Supper clubs at The Rhynd with three Tamworth pigs

This winter, we have been hosting a series of supper clubs at the café. Limited to just 20 spots, and all lit by candles, the evenings have been a celebration of local produce.

The fact that you can walk into a supermarket on Christmas Day and buy a pineapple is both amazing and alarming. We produce some of the best food in the world in Scotland – although not that many pineapples – and that’s what the evenings have been about. We want to hero our local produce and show everyone what you can cook using ingredients that have travelled no more than a few miles.

Hamela Anderson gets a scratch from head chef Jack Baldwin.

For the first time since the early 1990s, Leuchars Estate had livestock last year in the shape of three Tamworth pigs. Bought as weaners in April, they were fantastic at eating apples from the orchard, getting head scratches, destroying the ground, and putting on weight. They were fed on nutritious sow and weaner rolls and lived an extremely happy life. We’ve obviously tested many cuts since they came back from being butchered at Balgove, and we think it’s some of the best pork we have ever eaten.

The duo of pork: Roast pork loin and confit smoked pork belly served with Mum's roast potatoes, honey-glazed carrots, pork-dripping parsnips, poached sprouts and a parsnip purée.

Our head chef Jack Baldwin spent many weeks crafting the menus for the 'pigs by candlelight' evenings, and his attention now turns to the upcoming Burn's Night by candlelight.

This February, we are building a polytunnel to help provide vegetables for the café, and we are already preparing ourselves for more bacon seeds (piglets) next year.

Jack explains the produce and what he's done with it.

Pork fat chocolate ganache, whipped hazelnut praline, chocolate tuille and hokey pokey ice cream.

Carbonara of salsify and our in-house-cured guanciale.