BREEDS
Berkshire
The Berkshire is a relatively small breed, It has black hair, but dresses out white. We can make bacon, but it is on a smaller scale to the Old Spots, the pork is where the Berkshire excels. Its moist light flavour underneath a superb crackling is what roasts are all about.
These little pigs are perfect for the small holder they finish slightly quicker than some traditional breeds. Their size means that the pork produced wont completely swamp the families freezer.
With this in mind we always try and keep some livestock for sale to the small holder or amateur pig keeper.
Aberdeen Angus
As the name suggests these are a native breed of Scotland. Many people mistake the brown, horned highland cattle for Angus, but they couldn’t be more different. The black square hulks are gentle giants. They have been superceded by continental imports which are quicker growing and leaner. Centuries of good breeding have given the Angus its ace- perfect marbling. Not only is Aberdeen Angus jacketed in its own moisture retaining fat, but it has running through it soft veins of self basting fat.
Angus require little maintenance and are starting to find favour again profit margins tighten farmers are looking for low input beasts that don’t need all the concentrates its continental cousins demand.
We have a small herd of around 12 pedigree Angus and about 8 crosses.
Shetland Sheep
A hardy native breed of Scotland, known more for its wool than its meat. It’s a lightweight breed full of character and very easy to work with. Every one of our ewes has a name, every one is instantly recognisable with distinctive colours and markings that are described in the traditional dialect of Shetland. Descriptions like Katmoget, Gulmoget, and Yuglet , describe these patterns. They are wonderful mothers and produce good strong lambs.
We would prefer to keep the lambs into the next year as hoggs, this gives a better sized carcass with a completely different flavour to the lamb, but the public have a fear of anything that might be labelled as mutton. Either way the meat is full of flavour and of superb quality.
Shetlands are known for there wool, which is available for sale. We are currently trying to produce our own fleeces, but as usual we are battling against red tape and the EU, but I am sure fleeces will be available soon.
Castlemilk Moorit Sheep
Another native breed of Scotland, originally bred on the Castlemilk Estate Lockerbie. They are wild tempered things that run like deer and cause us all sorts of problems. Their striking appearance and adorable lambs make it worth while, not to mention the meat. This is best taken again as hoggs and as we don’t have many they are all kept as hoggs, this produces a strongly flavoured dark meat, which is lean.
Castlemilks are about as rare a sheep as you will find, and you can understand why when you work with them for a while.
Gloucestershire Old spots
Our main breed of pig. This is reasonably large pig which produces excellent bacon and pork with crackling to die for. It is very good natured and is very hardy.
All the pigs spend there days roaming and rummaging and of course sleeping in large outdoor pens. We have 2 house boars, Rufus and Wallace, both are 15 months old and very friendly. They live in a family group each with three females all out doors. The females come in when they are due to farrow, they could stay out but it is easier for us to keep an eye on them as they tend to have there young at the most awkward of hours. After 8 weeks they piglets are taken away and go to their own pens, again outdoors.
They feed off what they find in the ground and a wheat and barly mix that we have made specially.
It takes around 8-9months for them to grow to our ideal finishing weight.
Ayrshire
This is a small subsection of our beef production, and touches some nerves. The Ayrshires are all bull calves and are kept as veal. FREE RANGE VEAL, no crates, no milk only diets, but calves reared naturally. They are reared by nurse cows that look after up to four calves each. They have access to hay and straw and can freely move around their barn. Once they are old enough and the weather allows they can go outside with the rest of the herd and by the time they are 6months old they are fully integrated into the herd.
The meat is pink in colour, but when cooked goes white, the tenderest meat you will ever eat.
The calves themselves come from a nearby dairy farm at a few days old. The reality is that as bull calves they are a waste product of the dairy industry. They have little or no value, and many are shot within days just to get rid of them. To us at Sunnyside to give an animal the chance of a short but natural life is better than the animal to have no life at all.
Rest assured though, the product is incredible.
Dexter Cattle
We now have a reasonable number of Dexter cattle. They are a hardy, native breed of the UK. They are in fact a miniature breed - of course, they don’t realise this and are the noisiest, feistiest beasts you can imagine but they are great characters and a pleasure to work with. They are totally grass fed so are naturally high in omega 3. Best of all, the beef is quite simply the best beef you have ever tasted - the strongest beef flavour we have ever come across. I really cant say enough about these little wonders!!
All the cows are pedigree and the new bull, DeeJay, is settling
in. If you want something different then give it a try.
Recently featured
on The Great British Menu on BBC2, they agreed it was outstanding.
