Pig Society

Sharing the responsibility and fun of rearing pigs for meat, and in doing so, having greater control over the provenance of our food.

The Pig Society is a group of like-minded folk around the villages of Harrowbarrow and Metherell, who have got together to keep pigs. Our first ‘round’ of pigs were six lovely Oxford Sandy and Blacks which were kept on the Harrowbarrow and Metherell Community Orchard. The orchard site was rather overgrown, so the pigs have done a fantastic job of clearing and digging over the field ready for the first apple trees to be planted. The pigs were very friendly and really enjoyed human company, and especially all the buckets of apples they received!

Twelve households were involved and we all shared the costs of rearing the pigs as well as the daily tasks of feeding and general care. We also carried out an unexpected amount of fencing !

We said our farewells to the pigs at the start of October, and took them to Tideford where they remained happy till the end. We are now all enjoying some fantastic pork, and have been experimenting with making bacon, sausages and brawn.

If you would like to know more, or, if you live in the area and are interested in joining the Pig Society when we get our next round of pigs in 2012, please contact us here

Here are some photos of our pigs.