Redhill Farm Free Range Pork
Producer: Redhill Farm Free Range Pork, Gainsborough
Product: Redhill Farm free-range Lincolnshire sausages
Region: East and West Midlands
Category: From the field, artisan
What they do:
Jane and Terry Tomlinson have been rearing Duroc-Landrace pigs on their 180-acre family farm since 1992. Almost 20 years ago they made the move from a small-scale family farming enterprise to a high-welfare, premium quality free-range pork producer. At the time, a fall in farm gate pig prices had made pig farming unprofitable and, as a result, cheap imports from overseas dominated the market. The couple became frustrated with the situation and decided to offer consumers the choice of a high quality, ethically reared, British product they could trust.
Redhill Farm is committed to reducing food miles and looking after the natural landscape. They use a local family abattoir located 15 miles away, they butcher the pigs themselves and cure, smoke and make all their products in their on-site smokehouse and production kitchen.
Their Lincolnshire sausages were the first free-range product they sold. The sausages are made by hand on a small-scale using only lean shoulder pork. The meat is coarsely ground once (so as not to taint the flavour by heat or over-processing), then white fat trimmed from the leg or the loin, sage, breadcrumb rusk and salt and pepper are added. The mixture is piped into natural casings before being hung for four days.
What the judges said:
The judges loved the sincerity and enthusiasm that came across in Redhill Farm’s submission. The personal narrative behind the business struck a chord with the panel. They were particularly impressed with the amount of context and information that Redhill Farm’s story revealed about the sausage-making process and their relationship with the region.
Visit the website:Redhill Farm Free Range Pork