rare breeds: organic pigs in Ireland

The big boys import organic pork into Ireland, the smaller are v small. The artisan producers often do a good job, but aren't much bigger than the small organic guys.

Here's a profile on the Moles in Roscommon, certified organic farmers with pigs.

Ted and Kay Mole are a rare breed with a rare breed cross. This is because they are certified organic pig farmers with Brightwell Blues.

They have been farming near Strokestown in Roscommon since 1996, and have been certified organic since 1998. Like some many in the world of artisan and organic farming, the Moles have a complex, interconnected and imaginative enterprise, with as much of the end point retail profit kept for themselves as possible.

They farm a 25 acre mixed farm. The Moles have 100 geese (which incidentally are amongst the best converters of feed to meat in the business), ducks, sheep, garden vegetables, an orchard, a range of fruit trees including pear and plum, and a crop of medicinal herbs. The latter are grown to contract for Leitrim-based Irish Organic Herbs. This crop includes Echinacea, red sage, sheep sorrel, and wild carrot.

A three year field rotation is carried out, to avoid any disease and parasite build up. They have to balance the benefits of dung with the damage caused by digging and foraging, in terms of soil structure and earthworms. Test plots are also grown for various reasons, including assessing geese feeding preferences.

Pigs are central to their enterprise.� The pigs here are mostly Brightwell blue, which is the best cross for outdoors. It�s a saddleback and landrace cross� according to Ted. Ted stocks up to four sows at any one time along with Eric the boar.

Feed price is obviously a concern. However, necessity breeds ingenuity, so they have found a few ways around it. Ted grows his own forage crops, buys in bulk feeds and sells feeds on from the farm gate by the tonne and in 25kg bags.

Whole and rolled wheat, oats, triticale, triticale/beans, peas and seaweed meal, as well as 2 year in-conversion oats are currently available. All are suitable for certified organic farmers � including the 2 year in conversion oats. The latter are especially affordable at present: 440/tonne whole, 500/tonne rolled, 12.50/25 kg bag whole, 14/25 kg bag rolled.

While they sell the equivalent of 50 pigs a year, the Moles don�t sell their pigs on. �Economically, it just couldn�t make sense. Instead, we use a local butcher, Sean Connolley in Ballinasloe�. They cure to their own recipe, and sell from the farm. While some of their other meat products go through a local co-op, the various pork cuts they sell are snapped up at the farm shop.

Strokestown may not have a large population base closeby, locally or regionally, but committed consumers can seek out the good stuff when it�s available.

Along with goose and lamb, fresh pork, dry cured ham and bacon as well as sausages are all for sale from the farm. The customers pay 6E per kg for fresh pork, 12-22E per kilo for dry cured bacon (depending upon the cut) and 10.30E per kilo for the sausages.

While the pigs are a mainstay, Ted and Kay also host farm walks and pig courses for NOTS, the National Organic Training Skillnets.

And beyond business, its not all about the money, the turnover, growth and profitability for Ted and Kay. Nurturing nature is a central part of their lives.

One part of this is trees. The Moles have planted many native trees all over their farm, and are very committed to hedge laying: �my aim is to avoid wire fencing altogether� according to Ted, who is a certified member of the Hedge Laying Association of Ireland.

�Done properly, laid hedges are great for stock proofing, providing shelter and also act as wildlife corridors�. Don�t get Ted started on how useless neglected and overgrown hedges are for stockproofing.

He goes on to tell me that they only need to be re-laid every 15 years or so, whereas wire fencing is expensive, time consuming and has no environmental benefit. �We have 13 fields on 25 acres, and the biggest one is 3 � acres�. In nature terms, that says it all really.