Talking Pork Fundraiser

Talking Pork - the Real BBQ Food Van…

Why Talking Pork? Talking Pork is an abbreviation of one of my mum’s favourite sayings “It’s like talking to pork” and was most commonly used while holding a conversation with my dad.  When trying to engage in conversation with my dad it’s easy for him to ignore you; either he thinks you’re about to talk rubbish or straight away he believes that what you’re about to say is not going to be interesting to him. Whatever the reason for him ignoring my mum it led to inevitable exclamation of “it’s like talking to pork!”

In the UK sunlight is gold dust, in high demand, scarce and subsequently so greatly valued it’s nearly at the point of being worshipped. So with this in mind when the weather is good we bust out the barbie’. With the weather being largely overcast in the UK we don’t get chance to perfect our pit mastery; resulting in Darwinian evolution reversal. Grown men can be seen stooped over instant BBQs burning the butchers best sausages and frozen burgers all of which leave that distinct sweet aftertaste of lighter fluid. Furthermore any chance of getting good quality BBQ is limited, with restaurants serving unsmoked and artificially smoked, over seasoned, over sweetened low quality meat.

However hope is not lost, there are pit masters in the UK that are rebelling against our British take on BBQ and rebelling against the well-known bastadised “American BBQ” restaurants. Talking Pork wants to join resistance and traditionally smoke large cuts of meat. But we also want to build on this BBQ revolution, ensuring that all produce is well sourced, utilising science over old fashioned guesswork for the moistest, most tasty product.

To get the tastiest end BBQ pork product we must start by Talking Pork. Our supermarkets are flooded with Danish porcine products with bacon being the most commonly bought Danish pig treat. Danish pigs are poorly kept, often being battery farmed in small cages all their lives up until the point of being slaughter. Bred to gain muscle rather than put on fat ensures the customer gets their massive slab of meat at the cost of flavour. By creating muscle bound beef cake pigs through selecting leaner breads we lose pig diversity, which if unchecked can lead to pig bread extinction. In other words selecting a single pig breed for mass production could lead to not only a cultural loss for us but a serious genetic inbreeding problem in the future. NB Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall made an enlightening documentary of the same food controversy but regarding chickens. Talking Pork is committed to using local, organic, rare bread pigs to create a sustainable, tasty future. 

In general in the food community there is a large oversight regarding bread quality. Similarly just because you went to the butchers doesn’t guarantee a good local product; going to the bakers doesn't ensure a loaf of bread minus improvers and additives so commonly used now. For the best BBQ experience we will only use our own fresh, handmade bread. By making the bread ourselves we will ensure that no improvers or additives are put in our doughs. To make the best bread products the only ingredients that our bread will use are local organic flour, water, yeast, salt and oil.

Local, organic and Fairtrade are three words that are synonymous with Talking Pork. We will strive to use the minimum amount of food miles with regard to the produce we will use. (What are food miles? Food miles are the distance produce has to travel before it is cooked and eaten).Reducing food miles on the face of things appears to only reduce our carbon-foot-print; however this is only the tip of the iceberg. Through Talking Pork only using local produce you would be supporting local businesses and skilled artisans who are dedicated to producing the best products. Local business investment therefore enables money to be invested back into your own community, rather than building on the already high profit margins of the corporate giants. Where products cannot be sourced locally i.e. the spices that are used in your rubs, we will use Fairtrade products further ensuring farmers get paid a decent wage.  

An Example of the Model of Van - Not "The Van"

So far we have talked about what Talking Pork wants to achieve but we have not spoke about why we need your support! For the most part we are going to need to beg borrow and steal but one cost we cannot avoid is the van. Initially we had day dreamed of getting a classic ford transit mk 1 however classic vans are somewhat of a premium. With our immature dreams smashed we are going to aim for something more achievable; a VW t25 transporter. Because we are all about BBQ we don’t need to set up the van to cook in, we just need it to move the smokers and occasionally put a roof over our head. And this is where we need you! We have estimated the VW is going to cost £2000 to get us on the road and barbequing. So to get us rolling we are selling homemade organic real bread, seasonal jams and rhubarbade syrup, with all profits going towards our van fund.  

Below is our price list of the things we are currently offering (which will change with season). To order any of the products contact myself at cmtw@leeds.ac.uk or Ruth at rmdiskin@hotmail.co.uk

Please help support us!