WHEN Lisa Hodgson first set eyes on a group of “woolly” pigs on a birthday trip it was love at first sight. The former hairdresser had relocated from her native County Durham to live with her partner, Tim Otterburn, on his family farm in Ryedale.

With dreams of leading the good life, Lisa hankered after stock so she could produce her own milk and cheese, but after Tim had got rid of his cattle and sheep following the foot-and-mouth crisis, he was reluctant to go back down that route.

“I tried to convince him, but wasn’t getting anywhere when I took him to Beamish Museum for a day out on his birthday,” she said.

“As soon as I saw the pen of woolly Mangalitza pigs I fell in love with them, it really was love at first sight – I just had to convince Tim.”

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The 47-year-old set about researching the rare breed pigs, which had recently been saved from extinction.

Mangalitzas were bred in Austrian and Hungarian farms in the 1830s for the Habsberg royal family and both the fat and meat were of such high quality that it became prized all over Europe by the end of the century.

As animal husbandry changed after the Second World War with the need for faster maturing pigs, Mangalitza numbers declined so dramatically that by the 1980s this once, highly-prized, supreme, Royal delicacy was on the brink of extinction.

However, thanks to years of dedicated work by geneticist Peter Toth and specialist breeding programmes, the Mangalitza has, for now, been saved.

Lisa said she become more and more fascinated by the breed and eventually convinced Tim, “as long as she made a business out of it and didn’t keep them as pets”.

“For my first pigs we travelled down to Derbyshire, and having never dealt with livestock in my life, I was like Margo from The Good Life in my new wellies when I got stuck knee deep in slurry,” she said. “As I landed flat on my face, Tim shouted ‘you had better hurry up, there is a boar behind you’. On the way home I don’t know who smelt worse, me or the pigs.”

Lisa said after taking on her first pigs she had never looked back and now has more than 200.

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“Unlike commercial pigs, Mangalitza are very hardy and adaptable, they enjoy muddy wallows in summer when they moult all their wool to keep cool and have black skin to stop them burning in the sun,” she said.

“When winter comes, they grow their thick woolly coats back to keep them warm as well as carrying a huge amount of fat to with stand temperatures as low as -30°c.”

Lisa admitted that she did shed a tear when it was time for the pigs to go. “But that is what they are bred for and they have a very good life here,” she said.

“The meat takes nearly three years to reach maturity and is nothing like pork, it is a red meat and is very healthy, it contains high levels of monounsaturates, Omega three, nine and 12 and a much better balance of Omega six.”

Until recently the only food halls in the UK to sell Mangalitza meat have been in London, however Weetons of Harrogate are now stockists and their meat has been introduced on the menu at the Feversham Arms, in Helmsley, where head chef Norman McKenzie said it was “cracking meat”.

Lisa said: “James Martin has cooked some of our meat on Saturday Morning Kitchen and his guest, Griff Rhys Jones, said he usually dislikes pork but thought Mangalitza tasted like steak.”

Lisa spends 12 hours a day looking after her pigs and said the Mangalitzas had turned her life around.

“They all have personalities and I do have names for them and give them plenty of cuddles,” Lisa said. “Some have been hand-reared, including Lucky, who sat on my knee as I fed her goats milk – she still sits on my knee but now weights about 180kilos.

“I would be lost without them now, they are my life and I’m dedicated to supporting their future survival.”

Go to facebook.com/otterburn.mangalitza, email otterburn-mangalitza@hotmail.co.uk or phone 07808 721293.