There are many stories to support the launch of the Greenie® Nose to Tail Food Cover Range™. From time spent on my uncle’s farm in the Northern Cape as a little girl, refusing to eat “farm meat” after seeing the cows; to Jamie Oliver’s thought-provoking tribute to slaughtering in Jamie’s Italy.

The Nose to Tail revolution encourages you to eat the whole animal (all edible parts) and not just the prized cuts like the fillet or drumstick.

Why? Well in my mind it is quite simple... if that creature died to feed us, we should respect it enough to at least try it all. In our house very little goes to waste and what we don’t eat, gets cooked into dog food for our 3 gorgeous pooches (to my children’s horror).

So why Luigi?

In 2014 my husband and I were fortunate enough to spend 2 weeks in Italy, without our (then) young children. His grandparents were Italian and there is so much heritage that has been passed down, which made it a must visit for us. His Nonna, Igea (whom our beautiful daughter is named after) was an incredible cook and I am so grateful for the time spent with her and the opportunity to use her recipes today still. Her generation wasted nothing, and we can learn so much from them.

The 16^th of September is our wedding anniversary and since we were in Florence at the time, we decided that wine tasting in Tuscany was what we should do on the day. We were travelling on a shoestring budget, so I googled cheap wine tasting in Tuscany and came across some affordable options.

The next morning, we hopped on a bus to Greve, a small town that looks like something on a postcard. We passed a co-op style wine tasting room, but decided we’d prefer a more intimate experience on a farm. We eventually found a little tourism office that connected us to a wine farm and told us to just wait for our driver.

Minutes later a delivery van pulled up in front of the office, driven by Mauricio, ready to take us on our journey. We had a good giggle squishing into the front of the van with him driving up the beautiful Tuscan hills to the farm. Once through the gate of the farm, he stopped to show us the grapes and olives grown on the farm. I noticed that he kept referring to “my grapes” and whispered to my husband if he could possibly be the owner? He shook his head in disagreement, but time proved that indeed he was, and the farm had been in his family for decades.

We continued our tour which ended in the cellar, where he served us an array of wines and a plate of salami and bread. I commented on the delicious salami and Mauricio told me with great pride that he made it himself. Then he brought me a photo, of Luigi the pig.

I know many people would be horrified by this, but to me it was truly special. If we are going to eat meat, we should respect the animal and ensure we consume it in a conscious, ethical manner. To me Luigi the pig was celebrated and clearly lived a good life.

I know this range is not to everyone’s taste, but I hope it will create awareness and encourage plastic free, ethical consumption and conscious living.  The Greenie® way!