Having met Simon Gaskell, the driving force behind The Real Boar Co. at the Kingham Plough farmers’ market, I knew I had to visit and find out more. So, off I popped one hot and sunny afternoon to track down Simon and his wild animals in the beautiful surrounds of the Cotswold countryside. I finally arrived after driving up a very long and narrow farm track and through an electric gate. There before me stood a cedar clapper board house which one might normally picture in Australia or America. The house, slightly raised off the ground, has a veranda on the back from which you can see into the woods and the wild animals beyond! Simon greeted me wearing shirt, shorts & a floppy Australian bush hat and ushered me inside for a refreshment. After having met Simon’s charming family I noticed there was a tiny piglet lying in a plastic box in the kitchen! Was this normal to be rearing wild animals in the house? It transpires the rare breed Oxford Sandy & Black piglet was the runt of the litter and rejected by its mother. Simon had taken on the task of hand-rearing the piglet, feeding it bottled milk morning noon and night until it is old enough to fend for itself.
We repaired to the veranda to sample the delights of Simon’s newest charcuterie creation, wild boar salami with sloe gin. The salami was moist, with a great meaty bite and a little spice on the finish. Whilst nibbling on numerous pieces, the story of the The Real Bar Co. unfolded. Simon and his wife Louisa, had been living in Perth, Australia where he worked as an event manager. After a number of years enjoying the pleasures of Western Australia they decided it was time to head back. Simon had an inkling of what was to come and rather practically decided to fill the remaining space in the shipping container with reels of 6ft deer fencing amongst their worldly belongings!
On returning home to the farm, situated in 20 acres of mixed woodland and grass, the hard-work began. The 10 boar enclosures had to completed first, by hand digging in hundreds of fence posts and laying the 6ft deer fencing which was then weighted at the bottom with telegraph poles. In order to keep boar you must also apply for a Dangerous Wild Animals licence. As all the indigenous British boar have long since disappeared, the stock of 200 are a mix of both German and Polish breeds which are managed into three different sounders consisting of a boar, females and young of different ages. Boar are born with a striped coat which then disappears at around four months. The sounder is controlled by a dominant sow with a clear hierarchy existing in the group. The 25 stone stud boar, rather unassumingly named Julian, has landed the prize job of keeping the boar numbers up. Julian is a bit of free spirit and relentlessly hostile, much to Simon’s cost as seen by the various scars on his legs and arms inflicted by flailing tusks! The boar’s main diet is foraged roots, wild cherries, apples and acorns, but they are carnivorous enjoying the odd worm and slow crow! Initially, the curiosity of a number of Simon’s chicken’s got the better of them by a rather alarming encounter with a hairy, wild boar! To get to know the boar Simon used to spend hours sitting in the pens with the boar, observing them and bonding.
After 18months the boar are rounded up and taken to an approved slaughter house which has a Dangerous Wild Animal licence. This is a very difficult and dangerous operation trying to herd wild animals into the awaiting trailer! The meat is then hung for 10 days. Meat destined for salami is treated in a high humidity environment to start the culture process before being air-dried for four-five weeks at a temperature of 14°c. Simon sells boar loin and haunches to a number of restaurants, but most of the meat is made into delicious salamis by his butcher. They make a range of salamis:
- Wild Boar Salami with red wine – made from home-reared wild boar
- Wild Boar Chorizo with red wine – made from home-reared wild boar with paprika to add colour & spice
- Wild Bar & Venison Salami with red wine - made from home-reared wild boar & deer from the Badmington Estate
- Cotswold Game Salami – home-reared wild boar, Badmington Estate venison & Cotswold pheasant
- Pork Salami with red wine - made from rare breed home-reared Oxford Sandy & Black pigs & Gloucester Old Spot
- Pork Chorizo with red wine – made from traditional breeds with paprika to add colour & spice
The British attitude to fat is quite different to that of our Continental cousins with some of our brethren actually going to the lengths of picking the specks of fat out of their salami! Now we all know that “fat is flavour,” adding both moisture and taste. Simon’s charcuterie has a growing reputation and has graced the plates in many of the nation’s gastronomic hot spots, from the Fat Duck to the Waterside Inn. Jamie Oliver currently stocks The Real Boar Co. salamis in his Jamie’s Italian restaurants.
Simon has also dabbled in air dried hams, producing a Cotswold version of Parma ham and air dried beef to produce their version of bresaola.
Not content with just keeping 200 wild boar, rare-breed Oxford sandy & black pigs they also have a number of North Devon cattle. The Oxford sandy & black pig was nearly extinct as recently as 1985 before the introduction of the Breed Society. The day I visited was very hot and the sandy & blacks were enjoying a wallow in their mud pool!
Simon is a passionate, driven individual who almost single handedly tends to the animals, chases up sales leads, hand-delivers meat, presents his products at countless shows and fits in the marketing, PR and book keeping in his spare time! This is what is truly inspiring about great British producers, those who have a real passion, drive and focus on producing a truly unique, quality-driven product. No self respecting platter of charcuterie should be without the addition of one of the Real Boar Co’s wonderful salamis!
