Saddleback Pork Steak a cut above the rest, as Great Taste crowns the best in the South West

Slow-grown with plenty of space to roam, Pipers Farm’s Saddleback Pork Steaks have been awarded the Great Taste Golden Fork for the best food or drink from the South West, coming out on top among thousands of other entries from the region. Founders, Peter and Henri Greig, collected the trophy at the Great Taste Golden Fork Dinner in London earlier this month, where it was also revealed that the Devon-based online butcher’s pork steaks had made it all the way to the final panel, as one of Great Taste 2018’s Top 18 products from over 12,600 entries.

Packed full of rich buttery fat, cutting through the sweet Saddleback meat, this pork was applauded by the Great Taste judges for its “full frontal flavour”, with one judge describing it as “deliciously juicy, beautifully soft and fabulously piggy”. Boasting a “porky complexity” that set this product apart from the crowd, the Great Taste 3-star steaks are a testament to what can be achieved by farming in harmony with nature, while allowing the native Wessex Saddlebacks to enjoy a natural life without stress.

Properly farrow and living outside for the duration of their lives, these old-fashioned pigs stay on their mother for eight weeks, to get the full benefit of their mother's milk. Rooting outside from only a few days old, Pipers Farm’s piglets build up a strong natural immunity, helping them to reach maturity without the need for antibiotics. Fed on a simple cereal diet, while also foraging on herb-rich grass, acorns, apples and fodder beet, all grown on the farm they call home, these family groups provide the most sustainable way of managing a mixed farm, ploughing and fertilising the ground in the most natural way and minimising the need for machinery and inorganic fertilisers.

Peter Greig, founder of Pipers Farm, explains:

“This is a special day for Pipers Farm, but it was all the sweeter for Henri and I to share the stage with the young farmers who reared these wonderful pigs for us. The Snells epitomise what Pipers Farm is all about, partnering with family-run farms to provide a sustainable alternative to the industrialised farming methods that consumers have been told to accept as the only way to feed the masses. We believe strongly that small-scale family farming is the future and feel honoured to be providing an outlet for the work of these great young people, which is ultimately benefiting the community, the pastures and the animals themselves, while giving us some superb meat along the way. Having judged with Great Taste for the first time this year, I now know what a rigorous blind-tasting process it is, so I’m incredibly proud to be bringing this trophy back down to Devon with us. Our Golden Fork shows just what can be achieved when you farm with respect for mother nature, who rewards us with some sensational and sustainable meat that we can feed to our families with confidence.”

Pipers Farm’s Saddleback Pork Steak is available to order from www.pipersfarm.com.