Sourcing our Free Range Meat

Our Chicken

Here at roaming roosters we pride ourselves on our high class free range chickens, which are all reared on site. As our name suggests, this is where it all began.

All our chickens are able to roam free, eating at their own pace whatever they can find amongst the hills of the Pendle countryside. This freedom and natural, healthy diet provides us with a wholesome chicken that tastes far superior to those which are battery fed.  Furthermore, rearing them on site means we know exactly what goes in to our Roaming Roosters and can be confident that we are providing you with the best product possible.

Unlike any mass produced poultry, our chickens are hand plucked and left to hang before being dressed. This ensures the meat matures to its best, creating a flavoursome chicken.

Our Pork

For our pork we Mainly use Old English Breeds. These include Middle Whites, Gloucester Old Spots and Oxford Sandy Blacks. Using these traditional breeds means we achieve traditional flavours, unlike the conventional pork of today.

All our pigs are reared outside which is where pigs are happiest as they love to play in the mud, hence the term happy as a pig in shit!

We have now also begun breeding Mangalitza Pigs Although a Hungarian breed, the Mangalitsa is a descendant of the Lincolnshire Curly Coat and due to it being a ‘lard-type’ pig is the original breed for cured meats. Unlike any other pork, the Mangalitsa has a very distinct, intense flavour, much like that of game such as wild boar. The marbling within this pork creates a rich, moist and full flavoured meat.

In the interest of animal welfare, the pigs only travel 10 miles to the local slaughter house, where they are never mixed with other animals and their stress levels are kept to a minimum. All these factors contribute to a high quality meat.

Our Beef

The majority of our beef is Aberdeen Angus which has a better fat covering and more marbling than conventional beef. We source it all from fellow farmer Martin Lee of Sabden Fold. Martin upholds the same high standards we do, animal welfare being the key to his top quality beef. His herd are calved naturally and beef bred, meaning they are fed and nurtured by their mothers for up to 9 months, giving the meat a head start towards finer quality. We mainly use heifer beef for its sweeter taste.

Martin’s background in farming stretches over three generations and our relationship goes back over 10 years so we can always rely on him to provide us with top notch produce.

We are also lucky enough to get our hands on some pedigree Longhorn Beef which comes from the native marsh land of Martin Mere. Being a rare breed for beef we generally only get hold of 1 Longhorn per month and as you can imagine this sells out pretty quickly so if you’d like to sample some of Lancashire’s finest then contact us directly to place your order.

In the interest of animal welfare, the cattle only travel 10 miles to the local slaughter house, where they are never mixed with other animals and their stress levels are kept to a minimum. All these factors contribute to a high quality meat.

Our Lamb

All our lamb is locally sourced from the hills of Pendle. We aim to leave the lambs with their mothers for at least 6 months allowing them to grow at a natural pace, grazing on the hill sides in the summer months. We predominantly use Texel Lambs for their lean fat covering and sweeter tasting meat.

In the interest of animal welfare, the lambs only travel 10 miles to the local slaughter house, where they are never mixed with other animals and their stress levels are kept to a minimum. All these factors contribute to a high quality meat.

Our Turkey

We only rear a small number of our traditional rare breed turkeys allowing us to give each bird the attention it deserves. Arriving with us at only 6 weeks old our Bronze and Norfolk Black turkeys are able to roam free, feeding at their own pace on natural foods creating traditional flavours.

We are very proud of the good working relationship we have with our select group of farmers and along with our own carefully thought out breeding programmes this contributes to what is most important to us and that’s you and your satisfaction. We very much appreciate and take on board all your feedback so please take your time to comment on our blog. We’d love to know what you think of our work!