Game on - A Pheasant present

 Ged 'The Cycling Bear' shows me how to breast a pheasant he started by removing the chest feathers 

So you can see what you have 

Cut down the breast-bone as shown

Removing the breast fillet

Ged has been a great help in teaching me the ways of the land and I am very grateful to have a friend with so much knowledge of animal husbandry and outdoor activities who is always up for helping out.

The Boar Arrives!

So I set off to Ampthill to pick up 'Percy the Boar', a lovely Saddleback... A great hog if I might say so myself. Percy is my first sow companion and is known to have great offspring which is just what I'm looking for, hopefully this means lots of saddlebacks ready for next Summer.

The last of my weaners went over  to Hitchin today,  so no more piggies at home in the back garden.  I'll now be able to start sorting out the veg patch for next year.


Last Saturday was a bad day for us as I came back home to find 5 dead chooks... the fox got into the back yard and killed half our brood so we relocated the remaining ones to the green house until I'm able to build a new chook run.

 With less than 500 registered breeding females, the breed is classed as ‘At Risk

Merry Christmas!

Thanks to all who have supported and bought from Maranito over the last four mouths.  We'd like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and all the best for the New Year.

Andre, Jane & Santi

NOW the Freeze...

A magical day 

How to order

Pork can be ordered by whole, half and quarter carcass – butchered to your specifications. Or as individual cuts. 

Whole Pig: Approx. 40-60kgs @ £8.00/kg butchered to your specifications. (To see examples please see half and quarter pig below)

Half Pig: Approx. 20-30kgs @ £8.00/kg [one shoulder to roast, either whole or cut in half, one leg to roast either whole or cut in half, belly (either as a 2-3 roasts and/or cut as spare ribs),loin either as 1 or 2 roasting joints and/or cut as chops, liver, kidney and two trotters, and bones.]

Quarter Pig: Approx. 9-15kgs @ £8.00/kg [half shoulder roast, half a leg roast, half the bell (either as a roast or spare ribs), half the loin either as a roasting joint or cut as chops, liver, and one trotter and bones].

We can also offer a whole hog for roasting please ask for further details.


A Pork box
can consisting of :- kg Leg Joint of Pork kg Spare Ribs, Joint of Pork, kg Pork Chops 2kg Sliced strips of Belly Pork kg Assorted Varieties of Sausage 


Individual Cuts: 

Shoulder               

Steak                               

Loin Chop           

Rack of Ribs       

Belly Rolled Joint  

Back Leg:       

Roasting Cuts:

Collar Joint        

Spare Ribs          

Leg Joint or Steak        

Mini Leg Joint      

Belly Joint         

Sausages            

Chipolatas 

Please contact either:

Andre: andrecardona@mac.com  07958 655962 or 

Jane:  missjaneevans@gmail.com  07730 910643

Helping Conservation - by eating the produce of rare breeds it encourages more people to keep more of them and therefore you will be helping us to save rare breeds.

Snow arrives!

A beautiful site for me my family and herd. I'm really enjoying working the land and the changes in seasons. Lots going on at the moment, I'm looking forward to enjoying more in the Spring right now it seems as if as soon as you sort one thing out something else comes up just to keep me on my toes...

Gisele and Mildred our two sows are awaiting a Saddleback boar 

and now respect the electric fence.

Gisele is much more alert  than Mildred as she's able to see all due to her pricked ears...

Inside a water tub, I'm having to hand ball water at the moment as all the pipes are frozen.

Defrosting trough

You can see that the GOS like all our herd have course bristle hair, they're very hardy swine...

Feeding time.

I've now got them trained to get into this formation when I tell them to.... Performing piggies anyone?

relocated to hitchin

We have relocated most of the herd now to Hitchin and have started to send porkers to the abattoir. The first to go are the Iron Age, a very tasty breed according to comments back from the chef....

So back on to the herd, all the porkers are coming along nicely. I'll soon start going to the abattoir on a weekly basis. We're looking forward to some lovely pork for christmas and already trying to dream up some new sausage recipes - all recommendations welcome!

I picked up 4 new saddleback weaners today - from a little school locally, when I arrived I had to wait to get started while the kids got their wellies and overalls on to help me chase them! These four will join our Tamworth x Iron Age weaners to give us a good range of breeds on the farm.

Electric fence packs in!

Came home to find pigs roaming around on the lawn and electric fencing had packed up... So with a torch in hand I got some food out to help get them all in. Once I'd got them down by the arks I went about some emergency patching on the fence where they had got out.

Next morning I was still waiting for a replacement Energiser to come in the post but the clever little ones had got out again! So I sorted them out once more and got on the phone to my fencing supplier and he sorted out my problem by the means of me going to the local suppliers by Luton to collect an Energiser   free of charge to sort out my pig problem. This made me much happier than waiting for the postman.... Whew!

GOS move back home

So I've moved 8 pedigree Gloucester Old Spots back home into the back garden and moved the chooks as well... The pigs have already done a good job clearing the nettles and the veg patch. There are still damsons on the tree for them to munch on. Spent the morning cleaning out all the pig arcs as we do on a weekly basis as new bedding is a must... Jane was busy rustling up some lovely chutney made from our marrow, pumpkin and tomatoes which was a treat. Inspired no doubt by her Mum's famous tomato relish - So just to keep you all updated the Good Life posse is at 2 dogs, 29 pigs, 12 chooks lots of wild rabbits (which are rodents if you ask me) and a wise owl which we hear most nights but is yet to be seen...




The breed originated around the Berkeley Vale on the southern shores of the river Severn in south west England. It was usually kept in the cider and perry pear orchards of the area and on the dairy farms. Windfall fruit and waste from the dairies supplemented its grazing habit. Local folklore says that the spots on its back are bruises from the falling fruit. Besides its correct title and variations such as Gloster Spot or just Old Spot, the breed is also known as The Orchard Pig and The Cottager's Pig.

Bee's on the move!

I've moved the two bee hives we had in our garden to my bee buddy's house - Thanks Margaret! This is to make way for the pigs who will be moving back in soon...

getting ready to open up hive entace

winer feed going in

grass over entance so bee oriantat on way out

bee setting in

second hive moving in 

Fencing for Gisele and babes

Our Iron Age piglets

Gisele gets a new outdoor pen as she bull-dosed the other gates - one of the piglets managed to push through the bottom of the netting, luckily we heard the squeals and arrived to the rescue - little Houdini! They'll stay in here with Mum until they're 8 weeks old and we'll wean them off and into a bigger paddock...

Today's Visitors...

Lovely Jo and Mia came to visit us today - hanging out with the Gloucester Old Spots...

The Good Life: pigs

The Good Life: pigs: " "

Our new blog!

Follow us on our journey through the seasons on our smallholding - we'll share the successes, antics and sometimes disasters of our rural pursuits... We hope you enjoy and look forward to your feedback.  

             Andre, Jane and Santiago x