So today was our Introduction to Butchery, & it was quite an interesting morning.

Rich, the tutor, spent the first part of the morning introducing himself & running through various aspects of the Butchery world, especially the 'Field to Fork' principle that's so prevalent now.  He also discussed the importance of a good life for the animals before they go for slaughter, as it all affects the quality of the meat.

Rich talked about why some of the native & rare British breeds of cattle, sheep & pigs had fallen out of favour in farming, which is mostly down to the end of rationing after WW2.  People wanted more protein in their diets (understandably) and some of the British breeds take longer to mature than the continental breeds, so they were set aside in favour of them.

Those students who were keen to do the Butchery minor then got kitted out in chain mail aprons, standard aprons & chain mail gloves.

Then out came the meat!  We had a whole pig, a lamb & forequarter of beef to tackle...

First up was the pig.  We tackled the more intact of the two halves first, & Rich ran us through the various sections of the carcass.

Rich was very keen for the students to get a proper hands on experience, so he was more than happy for them to get stuck in & have a go!  Rich has got a lot of experience in the Butchery trade & that really came across as he talked us through how to tackle the carcass.

This took us up to just before lunch, & honestly, that was quite enough for me.  Much as I love to eat meat, butchering a carcass just isn't my thing...  I'd love to learn how to make hand raised pies & how to smoke meats etc, so I might look into doing a short course on that while I'm here =)

As fascinating as this morning was, I just didn't feel the same level of enthusiasm for Butchery as I did for the Dairy, so I'm really quite sure that that's the best route for me =) 

There were 5 of us who'd made our minds up about taking the Dairy option, so, with Rich's permission, we all came home after lunch (a gorgeous mushroom & leek pie, with potato wedges, carrots, peas & gravy!).

So that's my first week done, & it's been fantastic! =D

Everyone, students & tutors alike, are just lovely, & I think we're going to become quite a tight knit group.  We've got a couple of field trips next week (including a 7.00am start Monday morning!) & the Graduation for last years students, so I think it might be another great week =D

For now, I'm off home back to sunny (hopefully) Shropshire, to rest, recuperate & attend a wedding!