do you buy "Nice ham"?

[cod]

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yup!! Farmers market ham, bacon and sausages.. the best you can buy! It's a bit more expensive, but well worth it IMO.

we are the pig producing county so get very yummy ham around here. buy apple roasted ham sliced off the bone at the butcher.

mind you dh is on a mission to get two pigs in the spring to fatten up and slaughter in the autumn - ham, sausages and roast pork galore. I'm currently resisting...

My grandmother always bought ham on the bone and nothing else (carved from the bone I mean). Ham in the West country is superior stuff.

My children prefer the wafer thin stuff generally - but not wet ham

we used to call it slippery ham when I was a child
it was a treat
[deprived childhood, bittersweet nostalgia emoticon]

This sounds like a Peter Kay joke!

have you got pigs? do you breed from them, eat them or just have them as much loved members of the family (NOT my intention!)

may I join pig rearin clique in a prof advisory capacity
I used to work on a pig farm when I was a teenager
fabulous creatues, pigs

my role was:
feeding pigs
cleaning out pigs
removing dead and runty piglets from litter
all rounder me
[have emailed you pph...]

I havent really read most of the other comments but i felt i HAD TO COMMENT!! This is a huge thing to me....(dp doesnt get it - meat is meat!!!)
I hate hate hate hate shiney meat and wtf is turkey ham?
Some sort of mongrel farm animal??????
Nice ham isnt shiney and its just proper - i cant describe it, its just ham!

bloody hell hp, a real live mumsnet pig professional! who would have thunk it....

We had 2 old spot pigs that we reared for meat a few yrs ago. They were really cute when tiny but got a bit big and scary as they grew, DH and I used to bargain not to clean them out and have to stand in pen with them
Eventually got round to having male one killed (though was real pain as had to take to abbatoir about an hour away). Couldnt bring ourselves to kill female and luckily a local farmer offered to buy her as a breeding sow.
Havent done it again, though meat was lovely.

how old were they when they got the chop?

we are lucky (!) in that our local abbatoir is 3/4 miles away so would be easy enough to shove them in the horsebox and trundle them down there...

if you were going to do it again would you go for the gloucesters again or something different (smaller?)

oh and did you keep them in a pen or in a field or a mixture, and if field was involved how much land did they have the run of?

sorry for so many questions!

oh how lovely it would be if we could all afford to buy 6 slices of ham for £1.30 - some of us have to feed our families 'crap' food - and buy 20 slices of square ham for 79p. But you know what, my children are fit and healthy, because I cook healthy meals (sorry no free range - too expensive atm) - and this week did the whole weeks shop (nappies and washing powder included) for £31

so to answer the OP - no I don't buy "nice ham" [wonk]

Wonk?

oops - meant

Re pigs-first had them in a small fenced area (about 1/4 acre) that was going to become veg patch. They did a really good job of turning it over.
Then when it got colder and wetter (we are on Clay) moved them into a stable in a barn.
Not much work really-feeding twice a day, chc water, muck out once a week.
We kept ours too long really as were over a year by the time we got round to doing anything with them, so joints ended up huge.
Dont try and butcher them yourself-friends did this with one of theirs and took a whole weekend! your abbatoir would be able to suggest a butcher who will pick the carcase up from them and butcher it for you.
Need to get a movement licence from ministry for any movement and have a registered farm/smallholding number for all the paperwork.
Was going to say "lucky you for living that near an abbatoir" but doesnt seem right somehow

Smaller would be easier but too cute and would end up dieing of old age (like the goats and the sheep etc etc)