Get nose in trough for proper pork

People say that pigs are clever, sociable and sophisticated old things, but they can't be that sharp if they've evolved to a state whereby humans can eat pretty much every single bit of them. A missing link I reckon. That's why I'm writing this column and not, well, a pig.

Back in the good old days before vegetarians and so on existed, everyone with a peck, a perch, and half a florin of nous would grow a pig throughout the year.

They'd fatten it up on all the old rubbish they couldn't bring themselves to eat, slash its throat and do all manner of clever things to it in order to keep themselves in meat throughout the coming months.

If you didn't have a pig, and fancied something a bit fleshier than mangold wurzels, you had to become pretty adept at killing starlings, larks and rats. It was a different world back then. Tough, and lean.

It goes without saying that large tranches of the human race are still very partial to a bit of swine meat, which is why in modern agricultural times, the poor old porker has been more intensively tweaked and twiddled with than Katie Price's chest. Breeds like the ubiquitous Large White serve a purpose, but they're a porcine version of Dairylea.

Proper pigs, the hand-crafted, artisan, mature Cheddar pigs, are those that we nearly lost, and some that we did. The Dorset Gold Tip (this really was a pig, not a cigarette) and the Lincolnshire Curly Coat were amongst the many breeds that became extinct when pig farming became industrial.

Back in 1973 the Rare Breeds Survival Trust was established and since then have diligently ensured that many great British breeds flourish to this day.

Pedigree piggies take longer to mature, and put on more fat than their factory siblings, and therefore are not so commercially enticing. However, things are changing and we all know that fat pigs taste better than skinny ones.

If you look carefully, as indeed you should, you will find the tastiest pork available from Berkshires, Saddlebacks, Tamworths, Middle Whites and all sorts.

The Ludlow Food Centre breed Gloucester Old Spots – a variety recently, but thankfully no longer on the doomed list – on the Earl of Plymouth's estate in Bromfield. Tomorrow (Saturday) the Food Centre will be hosting the Festival of the Gloucester Old Spot, a veritable jamboree of all things properly piggy.

These old breeds deserve celebrating, and indeed eating. In fact, the more rare breed porkers you scoff, the more there will be.

Time to get your nose in the trough and eat more proper pork.