The Old Mill Farm runs the only commercial Mangalitsa herd in the Yorkshire Dales. The breed, sometimes called the 'woolly pig' for its dense, curly coat, was on the verge of extinction in the 1990s and has only recently begun to recover.
Caleb and Joy keep 28 sows in five woodland paddocks of hazel, oak and bramble. The pigs forage for acorns and nuts in autumn and are supplemented only with home-grown barley and whey from a neighbouring cheesemaker.
Mangalitsa pork is exceptionally fatty: a 14-month-old pig will carry up to twice the back-fat of a commercial breed, and that fat is what gives the meat its silky texture and almost buttery flavour. It is butchered with the fat on, always.
“Mangalitsa is not pork as people know it. It's a different ingredient.”