Sailing To Success!

Former yacht captain Mark Terry, and his partner April, an ex-corporate lawyer, have settled on the stunning island of Guernsey and established a successful charcuterie business. This is their story

- Mark Terry

I got my first couple of pigs back in 2004, when I was living in Cornwall,” explains Mark. “They were Cornish Blacks and enjoyed a good life, although I kept them too long and they grew fat. Nonetheless, the meat tasted great and I was hooked!

“I was working as a professional yacht captain in those days, which took me away from home for long periods of time, so keeping pigs on a regular basis was out of the question. But it didn’t stop me altogether, and my next pigs were Gloucestershire Old Spots. I got four of them and they were a marked improvement on the first ones.”

Early experimentation

“I’d learned a lot from my first pigs, which helped with this second group, and I started experimenting with my first attempts at homemade charcuterie; the results weren’t great, but the seeds of interest were sown. I knew from that moment that pigs and charcuterie would replace my career at sea, the only question was when?

“In fact, it took many years before the dream of farming pigs and making charcuterie for a living became a reality. In 2016, after buying a traditional farmstead with April on my home island of Guernsey, our business ‘Wallow’ was born. April grew up on a farm in rural Worcestershire, and was very keen for our young daughter, Elsie, to enjoy and benefit from growing up in a rural, farming environment.”

Clear vision

“I was adamant from the outset that all my charcuterie would be made from pigs bred and reared on our smallholding; the whole ‘farm-to-table’ idea is a cornerstone of our business philosophy. Also, all the pigs involved had to be pedigree, rare breed stock, so I approached a well-respected breeder on our neighbouring island of Alderney, who has a closed herd of Oxford Sandy and Blacks – beautiful pigs with a good pedigree.