Ingram’s Homecure bacon is to be put in the spotlight at this year’s Taste of Grampian show, one of Scotland’s biggest food festivals, which is being sponsored this year by Quality Meat Scotland’s Specially Selected Pork.
The show on 4 June, is in the east of the country, where the majority of pig farming in Scotland takes place. Ingram’s Homecure was chosen as an example of the best of the region’s produce.
Sandy and Ann Ingram are based at East Pitscaff Farm, Newburgh, where they farm 280 acres, growing wheat and barley to feed the 120 breeding sows and the finishing pigs in the pig enterprise which was established at East Pitscaff in 1982.
Back in 1999 Sandy began home-curing his own pork. He said: “I always had an interest in home-curing and I saw it as a way to add value to my home-produced pork. It was fortunate that about the same time as I started home-curing, farmers’ markets began to spring up locally giving me a great outlet for my product.”
Since then he has gone from strength to strength and now between 15% and 20% of the Specially Selected Pork he produces is sold through Ingram’s Homecure. The remainder of the finished pigs go to Millers of Speyside or Quality Pork Limited (QPL) at Brechin.
A full-time butcher puts eight to 10 pigs through the Ingram’s homecure business per week with the most popular products being bacon, gammon and sausages. Ingram said: “It has always been easy to sell the bacon, the challenge has been selling the rest of the carcase, but we have worked hard on marketing it and now we sell a lot more sausages and fresh meat.”
Sandy has been involved with Taste of Grampian since it started 17 years ago and has picked up a lot of new customers at the event over the years. He said: “It is a great day out both for direct selling to the public and also to showcase my products to potential retailers who go on to stock them in their shops.”
The one day event has enjoyed year-on-year growth and last year contributed around £2 million to the Aberdeenshire economy. This year, to coincide with the Specially Selected Pork sponsorship, Ingram is launching his new website at Taste of Grampian along with his rebranded packaging and logo.
