Craig Walsh

I was interested to read these postings about Kurobuta pork, and am glad to contribute what we know about the subject. I understand that "Kurobuta" means black hog in Japanese ("kuro" = black, "buta" = hog or pig). In Japan, Kurobuta pork comes from black pure-bred Berkshire pigs. I understand the Japanese even have DNA tests to ascertain (in some cases) that the pork has, in fact, come from a Berkshire pig. There is the story of the British monarch giving the Japanese emperor the first Berkshire pig. I wanted to know more: I thought if the story were true, there were more fascinating details awaiting discovery in the National Archives at Kew. I paid a skilled researcher to spend several days in the archives, but he couldn't find any supporting information. Yes, the British monarch did give the Japanese emperor gifts of state --- but they were things like snuff boxes. So the "official" gift story appears to be purely fiction, unfortunately. In the UK, Berkshire pigs are classified as a rare breed, in the "vulnerable" category. Please see the website of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust. There is also more information about the Berkshire breed itself on the website of the Berkshire Pig Breeders Club --- of which we are proud members. To my knowledge the Japanese do not feed their Berkshire (Kurobuta) pigs beer, nor do they massage them or otherwise exercise them. We have raised pigs at Lucies Farm, in sunny Worcestershire, for the last 15 or so years. When we first heard about Kurobuta pork, we thought it would be a logical extension of our existing Scottish | Kobe beef enterprise. As we already feed our cattle beer on a daily basis, and massage our cattle three times each week, we thought we'd go one step further than even the Japanese and would feed our pigs beer and massage them. They like the beer --- unlike the cattle, who want the beer poured over their feed, the pigs like to drink a cold beer right from the bottle or can. But the pigs weren't fond of being massaged. They're too active and wanted to know what was going on all the time. It was then (coincidentally) that I read about Aquarena Springs in Texas, and the history of Ralph the Swimming Pig. We started with our ginger (red) Tamworth pigs, and soon found that pigs love to swim: We take our pigs swimming a couple of times a week, weather permitting. There's more information available on our website www.kurobuta.org --- please be sure to click on the "photos" link at the top of the page to see our online photo gallery of swimming and beer-drinking Berkshire pigs. We ship our beer-and-grain fed Kurobuta pork throughout the UK. Most of our pork is sold to food enthusiasts, but a small portion is sold to restaurants. We love to see visitors at the farm (please call ahead of time). We've had visitors even go swimming with our pigs. I recommend doing this in the summer, rather than in the midst of the British winter!

I just received my refund from Solstice for the Red Wax Pears. A coincidence that this happened after my eGullet posting? Perhaps. Perhaps not. They did the right thing, and I thank them for that.

Yes, I read on this forum how the shipments arrived in nice, strong wooden boxes --- but it was clear that this was in the London area only. The cardboard boxes they used for shipping were way, way too thin. They were the type of thin box you'd use internally for lettuce, etc. --- not up to the challenges of being handled by a courier company, stacked in a truck, etc. Here's a photograph of one of the boxes just after it arrived: all of the boxes were in the same poor condition: Here's a photograph of the replacement Red Wax pears that I was sent by Solstice. They were little better than the first set: And here's a close-up of one of the replacement pears. This was photographed just after we removed the pear from the bubble wrap: Solstice thanked me for my feedback, taking the time to send them these photographs (sent by me to them on April 13), etc. --- and they promised a refund. But my two subsequent requests for the missing refund have been ignored. It's as if they just had enough of this problem --- and were just hoping I would go away. Well, I certainly have gone away as a customer. Life is just too short to hassle with suppliers --- particularly suppliers who supposedly sell an expensive, quality product to the carriage trade. I paid almost £8.00 for those lousy pears --- and while they did replace them graciously, the replacements were just as lousy. And then they washed their hands of me, having promised a refund that has (so far) failed to materialise.

I read about Solstice on this forum, and thought I would give them a try. I live in sunny Worcestershire, so I knew that delivery would be by commercial carrier. I placed a £119.86 order, including £12.86 of shipping, in early April. When the boxes arrived, they were flimsy cardboard --- the grade that's used internally (if at all) and not in a shipping environment. To make matters worse, the boxes had cut-out "handles" on both ends, which their courier company had used and this meant they were really torn. I'm not especially fond of receiving £119.86 of groceries in what were essentially open boxes. Some of what I ordered was particularly good. Some mediocre. And some very disappointing. In particular, I bought six red wax tip pears --- at £2.99 per kg. We'd had red wax tipped pears while at the Olympics in Torino and they were delicious, so I hoped for something similar. Instead, we received bruised and sliced pears. I took this photograph of the pears --- £7.15 worth of pears, excluding shipping charges --- as soon as I took them out of the box: I gently complained, and replacement red wax pears were sent --- but they were no better. I obliged by sending photographs of the shipping cartons, etc., in the hope that if the folks at Solstice could see how their goods were arriving at their customres' premises they could enhance their service. I was promised a refund for the inedible, rotten pears. I am still waiting. I had really hoped that, in Solstice, we had found someone who could bring some of the great things you can easily get in London to the provinces. I was willing to pay the price for the food and the service and shipping: in exchange, I expected at least reasonable customer service, and good quality merchandise. Sadly, I received neither. I will not be using Solstice again. Any suggestions on a company that might be able to deliver on its promises?

Cake, beer, swimming, massages --- our pleasure. It's just the long green mile bit at the end that's a bit of a worry.

Thanks for the questions. We've raised pedigree Highland Cattle since 1992 -- as show animals and for folks who wanted attractive "lawn ornaments." We showed our cattle at various agricultural shows: Three Counties, Newbury, Bath & West, Royal Show, etc. But with the advent of cattle passports, and the foot and mouth epidemic, our "lawn ornament" customers started to opt for sheep. We found we were raising beautiful cattle but were then sending them off for their burn value at 30 months. Highland cattle mature slowly: this makes their beef expensive to produce, and most commercial abattoirs don't like the horns. It was depressing for us to raise cattle to be burned --- and unprofitable. I'm originally from Hawaii, and have been familiar with Kobe beef for years. In early 2003 there was a tremendous amount of publicity for the $40 Kobe hamburger in New York City, so we thought we'd try the East - West "fusion" of Highland cattle and the Kobe process. We began the Kobe diet (grain and massage) in February 2003, and the first steer went to the abattoir in September 2003. His beef was so unusual that the old, wizened cutter with the "seen it all" look was positively gushing. Over the course of the next couple of years we've gradually moved away from Highland cattle and over to pure-bred Aberdeen Angus cattle. While the Highland beef is good, the Kobe-style Aberdeen Angus is monumental. (To digress a moment, I was surprised to discover that you can call beef "Aberdeen Angus" as long as the steer's sire was Aberdeen Angus. So much of the Aberdeen Angus meat sold today is actually Aberdeen Angus cross. We take pride in the fact that ours is 100% Aberdeen Angus.) The majority of our customers are food enthusiasts who order directly from our website. We have sold our beef to restaurants. In general, they find their customers love the Scottish | Kobe beef --- but the ingredient cost makes a profit difficult. Our Scottish | Kobe mince has been the exception: it makes a great Kobe hamburger. Our mince is made the old-fashioned way --- no "reclamation" of gristle and other untasty bits --- but is not outrageously expensive. Because we don't use Wagyu cattle (in my opinion, too fatty for Western dishes --- please see the comparison photographs --- the gastronomic palaces of Japanese food prefer Wagyu imports from (primarily) Australia and the States. At one time we offered American Wagyu as well. We found our customers preferred to wait for our beef --- a wait that can sometimes be several months. And our Scottish | Kobe beef is less expensive than the imported meat. Most Wagyu cattle in Japan has been crossed, over the years, with Western breeds as shown in our table. Kurobuta pork. Kurobuta (Japanese = "black hog") pork is actually pork from a Berkshire pig. The widely-repeated story is that the British gave Berkshire pigs to the Japanese Emperor as an official gift in the mid 1800's. I've hired a researcher and he's looked in all the likely files at Kew and through the index of The Times and we've been unable to verify the legend. We raise our pedigree Berkshire pigs in the Kobe style: they're fed a diet of grain and beer, and go swimming in an indoor, heated pool instead of being massaged. As best I can tell, the Japanese pig breeders raise their Berkshire pigs in a more conventional manner. Yes, the price will surely decrease as more Kurobuta pork is produced. It's pretty amusing that I thought I'd need to import Kurobuta pigs from Japan, only to discover that they were really imported from Britain in the first place. There are photos of our pigs (including swimming pigs) in our online photo gallery. And we have a new piggie website at www.kurobuta.org. We love what we're doing, and are happy to show folks around the farm (please just give us a bit of notice, to be sure we're here). Come swimming with pigs.

We do Scottish | Kobe beef -- 100% Aberdeen Angus cattle raised in the traditional Kobe style. Fed a special diet of grain and beer, and massaged regularly. We pride ourselves on being able to provide the more unusual cuts of beef: for example, we recently started offering a Scottish | Kobe picanha. East meets --- well, not quite West, more Brazil. We just sent a Scottish | Kobe steer down the long green mile yesterday, and his beef will be ready for cutting in about 21 - 24 days. I looked at the "Short Ribs in Britain" thread, and the photos made me hungry. I'd be glad to have our cutter follow the instructions for short ribs if you'd like to try them Kobe-style. Our meat is unashamedly expensive --- raising a grain (and beer) fed steer in the U.K., and massaging him, costs big bucks. But it's delicious --- the fat melts at a much lower temperature than the fat in grass-fed beef, so the meat is almost self-basting. There's more information about the science of Kobe beef at www.kobe-beef.org and our products can be viewed on our e-commerce site at www.luciesfarm.co.uk. If you'd like us to cut short ribs for you, following the instructions in the other thread, please contact me directly. I just found this forum this evening when doing a Google search --- I've quickly joined!