Well, the month is half over already - time flies when you are having fun (or are very busy). Kim and I are currently enjoying a two week break, which is over the half way point! We are doing market research into the food trends on the Sunshine Coast. So far we have found out that there is very little free range or grassfed product. I thought that the trend was changing, but alas no..... Looks like we will have to increase production so that we can start supplying restaurants. We have had quite a few restaurants down this way make enquiries for our product, however they all want bellies and bacon - we can't supply these as it would mean that we would have none for our loyal market customers.
I have just updated the Markets and Delivery page to show the dates for markets over the coming months, so check that out. The first market for 2015 will be the 31st January and 1st February in Yeppoon and Rocky.
The South East Qld Delivery has been scheduled for March (sorry guys, we can't come sooner) and Agnes Waters and 1770 markets will not be on our schedule this year. To be completely honest with you all, we have spent the last year desperately trying to sell pigs before they got to big. We had very little interests from Butchers in the early part of the year, and there were only so many markets that I could attend, so our pig numbers got a little out of hand. Coming up to the end of 2014, we had a major turn-around and the demand for our pork outstripped supply. We are currently in a build up phase again with the pigs, with an increased focus on production to increase the numbers as quick as we can.
So the exciting thing for us this year is that we have a product that is in high demand and Kim and I, after our little time of to refresh, will be ready and raring to go to meet that demand!
A big thankyou must go to our beautiful children who have so bravely taken over the reigns of the Pig Farm to give us this break.
Dawson Valley Free Range
Friday, January 16, 2015
Wednesday, December 24, 2014
Merry Christmas!
Wow, the last week (or two, or three) has been pretty stressful - worrying about how many hams we would have was the main concern. And then about a week or so ago we got some rain. And some more rain.....I was stressing whether we would get out to not only deliver to all our customers, but also to get pigs out to be processed! Well, all's well that ends well! We have finished all deliveries now and don't need to take pigs to the abattoir for two weeks! And then there are no markets for a month, so life will take a slower turn (I hope!)
So, while the rain caused a little stress, it has made the place look a picture!! It's amazing what gets transformed in a week!
Thought I'd post a few pictures.
But I also want to take this opportunity to thank all our fantastic customers - some who have been with us since we started and some very new ones too! We have had a great twelve months and things are really starting to look up, as demand has finally reached supply and we now have to increase our production! So, thankyou!
We wish you all the best for a happy and peaceful Christmas and a prosperous and Healthy 2015.
See you next year.......
Lucy and Kim
So, while the rain caused a little stress, it has made the place look a picture!! It's amazing what gets transformed in a week!
Thought I'd post a few pictures.
But I also want to take this opportunity to thank all our fantastic customers - some who have been with us since we started and some very new ones too! We have had a great twelve months and things are really starting to look up, as demand has finally reached supply and we now have to increase our production! So, thankyou!
We wish you all the best for a happy and peaceful Christmas and a prosperous and Healthy 2015.
Most of the pigs are happy to graze the grass and not too concerned about the grain.
Leauceana loves this weather!
The green is so bright that it almost hurts your eyes!
Lillies in the paddock.
Another turkey had chicks - only two, and a little late for Christmas lunch!
Lucy and Kim
Thursday, November 6, 2014
Christmas Hams
It's that time of the year when I need to get orders for our delicious Christmas Hams. I am still not sure if we will have the nitrate free ham available, and I may not know for another couple of weeks.
If you would like a ham this year, we will be offering the following:
Whole or Half Hams - a whole ham bone in will be somewhere between 6-8kg, boneout will be around 4-6kgs.
Bone in or Bone Out - Bone in price this year will be $16/kg but the Bone out will be $20/kg.
If you haven't already given me your request, can you please send an email to anabank@bigpond.com stating the following:
Whole or Half
Bone In or Bone Out
Nitrate Free or Conventional - please state on this if you will substitute a conventional ham for nitrate free if they are not available, or if you would prefer to not have any ham if we don't have nitrate free.
Delivery will be available for the following places:
At this stage I don't think we will be able to deliver to Gladstone, however it may depend on the number of orders.
It will also be first in first served, as I'm not sure how many hams that we will have available this year.
If you would like a ham this year, we will be offering the following:
Whole or Half Hams - a whole ham bone in will be somewhere between 6-8kg, boneout will be around 4-6kgs.
Bone in or Bone Out - Bone in price this year will be $16/kg but the Bone out will be $20/kg.
If you haven't already given me your request, can you please send an email to anabank@bigpond.com stating the following:
Whole or Half
Bone In or Bone Out
Nitrate Free or Conventional - please state on this if you will substitute a conventional ham for nitrate free if they are not available, or if you would prefer to not have any ham if we don't have nitrate free.
Delivery will be available for the following places:
- Brisbane, Sunshine and Gold Coast in the week before Christmas.
- Rockhampton and Yeppoon - the weekend of the 20/21 December
- Baralaba and local area to be collected from our property
At this stage I don't think we will be able to deliver to Gladstone, however it may depend on the number of orders.
It will also be first in first served, as I'm not sure how many hams that we will have available this year.
Monday, October 6, 2014
Guest Blogging
I was very recently honoured to be a guest blogger over at Natural New Age Mum. I talk about Farmers Markets from my perspective, so I would love it if you go over and have a read. Feel free to leave a comment there too! Natural New Age Mum is a local Rockhampton lady and also one of our customers, so I was quite pleased when she asked me to do a post for her.
This is the link to that blog, but she has lots of other information and interesting reading, plus some great healthy recipes!
Thanks NNAM!
This is the link to that blog, but she has lots of other information and interesting reading, plus some great healthy recipes!
Thanks NNAM!
Monday, September 15, 2014
Capricorn Food and Wine Festival
We will be there with a stall - selling fresh pork and giving out samples for people to try. We won't be going to the Yeppoon or Rockhampton Markets, so if you want to get some pork this weekend you'll have to come to the Festival. Please bring an esky and ice if you do. We will hopefully have some, but it would be safer to bring your own, just in case.
Monday, August 4, 2014
August Update
Life has been so busy and I can't believe it's so long since I've posted something! We are full steam ahead with our production so we have lots of pigs ready to go. We have lots planned:
1770 - 2nd Sunday of every month - next one is the 10th August
Rockhampton and Yeppoon are the 1st and 3rd weekends - 16th and 17th August
We head to Brisbane on the 22nd and 23rd - if you haven't ordered it needs to be in ASAP!!!!
Emerald - we are heading out there on the 26th if we get enough orders.
We aren't going to be going to Moranbah and Middlemount this trip and I do apologise for this. In the past we've made a weekend of it and stayed the night with my brother at Moranbah. He has left now and so we can't really justify going out there and having to pay for a motel. I'm afraid that the sales we got, which were very much appreciated, where not enough to justify that! So.....I'm really sorry to those who have supported us in the past. If you are coming in to Rockhampton, please touch base, as I'm sure we can organise some way to get our pork to you! Or you could go to your local butcher and suggest they purchase our pork to stock in the shop!
The other bit of news I need to pass on, is that we are currently not able to produce Nitrate Free Ham. Our butcher's smoke house has died and so we are getting another butcher to do the smoking for us. Safefood Qld has regulations regarding ready to eat meat products like ham and salami in that the butcher needs to send a sample each year to them for checking that it's all okay - then he is accredited to produce those products. The other butcher we are using is not approved to do the Nitrate Free ham. He is, however able to do the bacon, as it doesn't have the same rules. So, for the next little while we will be able to produce Nitrate Free Bacon and Conventional bacon and ham. Please read my earlier post here for more info about nitrates and nitrate free.
To finish off, thankyou so much for your continuing support of us. And remember that you get our pork in lots of different ways:
Yeppoon and Rockhampton - markets and private orders, Organic and Quality Foods and Lilly Pilly Organics
Gladstone - private orders, Organic and Quality Foods and Lilly Pilly Organics
1770 - markets and private orders
Biloela, Theodore, Moura and Baralaba - by contacting me and making arrangements, or through Organic and Quality Foods
Brisbane, Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast - until we can supply more butchers, you can buy direct from us when we deliver down that way, OR:
1770 - 2nd Sunday of every month - next one is the 10th August
Rockhampton and Yeppoon are the 1st and 3rd weekends - 16th and 17th August
We head to Brisbane on the 22nd and 23rd - if you haven't ordered it needs to be in ASAP!!!!
Emerald - we are heading out there on the 26th if we get enough orders.
We aren't going to be going to Moranbah and Middlemount this trip and I do apologise for this. In the past we've made a weekend of it and stayed the night with my brother at Moranbah. He has left now and so we can't really justify going out there and having to pay for a motel. I'm afraid that the sales we got, which were very much appreciated, where not enough to justify that! So.....I'm really sorry to those who have supported us in the past. If you are coming in to Rockhampton, please touch base, as I'm sure we can organise some way to get our pork to you! Or you could go to your local butcher and suggest they purchase our pork to stock in the shop!
The other bit of news I need to pass on, is that we are currently not able to produce Nitrate Free Ham. Our butcher's smoke house has died and so we are getting another butcher to do the smoking for us. Safefood Qld has regulations regarding ready to eat meat products like ham and salami in that the butcher needs to send a sample each year to them for checking that it's all okay - then he is accredited to produce those products. The other butcher we are using is not approved to do the Nitrate Free ham. He is, however able to do the bacon, as it doesn't have the same rules. So, for the next little while we will be able to produce Nitrate Free Bacon and Conventional bacon and ham. Please read my earlier post here for more info about nitrates and nitrate free.
To finish off, thankyou so much for your continuing support of us. And remember that you get our pork in lots of different ways:
Yeppoon and Rockhampton - markets and private orders, Organic and Quality Foods and Lilly Pilly Organics
Gladstone - private orders, Organic and Quality Foods and Lilly Pilly Organics
1770 - markets and private orders
Biloela, Theodore, Moura and Baralaba - by contacting me and making arrangements, or through Organic and Quality Foods
Brisbane, Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast - until we can supply more butchers, you can buy direct from us when we deliver down that way, OR:
- Sunshine Coast Organic Meats
- Milton Fine Meats
- Your Organic Market
- Organic and Quality Foods
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Regional Food
As anyone who knows me, would know - I am very passionate about local food. I'm involved in the local food industry as a producer and as a consumer. My purchasing decisions tend to be based on Local first, Regional 2nd, Queensland 3rd, Australia 4th, and then if I really must......oversees grown.
Regional makes sense in a place like Central Queensland and my idea of regional would be from Bundaberg to Mackay and out to Emerald.
Relish Capricorn is an organisation that is putting our local region and the food from it on the map! I strongly recommend that you go and have a look (follow the link above) and see what they are all about. It's still a work in progress, but the more people that register - both consumers and producers, the more valuable the information on the site will be. The idea is that it will link the consumer to the producer.
There is quite a bit of food produced in this region and we really need to have some sort of distribution centre in Rockhampton for that food to then get to the consumers around here. We are known as the beef capital, but it's not easy to buy a local bit of beef! We need to change this! It annoys me when we try to reduce our carbon footprint and reduce food miles that most of the food produced here goes to Brisbane and then back up the coast. So get on board and give support to local farmers. You can do this by registering as a member on the Relish Capricorn site.
Some of my thoughts on this were aired on the local ABC this morning. Follow this link to here or read what I had to say.
Regional makes sense in a place like Central Queensland and my idea of regional would be from Bundaberg to Mackay and out to Emerald.
Relish Capricorn is an organisation that is putting our local region and the food from it on the map! I strongly recommend that you go and have a look (follow the link above) and see what they are all about. It's still a work in progress, but the more people that register - both consumers and producers, the more valuable the information on the site will be. The idea is that it will link the consumer to the producer.
There is quite a bit of food produced in this region and we really need to have some sort of distribution centre in Rockhampton for that food to then get to the consumers around here. We are known as the beef capital, but it's not easy to buy a local bit of beef! We need to change this! It annoys me when we try to reduce our carbon footprint and reduce food miles that most of the food produced here goes to Brisbane and then back up the coast. So get on board and give support to local farmers. You can do this by registering as a member on the Relish Capricorn site.
Some of my thoughts on this were aired on the local ABC this morning. Follow this link to here or read what I had to say.
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