Capricorn Food and Wine Festival

 

The Capricorn Food and Wine Festival (find our more here) is the happening place to be next weekend, the 20th and 21st September. t's free entry and should be a lovely day so bring the kids and have a swim and check out the cooking demo's.

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.

 

Make sure that you have something to eat at the Lickity Fingers stall. They are using lots of local ingredients in their products, including our delicious Pork and Kokotongo Organic Beef.

 

 

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:

• Sunshine Coast Organic Meats
• Milton Fine Meats
• Your Organic Market
• Organic and Quality Foods

Please contact me if you are interested in getting hold of our pork and we'll see what we can do!

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.

May, and what's happened to winter?

The weather has been unseasonably warm lately. This is quite a good thing really because our summer rain came very late and so there's been more time for grass to grow - a little more rain wouldn't go astray, and as I type this, there's a faint pitter patter on the roof! Not much hope for anything meaningful though!

This photo was taken late the other afternoon......

We've got three French Backpackers with us at the moment. Two of them are chef's. So what does one do when one is hosting a French Chef? Kill ducks so that they can cook them! We killed them one afternoon and the next evening we are eating duck confit and duck breast - absolutely delicious!

The photo below shows our (current) pig pets. D'artagnan is the big black fella and he's our biggest pet, and is quite loveable. The little black one hasn't been named, as he will go back to the mob when he's a bit bigger. Missy Higgins is the white one and she will probably end up a breeder. They are cute and very interactive, but they do try my patience when I go to milk my cows in the mornings!

Just a reminder to all that we have the following markets and deliveries:
This weekend (23rd to 25th May) will be Middlemount, Dysart, Moranbah and Emerald.
The 31st May and 1st June will be Yeppoon and Rocky again, and then 1770 on the 9th June - we'll do Gladstone orders that weekend too. Please get your orders in this weekend for those two weekends.

I'm planning on heading to Brisbane in the last week of June, so if you live on the Sunny Coast, Brisbane or the Gold Coast and aren't already on my email list, please send me an email and I'll put you on it. anabank@bigpond.com

For our Sunny Coast customers, we are currently going through the process of working out if we should set up a stall at one of the markets there - which would be the best one for us? Love to get some feedback. Maitland our son will be taking on that job, so stay tuned for more info on that.

Down on the Pig Farm

It's mid April and we have finally had some rain. It's been pretty pitiful here with very little summer rain. Fortunately over the last few weeks we've had some lovely rain - 5 and 1/2 inches a few weeks ago and another inch last weekend. I just hope it stays warm for a little longer so that we get some good grass growth. So far it's been very hot and so the grass has just exploded!

This is a photo of one of our pig paddocks - we have had growers in here, but have now go some of our breeders. It looks pretty good seeing as we've been pretty dry.

 

 

I was away for a few days and came home to an explosion of piglets - 10 sows all pigged within a few days. This is not terribly good planning, but means that we'll have plenty of hams for Christmas.



 Sometimes they use the shelters provided, and sometimes they don't.

 

On my walk yesterday I stumbled across and top knot pigeon nest.

 

 

 Future food for our customers above and future food for us below. Some of those ducks are ready for harvesting - maybe over the Easter break. No markets, so I'll have lots of time on my hands (or not!)

 



Next up for Pork Sales - Sunshine and Gold Coasts and Brisbane on Anzac Day. Then Rocky and Yeppoon Markets on the 3rd and 4th May.

If you are travelling over Easter, take care and enjoy the four day break. We'll be taking it a bit easier with family visiting.

Want to learn from a French Master Butcher?

I had an interesting phone call from the organiser of what I think would be a fantastic workshop. I've just got to work out how I might be able to go!!!

From what I understand, this workshop is for Butchers, both home and professional, chefs (and of course serious home cooks!) and people in the production, processing and selling of Pork and Pork products. They contacted me after searching for free range pork on the internet, and thought that I would have some contacts that might be interested. They are only wanting to get about 25 people, so it will be a fairly intimate workshop, so individual participants should get a lot of one on one time. I think that the process is to break down a pig in the morning session and then move on to discussing the different charcuterie. If you would like any more information you can contact them direct. This is a copy of their press release.

Gascon Butchery and Charcuterie workshops in Brisbane

French master butcher and charcutiere Dominique Chapolard and his wife Christiane will be running a full day professional workshop in Brisbane on Tuesday March 18^th, showcasing their unique skills.

The event is to be guided and translated by now expat American author, cook and teacher, Kate Hill. Kate now runs programs and tours in traditional French charcuterie from her farmstead in Gascony, working tightly alongside the Chapolard family, offering a truly unique and in depth learning experience.

As champions of traditional methods, the Chapolard family manage to support five families from only thirty sows on their entirely holistic 100 acre farm. Coining the term 'seed-to-sausage', Kate has opened this unique approach up to the world.

 
Having already taught students both visiting France, and on expeditions to The United States of America, they are now bringing their pork education to Australia.

Tickets are on sale now from http://www.frenchpigsbrisbane.eventbrite.com.auHYPERLINK  for $365, including 7 hours of tuition, lunch, and all workshop materials.

Events to be held at Wandering Cooks, 1 Fish Ln, South Brisbane.

Contact:

Bjorn Rust
bjorn@scragend.com
+61404002710

Sascha Rust

sascha@scragend.com
+61412847704

Market and Delivery dates

We have the Yeppoon and Rocky markets this weekend coming - 1st and 2nd March. I've just done some changes to the blog ordering page - dates for Brisbane, Central Highlands and Theodore have been changed. Please also note that we have had to increase some of our prices.

Upcoming:
8th March - Rocky Handmade Expo at the Showgrounds
9th March - 1770 Markets and delivery of orders to Gladstone Area
15th and 16th March - Yeppoon and Rocky Markets
27th March - Theodore
28th to 30th March - Central Highlands - more details about this trip to come.

5th and 6th April - Yeppoon and Rocky Markets
12th April - Rocky Handmade Expo
13th April - 1770 Markets and delivery to Gladstone area
26th April - Sunshine Coast, Brisbane and Gold Coast - If people from Bundaberg to Gympie are interested, let me know and I could travel that way!!!

I'm hoping to go to Central Highlands and Brisbane every second month.

Please let all your friends and family know about us if they live in any of these areas!