Mary Berry admits in her youth she went to bed with the odd pig – “only the runt,” she clarifies.
The TV chef grew up on a small holding with her family where, as a child, she would regularly take the weakest of a young litter of pigs for a bedtime snuggle.
“I was known to swaddle one and take it to bed with me,” she reveals.
“Only the runt, the little one that we had to feed from a bottle.
“There’s nothing dirty about a pig – don’t believe otherwise.” Despite being bed buddies, Mary, 85, had no qualms about the little piglets eventually being served up for the family dinner.
“Dad was very hands-on. We’d have the carcass back and he’d cut it up,” she tells Radio Times.
“We even made sausages and, of course, nothing was wasted. It was just what we accepted.”
Mary will revisit her roots when she guest edits Countryfile on BBC1 this Sunday – as well as gamely helping to round up a bull – and says she has enjoyed seeing people gaining more of an appreciation for the outdoors since the pandemic hit.
“I’m glad that people have got a new appreciation of nature and slowing down,” she says.
“I think we’re all making an effort, if we can, to buy locally.
“But we’re not very good yet at being aware of natural food, the seasons, appreciating where food comes from.”
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