PIGS snuffling in the Wyre Forest are a dream come true for one couple whose new enterprise has bagged them a ‘rural oscar’.

Sally and Jeremy Levell, pictured, turned their hands to rearing pigs and making salami in December 2010 and their business venture, Forest Pig, based at Far Forest near Tenbury, won them the top award in the Start Up category of the annual Countryside Alliance Awards.

Sally said: “It came out of the blue really. We had a visit a week earlier. The judge went out to the forest and had a chat and had a look around.

“I was really chuffed to hear we had won. It’s fantastic.

I’m just really flattered especially as it’s a countryside award. It’s nice to be recognised for a contribution to the countryside really, that’s almost more our raison d’etre than the food.”

Sally said she had always wanted to do something with animals that is sustainable and has found a business that fits the bill and slots into modern life too.

Of all the animals on their 12-acre smallholding, surrounded by the Wyre Forest, Sally said pigs had intrigued them the most as the taste of the meat is affected by their feed.

She knew that rooting pigs were not easy to keep on grassland and said it “clicked” that they should live in the forest, their natural habitat.

However the Wyre Forest has a triple SSI protection and negotiations had to be made with Natural England and the Forestry Commission and a pilot project set up before they were granted permission to keep their pigs there.

Now there are 160.

The arrangement is beneficial to all. Land management issues meant only a broad spectrum weed killer could be used in the forest. Now the pigs are clearing away unwanted undergrowth naturally in a strip grazing system.

Sally said a copy of Maynard Davies’ book Adventures of a Bacon Curer inspired her and Jeremy to make salami from their Oxford Sandy and Black pigs which they cross with a Large Black.

“We found making bacon quite easy. The salami is much more complicated and everybody makes sausages so we didn’t see any point in trying to compete.

“We had a go at salami with shoulder meat and went to Tuscany on a three-day intensive course.

We realised that the batch we had made at home was right. When we got back the batch was really nice.

“We seem to have stumbled on doing it well. It’s something we have to take praise for. We seem to have struck gold.”

Re gional director Sara Rutherford, said she was struck by the sheer hard work that has gone into the Levells’ home and business.

“This is a salami producer with an eye on community, animal welfare and the natural environment.