Hollin Rigg looks much as it did when Margaret's father took the tenancy in 1953: a stone longhouse, a yard of grey limestone setts, three paddocks of British Saddleback sows and a wandering flock of Light Sussex hens.
The Saddlebacks are a rare breed kept on the watchlist by the RBST. Margaret has run a closed herd for 28 years, breeding only from her own line and selling weaners to a small group of trusted growers.
The pace at Hollin Rigg is set by the pigs, not the market. Pork is sold by the half-carcass to a waiting list, and what does not go through that channel is cured into bacon and gammon in a small smokehouse built into the byre.
“I have buyers waiting two years for a half pig. I will not breed faster to please them.”