Meet the media stars

Ginger is such a star!

Whilst we were busy delivering Nigella to The Butterfly Park on Monday, Ginger was busying herself with a Very Important Delivery of her own!

We left in the morning giving Linda specific instructions to ring that nice young film-man (we'll get round to him soon) if Ginger showed any signs of farrowing..... none of us actually believed that she really would but since her habit is to give birth when we are not around we thought we'd better just cover that eventuality.

Imagine our incredulity when, arriving back home, we walked into the kitchen and found a concise note from Linda on the table: "Ginger delivered 8 piglets this afternoon: all captured on film". We half thought it was a leg-pull----- but Linda wouldn't joke about such a serious matter....... The Big Boss stopped by Ginger's pen after putting the car away and confirmed that such a cacophony could mean only one thing; Piglets had definitely arrived!

So what's the nice young film man got to do with anything? Well, he is involved with making a film starring two or three of Ginger's latest brood, which will chart their lives from tummy to table. In the next few weeks a well known star of TV and Radio will come and select her piglets and, when they are weaned, they will move up to her farm in Yorkshire where they will be filmed at intervals throughout their lives. When the fateful day finally arrives the little media magnets will be prepared and served up by one of the most famous chefs in the country. The resultant film is to be broadcast on national TV !

The film obviously starts with the birth of the piglets. And that was the trickiest part to schedule. Since our pigs are free range it is very difficult to predict precisely when the sows will farrow. In order not to miss the Big Day, therefore, the nice young film man had, last Thursday, billeted himself at a local (and very nice) B&B which we recommended to him. It's only about 10 minutes drive away from here. He was prepared to stay there for as long as it took and The Big Boss warned him that it could be anything from 4 to 14 days! (keeping fingers crossed that it wouldn't be the latter - or later! )

"Not to worry" said the NYFM "I've brought plenty of work to keep me busy".......

On Tuesday when the Big Boss spoke to him, though, he was really thrilled that it had all happened so soon and so smoothly and that he had captured the whole one and a half hours on film.

Meanwhile, the little stars are blissfully unaware of the spotlight that has been cast their way.....