Nice to meet you, to eat you nice...

8:47am Friday 4th May 2007

FAMILIES are adopting cute little piglets, visiting them, getting their photograph - then eating them.

Duncan Turnbull, 18, runs a scheme where people adopt and name a piglet - to eat seven months later.

As harsh as it may sound, no-one has ever backed out - indeed, people travel hundreds of miles to visit their pig during its life.

Duncan is an A-level student at St Peter's School, York, and managing director of Yorkshire Meats, based on his parents 26 acre smallholding at nearby Shipton.

He said: "Adopt-a-Pig appeals to people who like to know where their meat is coming from, and for some there is an attraction in coming to the farm.

"People make a day of it, they come to York and go shopping, and then come and visit their pig."

One attraction for parents who don't like telling porkies is that it shows their children where their food comes from.

Other pigs have been adopted to provide a hog roast for a wedding - and even to be a company's corporate pig.

Adopters can follow their pig's progress on a website, receive photopacks and can even be sent professionally printed postcards, note pads and fridge magnets featuring their pig.

Yorkshire Meats' scheme is based on Duncan's rare breed Oxford Sandy and Black pigs, noted for their traditional, tasty meat.

The pigs live outdoors on an additive-free diet. Every week, they munch their way through about 100kg of malted barley from York Brewery and a variety of fruit and vegetables from a shop in Bootham, York.

At seven months, the owners are asked in what form they want their 50kg to 60kg of meat - joints, gammon, dry-cured bacon or sausages.

Duncan was 12 when he got his first pigs. The idea was to keep two or three a year for family and friends, but the meat was so good that demand grew and Yorkshire Meats was founded.

Now university is beckoning, Duncan's family will look after his pigs day-to-day, while he keeps the internet-based business running.

He hopes a number of farms and smallholdings around the countrywill take up Adopt-a-Pig on a franchise basis. Adopters pay a £50 deposit and the balance on collecting their meat.

To contact Yorkshire Meats, call 01904-470497 or at www.yorkshiremeats.co.uk

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