Rivermute>
Didn't know that about the meat, sorry!
Yes, we can get local quality meat, if you're lucky, at quite good prices - I pay �80 for half a pig which I don't suppose is too bad. That's what the links at the bottom of my posts are all about - I run a site promoting 'local food' which, unlike others, is free to the farmers.
It's the other bits that get me - we have nowhere near the variety of choice for things like brine injectors that you do, 'butcher and packer' is like Santa's grotto to me, but unfortunately, they don't dispatch to the UK.
As an illustration, Franco is about the only bloke selling Prague/cure #1 to us guys -
and I bless him every night for doing so - but it's ten times cheaper in the US. $2 as against �10 in the UK.
We can't hunt, shoot or fish without being harrassed by both antis and Government either.
Cor, I'm a moaning idiot, I've got sausage, bacon and ham a plenty, so life's not that bad. Happy New Year!
Phil