afield: Chilled delivery is available, using ice packs and sheep’s-wool insulation.
Delivery options and any charges are shown at checkout.
When your box arrives, unpack it promptly. Follow the storage and use-by information supplied, refrigerate what you’ll use shortly and freeze the rest promptly.
Frequently asked questions
How much pork will I get?
At least 5kg of mixed pork.
How much does it cost?
£80 for one Piggy Box. Any delivery charge is shown at checkout.
Will every box contain exactly the same cuts?
No. Each contains a useful mixture, but the cuts and pack weights vary as our butcher divides the animal.
Can I freeze it?
Yes. Freeze promptly, following the information supplied. Portion anything you need to before freezing so you can defrost just enough for a meal.
Will I need a chest freezer?
No. Allow a freezer shelf for 5kg of packed meat.
Why isn’t it available all year?
We raise pigs in small batches. Our boxes are available when those pigs are ready.
Can I buy just sausages?
Yes — choose our Sausage Box if that’s what you’d use most.
