This Little Piggy Went To Market

This Little Piggy Went to Market is an exciting new project at Carlton Towers which runs perfectly alongside Cooks, the Carlton School of Food, as part of our ‘From Park to Plate’ journey.

Rearing animals and growing our own produce has been the missing piece of the puzzle in the plan to use Carlton Towers estate to its full potential. Carlton’s grand state rooms have long been the ideal venue for dream weddings and memorable special events. More recently, in May 2014, the servants’ passage and kitchen were returned to their former glory, now housing Cooks, the Carlton School of Food. Cooks classes run regularly with a wide range of cuisines and cooking styles to suit everyone’s culinary taste, age and cooking skills. But be sure to keep an eye for the courses with Carlton’s own porkers.

The Oxford Sandy and Blacks were the obvious breed of choice…

The Oxford Sandy and Blacks were the obvious breed of choice in the plan to turn Cooks into an academy of food, in which to learn every step in process of creating the delicious dishes we love to eat. Not only do they produce excellent bacon, lean ham and pork, but the historic breed are great foragers, too. These little piggies are currently working hard fertilising the land in the previously unused walled garden, which will be used to plant our own vegetables and eventually hops for The Carlton Towers Brewery.

Apart from the plan to use the pork for Cooks courses -the first samples of the scrumptious home-reared pork went down a treat- our This Little Piggy Went To Market van will be making an appearance at local festivals and events, which will give the public a chance to sample some of this delicious home-reared pork.

Master butcher David Lishman is also excited about this new addition at Carlton Towers. Together with our resident chef Richard Walton-Allen, David ran the first ‘Carlton Porkers’ cookery class at Cooks with our first batch of home-reared pork. There is also going to be a ‘Park to Plate’ arrangement with David Lishman, as the meat form our pigs will be excellent for his traditional curing butchery classes.

So what are the next plans for these charming Oxford Sandy and Blacks?

Soon they will be moved to Carlton’s woodlands where they will roam and forage freely in a perfectly natural way. And there are plans that these characterful pigs will one day snuffle for truffles around truffle-infused oak trees- Lord Gerald received one as a present from daughter Flossy for Christmas. Watch this space.