Hot Hot Hot

This weather is beyond ridiculous! If this heat wave is due to global warming and it's here to stay, I don't know whether we can! The pigs are finding it hot and we are constantly putting out water to keep their wallows wet and muddy. But I suppose, the longer it goes on, the closer it will get to rain coming! We had a thunder storm yesterday afternoon, but alas we got nothing(and it didn't even cool things down)!

The other Hot Topic, is exciting..............we are going back to twice a month markets starting in March. First and Third weekends we will be in Rocky and Yeppoon. Gladstone will stay at once per month and at this stage, it will be the first weekend of each month. I am going to look at what market I could do on another weekend, either in Gladstone or somewhere else, so if anyone has any ideas, please let me know. Basically if you know of a market and think that it would be a good one for us to go to, please tell me and I'll look into it to see if it might work.

I've been getting asked about bulk packs of meat. At this stage we can only offer bulk pork and we have decided to offer 1/4 pig packs. A quarter of a pig will be made up of half a half, and the final weight will be between 10 and 15kgs. I'm not completely sure of the exact amount of each cut, but the following is an approximate idea.

• 1.5kg Shoulder Roast - bone out and rolled OR Diced OR Mince
• 1kg collar steaks
• 1-2kgs loin chops/loin rack roast
• 1kg belly roast or spare ribs
• 2 shanks/osso bucco
• Leg Roast - either 1/2 leg bone in (maybe 2-3kgs) or 2 x bone out roast 

The best part is the price - for a limited time (for all orders received before the end of March) we will be selling these packs for $13/kg - based on the packed weight of the meat, not the dressed weight.  This is probably the cheapest free range pork you will get in Rocky - no delivery fee either! This will mean that you will pay between $130 and $170.

If you are interested in getting a 1/4 pig pack, please email me at dawsonvalleyfr@bigpond.com and I will follow up with how you would like it cut up or pack sizes.

I will need to have orders by this coming weekend (Saturday, 18 February) for delivery at the markets 4/5 March, or two weeks before the next market. I will get at least one made up, so that I can take a photo of what you will get, so that you can order for the next market.

Pork Osso Bucco/Shanks

I know I go on about these cuts a bit on Facebook (on Lucy's Kitchen and Dawson Valley Free Range - but - they are yummy - and so few people will give them a go! I know it's hot weather and not really the kind of weather  for long cooking food, but.......either cook inside and eat outside or cook outside and eat inside. You can totally cook these in a BBQ!

Pork Shank - what is it? It's the leg of the pork, so we get 4 on every pig. Osso Bucco is the same cut, but it has been sliced into "chops".  Most people know them smoked as Bacon Hocks - we usually only smoke them during the winter months, but if you would like them at other times, please ask and I'll get the butcher to smoke some.

I will link to some recipes - on this blog and on my other blog and I'll post a few yummy photos. The main thing to remember is that you do need to kind of slow cook them for a bit, but at the end, whack the heat up and try and crisp up the rind - you are after a crispy rind (sometimes it can be a little chewy).  This makes a nice contrast, with the soft meat and crunchy rind. The recipes below can be used for either shanks or osso bucco - if cooking shanks, I usually cut the meat off to serve them - one shank should almost feed two people so you don't quite need 1 each. If cooking shanks, cook them on their side covered for a start, turning over after an hour, then towards the end when you increase the heat, stand them up - you have to lean them against each other, so that most of the find is facing up so that it will crisp better. If you still don't have crackling, you could try peeling off the rind and placing back in the oven for a bit.

Pork Shanks Braised in Master Stock (scroll down a bit on this link).

Sticky Pork Osso Bucco or Shanks (either work) (and sorry, I don't seem to have a photo! but they are delicious and a lot less effort than the above master stock ones.

In a 500ml jug, place the following:
100ml soy sauce/tamari
1 tablespoon each of:
coconut sugar
apple cider vinegar
chopped ginger
chopped garlic
then add:
1 star anise, 1 cinnamon stick, 1 tsp szechuan peppercorns, 2 whole cloves, 1 tsp each of cumin seeds, fennel seeds and coriander seeds.
and then top up to 500ml with water or bone broth

Pour over the shanks/osso bucco and bake in a moderately low oven for 1.5 hours then whack the heat up high and bake for another 1/2 hour. You may need to thicken the pan juices with a little arrowroot or cornflour.

Osso Bucco with tomatoes Photo below (Baked Pork Osso Bucco recipe on this link and you can substitute other vegetables if you like. The link also has another one with olives.

Place the veggies on the base of the pan.

Drizzle with oil and dot with Butter (Osso bucco has very little fat)

Honey Sesame Osso Bucco

1kg pork osso bucco

2 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted

In a mortar and pestle, crush:

3 cloves garlic

1 inch piece of ginger

1 chilli

Then add half the toasted seeds and crush together. Add:

1/4 cup soy sauce/tamari

1 tablespoon each: fish sauce and sesame oil

2 tablespoons honey

1 cup rice wine.

Pour over the osso bucco and bake for 2 hours - turning the heat up for the last 1/2 hour.

******

You can also roast the shanks as a mini roast - simply rub the shank with some salt, preferably seasoned salt and sprinkle with some oil and place in the oven to roast for about two hours.

We will have both Pork Shanks and Pork Osso Bucco on special at the markets this weekend - $10/kg so please give it a go, I'm sure you won't be disappointed!

First post for 2017

Happy New Year to you all!!! Wow the two weeks off over Christmas went very fast! We've been back home now for nearly two weeks and have hardly stopped to draw breath! Mick has been great and worked over Christmas so that we could get away to Western Australia for a family (Kim's side) Christmas so we are eternally grateful to him. We've been here on our own for the first week, but Edmund and Maitland are back now so life is a fraction easier for me! Maitland is back from 14 months of travelling the world, so he will join the Dawson Valley Free Range team for a while (until he saves enough to clear out again!). Edmund is still around but once he's finished helping us with some pig development, I think he plans on doing some travel of his own. Mick will be back at work next week, thank goodness! We did get a little bit of rain while we were away, so it was nice to come back to some green grass, although around the pig paddocks it's pretty short.

Now the bad news......we have made the difficult decision to cancel the January markets. There are a few reasons for this and I shall endeavour to explain some of them.

1.  We have been really busy and would've had to take the animals to the butcher last week, and we really did not have the time to do it.

2.  We are still a little short on pigs - and there are a few reasons for this. We were hammered just before Christmas by our butchers wanting quite a lot of pigs. The two weeks off over the Christmas break did allow our grower pigs to grow a bit more, so that was good but now we really only just have enough to supply the butchers. But one of the main issues we have is that to ensure we have enough pigs for Christmas this year, we need to mate about 20-30 extra sows by March/April. So we need to keep some gilts now so that they are old enough to mate by then. To make things even more difficult, we really need to get rid of some older sows that are no longer producing and so we need to keep replacements for these! While we may buy some replacements in, we won't be able to afford to buy all we need, so will have to keep some of our own.

Butchers are our main source for sales. We make a lot better profit on the butcher pigs than we do on the market pigs, so while we enjoy going to the markets, if we look at it from a profitable standpoint, we need to look after our butchers first. And as I've said before, if we aren't profitable, we aren't able to stay in business! So I do apologise for the cancellation and believe me it hurts me as much as you.

I also think that we may only be able to do once per month until after April. I am hoping to have enough stock that if you want to stock up on meat you should be able to.

We greatly appreciate your support and your patience with our inability to supply the demand that we have.

Markets will be on the first weekend of the month, so that means 4th and 5th of February for the first one.

We will have Beef, Goat and all the Pork products (ham, bacon, fresh pork). 

Future beef - a bit more grass on the cattle country.

Please feel free to send me any special requests that you would like. We don't always do all cuts that are listed on our Pricelist Page so if you don't want to miss out, just let me know what you want. While saying that you can make special requests, I also need to remind customers that it's not easy for me to pack large orders. You can send me a list and I will try and put it together while I'm at the Yeppoon Markets or early Sunday morning at the Rocky Markets. I just can't guarantee that I'll have the time to do it.

We will be visiting Gladstone and I'm not exactly sure which day yet that I'll do it, so Gladstone people please let me know if you want meat and I'll make sure I confirm closer to the day. It will most likely be Saturday afternoon but if I can convince Kim to have a day off on the Friday we might do it Friday afternoon.

I am really looking forward to catching up with everyone and can't wait to get some local fruit and veggies for myself!

And I just thought I'd share a photo of my family - we're all dressed up in our glad rags for Kim's mothers 90th birthday on Boxing Day. It was a pretty special time to have all my kids together!

Cheers,
Lucy

Last market for the Year

What a year it's been! Kim and I have been on a bit of a roller coaster ride with this business. Our production problems have caused quite a bit of stress so I can't wait for the year to finish so we can catch our breath and take some time to get some planning done. Things are traditionally quiet after Christmas so we should get a chance to get our pig numbers up and hopefully for supply to meet demand.

We will have our final market for the year this weekend. We will have pork, beef, goat and a small amount of lamb. I'm really sorry that we couldn't do Christmas hams, but we are going to work very hard to have them next year. 

Gladstone customers I am not doing orders, due to too many mistakes in the past. I would love it if you could come out to the Benaraby turnoff under the shady trees (where we used to meet) on Saturday afternoon to select your own meat. 

Yeppoon Community Markets - Saturday from 6 - 9.30am

Gladstone - Saturday 2 - 4pm at the Bernaraby turnoff. 

Rockhampton - Sunday 6am - 12pm

I would like to take this opportunity to thankyou all for your wonderful support this year and I hope that you will have a happy time over the Christmas break. I know that Kim and I are looking forward to two weeks away over Christmas. We are catching up with all our kids while we leave the farm in the very capable hands of Mick. 

A few last minute things to note:

• We will be starting up next year on the weekend of the 14th and 15th of January - will be doing Rocky, Yeppoon and Gladstone.

• In 2017, Blue truffle will once again be using our ham (after that market). Please support them as they are great supporters of local producers. 

• Please remember that we sell lard soap - it's been very popular this year so why not have it available for your guests over Christmas.

• I will also have Lard and Bone Broth available for sale this weekend - there are so many ways to incorporate bone broth into your cooking over summer - just ask me!

• We are trying to go plastic bag free, so please bring back your bag from last month, or bring your own bag. In this heat a cold pack bag might be a good option.

• I've decided to do a couple of Christmas specials:

Buy at least 3kg of BBQ meats and get 10% off. Must be mixed cuts and not all steak. Eg pork steaks, pork chops, beef steaks, mince - pork or beef, sausages, ribs of any kind. 
Buy 2 packs of sausages and get the following discounted price: Paleo Pork or Beef $16/kg and Gluten Free Preservative Free for $12/kg.

Once again, thank you for your continuing support of our business. It is greatly appreciated and we look forward to being able to continue to provide pasture raised pork, grass fed and finished beef, goat and maybe lamb in 2017.


Cheers,Lucy and Kim

November Markets and Meet Mick

It's almost that time of the month again - Market Time! We will be at the markets in Yeppoon on the 5th November and Rockhampton on the 6th November. We will have the usual Delicious Pork, Tender Beef and Tasty Goat.

A reminder that our pigs are true free range. They spend every day from birth to the day they are taken to the abattoir, outside. They enjoy being able to display their natural piggie behaviours. They eat grass, dig in the mud and generally have a pretty chilled out lifestyle. They do eat a grain ration, but we ensure that it is well balanced and doesn't include any nasty gmos.

Who's been enjoying our beef? I'm not sure that everyone is aware that we sell beef, and that it is our own grass fed and finished beef. We are actually certified organic with our cattle and goats, although they lose certification once they are killed because our abattoir and butcher facilities are not organic certified. We finish our beef cattle on leauceana., which is a fodder tree that is high in protein and cattle do very well on it.

I've been really enjoying slow cooked brisket lately. I do a Mexican flavoured version to have with tortillas and I've done a curry coated one for a curry night and this one below I did a little while ago and it to was delicious! We will have brisket at the markets, so why not give this recipe or another one a go.......

Slow cooked Brisket

2kg piece of DVFR Beef Brisket

1 large onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 tablespoon honey

1 cup of tomato puree

1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce

Juice of one lemon

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon french mustard

chilli to taste

1 cup water or bone broth

Mix all the ingredients and pour over the brisket. Cover and bake in a very low oven for most of the day. e.g. 140 for about 8 hours or 160 for about 6 hours. 

The goats prefer to eat shrubs and trees over grass, and I think that's why they have such a nice flavour, probably also why they are less tender and more suited to slow cooking. They too love leauceana, so we occasionally cut some and bring it home for them.

Back in Septemeber we employed Mick. He's a young fella from Brisbane who really wants to learn what it's like to be a farmer. It's so good to see such enthusiasm for farming and gives hope for the future of farming really. Anyway, Mick has joined us to learn as much as he can about farming the way we do - all things from paddock to plate. He will be helping with the markets this weekend, so you will get to meet him. 

Learning how difficult it is to work with animals..........

Learning how to make cheese...........(I was making tortillas for lunch while Mick stirred and stirred the cheese).

October Markets

What a tough couple of months we've had - it's been a real struggle with not enough pigs. We took our eye off the ball at some stage and didn't realise what pigs we had in front of us. Pigs are funny things, there's about a 2 week period when they are perfect for selling - they get too big too quick and seem to take forever to get to the right weight, when in fact it's about 5 months from birth to sale. Anyway it's going to continue to be a struggle with numbers until Christmas and then hopefully everything will settle down and we'll have a nice steady supply.

We have  quite a few babies on mum and lots of piglets getting weaned, so hopefully if we can make sure the mums get pregnant again next year will be a beauty!!

So going forward we have decided that we will only do the one market per month. Therefore the first weekend of each month - October, November and December will be Yeppoon and Rocky Market weekends. We won't be doing hams this year either unfortunately.

We are having a great year grass wise - lots of showery weather lately and a very mild winter has meant that we have green grass just jumping out of the ground!

The goats are growing well and we'll be soon weaning about 30 kids and our 2 lambs. We've recently bought an Anglo Nubian billy to put over this years girls so we'll have a bit of cross breeding going on, hopefully to put a bit of size into our sale goats.

For the next market we'll have our delicious pork, tender beef, plenty of tasty goat and a small amount of lovely lamb. Just a reminder that I can no longer get the butcher to pack orders for me. I can try and put something aside if you want me to, but can't guarantee it, as I'll have to do it after the Yeppoon Markets. I may have to put a 2kg limit on NF bacon orders if I get too many requests. If you would like anything that I don't normally stock, please email me by Monday morning with your request.

Corned Beef - if you want nitrate free, please request it as we don't do it unless people ask for it.

Porterhouse Steak is one of our most popular beef cuts.

Pulled Beef Tortillas - home made tortillas are really easy and go great with pulled pork or pulled beef - the beef is brisket slow cooked all day.

The post I didn't want to write!

This is the post that I really didn't want to have to write.........we will not be able to make it to the markets in September.  Kim and I have spent the last few weeks working out what pigs we will have going forwards and we are really going to struggle to have sufficient for our butchers and our market customers in the next month. The good news is, that by October, we should be able to go back to 2 markets per month. 

We've had many messages from you guys wanting to know what's going on and I promised I'd get something out this week. Thank you for your patience and I hope we will continue to get your support when we can finally start up again. If it's any consolation, it's tougher on us than you! Farming can be tough sometimes, and the culprits are usually the weather or commodity prices or something uncontrollable.  This lack of pigs is worse because the demand is there, but we just can't meet it. 

Thank you........and I must remember this quote.....

"Worrying doesn't take away tomorrows troubles, it takes away todays peace"