The Farmers Mart Apr/May 2014 - Issue 33 | Page 57

BUTCHERY

A BREED APART: FOUR REASONS
RARE BREEDS ARE CHANGING THE
FACE OF FARMING AND OUR HEALTH
A former restaurateur turned online
butcher is urging people to buy more
rare breeds because they offer “a
major boost to our health and the
health of the countryside”.
John Pallagi, co-founder of Farmison &
Co, the online rare breed specialist, says:
“Rare breed beef, pork and lamb tastes
fantastic but it’s also better for the planet,
and us” says John. “It’s the ultimate slow
food because rare breeds are not intensively
reared, they’re fed a natural diet and
reared in habitats that preserve precious
ecosystems that would otherwise be lost.”
Farmison & Co offers the most
comprehensive range of rare breed meats
on the internet, with more than 50 breeds
of beef, pork, lamb and veal, available
seasonally from British farmers.
“But we need to eat them to save them,”
adds John. “Between 1900 and 1973 up

to 20 breeds became extinct all together
because they had fallen out of favour – and
their genetic diversity, unique character
and great taste was lost forever. The more
shoppers demand rare breeds, the more
farmers will rear them.”
Farmison’s Hereford beef, for example –
one of England’s oldest native beef breeds
– is sourced from farmer Steven Airey, in
the Lake District. His family has raised cattle
on the land for more than 175 years, and
they are naturally and slowly reared on grass

and aged to produce dark marbled beef.
Similarly, Farmison’s Shorthorn beef comes
from Balsdon Butchers of Summerbridge in
Harrogate, and is traditionally aged for 28
days.
Farmison’s Texel Mule lamb is reared on
Lord Cavendish’s Holker Estate in Cumbria
where they acquire a striking salty taste
derived from a diet of herbal grasses on
the salt marshes. Rearing sheep here also
helps sustain the important marshland
ecosystem.
Farmison was set up by John Pallagi
and Lee Simmonds to make it easier for
shoppers to browse and buy great produce
from small producers, previously only
available to restaurateurs.
*Rare Breeds Survival Trust is the national
charity working to conserve and protect the
UK’s rare native breeds of farm animals from
extinction. www.rbst.org.uk

BRITISH LAMB - NOT
JUST FOR BETWEEN
CHRISTMAS & EASTER
Many people are about
20 years behind the times
when it comes to buying
British lamb because they
still think it is a seasonal
product that isn’t available
between Christmas and
Easter.
But, top quality homegrown lamb is available at
livestock auction markets in
England, Wales and Scotland
throughout the year these
days, says veteran livestock
auctioneer John Brereton,
who can be regularly seen
operating at Oswestry
Livestock Auction Market in
Shropshire and St Asaph
Livestock Auction Market in
Denbighshire, Wales.

John, who has been in the
business for the past 40
years, explained that in today’s
modern production systems
“professional” producers
bought store lambs and
finished them specially for
livestock auction markets
throughout the year, including
the former “closed period”
between January and April.

‘times have
changed’
Admitting that auction
markets used to sell “leftovers” after Christmas when
he first started working as an
auctioneer, he said: “Times

To read more, visit www.farmers-mart.co.uk

have changed. Buyers can now
get top-quality Britis