Liverymen from the Worshipful Company of Butchers (WCB), recently undertook butchery training for the farm managers of the charity, Farms for City Children.
Pamela Brook and Master Butcher, Viv Harvey, spent three days at the WCB's nominated charity's farm at Nethercott in Devon. Farms for City Children is one of the nominated charities supported by the Worshipful Company of Butchers.
As Pam explained the idea was: "To train members of the team in basic carcase breakdown so that when their animals are sent for slaughter they will be able to both butcher them on site and explain to visiting children where the various cuts come from on the carcase.
“In time,” continued Pam, "we hope to facilitate the children making sausages from the animals raised on the farm, enabling them to follow and understand the whole story from farm to fork.”
Farm school leader at Wick Court Farm in Gloucestershire, Stuart Cragg, farm managers John Goodman (Wick Court) and Adam Bratt (Nethercott) and Nethercott’s kitchen manager, Jenny Percival began by watching Viv Harvey break down a pig and lamb carcase into primals and then various cuts. The four students then took up their knives and followed the process for themselves.
Viv Harvey summed up the three days saying: “My passion has always been to pass on the wealth of skills I have been so fortunate to possess and from the photos you can see clearly how quick they have gained knowledge.
“I thoroughly enjoyed the few days with a great group of people who gave me pride in what I love to do. I have said to the group that when they get their butchery workshops ready to go, I am more than happy to come over and assist/ shadow them on their first session.”
Farms for City Children CEO, Donna Marie Edmonds said: “We have long been blessed by our friendship with the Worshipful Company of Butchers livery, but this butchery training session is a real highlight of our partnership."
This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.
