WHEN you meet Keith Thomas for the first time, you would think he has spent his whole life as a farmer.
At ease with his menagerie of rare breed pigs, sheep, retired racehorses and chickens, he looks like he was born to wear wellies. Little would you know that it is just a few years since he swapped a high-powered office job for life on the farm.
Keith, who spent ten years in the fresh food department at Sainsbury's, in London, before setting up his own property business, and wife Teresa, who is a partner at Wilkin Chapman Grange Solicitors, decided to purchase Oak Tree Farm, at Nettleton, four years ago.
The main focus of Keith's days is no longer spreadsheets and meetings, but raising rare-breed saddleback and middle white pigs.
He explained: "Pig farming is something I've always wanted to do. Then four years ago the opportunity for us to buy the farm came up.
"I used to split my time between working in Grimsby and travelling back down south, so a more relaxed pace of life was certainly appealing.
"When we bought the land we decided to purchase two Gloucester Old Spot pigs just to produce enough meat for our own freezer and it all escalated from there.
"We soon bought another four, and then another six, and we soon had our own breeding stock. I decided to concentrate on rare breeds because the meat tastes so much better. Commercial pork has little taste, but because our pigs are happy and have a stress-free life in the great outdoors, their meat is fantastic."
The 18 acres of land at Oak Tree Farm can now be home to up to 30 sows and 250 piglets at any one time. The piglets are reared until six months if they are destined to become succulent sausages, and seven months if they are to become a hog roast. The meat currently goes to Buckham's butchers, at Sutton-on-Trent, to be prepared, before returning to Oak Tree Farm to be sold at local farmers' markets and fine food events.
Oak Tree Farm is at Caistor's Farmers' Market on the second Saturday of each month.
