Or if there’s none around, follow the dedicated & passionate couple at @LoveWildBoar, who (along with @marshpigsalami), ensure that their wild boar meat gets properly looked after between its slaughter and its arrival on your plate, as amazing charcuterie. From this striped group of piglets in their drift…
…via this singular of mature boars…
…to this plated delight…
…or even this…
Seriously, run, don’t walk, to their online store (or Jackie’s at Marsh Pig) to buy some of this ethically sound and compassionately produced meat. I’ve written all through this site about the rare & heritage breeds and how simply ‘anaemic’ in comparison is the taste and look of that meat from these factory farmed, mass-market breeds, that are still, unfortunately, the bulk of the meat produced and sold around the world. Jim and Vicky talk here about just how great this meat is; full of flavour, amino acids, the good fats, full of the redness that is missing from supermarket pork.
And yet again, the key to this is in the way that the boar are treated; it’s the care that’s given to their husbandry: time, with space to forage and roam and a relaxed life that just can’t be replicated in a factory farm environment.
I’ve talked before about how wild boars are the ancestors of our own domesticated pigs, how delicious they can taste, eulogised about the US version, the Ossabaw, looked at how they’re still so important for current breeds all across Europe plus many other pieces which you should catch up on again, so it’s hugely exciting to see how this couple have chosen to work with wild boars. I’m hoping that we can visit Haverhill to meet see these animals in situ.