Producing Our Rare Breed Pork

We rear our rare breed saddleback pigs outdoors where they are free to range across the grassland fields in small family groups.

This means our pigs live happier lives in a more natural and traditional manner than intensively farmed pigs. They are fed a natural diet which is free from additives and genetically modified feed.

Saddleback's are a hardy breed that thrive outdoors, they are full of character and are good mothers with an excellent temperament.

Saddlebacks were one of Britain’s mainstream breeds up to the 1970s, however the growth of supermarkets which demanded ultra-lean white pigs from the intensive producers led to a fall in numbers to the point when, in 1979, the breed was recognised by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust (RBST) as a rare breed.

Swillington Organic Farm among with other small producers is committed to bringing back this rare breed and we hope you can support us choosing to buy rare breed pork as 'we eat them to keep them'

Saddleback pork has distinctive qualities; it is succulent, flavoursome and with crackling to die for. Compared with ultra-lean supermarket pork it offers a much meatier and fuller taste due to the extra fat of the breed.

The fat is necessary to baste the meat while it cooks to give flavour and succulence naturally produced pork has also been shown to carry health-benefiting Omega-3 fatty acids.

Although the Saddleback is mostly black that does not mean that you will have black crackling or bacon rind. Like every other pig, the skin on the Saddleback is the same after slaughter and the removal of the bristles.