Summer in Edinburgh is always an exciting time as we rush towards August and the Edinburgh Festivals and of course the magnificent Edinburgh Military Tattoo at Edinburgh Castle.  Whether you are a resident of the City or like to visit on a day trip or are lucky enough to holiday here we thought it would be useful for you to have a handy guide to some of the highlights of this year’s summer events in Scotland’s Capital.

Exhibitions

National Museum Scotland
Fully Fashioned: The Pringle of Scotland Story
10th April – 16th August
As many of you know we live and farm in the Scottish Borders an area of rich farmland but also with a history of textiles and known for its cashmere production so it is great to see this being celebrated in this exhibition looking at one of the famous Border Textile Companies.

Photography: A Victorian Sensation
19th June – 22nd November
We love photos at Oink and benefit from the many customers who take photos of our Oink rolls.  In 2015 we tend to believe we own the selfie and the photo yet it was actually the Victorians who were arguably more photo mad than us thought they didn’t benefit from an Oink rolls.

National Galleries of Scotland
Have two main exhibitions on.  One “Lee Miller and Picasso” she photographed him over 1,000 times and he drew 6 painting of him.  You can decide if that was a fair swap.  There is also the Roy Lichtenstein exhibition who was one of the most radical and influential artists of the twentieth century and you are bound to recognise his work.

Edinburgh Festivals

Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival
17th – 26th July
It’s the one which gets our party started with some jazz which like the others attracts international talent.

Edinburgh Art Festival
30th July to 30th August
Celebrating visual art across the city.

Edinburgh International Festival
7th – 31st August
The original and World Class the Edinburgh Festival takes some beating.

Edinburgh Fringe Festival
7th – 31st August
It’s a bucket list must the iconic Edinburgh Fringe with shows and street performances across the City.  We love it and we are proud to say that many of the performers love us too and come back to visit for an Oink year after year.

Edinburgh Royal Military Tattoo
7th – 29th August
The bagpipes, Edinburgh Castle and some amazing international acts a hard one to beat.

Edinburgh International Book Festival
15th – 31st August
Listening to your favourite author and then getting their new book then a Oink roll to help the reading process a perfect day perhaps?

Thank you to all who have entered our recent competition on Facebook to name our new mascot which is in our Victoria Street shop.

and the winning name and runner ups are;

(1)    Notorious P.I.G
(2)    Truffles
(3)    Orwell

Oink Mascot in our Victoria Street Shop – can you spot it?

The winners were drawn at our team meeting on Monday the 11 May.

We would like to thank everyone for your suggestions, great names and the selection process will not be easy.

We have excluded no one and all names are in the running.  The competition really is just a bit of fun and other that using our Facebook account to ask for your suggestions, it has nothing to do with Facebook, nor are Facebook involved in anyway.

The winners will be contacted by private message, and here is the prizes that they will receive;

The winner will receive a Oink Hoodie and a voucher for a grunter
2nd prize, Oink T shirt and a Oink voucher
3rd prize Oink Hat and Piglet voucher

Oink pink Hoodie and black track bottoms

Oink are delighted to launch our online shop.  Whilst you can’t buy a ‘Hog Roast Roll’ there we have lots of pink and black ‘Oink’ kit.  From hoodies to woolly hats, posters to boxer shorts, perfect presents we think. But don’t take our word for it have a look for yourself on our ‘Oink Kit’ page.

So…Keep your piglets, Oink and grunters warm this season with our new Oink kit.

Thanks to Katie and Andy our models and Kiran for the photos.

Let us introduce ourselves to you. We are Adam Marshall, pig farmer and Sandy Pate, sheep farmer from Berwickshire in the Scottish Borders.

As working farmers, we had the simple idea of bringing our quality natural product from the farm to the city. Passionate about good honest food we wanted to introduce a very different food concept to Edinburgh with our fresh and delicious Scottish hog roast rolls.

Coming from families who have farmed in Berwickshire for many generations we like to think we know a thing or two about good meat.  We began by specialising in hog roasts and brought our freshly carved hog roasts to the Edinburgh Farmers Market at Castle Terrace back in 2001. In fact we are the only business who has attended every single Saturday Farmers Market to feed hungry regulars with hog roast and our own delicious bacon. Our delicious hog roast rolls (pulled pork as some of you know it) were such a runaway success with the public that we decided to open our first shop in Edinburgh – and that’s when Oink was born.

Oink was launched in Edinburgh’s Victoria Street in the Summer of 2008 and we have been serving delicious hog roast rolls to hungry workers, locals, students, festival goers, shoppers and tourists 7 days a week ever since! We opened our second shop in the summer of 2013 in the Canongate area of Edinburgh’s historic Royal Mile. We also operate our highly successful Oink mobile catering service for both hog and lamb roasts and regularly cater for weddings, birthdays and other special occasions as well as every kind of corporate event.

Having seen the growing popularity of hog roast through our Edinburgh Farmers Market stall and knowing that it’s the ideal quick and tasty meat to serve hot on a roll like bacon, we decided to go one better and open a shop specialising in just that. We hit upon the name of Oink of Edinburgh to set it apart. It’s a fun name which has certainly attracted a lot of attention. We have built up a huge loyal following from students and tourists and from hungry office workers on the run. They know they will get good, speedy service from us and a high quality tasty product.

Not only is our hog roast very tasty but the pigs are farm reared by myself on my farm in Berwickshire and are fed natural, local foodstuffs. The meat is very high quality and will not disappoint in terms of taste. Our own bacon is superior to many supermarket brands too and we do feel that our customers do get a true quality product when they come into Oink.

In the past a traditional hog roast was a true celebratory feast which would feed many people and there was minimum wastage. TV Programmes such as “The F Word” with Gordon Ramsay, who is obviously an advocate of rearing quality pork, have started to bring this back into vogue but we have been doing the hog roasts since 2001 so we were ahead of the trend.

Customers want to know where the meat has come from and how it was reared. We have farming in our blood and customers know they can buy with confidence from us. What began at Edinburgh’s Castle Terrace Farmers Market back in 2001 has gone from strength to strength – we knew that the demand was there back then as our stall was always busy but little did we know how our concept would grow into the Oink that so many people love and enjoy today.

BOOK EXCLUSIVE USE OF Oink Canaongate Shop for up to 25 people

Menus start at only £15pp inclusive of Oink Hog Roast and crackling

BYOB – corkage charge applicable

From 5pm to 9pm

To find out more call in to 82 Canongate
email enquiries@oinkhogroast.co.uk
call 07584 637416 or 018907 61355

Alternatively if you’re having a do in your offices or venue why not ‘Leg it’?  Try our delicious Oink hog roast legs that you serve yourself. The succulent pork just pulls from the bone and couldn’t be easier for your guests to enjoy. To discuss details contact us on as per the details above.