At Peach, we know rather a lot about our pigs.
We know, for example, that they live in spacious paddocks which offer 80% more roaming space than most UK farms.
We know that, being animals that like to keep cool, they are reared along the blustery East-Anglian coastline, with fresh salty air on their backs. We also know they root and roll in soft, moist soil which protects their skin against the sun.
We’ve even met them: our founders have visited Jimmy Butler’s free-range farm in Suffolk, where all our pork comes from.Our butchers, Aubrey Allen, are responsible for sourcing the meat that ends up on our guests’ plates, and they are sticklers for detail. “Buying meat through us is a bit like going through a dating agency – we select our animals on age, sex and location”, says Sales Manager Simon Smith.
“The sex of the animal is important”, he adds. “A sow can have as many as 80 piglets in her lifetime, which takes its toll on her body, and males carry a lot of testosterone, which affects the flavour”.
For this reason, they only supply us with Gilt pigs. Gilts are young female pigs that have not given birth. They have a sweet flavour and the meat is tender.
Their natural, hormone-free diet and freedom to roam makes rearing these pigs a longer and costlier process, but the meat of slow-grown animals is far superior to that of mass-produced pork. Rearing them in salty coastal air also makes the crackling taste supreme.
Such practices come with the benefit of knowing that the animals have led a wholesome, comfortable and stress-free existence. Choosing suppliers like Jimmy Butler has gained Aubrey Allen “Ethical Meat Buyer of the Year” and “Free Range Pork Supplier of the Year” awards. And it is this attention to quality, welfare and sustainability that has made Aubrey Allen the meat supplier of choice for Peach Pubs.
A group of our chefs and pub managers recently visited Aubrey Allen’s Coventry site, where they process our Blythburgh free-range Pork. Here they learned how the meat is prepared and how quality is assured.