Good animal husbandry takes centre stage for Tom Adams of Coombeshead Farm – the much lauded guesthouse and restaurant in East Cornwall. We caught up with him when the idea for Coombeshead was just forming and met him at ‘Pigtopia’. We grabbed a unique moment with Tom and his favourite pig, Florence.
It’s quite an undertaking to decide to be your own supplier and yet listening to Tom talk about it and watching the pigs in this environment it seems a no brainer. These hardy woodland pigs that look like sheep are incredible characters (truth be told Florence in our experience thinks she is a cow). They are Mangalitzas, originally from Austria/Hungary around the Carpathian mountains. Their natural habit of living in woodland, routing for food and taking much longer to grow than other breeds are mirrored here at Pigtopia.
Being involved in the process is key to Tom. At his new venture at Coombeshead, Tom, alongside business partner and acclaimed chef April Bloomfield, takes this ethos one step further - everything is grown, reared and made on site.
