31 December 2009
Just had to post this. We made a quick
overnight trip to Sydney to visit a good friend for his birthday and had
a great meal at a pub in Camperdown (can't bring myself to call
anything a gastro-pub). Whilst away I asked a friend and neighbour to
check on the dogs. Marcus arrived and the dogs were fine, so he threw a
line into our big dam. He quickly pulled out a 45cm (nearly 18 inch)
Silver Perch! He released her immediately as she was spawning.
The
significance of this tale is two fold; first I didn't believe Silver
Perch could spawn in dams, and secondly I've never ever seen those
hundreds of fingerlings since I released them a couple of years ago. I
had assumed the Cormorants, Sacred Kingfishers and Kookaburras had
filled their bellies. Anyway, Marcus had his sons as witnesses so it
must be true ;-)
Happy New Year!!
29 December 2009
The
tail end of cyclone Laurence gave us 107mm (a little over 4 inches in
old speak) of beautiful soaking rain over 4 days, and the whole farm
looks, smells and feels better for it. The dams all have more water in
them, and most importantly our roof no longer leaks!! This rain has
washed the new roof so that I'll be able to connect the new tanks as
soon as they arrive in late January. I even have plenty of clean water
to pump into them.
The Maremma dogs have settled in well. The
pups are simply delightful and have already bonded to the chooks and
us. Sasha the 1 year old bitch is a big sook and has bonded to us as
well. I have established myself as pack leader so all should be well
from now on. One pleasant and unforeseen consequence of the dogs being
in the house paddock is that they keep the peacocks a good distance from
the house :-)
I have sent an email to the slow money alliance http://www.slowmoneyalliance.org/
asking a few of questions raised by the enquiry, and also how I might
promote the ideas and alliance here in Oz. If they reply I will post
the info on this blog.
As promised here is our Terra Madre day
video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dlEdCH6s8k
and a big thank you must go to Fred Harden of Regional Food
magazine for the filming - a man of many talents. I managed to hide
in the background at the event and had a ball talking and promoting
Slow Food.
This is probably my last post for the year, so I hope
you and yours all had a great Christmas, and that the new year fulfils
all your desires and dreams.
26 December 2009
The Gods
(aka cyclone Laurence) have been smiling on Mountain Creek Farm. We
have received 80+mm of gentle soaking rain in the last 48 hours, and
still it drizzles. Simply magic!
Santa gave me lots of books for
Christmas, because I have been mostly good all year. Actually Santa
has been renamed Amazon.com and I ordered the books myself ;-) I used
Amazon because the books I read are somewhat eclectic and not usually
available in Oz. Anyway I strongly advise, recommend, no, insist that
you read "Slow Money" by Woody Tasch. This book encapsulates a lot of
what I have been banging on about on this blog and shows that we are at
the start of a new world paradigm - simply brilliant, a must read, et
cetera et cetera. Leaves many questions unanswered, but that is the
nature of the enquiry which does not pretend to have all the answers.
24
December 2009
A wonderful, happy and, most importantly, a wet
Christmas to you all! We are hoping that we cop the tail end of cyclone
Laurence and receive some 50mm of rain from the heavens between
Christmas and new Year :-) If it rains between Christmas and New Year
it means that we can all relax, and I won't spend the days scanning the
horizon and sniffing the breeze for smoke. There is so much tinder dry
grass around the farm after our wonderful spring, that fire is a greater
risk than usual.
Exciting news!!! We have purchased a 10
kilowatt grid interactive solar power system for the farm! This system
is big enough to cope with all our freezers and generate a surplus that
we will sell back to the grid as 'clean electricity'. Even though we
purchase 100% green power from the grid, I have long felt guilty about
our excessive power consumption due to our frozen meats and extravagant
1st world lifestyle. So I have assuaged my guilt somewhat :-)
More
exciting news - well it is for a farmer. I have purchased water tanks
(some 100,000 litres worth) to capture the new house roofs run off.
These tanks won't arrive until the end of January, but this will allow
the new roof to be cleaned by the copious rains that will happen before
the new tanks arrive - such is life.
Anyway it's "all good" here
at Mountain Creek Farm, and we sincerely hope it is for you too.
19
December 2009
The year is almost over but things don't stand
still here on the farm. Last Saturday we acquired not one but
three Maremma dogs; an 11 month old bitch (Sasha) and two unrelated 8
week old male pups (Fred and George, so named after the Weasley twins
from the Harry Potter series - well I have two daughters who read a
lot). I'll choose the best of the dog pups and join him to Sasha in a
year or so - so puppies will be appear in 18 months or so.
I have
had a lot to do with dogs over the decades and (I just realised that I
have half a century of dog experience! Bloody hell, just realised I'm
old!) the Maremmas are different. These are working dogs and will live
permanently outside in the house paddock. They will guard the chooks,
pigs, sheds and us. The pups are already watchful and I can see that
with very little training they will make excellent general purpose stock
and farm guardians. Having lost our first two batches of incubated
pullets to foxes in the house paddock, the Maremmas are a necessity -
well OK I like dogs too.
We have almost finished re-roofing the
house - the house was an old aluminium shearing shed, and roof was
pitted and leaking. We've added battens, two layers of insulation, and a
white roof over the existing; the difference is amazing and easily 5 to
10 degrees cooler inside. Now to connect up the downpipes, buy a
another rainwater tank or two and we will have a surplus of potable
water at half our average rainfall!
Over the next few months the
house paddock (+/- 5 acres) will be transformed into an oasis of green
as I bring the pigs in closer, move the chooks to a new home, build new
roo and rabbit proof fences, and plant hundreds (maybe even thousands)
of trees. The trees will be mostly fodder and fruit trees, for human
and animal consumption, and will be drip irrigated by one of dams.
We
will be very low on beef in January, not because we don't have the
animals, but because our butcher can't do any cutting until late in the
month. So our market visits will be irregular. Our egg production
which should have doubled in January as the pullets started laying will
be less than usual due to foxes decimating the pullet/chicks that my
daughter raised from our fertile eggs. Pork will be back on the menu in
February and lamb too. This seasons lambs look superb, and the porkers
do too.
15 December 2009
This Financial Times article http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/48fe4fb0-e516-11de-9a25-00144feab49a.html
captures perfectly the allure of Slow Food - for me anyway. I know
rant a lot about the ills of our industrial food system on this blog,
and in so doing I sometimes forget to mention the pleasure of food and
it's conviviality. Self evidently eating is an agricultural act and by
direct connection an environmental act. Importantly though it is a
cultural and social act that should never have been turned into a
commodity to be exploited.
It says a lot about a people,
society and culture when they see food as means to an end, a product to
sustain them whilst they do other "more productive" things. Sucked in
by the protestant economic utility argument, food is thus transformed in
to an industrial product from which profit must be maximised and the
cultural, social and environmental costs externalised. And we wonder in
Australia , why the life of our rural heartland is failing, why once
vibrant country towns are failing, why the Murray Darling is drying up,
why vast tracts of country are lost to salt, and on and on and on. The
answer is quite simply really, treat food as if people, culture, land,
diversity, fertility and the environment really matters. Don't just pay
lip service to it - actually walk your talk, and don't do it with your
mouth full of agroindustrial edible food like substances. Here endeth
the lesson :-)
10 December 2009
Lots has happened in
the last few days. On Saturday and Sunday Slow Food Canberra held it's
Terra Madre day celebrations. Terra Madre means Mother Earth or
Nurturing Earth in case your Latin descended language skills are a
little rusty. We held two 'Slow Soup Kitchens' at the farmer's markets
and they were a great success, selling out both days, and we had a
ball. All the food was locally sourced, donated or at cost, and tasted
fantastic - good, clean and fair. Five soups were on offer with wood
fired breads, but the difference was we were asking people to pay or
donate "what you think the food is worth and you can afford". In
essence we asked people to have food with thought, food valued and not
at a price, and the responses were interesting. We received anything
from 50 cents to 20 dollars for our cups of soup and a slice of bread.
The nett result is that we raised over a thousand dollars which will go
to various food related projects such as edible school gardens. A
youTube video of the event will be up soon.
The Karen refugee are
having transport issues in taking up our offer of land water and
infrastructure. They are very keen to grow vegetables on our farm, but
cars and the distance are an issue in spite of the wonderful help
offered by Catholic Care. So I am now investigating land options in the
heart of Canberra on public transport routes and so on. Some big
hearted organisation and or business will step up to the plate, and I am
talking to a few at the moment. More on this, probably post Christmas.
Talking
of big hearted people and organisations, I had a very interesting
meeting with Michael Jeffery our former GG and head of state on
Tuesday. I have to say it was fascinating to meet someone who thinks
and talks big picture issues as I do. I went with my Slow Food hat on,
and we spoke for the best part of one and half hours on things
agriculture, food and the environment. I was pleasantly surprised to
find that Michael was up to speed on nearly all big ideas relating to
food and agriculture, but very pleased that he has reached very similar
conclusions about the state of play. Michael has travelled extensively
throughout the country over many years and has seen many of the problems
getting worse first hand. He has also seen some of the solutions,
notably Peter Andrews and his Natural Sequence Farming, and Holistic
Resource Management in practice.
Through 'Outcomes Australia'
Michael plans to strategically tackle our water, food security, land and
environmental problems. He is assembling a task force and has much
support from some very influential people and businesses. It's early
days in the organisations life, but it holds much promise so I plan to
help where I can.
4 December 2009
First things first.
We have limited amounts of beef left to take us through to the new year,
and no more will be available until February 2010. Not because we
don't have the stock, but our butcher can do more until late January.
So due to circumstances beyond our control we will have to take a break
or two in January. This means we are unlikely to be at the markets for
much of January, so stock up while you can.
About 2 years ago I
was highly sceptical and critical of the ETS and following CPRS as
solutions to carbon emissions. Now it appears that Jim Hansen agrees
with me - he didn't at the start. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/12/04/2761602.htm
I'm
blowing my own horn loudly here!!! Jim Hansen's thinking is still not
as advanced
as mine was two years ago when the ETS/CPRS was first proposed for
Oz. Admittedly he does have a slightly higher profile than me though :-)
For Australia I perviously stated the GST is the perfect mechanism
for any new carbon tax. Simply include all goods and services in the
tax, so kill the exemptions
for agriculture etctera, and add a small percentage initially, and more
as required - bit like the reserve bank 'controlling' inflation by
adding 0.25% to the cash rate as they did this week.
A
Goods,Services and Carbon tax (GSCT) gives the
government the monies to tackle the issue. A GSCT also captures all
imports
as they are not exempt from the GST, so levels the playing field. Also
the existing GST refund system/mechanism already exempts exports which
in turn
kills the 'it will hurt trade' argument. The bureaucracy and
infrastructure already exists to administer the scheme, so there would
be no new bureaucracies to invent and pay for. The monies raised go to
the public purse and are easily isolated for greenhouse gas abatement
schemes. There are so many benefits to my scheme it will never be
adopted!
Politicians of all colours can't see the forest for the trees!
Governments are best at tackling major infrastructure projects for
the
common good - something at which private enterprise has routinely
failed.
This is because the issue is public good vs private profit, and the
public good will
not be best served via the private profit motive no matter how
'efficient' the trading scheme - period. All very well to be efficient,
but it's absolutely useless being efficient when the scheme is not
effective. OK rant over ;-)
24 November 2009
I hear on
the grapevine that New Zealand will be producing all types of raw milk
cheeses very soon. This includes the high moisture content Brie,
Camembert and mould ripened blues. Fantastic news for our Kiwi cousins,
but even with our special bilateral trade agreement, these cheeses will
not be available in Australia due to our archaic regulations.
So
the Kiwis are breaking away from Australia on the raw milk cheese issue
and the NZ raw milk cheeses will be destined for the best Asian
restaurants, those serving Kobe beef and top Australian wines. So I ask
you, if the Kiwis can do it, why can't we? Well, apparently it's all
about maintaining the safety of Australian cheese eaters.
Safety?
The
best source of information I've found regarding dairy and raw milk
cheese safety is by an American law firm - a law firm that specialises
in
food poisoning outbreaks and litigation. Now if anyone has a vested
interest in being 'right' and pursuing raw milk cheese 'safety', it is a
lawyer
whose firm specializes in suing companies whose food products make
people ill.
So, to reduce this legal and reputedly best researched,
most detailed, most referenced and impartial legal risk assessment study
down to a very brief executive summary:
- The dairy industry is the safest food sector
in the USA and approximately 1% of the population
(3 million people) drink and eat raw milk and products.
- For the
total US dairy industry, all products and derivatives, pasteurised and
non, over a 23 year period
there were 134 disease outbreaks traced back to dairy products.
- Of these outbreaks 4% were traced to raw milk cheeses, or 5 outbreaks
- Each outbreak affected less than 50 people and no one died
- The figures are from official and verified US data covering the
years1973 to 2005 or 23 years.
- In total less than 250 people became ill over a 23 year period, which
is less than 11 people per annum on average in the USA
NB these figures include cheeses that were predominantly unregulated
i.e. black market cheeses.
Now,
extrapolating those figures for Australia, where Australia's population
is 22 million vs the USA's 308 million and with all other parameters
remaining constant, Australia would have less than 0.8 persons per year
becoming ill from raw milk cheeses! But wait there's more. The US
statistics included predominantly unregulated cheeses, which would not
be permitted hence minimised in the Australian context, therefore the
risk
would be minimal to the Australian public - certainly a lot less than a
great many other foods currently available.
So it is my contention that with appropriate Australian quality
assurance programs including HACCP, monitoring, testing and labelling,
raw milk cheeses, made to international standards in Australia, could
easily be deemed 'safe' by Food Standards Australia and New Zealand.
I
won't enter the debate as to the reported health benefits of raw vs
pasteurized as these are hotly contested. Suffice to say that from a
risk mitigation perspective, which is what FSANZ is meant to be about,
it can be demonstrated that raw milk cheeses are 'safe' for public
consumption. There are always exceptions, and pregnant women are
currently advised not to eat soft and mould ripened cheeses no matter
the type of milk they are made from.
19 November 2009
What
a great season this is turning out to be. The ground moisture is
holding despite the run of hot weather with temperatures daily in the
mid 30's. Th pasture is still green with only the wild oats and barley
grass having hayed off. If the rain predicted for the next few days
materializes, we will be set for summer. The neighbours won't be
impressed with any rain though, as they are cutting hay.
Been
rather busy getting up to speed with the raw milk campaign, and it is a
simple issue made too complex government. I believe FSANZ (Food
Standards Australia and New Zealand) can't see the forest for the
trees. With the best of intent FSANZ is being prescriptive in it's
regulations which is hamstringing our cheesemakers - the bureaucracy is
telling our cheese-makers how to make cheeses, right down to the
temperature and number of seconds cheese and milk producers must heat
treat milk to reduce the pathogen count to a level deemed of
'acceptable' risk. When what FSANZ should really be doing is setting
the 'acceptable' pathogen count of the end product and not determining
the method of production. In other words FSANZ should telling the cheese
makers the outcome they want, not the process to get there. In fact
that is what a 'standards' organization should be doing, setting the
'standard' and not determining how industry goes about reaching it.
In
prescribing methods of production FSANZ is strangling innovation and
the development of our cheese industry. Bureaucrats, no matter how well
intended, should not be telling any industry how to do it's job, they
should be focused on outcomes and results, and then monitor performance
and compliance. Delivering outcomes and results is one of the few
things that a free enterprise system is good at, and something
bureaucracies are universally recognised as being poor at.
Anyway,
FSANZ has a list of 'acceptable' bacteria counts, by known species
potentially harmful to human health if found at certain levels or
concentrations for cheeses, which is great. Counts for: Escherichia
coli, Salmonella species, Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes
and Campylobacter jejuni/coli - the usual suspects. Who cares how the
product was made, and whether is was raw milk, pasteurized, or ultra
pasteurized, fresh, aged, salted, high or low moisture content, and so
on, provided the product meets the bacteria counts deemed 'safe'? FSANZ
should set the 'acceptable' count for the pathogen in question, and
then let the market meet the standard , and not be telling industry how
to make cheeses. I don't believe the making of cheeses falls within
their charter or expertise - I might be wrong but are any of the members
of FSANZ cheese-makers? Can any individual within FSANZ produce a
delectable mould ripened blue cheese? I don't think so, and academic
expertise is no substitute for hands on experience.
On the basis
of performance rather than prescription based standards, the New
Zealand cheese-makers will now leave Australians behind in their wake as
they race to develop fantastic products destined for export. Our
antipodean cousins are once again beating us to the export punch.
5
November 2009
For those who missed the ABC's 7:30 Report segment
on Slow Food it's here http://slowfoodaustralia.com.au/2009/11/abc-730-report-probes-food-awareness/
4
November 2009
I think the open day went well. You never really
know with these things, as people come and go and little feedback is
received. As it was close to 30 degrees Celcius the animals weren't
very animated; the pigs barely moved which was disappointing. The good
news is we raised several hundred dollars for the Karen group. This
will go towards seedlings and other things they need to start farming.
Some
idiot called Michael Croft was on the ABC's 7:30 Report a few minutes
ago talking to his pigs and saying positive things about Slow Food.
Alex Herbert, Michael Champion and Carlo Petrini all came across well in
the piece, Carlo making intelligent comments about 'austere hedonism' -
we Slow Foodies seek sustainable pleasure at the table and are not 'sad
environmentalists' - environmentalists yes, but not the slash your
wrists type. We are 'saving the planet, one meal at a time'. For those
that doubt this food = 40% of Australia's total carbon emissions, and
over 80% of all potable water usage. So your food choices change the
environment more than any other choice you are likely to make.
Now
I await a call from Radio Adelaide where I talk live to air on raw milk
cheeses and the importance of choice and diversity in the dairy
industry. Just unearthed a fact about raw milk cheeses, the French
consume more raw milk cheeses than Australians consume cheeses of any
type. Obviously the French people are made of better stuff than
Australians, because I don't see them dropping like flies due the
consumption of raw milk cheeses. Food Safety is the reason we are being
denied the variety and pleasure of raw milk cheeses, and yet the
evidence says food safety is easily and effectively dealt with in other
countries - why not Australia? Obviously French bacteria must be
superior to Australian bacteria.
2 November 2009
Just
had to show you this link http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/11/02/2731014.htm
because it shows two things I am passionate about.
Firstly the
independence of our scientists to speak publicly on issues which they
are expert. The CSIRO maintains that the individual and corporate
opinions are inseparable, so 'their' scientists can't speak publicly
without the corporate nod. I'm sure you can see the error in logic
here.
Secondly, Dr Clive Spash and I are in agreement. Way back when
the CPRS was first mooted, I blogged it would be ineffective and that
there was a simpler and more effective way to reduce carbon emissions.
My
suggestion was the ultimate in simplicity, so simple it would actually
work. By incorporating food into the GST, and raising the GST rate by
1% all industry sectors would be incorporated, including agriculture and
imports. The extra funds raised could be easily quarantined for the
use carbon reduction schemes and clean technologies and development.
But most importantly it would be cheap and easy to implement, as it uses
the existing GST system for collection and administration.
Other
measures and policies such as a gross feed-in tariff that favoured
clean, green, renewable electricity generation, a sincere public
transport infrastructure rethink, and private car tax incentives to
reduce our fossil fuel use, are all doable without reinventing the
wheel. The funding of these measures would come from the expanded GST.
All too easy and all so simple, it will never fly.
2 November
2009
Please note we are fully booked for our open day
thanks.
76.5mm of rain for October. Can't complain about
that! The farm is looking quite good for the open day tomorrow. Am I
ready for the open day? Well let's just say that the place doesn't look
too bad after 7 years of drought. In fact the pastures and soils are
the best I've seem them. Mind you the house and infrastructure needs
attention, but that's a few years of hand feeding for you.
I've
keep the steers in the sacrifice paddock longer than anticipated, so
that they are close for the open day, and this has allowed much of the
pasture to go to seed. I'll move some of the cows down to the paddock
above the house which means they'll be nice and close too. The pigs
will be on pasture next to the cows, and the sheep, lambs and Llamas
will be in the front paddock. The chooks will be under foot as usual,
and ducks and geese on the main dam. All this means that it will be a
very short walk and our guests will be able to see all the species we
farm.
Speaking of dams, a few more 30 degree days and we'll be
able to go swimming. My neighbour says he's seen some monster fish in
the house dam, so perhaps the silver perch I put in a few years ago have
grown after all. Either that or there is a Murray Cod in the dam who
has been feasting on my Silver Perch.
Fred Harden of Regional
Food Magazine will be filming and taking stills of our open day.
Hopefully he will get some good material for the doco/series. We have
had some fantastic experiences doing this - all very exhausting though.
As
some of you are aware the Slow Food raw milk cheese campaign is
gathering momentum. Much work remains to be done, but it's happening!
25
October 2009
A great day at the markets today, lots of friends
and customers dropping by to say hello, some of them bought some meat as
we nearly sold out.
It's raining again as I write this and it's
making for one of the best springs since we moved on to the farm in
2001. But of course it's raining, as another lot of twin lambs arrived
just as the rain started - mum's and bubs all well.
Our open
day! Please RSVP and register by sending us an email letting us
know you are coming and how many will be with you. This is because we
are catering sausages and bread and it would be terrible if we ran out,
and you and yours missed out. Also it's just plain civilized to RSVP.
At
last I have some CO2e figures for food as a proportion of Australia's
total carbon emissions, and at 40% it's worse than I guestimated. So
the Slow Food call to arms of "Save the planet one meal at a time" rings
true. The food we eat is the major ecological driver in this country,
particularly when 70% of fresh water in Australia is used in
agriculture. Again as we know agriculture to be but a component of food
consumption, then the actual percentage of our fresh water being used
to produce and consume food will be much higher than 70% !! I won't
even mention biodiversity loss due to land clearing.
So it is
evident that eating is the primary ecological act, driver of CO2e
emissions, water consumption and biodiversity loss. Therefore change
what you eat and you change the outcome. Eat less and eat less meat,
and start at the other end of the food chain. Or as Michael Pollan says
in Omnivore's Dilemma, "eat food, mostly plants, and not too much".
21
October 2009
Went to a good talk last night about climate change
and food security, and it seems that scientists are finally getting the
idea. http://www.science.org.au/events/lectures-and-speeches/gregory.htm
20
October 2009
Spent the weekend in Sydney filming what seemed
like continuously. The Carlo Petrini welcome dinner on Friday night
went so smoothly with Alex, Sophie and Vince as chefs doing a superb job
and our pigs proud. I got the chefs and Carlo to sign the menu and
I'll take it to the markets for those who are interested in what they
did.
Saturday was the Slow Food conference at the UWS Hawkesbury
campus. A feedback and planning day which proceeded smoothly and
concluded in a dinner of; roast lamb and goat on two spits, some
fabulous wines, cheeses and salads also spoiled the attendees. I talked
on the biodiversity of farm animal genetic resources with a borrowed
and modified power point courtesy of Fiona Chambers. It went well I
think, but I had to rush it a bit due to time restrictions.
Sunday
we filmed and interviewed Peter Andrews in the Botanical Gardens,
before going to Carlo's Opera House address. We have complete footage
of the address, including his singing La Traviata at the Opera House at
the end of proceedings, which we will post on UTube. There was a
standing ovation at the end, so obviously all went well.
Sunday
night I attended a private dinner function with Carlo and selected
guests which was simply wonderful - good company, intelligent
conversation, good food, good wine. I sat opposite Carlo and Margaret
Fulton, both of whom are charming and don't suffer fools gladly
(obviously made an exception in my case). Peter Andrews was at one end
of the table and had some loud and friendly exchanges with Maraget.
Kylie Kwong sat diagonally across from me and Inidra Naidoo sat to my
left. Indira is the most charming, intelligent and articulate dinner
companion one could hope for, and very beautiful too!
Indira
commented that the dinner was like being in a pleasant dream, I agreed,
it was hard for us to articulate what that quality was, but it was like
being part of a filmed dream sequence in soft light and focus,
surrounded by warmth - and love I guess. Now I am getting real soppy,
so will stop, but it was a very special evening.
OK, now the
work begins. The fight for Raw Milk Cheeses in Australia has been
taken on by Slow Food and announced at Carlo's address to the Opera
House. The raw milk cheese battle will be our beach head for many more
much needed changes to the food regulation system that forces small
producers out of existence and even prevents them from starting.
We
have a limited window of one month before the regulators (Food
Standards Australia and New Zealand) hand down their First Assessment
Report about raw milk cheeses in Australia. I have been asked to help
make it work and I will need help as I have a farm to run, am in the
middle of the doco, have the DGR status of the Rare Breeds Trust to
secure and a family. What I need are volunteers to help with
co-ordination of petitions etcetera (I am thinking of you as you read
this). The bonus will be contact with many of the cheese producers and
farmers in Australia, and contacts with the great restaurants of
Australia - most of which support the production of raw milk cheeses in
Australia, but are forced to used imported raw milk cheeses instead.
So,
supporters of Mountain Creek Farm, I call on you to help us with this
endeavour because, "from little things big things grow". Ring or email
me if you can help - any and all donations of your time will be most
gratefully received.
16 October 2009
Dear oh dear. We had hoped to film
various scientists at the Yass Area Networks (YAN) Soil Carbon Seminar,
but no go to our request. We received a legalese and negative response
from the Organizing Committee citing "without prejudice", "Intellectual
Property" and "Copyright". So much for YAN performing as a network and
in the spirit of the common good. We had planned to edit the day and
interviews down to 5 or 6 minutes, and give all our professional footage
to them to use as they see fit.
But not to worry that YAN are
playing petty bureaucratic power games in the midst of a climate crisis
and mass extinction event - we have bigger fish to fry. We will
interview the scientists we want at another time and place and leave YAN
to their own confused agenda.
15 October 2009
Just a
quick update. Was in Sydney again this morning filming with the ABC
7:30 Report, and it seems there will be a Slow Food, paddock to
plate feature on in the very near future. I'll be back in Sydney over
the weekend, where the ABC will finish filming the Carlo Petrini Slow
Food welcome dinner at Bird Cow Fish. So I anticipate the piece will
air some time next week, but I will advise the date and time when I
know.
On Saturday we film the Slow Food Australia inaugural
conference, with Carlo Petrini in attendance at the UWS. I get to do a
15 minute talk on farm animal biodiversity issues at the conference and
then field questions with the panel.
On the Sunday Fred Harden
and I will be filming Peter Andrews, of Natural Sequence Farming and
Australian Story x 2 fame, at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Sydney.
Here we will also get to briefly interview Carlo Petrini and then film
Carlo and Peter as the visionaires meet for the first time. After that
we film the public address by Carlo at the Opera House and subsequent
interview by Joanna Savill.
On Monday we film a rather special
meal at Justin North's Becasse Restaurant, with a few celebrities
present. Then it's home to do what I love most which is look after the
farm. Truly, I have no idea why anyone would choose to live in Sydney,
it's OK for a visit, but ....................
As a result of all
the above, Elizabeth will be on her own at the markets this Sunday and
may not be able to take as much produce as usual, so please be nice to
my wonderful and long suffering wife :-)
I missed this one, but
Christine Salins had more nice things to say about us http://www.psnews.com.au/dinepsn186.html
By the way, our open day is still going to be November
3, Family Day holiday in the ACT and Melbourne Cup day everywhere
else. Be warned we will be filming the event, so if this is a problem -
don't come this time. This is going to be a simple affair mainly aimed
at children - a gentle "meet your food" event, without it being too
obvious. Please register by dropping us an email, and I'll send you a
mud map. Our sausages will be cooked and available on the day for a
gold coin donation - all proceeds will go to the ACT Karen Refugee group
for seeds, seedlings and anything else required to get them started on
the farm.
14 October 2009
OK so I am biased about our
latest beef and my comments of a day ago are not to trusted, but what
follows is part of a reorder email I received last night.
"Wow, we are about to enjoy the last of our 'Slow Pack' when we eat a
lovely slow cooked stew tomorrow night...All I can say is WOW.
I probably haven't done the beef justice with my cooking skills but it
is just so darn tasty. And the sausages...I was lost for words when I
ate the sausages. They are the nicest sausages I have EVER eaten,
without a doubt. It takes me back to my childhood, eating a sausage
that actually tastes like beef, not sawdust...it's unreal, thank you!
The kids are enjoying eating the meat from the 'Happy Cows' (as we call
them)."
We think it's pretty good too, and it's really nice to
know our efforts are appreciated. Heritage breeding, grass finishing,
extended dry ageing, careful handling, chemical free, and attention to
detail all add up to good, clean and fair food.
BTW there will be
a few changes to our website very soon as the Big 'O' organic industry,
in cahoots with Standards Australia, have legally stolen the words
organic and biodynamic for the preferential and exclusive use by their
certified members. Of course the move is all covered in spin about
preventing the deceptive behaviour of the unscrupulous, and we, and
those like us, are merely collateral damage. But I ain't finished with
the well intended fools yet!
In essence we will no longer be able
to call our product organic or biodynamic unless we are certified as
such by an approved certifying body. So hence forth our catch cry will
be "Beyond Organics!" and will will join the likes of Joel
Salatin in the USA giving the bureaucracy curry for it's innate
ineptitude. Much more on this later.
12 October 2009
Just
had some of our latest lot of Beltie Beef, and I must say this is some
of the nicest beef we have ever produced. I guess it's the difference
some good spring grass makes to the finish, and the beef is slightly
more tender than usual and sweeter too. We still have some of this
spring grass finished beef left, so I suggest trying some while it's
available, it's pleasantly different and won't last long.
A bit
tired at the moment as the Sydney International Food Festival takes it's
toll, but I really feel for the chef's like Alex Herbert who must be
running on pure adrenalin after many successive 18+ hour days.
This
morning I took what I am calling Carlo's pigs to the abattoir. Two of
our Wessex Saddleback pigs joined the food chain for Carlo Petrini's
Slow Food welcome dinner at Bird Cow Fish. They were just the best
pigs, so well behaved and the kill was quick and humane.
Alex
Herbert now knows I'm a real softy when it comes to my pigs. They made
brawn form the heads of the pigs at Bird Cow Fish, saved the skulls,
then boiled them clean as a display for the Fergus Henderson tribute
dinner - which was a total success by the way. Anyway as I was cradling
a skull before the dinner, Alex and Fergus came over and asked me
something about the pigs. As I was telling them that only days earlier I
had been patting and talking to this very pig, as she contentedly
browsed in the field, the tears welled. What can I say, except
sometimes it's just plain hard to be human.
The pigs however,
were much honoured in the eating, and during the dinner I had a
revelation. I think it was as the mains streamed past me to the 80 or
so diners (Kylie Kwong and Sean Moran were guests) that I suddenly
realized that my pigs were making a lot of people very happy. It sounds
silly, and hard to describe, but I'd not seen my pigs feed so many
people in one sitting, and prepared to such a high standard. It was a
good feeling anyway. And no I am not supplying any more pigs to Sydney
restaurants!
I now have the skull at home, and I think Alex
plans to send another one of the cleaned skulls to Fergus as a memento.
Perhaps my pig's skull will end up on display at St John Restaurant in
London - now that would be something.
5 October 2009
Wow,
oh wow, "you should have been there!" as they say. It's taken me a day
to recover form the amazing joy ride that was the opening of the Sydney
International Food Festival. 3 of our pigs on spits being celebrated
by the whose who of Sydney's chefs/restaurants: Jared Ingersoll, Justin
North, Matthew Kemp, Kylie Kwong, Jeremy
Strode, Alex Herbert, Paul McGrath, Martin Boetz, Colin Fassnidge,
Warren Turnbull, Lauren Murdoch and Sean Connolly, all under the helpful
hands of Margot and Fergus Henderson.
I was so busy with the
filming for the doco that I didn't take any photos, but here's a link
with some pictures of our pigs on the spits http://grabyourfork.blogspot.com/2009/10/siff-nose-to-tail-barbecue-with-fergus.html
you'll have to scroll down a bit to get to them. Also did an
impromptu radio interview with ABC Radio 702 - Sydney and managed to
say my rare breeds bit. Here's another food blog that shows the chef's
and spit http://fooderati.blogspot.com/
I
came home to 16.5mm of rain and it's drizzling as I write this with
another 4mmin the guage. Now to help Elizabeth with the gst for the
quarter, and then back to Sydney for the Fergus Henderson tribute dinner
and more filming. Alex Herbert took pity on me as the dinner is $200 a
head, so Fred Harden and I will be relegated to the kitchen to eat at
no charge - some hardship! ;-)
1 October 2009
September
yielded 86mm of rain, a great result. Pastures are recovering and all
is looking better as we head into summer.
The doco idea has wings
and I'm off to Sydney this Saturday to film three of our pigs on spits
in front of thousands of ravenous foodies at the SMH Pyrmont growers
markets. Fergus and Margot Henderson will be doing the honours, which
is in turn a great honour for us. The pigs are to be whole, but boned
out for easy carving - I can't wait.
Next Tuesday we will be
interviewing Fergus at Bird Cow Fish and then filming the tribute dinner
which also stars our Wessex Saddlebacks. Mind you at $200 a head I
baulked at the price. Yes I know it's Sydney and Fergus and special,
but even so It takes your breath away. I suppose I'll just have to curb
my composting socialist tendences for the event.
Here's an
article that I found interesting on the future of food http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/09/30/2701245.htm
My
guess is that it will be used to justify GM crops being further
expanded across Australia.
And here's another article, but a good
news one that tickled my fancy http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/09/30/2700352.htm
As Paul Kelly sings "From little things big things grow". I'll try to
get his permission to use his song in our doco :-)
24
September 2009
Our seasonal vegetable 'Plan A' is back on
track. I think we first offered the
opportunity back in the spring of 2007, and it is now 2 years
later and we may have real potential for a win/win. It's all very
exciting.
To cut a short story even shorter, Amie Hope is a volunteer case manager
for Canberra's Karen refugee group, I suggested our Plan A for the
growing of seasonal vegetables, she thought it
would be a possibility, and the Karen group are coming to investigate
the farm and possibilities, next Friday (to be confirmed).
The Karen peoples of Burma/Myanmar have suffered enormously under the
brutal and self serving military
regime that has been in power for decades. Catholic Care is looking
after the Karen refugees that are in Canberra, and by chance I met Amie
at the Food Dialogue run by the ANU and
Canberra Uni.
I can see this working very well indeed. The Karen will undoubtedly be
good farmers and hard workers. We will provide the land, water and
infrastructure for them to grow food for their families here on our
farm. If they are interested, we could develop the growing further
so that the surplus is available for sale at the farmers markets
seasonally. This would have many benefits to the group including:
social inclusion, much English language practice, financial return, and
so on.
More on this later after the meeting and farm inspection
takes place.
22 September 2009
I am getting increasing
numbers of daily requests for pork and lamb. This is fantastic and we
appreciate your desire to support our farm and enjoy our produce.
Unfortunately, and barring a minor miracle, we will have no pork or lamb
for six months at least. That's the bad news, but I know you
understand that quality takes time and is worth the wait.
The
good news is that we have quite good supplies of our beef at the moment,
and I must say it's looking really good. This mainly because we have
had a mild winter and early spring with almost average rainfall for the
last 4 months. The rains have meant good pasture growth, which results
in stunning cattle as they finish on the fresh green shoots of spring
and early summer. Yes folks even beef is seasonal - or it should be.
Oh, and the green shoots are real btw, not the imaginings and spin born
of a GFC!
The seasons do make a difference to both the quality
and quantity of beef we can produce, not only that but our beef tastes
different season to season depending on the composition of pasture
species and their palatability. So with beef (and lamb) not only is
terroire evident in the aromas and flavours, but also the seasons.
OK
I'm back on my high horse now. I'd like to couple food miles, food
processing and agriculture into one carbon footprint. At the moment
they are accounted for separately, with agriculture contributing to 19%
of Australia's carbon emissions, transport about the same, and
manufacturing or processing of food another percentage. I suspect if we
linked all the carbon emissions of bringing food to the consumer, the
percentage would be closer to 35% of Australia's total carbon
emissions. Particularly so since the average Australian's shopping
baskets 29 most common items travel 70,803 kilometres by the time they
reach your refrigerator or pantry shelf. If you are not shocked by this
fact, you should be! Flying and trucking food thousands of kilometres
is symptomatic of what is wrong with our planet's climate and the reason
we are in the middle of a mass extinction event.
Change what
you eat, and who, how and where it is grown, and you change the planet -
it's that simple. Let the politicians deal with coal and aluminium
smelters, simply "be the change you want to see" - Ghandi
21
September 2009
Back to the doco idea. Things are moving quickly
on that front as we have a unique opportunity to capitalize on the
Sydney International Food Festival bringing various food
heros/stars/gods together in one place in October. So Fred Harden
(editor of Regional Food Magazine)and I have teamed up with the
intention of giving any and all of these famous people another few
minutes more of fame by articulating what they are doing, and how this
is benefiting the the people, the planet and profit. Profit is
essential for the good works to continue and facilitates the expansion
of local, national and international movements dedicated to the triple
bottom line.
For us the triple bottom line is aptly expressed by
the Slow Food movements credo that food should be good, clean and fair,
or as Carlo Petrini put it in a letter to me, "the principles that the
food we eat should taste good; that it should be produced in a clean way
that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or our health; and
that food producers should receive fair compensation for their work."
OK so the letter was a form letter that went to all Terra Madre
delegates, but it's the thought that counts.
We also work our
farm using the principles of Holistic Management, and this is best
expressed by the idea that businesses should be socially,
environmentally and economically viable and sustainable. Furthermore HM
states, and we know it to be true, that if you ignore one of the three
pillars the business/system/country/planet eventuyally collapses.
This
is reflected in the local Canberra group SEE-Change,
the SEE standing for Society, Economy and the Environment.
Again this is bringing the triple bottom line of people, planet and
profit to the fore.
Most people accept the principle of triple
bottom line accounting, but in the cut and thrust of a globalized world
the emphasis is usually placed on profit with lip service, or minimal
attention, to people and the planet. This is hardly surprising as we
have been force fed a great deal of economic rationalist dogma poop over
the last few decades. As long as governments and corporations refer to
their people as a 'resource' to be used in the most
efficient/productive/profitable way possible, demanding efficiency
dividends for every gain in working condition or pay, we have a major
problem. The mere names of Human Resources Department or HR manager
tells us we have a systemic problem that won't be easily 'fixed'.
But
I digress (as usual). What we hope to do is produce a doco or dvd
(perhaps several) that will show people how their simple food choices
determines what is farmed, and how, when, where, and by whom. So in
essence to educate all comers, that when they spend money on food (or
edible food like substances), this leads to social and environmental
outcomes of which they are currently oblivious. We hope to use good
science (and scientists), celebrity chefs, global food heros (authors
and activists) to underline the point. Hopefully all wrapped in an
appetising package that ends with a convivial long table meal and a
positive message.
The reason I am passionate about this is that
food is life, eating is an agricultural and environmental act, and we
all eat. The trick will be to give the audience an empowering
infotainment experience. The way we source the food we eat can save the
planet, AND be a healthy, pleasurable and social experience. What's
not to like about that?
16 September 2009
I had the
ABC's 7:30 Report at the farm for the afternoon yesterday. They were
filming a segment for the Slow Food dinner to welcome Carlo Petrini,
founder of the Slow Food movement. This is to be held at Alex Herbert's
Bird Cow Fish restaurant on October 17. Apparently they were filming
the paddock component of this 'paddock to plate' dinner.
I think
the reporter and cameraman weren't sure what to make of our farm, there
were animals everywhere, all tame and approachable, and all edible :-)
They filmed me driving to the paddock, feeding the animals, talking to
the pigs that will end up on the plate and so on. Last filmed was the
interview component, and I have no idea how I will come across to
viewers. Whilst I think I offered eloquent and intelligent answers,
truth is I may sound like the village idiot. It all depends on the
editing, so we shall see - I might be edited out altogether.
Anyway
I think I was waxing more or less eloquently about rare breeds, Slow
Food, etcetera, until one question threw me completely, and I have Alex
Herbert to repay for this ;-) The question was "It has been suggested
that you yourself are a rare breed, what do you say to that?" No idea
what I replied, but thoughts of "they're coming to take me away, ha ha"
influenced my answer. Whilst what I do seems odd to the majority, like
most people I see myself as perfectly 'normal' so the question gave rise
to fleeting cognitive dissonance. But here is something to ponder;
convention is merely innovation that was successful. We are successful,
so with dedicated effort our type of farming will become conventional,
of this I am convinced. I will admit that I can count the people and
farms in Australia doing what we do on one hand so, until more farmers
rally to the cause, that does make us rare.
Perhaps what I
should have said is "Yes our farm and way of farming is rare at this
point in time, but the Slow Food Terra Madre experience made me realize
that we are part of a large and growing global movement." Ahhh, the
benefit of hindsight. Perhaps I'll get to say this on camera at the
dinner.
Anyway the experience had sparked an idea (not another
one I hear you say) and I will talk to several 'doco' makers we know
about putting together a short film about our farm and what we are
trying to achieve/demonstrate. This, in case you don't realize, is a
small scale working and replicable example of a socially,
environmentally and economically viable farm. A farm that will remain
viable in a carbon constrained and climate challenged world.
15
September 2009
A wonderful article about us has appeared in the
Public Service News http://www.psnews.com.au/dinepsn185.html It is written by
Christine Salins a food and travel writer and her site is at www.foodwinetravel.com.au
.
14 September 2009
Some of the 12 day old chicks have
been sold and Briana has another sixty eggs in the incubator.
The
lambs have formed a brat pack and are running, jumping and playing
together all over the front paddock.
The piglets are healthy and
growing fast.
The cows are due to drop calves any minute and I'll
head out soon to check on them.
I love spring and the promise of new
life.
4 September 2009
Twenty chicks and still more
hatching! Twin lambs have started to appear too. Two sets arrived last
night and, as it was raining, is further proof that sheep prefer to
birth in foul weather.
Some talks I think you may enjoy from the
TED site. The first is by Cary Fowler about crop diversity and it's
importance to our survival. It is here.
The
second is by Michael Pollan who wrote Omnivore's Dilemma. He talks
about Joel Salatin's farm which is the one we try to emulate allowing
for climatic differences. Michael's talk is here.
The third is by Mark Bittman and is about what is wrong with
what we eat (and how it is farmed) and is here.
I thoroughly enjoyed and commend these talks to you. All make
salient points about what is wrong with the agro-industrial food system
that dominates globally. More importantly they all make suggestions for
change for the better.
2 September 2009
There is much
excitement in the household this evening, my youngest daughter fired up
the egg incubator 21 days ago and baby chicks are appearing. We have
had baby chicks before of course, hatched and raised by broody chooks,
but this time we are watching them break out of their shells. Briana is
quite literally counting her chickens before they hatch, 7 so far and
possibly 53 more to go!
Briana selected the eggs vary carefully
from only Australorp chickens, and as we only run pure bred Australorp
roosters the theory is we will have pure bred chicks. So far so good,
as the chicks are black with the markings that indicate purity.
31
August 2009
Looks like we finished up the month with 66mm of
rain, and I'm happy with that. It's still below our monthly average for
August, and we are at 43% of our annual average rainfall when we should
be at 66%. Still, we have faired better than most and the pastures
have some ground moisture to carry us through spring. Summer will be
another matter.
Lambs are appearing at a rapid rate. I have no
idea why they seem to chose the coldest and windiest periods to make
their first appearance, but it seems to be that way. Last week it was
18 degrees and sunny and no lambs arrived. Over the weekend it sleeted,
rained, the winds blew and a dozen or so lambs decided it was time.
All arrived without need of my intervention, which is as it should be.
We
are out of pork by the way, and it will be 6 months before there is
more. I am still working on getting a Wessex Saddleback pig breeding
co-op going in our region. It's early days but I have two others
interested in sharing genetics and marketing of the pork. A third
farmer breeds a very nice breed of outdoor pig and I hope to convince
him to start with the Wessex. Divided we are weak and combined we are
not much stronger, but the survivability of the Wessex will be better
served if we join forces.
27 August 2009
It appears
that the pork label mentioned yesterday is incorrect. It is simply not
possible
as no live pigs come in and out of Australia, there are even
restrictions on processed pork products entering Oz.
So either the label is a hoax, or was mislabelled (deliberately or
otherwise) in Belgium. Either way I was sucked in, and I'm sorry if I
caused alarm.
Anyway, it seems we can all breath a sigh of relief that the world
is
not completely mad after all.
26 August 2009
The world has gone mad, and I have the
proof! Below is a link you simply must see, it shows that pigs are
being born in Canada, shipped to Australia to be raised, and then
shipped to Belgium where they are killed.
The photo is of a
supermarket pricing sticker from the EU which has strict country of
origin labelling laws. Note the bottom section.
http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs200.snc1/6769_110320909669_777904669_2101748_3468300_n.jpg
The
only reason I have this photo, is that when Kim de Poorter told me
about it, I said, "Impossible, it can't be true, no way is anybody that
stupid", so he supplied the evidence to prove me wrong. And I thought I
knew a lot about how bad food miles are, but this has taken it to a
whole new level, and Australia is complicit in this environmental
vandalism.
25 August 2009
This is very scary stuff
folks, the H1N1 has been found in birds, turkey flocks to be precise.
The H1N1 virus (swine flu) is very contagious, if it links up with the
very lethal bird flu there will be a pandemic and possibly millions of
human deaths.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/08/21/2663128.htm?section=justin
The
H1N1 was first discovered in humans who were exposed to the virus from
an industrial piggery in Mexico, now H1N1 is in birds at an industrial
turkey farm in Chile. Bird flu is transmitted to humans working in
intensive factory poultry situations. I should not need to point this
out, but the common denominator of this potentially fatal pandemic
waiting to happen, is the industrial and intensive farming of animals
for human consumption. Either the authorities can't or won't see where
the cause of the problem lies, and will continue to treat symptoms - 2
million doses of Tamiflu won't stop a fatal pandemic if it takes off, so
consider yourselves warned.
As an eternal optimist I hope the
above will not eventuate, and "she'll be right mate", but I suspect (and
epidemiologists agree) it's not a matter of if H1N1 and "bird flu"
combine, but when.
22 August 2009
A week ago I
mentioned a special dinner in Sydney that we might be supplying our pork
to, well it's official, we will be supplying Wessex Saddleback pork to
Alex Herbert of bird cow fish, for a welcome dinner for Carlo Petrini,
the founder of Slow Food. Carlo is visiting Australia in October to
launch Slow Food Australia timed to coincide with the Sydney
International Food Festival. A big honour for us and I will break our
self imposed embargo on supplying Sydney for this special event.
This
is a must read article for those of you who take the environmental
impacts of your food choices. The article encapsulates what we have
been saying for many years and our catch cry of "beyond organic". And
please don't dismiss the article because it is about American
agriculture and food systems, in many ways our agricultural distortions
are just as bad and in some cases worse.
19 August 2009
Like
many of you I am increasingly annoyed at the game playing, spin and
point scoring surrounding Emissions Trading, and the increasing number
of free permits to the major polluters. Politicians can't help
themselves of course, but the foolishness of free permits to major
polluters should evident to all. However just in case it isn't, here is
my take on it at the personal level.
Smoking is a public health
issue the government wishes to address, smoking is both addictive and is
known to cause cancer and many other seriously debilitating diseases.
Government wants to lower the number of cigarettes consumed so places
heavy taxes on cigarettes and simultaneously funds quit smoking
campaigns. The story sounds familiar so far, but now the government
does something very strange, it gives out free cigarettes to some
'special case' smokers. In fact the government decides that the most
addicted and heavy of smokers, those smoking 4 packs a day or more, will
receive their cigarettes free of charge.
The above example is
ridiculous of course, and would not be tolerated in a civilized society,
but it is exactly what the government is proposing with the ETS and
free permits to pollute to be issued to the largest emitters. Of course
it is all rationalized and wrapped up in spin like "if we don't give
them free permits, they will move off shore and jobs will be lost", but
when all said and done, we are subsidizing the major polluters to give
us and our planet the equivalent of "passive smoking" diseases.
15
August 2009
As I was saying our pigs risk catching swine flu
from humans, the Royal Adelaide show has decided not to have pigs on
show this year to protect the pigs and their owners. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/08/15/2656946.htm
14
August 2009
The Bureau of Meteorology is confirming what I was
predicting some two months ago - another el nino event. Our dam inflows
match those of the ACT's water supply and are down by some 90% http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/08/13/2654961.htm
Soon I'll have to start pumping water from the lower dams that are at
90% capacity, to the top dam which is at 30% capacity and falling. The
top dam gravity feeds the stock troughs and fire fighting hoses at the
house and sheds.
I was in Sydney yesterday and visited Alex
Herbert of bird cow fish. It seems the Sydney International Food
Festival can't get it's act together fast enough (too many cooks
spoiling the ...........?) so they have missed out on our pork for the
opening. Their loss is our Canberra co-producers gain. The good news
though is that the Fergus Henderson diner is still on, and there is the
potential that we will be supplying for another VIP diner at bird cow
fish too. Can't say who, what or why yet, but all will be revealed
shortly.
Yes I know, I have publicly stated my philosophical
objection to supplying Sydney with our produce, but I am prepared to
break my self imposed embargo for maybe 4 or 5 special people in this
world. Two of them just happen to be in Sydney this October, and as
Groucho Marx said, "Those are my principles, and if you don't like
them... well, I have others" ;-)
11 August 2009
I
think the Fireside Festival event went well, with Kim managing to feed
50+ people with 4 courses. Unfortunately we ran way overtime so it was a
very long lunch. Not sure if I'll bother doing it again next year,
it's a lot of time and effort for a negative financial outcome.
It
costs us to be involved in the festival and we lose several hundred
dollars for our efforts - I guess I'm over it. To put it into numbers
for you, we supplied over $600 worth of saleable meat and put in many
hours of effort, to receive $400 in return. I know it's for a good
cause, promoting the Slow Food philosophy of good clean and fair food,
but it would be much easier to just donate $200 and put my efforts into
other things. Do we get any publicity out of it to compensate? I
sincerely doubt Mountain Creek Farm will get any, but hopefully Kim
will, Mt Majura winery will by being the venue, and the novelty factor
of local truffles will ensure some publicity for Sherry.
The
first of our seasons lambs have arrived and the Llamas are very
protective. Even though I am the Llama's 'friend' (well I feed them and
they definitely like that), they instinctively put themselves between
me and the lamb. Hopefully they will dispatch any foxes that are
tempted, but I wonder if they will see the crows as a threat. Crows
are a nasty threat to lambs as they eat the eyes of newborns whilst
they sleep - nature is indeed red in tooth and claw.
Our
Wessex Saddleback pork will be available again this weekend. I
inspected the carcasses early this morning at the butchers and they
looked great.
Our next lot of Belted Galloway beef is on
it's way and is ageing nicely in the coolrooms. The first beef will be
available on Sunday 30 August.
An apology to a few of our
beef customers. In our last batch of beef there were 8 carcasses, 7
were destined to be sold as cuts in packs, and 1 was deemed not up to
our usual standard and was to be turned into mince and sausages.
Unfortunately the one due to be minced was sold as cuts and one of the
good ones was minced. So if you received some very tasty but
uncharacteristically tough beef from us last month, we sincerely
apologise. If you come and see us at the markets, or let us know via
email, we'll make it up to you with something special and assure you it
won't happen again.
1 August 2009
Some of you may have
wondered why we closed the farm to visitors after the "swine flu" first
hit Australian shores, well this is why http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/07/31/2642757.htm
Basically pigs have been infected by humans in NSW and it is this
swapping of the disease between humans and pigs, and the possible
mutation of the disease into something really serious, that concerns us.
We
finished off July with some 65mm of rain - we're happy with this even
though it's a bit below average.
30 July 2009
Piglets
have arrived! Three of our Wessex Saddleback girls have produced 19
squealing little pigs all on their own. Not bad for first time mums. I
was present for one the deliveries acting as midwife and I wasn't
needed, but placing a wet piglet on a nipple and getting it sucking made
me feel useful. Another girl is due today, so I'll be keeping watch.
Two of the new mums have been with a family on a property east of
Canberra for a few weeks, and are doing well. In fact the owners are so
impressed by the temperament of the Wessex, that they are contemplating
2 more sows!
Well things are getting interesting with the
Fireside Festival event at Mt Majura Winery this Sunday. French chef
extraordinaire Kim De Poorter, is stressing about the ability of the
facilities to serve the 50 or patrons their 4 courses and keep things
warm. If we were doing this within a commercial kitchen it would be no
problem, but we have one smallish commercial oven, and a domestic cook
top. I have no doubt Kim will excel on the day, coordinating the event
with aplomb which was a sell out soon after bookings opened.
I'll
be talking to a prominent restaurant business (arguably the best) in
Canberra next week, about supplying rare breed meats to them on an
ongoing basis. If we can make this work, it will enable us to expand
the production of the "best pork on the planet" via a co-operative
network of small farmers. If it works for pork, it should work for beef
and lamb as well. This is a very exciting development and I should be
able to reveal all next week.
More exciting still, 'bigger than
Ben Hur' and very daunting, is the prospect of supplying the relaunch of
the Sydney International Food Festival with the planet's best pork! If
this comes off, it has the potential to pull the Wessex Saddleback pig
back from potential oblivion. The publicity potential in having 8 or so
of Sydney's best chef's, coordinated by a world great, and then cook
with the best of rare breed pork singing it's praises, is huge. More on
this next week too :-)
24 July 2009
The Llamas have
settled in well. I still have them confined to the small paddock above
the house with the ewes so they bond. I'll let them out into the front
paddock early next week - some of the ewes look ready to burst and I
expect a good drop of twin lambs. Funnily enough I was hearing fox
calls before the Llamas arrived, but these have stopped - might be a
coincidence? Secretly I hope the mere presence of the majestic Llamas
has scared them off.
Speaking of lamb, we still have some of our
Wiltshire lamb available. We had a leg roast the other night and it was
very refined, subtle flavours and tender. This lamb is much smaller
(restaurant size) than previously, as they were weaned earlier to
protect the ewes during the drought. Still, feedback so far has been
very positive with the only question being about their size. This is
our last lamb for 9 months or so.
Great News! Alex
Herbert of birdcowfish
thinks our pork is "amazing, flavoursome and tender", and so the Fergus
Henderson diner is now a goer. I not so secretly hope to address the
gathering about the wonders of Wessex Saddleback pig - we shall see.
Back in early June I posted the following about the event:
And
now for some exciting news. Well it's really exciting if
you are a foodie or a chef. I have been asked if I could supply some
pork to birdcowfish for a special dinner in October for a visiting
chef's chef. Fergus Henderson, of St John
restaurant London, and Nose to Tail cook books/philosophy fame, single
handedly rekindled global foodie interest in offal and other cuts of
meat rarely seen in restaurants. Apparently jaded chefs and foodies
from all over the world visit St John to get a taste of "the real". As
producers of food that's real, this has always been music to our
palates.
Anyway, his books have pride of place in our cooking
library, and many of you will know that we enthusiastically support
honouring our animals' ultimate sacrifice by eating all cuts. That
said all this may come to nought, as Alex of BCF hasn't tried our pork
yet and may change her mind when she does. OK, so Alex not liking our
pork is unlikely, given the feedback we get, but you never know, and we
can't assume it's a given. So fingers crossed.
20 July 2009
Have
password, can email. Yep, we're back on-line with a monster modem that
looks like it came from the set of first series of Dr Who. So all
being well, "I'll get back to you" - after I've waded through the
mountain of spam. My various filters are swinging back into action, but
it will take a while to teach them what is OK and what isn't.
Enough
boring IT stuff. Tomorrow I pick up the two newest members of the team
- Llamas! We were discussing ways and means of keeping our lambs and
piglets safe from foxes. We had narrowed it down to the Maremma dogs,
or Alpacas. Reason eventually prevailed and I decided that a Maremma
spending nights at the foot of my bed would not be an effective fox
deterrent. So off we toddle to find a suitable paddock dwelling Alpaca
fox chaser.
Reason did not prevail when we were offered a
choice of Alpaca and Llama. For me it was love at first sight. Sure
Alpacas are cute, but Llamas and I just clicked. I can rationalise the
purchase of course - and justify it to the tax man too.
So today I
introduce the Llamas to the Wiltshire ewes in a small paddock. This is
so that the ewes don't run a mile at the sight of their large guardians
- both stand 2 metres tall or so. They will live in the front paddock
which will be our lambing paddock, and this happens to surround the pig
breeding area. This should mean both lambs and piglets are safer from
becoming a fox dinner. Not sure what the Belties or Llamas will make of
each other .................. we shall see.
18 July 2009
Trials
and tribulations with Telstra. Apologies for the lack of response to
any emails you may have sent. Thanks to Telstra I have yet again been
off air for 10 days and still can't retrieve my emails. The latter is
not Telstras fault but mine. In installing the new wireless broadband
etcetera, it required my email account password - which I have
forgotten. I am attempting to retrieve said email, but in the mean time
please ring if it's urgent.
8 July 2009
Two things of
significance have occurred in the last few days. The big 'O' organic
certification industry and I are of the same mind - shock horror. They
are now admitting what I have been banging on about for years, that when
they certify a business or farm as "organic" it is only "point in time
certification". This means they know they can only be sure that the
produce, farm, processor, etcetera is organic, at the time their
certifier was present. So for the other 364 and half days of the year,
the produce might be "organic" or might not - common sense really.
So
common sense it is, and it was most likely brought home to the
certifying bureaucracy by the insurance industry. Just imagine trying
to get indemnity insurance cover for your business, against wrongful
claims by a third party once removed, for a business you have no control
over and inspect half a day once a year. I'm sure it could be done,
but the conditions, exclusions and premiums placed on such a policy by
the insurers would be severe. This would be the same insurers that
forbid the certifiers, many of whom are very experienced farmers
themselves, giving advice to the farmers whose properties they are
inspecting because they might be sued if the advice is less than
perfect. So now the insurance industry, driven by a fear of litigation
and risk minimization, is determining how 'organic' food is being
'handled' by the certifying bureaucracy!
Rant part two. As a
composting socialist, the second bit of stupidity and inhumanity I'm
pee'd off about is the decision by the Fair Pay Commission to 'freeze'
the wages of Australia's lowest paid workers. How's this for logic in
the country of the fair go? Last year the commission doesn't grant a
rise to workers because of inflationary fears, this year they don't
grant a rise because of recessionary fears. So if inflation is a threat
our workers don't get a rise, but if the reverse is true they still
don't get a rise. So under what idyllic conditions will out lowest paid
workers be granted a pay rise? And will an employer really sack
someone because they will cost the business the equivalent of an extra
cup of coffee a day ($16 per week)? And someone on $544 per week will
spend every cent of their $16 and stimulate the economy - I thought this
was desirable during the GFC and what the $900 cash bonuses were about?
6 July 2009
First real frost of the year this morning
at -2 Celsius.
1 July 2009
Bad news I'm afraid, I've
just been studying the Bureau of Meteorology site and it looks like
we're heading into more drought. The ENSO, SOI and various other long
range indicators are not good. I don't think we can call it drought any
longer, as this is becoming the norm - perhaps it will be known as "the
drying". It seems odd to be writting this whilst it rains. Anyway, as
we have already implemented "plan B", it leaves us no room for error.
Maintaining the fertility of out farm is paramount and so further stock
reductions, pending more weather and climate investigations, are likely
:-(
1 July 2009
A prosperous new financial year to you
all. We finished the end of the financial year paperwork yesterday
literally at the 11th hour - couldn't do it without the interweb. Also
finished up June with 78.5mm of that glorious wet stuff that falleth
occasionally from the sky, so a good month for rain. Interesting how
that which was previously known as an 'average' month has been elevated
to 'good' status. We're still in rainfall deficit though, as the total
for the first 6 months is 258.5mm when it should be around 450mm - our
rainfall is not seasonal. No wonder the top dams are still low and not
filling.
Fast Food = Low Grades
A new study on the
consumption of junk food and academic performance, involving 5,500 10
and 11-year-olds, has found that a higher-than-average consumption of
fast food can have a significant impact on students' academic ability.
The study, led by Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, is the first to
show a conclusive connection between high-fat and sugary foods and low
academic results.
So the link between diet and academic
performance has been scientifically verified, well wonders will never
cease............
On the other hand, Slow Food = Good, Clean
and Fair food, and better performance ;-)
Slow Food’s approach to
agriculture, food production and gastronomy is based on the concept of
food quality defined by three interconnected principles: good, clean and
fair.
Good food is tasty and flavorsome, stimulating and
satisfying for the senses;
Clean food is produced in a way
that respects ecosystems, animals, biodiversity and the landscape; its
consumption is not harmful to human health.
Fair food
production is respectful of social justice, meaning fair pay and
conditions for all involved; prices must be affordable for consumers and
fair for producers.
Our Aquaponic investigations are progressing
- aquaponics is the symbiotic production of fish and plants in an
extremely efficient closed loop system. We purchased a "commercial
package" from Hawaii which is a detailed set of plans and instructions
on building a system. Obviously our climate will dictate many changes
to the system, as it will to the species we can grow. We chose the
Hawaiian system as it is one of the few commercial systems successfully
operating, with owners happy to share their info and experience at a
modest price.
We will be trialling two small but scalable systems
to see how they perform, staring this spring. The first will use rafts
floating on ponds to grow semi aquatic edible plants, the second will
use river gravel in beds, with the fish water flowing continuously
though them, to grow the fruiting plants (tomatoes etcetera). Both
systems will driven by various species of native fish, yabbies and fresh
water mussels.
22 June 2009
Forgot to say yesterday,
that our Belted Galloway beef is back on the menu. If you have some on
order, all the bulk orders will be ready for collection this coming
Sunday 28th June.
Again I must say the beef looks superb, and in
talking to Darren, our butcher, he says we pay a high price for this
quality. In Darren's professional opinion we are loosing at least 20%
of our potential saleable meat due to the extended ageing we insist on.
Moisture evaporation is part of the issue, and the balance is the extra
trimming of the dark and hard dried edges of the meat. So Darren is
telling us that our meat should be at least 20% dearer than all others
(unless they do an extended dry ageing too, and we know they don't),
this is before we take into account the rare breed, pasture finishing
and slow growth rates, the extra care and time in ethical treatment,
etcetera.
Incidentally, this dry ageing is why our co-producers
tell us our meat is better than all but the very best of restaurants. I
am also told you can count these restaurants on the fingers of one
hand, for the whole of Australia! Most butchers will only age meat for a
week at best, a few will age meat for ten days. The better restaurants
will then take delivery of this meat as primal cuts, and often 'wet
age' it for another couple of weeks to make it tender.
Wet
ageing is very different to our dry ageing and you may know it as
cryovacing or vacuum packing/storing. Wet ageing is an anaerobic
process with the meat encased in plastic without air, which produces
different bacteria (anaerobic bacteria) that slowly breaks down the
fibres of the meat, changing it's texture and taste. This is an
artificial ageing process that was purely designed to save money, by
preventing moisture loss and extending shelf life. The world's best
chefs and gourmets will tell you that this is not good practise and
spoils the natural flavours of the meats - we have tried it and agree.
We
on the other hand dry age our beef for a minimum of 3 weeks, with the
beef being processed in the fourth week. However we often age it for 4
to 5 weeks This last lot for example), and sometimes even longer. The
best steaks our chef and foodie friends say they have ever had came from
a 6 year old cull cow who had been dry aged for 6 weeks! This cow, who
was way too old to eat according to mainstream food 'wisdom', is our
benchmark for quality.
Dry ageing is how meat should be made
tender and flavourful, and has
been the preferred method for centuries if not millennia. Well it was
the preferred method of improving meat until the economic rationalists
reorganized food as an industrial commodity with profits to be
maximized, and costs externalized, wherever possible.
Anyway, I worry a lot about charging a fair price for our meats, but
it is becoming increasingly obvious that there must be a price rise for
our beef soon. It will be our first price rise for two years, so I
hope our co-producers are sympathetic and will pay for the extra care
and attention that goes into producing quality food.
21 June
2009 Happy winter solstice!
On the Sunday 2nd of August at 12
noon, we are teaming up with chef Kim de Poorter to do a special
Fireside Festival lunch at the Mt Majura vineyard and winery. We did
this last year with some success, and being suckers for punishment, we
are doing it again. These events sell out very quickly and are superb
value for money (about $50 a head incl. wines), so get in quick.
Perhaps I should tell you that producer/chef dinners like this in
Sydney are $125+ a head, and considered cheap at the price.
Menus have been posted on the festivals site, but take our menu with a
grain of salt as it will be subject to change without notice!
In
essence there will be our beef, lamb, pork and egg dishes, with local
truffles featuring in one or two dishes as well. We "plan" the
following range of delectable dishes including twice cooked
Whiltshire lamb shank in puff pastry, Belted Galloway beef fillet with
truffle mash and Madeira jus, and Wessex Saddleback Toulouse pork
sausages in/on/with something, for your pleasure. For desert Kim will
show us how to make a sabayon. Homeleigh Grove extra virgin olive oils
will be served at table and all dishes will be accompanied by a range of
current and museum release wines from Mount Majura Vineyard.
The
reason I say we "plan" the dishes, and that this means they may change a
little, is that most have no idea how difficult it is as a micro
producer to co-ordinate the timing of growing, finishing, transporting,
slaughtering, ageing, processing, and delivery of 3 different species
simultaneously. Particularly as we have reached the limits of our farms
sustainable production capabilities for these species, and are having
trouble supplying our co-producers as it is. So I'm fairly sure I'll
won't be supplying all three animal species simultaneously again.
Anyway
many of our co-producers were disappointed last year when they
missed out on the Fireside do, so get your skates on, farm out the
kids, park the parents, and book as soon as you can.
I really
hope Mt Majura have their proposed bubbly in production by the festival,
because I had an advance tasting of the one and only bottle, and it was
superb - told them not to change a thing too!! OK, so I am
opinionated, but I'll definitely be buying a case or three for our
summer solstice celebrations ;-)
11 June 2009
Well
winter has arrived with a vengeance, and our first calf for the year
arrived in the thick of it. We had wind, rain, sleet and a little snow
over the last few days, and for some reason Belties calve in the worst
of it - the cold and miserable weather must remind them of home -
Scotland. Anyway mum and bub are both well, and we await more of our
special girls to calve.
We don't normally calve at the beginning
of winter, we like an early spring calving when the cows get the boost
they need from the new and fast pasture growth. However we are bring
our herd back into sync with the seasons as our herd is a composite of
smaller herds, and these calved whenever they could get a bull. Many
smaller herds don't run bulls, they borrow or lease them when available,
usually after the bull owner has finished with him for the season.
Anyway
this cold snap delivered 9mm of rain, taking our monthly total to date
to 30mm. Not counting our chickens before they hatch, but this might
turn out to be a wet winter - touch wood - as our dams are in need of
topping up.
And now for some exciting news. Well it's
really exciting if you are a foodie or a chef. I have been asked if I
could supply some pork to birdcowfish for a special dinner in October
for a visiting chef's chef. Fergus Henderson, of St John restaurant London,
and Nose to Tail cook books/philosophy fame, single handedly rekindled
global foodie interest in offal and other cuts of meat rarely seen in
restaurants. Apparently jaded chefs and foodies from all over the world
visit St John to get a taste of the real. As producers of food that's
real, this has always been music to our palates.
Anyway, his
books have pride of place in our cooking library, and many of you will
know that we enthusiastically support honouring our animals' ultimate
sacrifice by eating all cuts. That said all this may come to nought, as
Alex of BCF hasn't tried our pork yet and may change her mind when she
does. OK, so Alex not liking our pork is unlikely, given the feedback
we get, but you never know, and we can't assume it's a given. So
fingers crossed.
9 June 2009
Spent a lot of the long
weekend in Sydney asleep to be honest, so just as well they are
understanding friends we stay with. Our Saturday night outing to Bird
Cow Fish was interesting for many reasons. And forget parking anywhere
near the venue on a Saturday night - take a taxi. Actually we only had
to park a block and a half away, so I exaggerate.
Anyway we
ordered one of every main (there were 6 of us) and tried most entrées
that BCF had to offer too, and all were good. BCF don't know it, but
their toughest test was their grass finished beef sirloin steak -
something we know a little about. Their steak was very good, cooked to
perfection, even had flavour, but I am also pleased to announce - not as
good as our Beltie steaks. Having done this 'test' a few times, I am
now firmly convinced that quality ingredients are the key to good
cooking. A good chef can make an average ingredient better, but an
average cook can do as well if starting with better ingredients. Not
that the steak at BCF was average, far from it, it was superb, probably
Angus, and really I don't think you could find a better steak in Sydney.
All
in all we had a good night, topped with a special cake I had BCF to
make and be delivered to the table for my daughter's birthday. I also
got a quick look inside the kitchen in full flight too - most
impressively busy with chef's litterally dripping with the effort of
creative endeavours. I managed not to disrupt the flow in the kitchen
and now we await the verdict on our pork, as I left some belly and
roasts for Alex to play with.
I have just faxed off the cutting
list to Darren and Megan (our butchers) for our beef, which has been
aging nicely in their coolrooms for several weeks. So with a bit of
luck some of the outstanding beef orders will be filled this Sunday,
with the balance the following two Sundays.
2 June 2009
Please
note we will not be at the markets this coming weekend, we're having a
short break - yeeeehah!!
We will be staying with friends in
Sydney and going to bird cow
fish on Saturday night. I was at Slow Food's Terra Madre with Alex
Herbert (chef/owner of BCF) and promised to take her some Wessex
Saddleback pork to play with when I visited Sydney next. I don't think
we will ever be in a position to supply her restaurant if she likes our
pork, but the feedback from one of Australia's top chefs will be
interesting. Oh and Alex was one of the celebrity chefs on certain
commercial TV program recently (and I thought I was a media tart). I
shouldn't mention Master Chef by name because my mate, and French chef
extraordinaire Kim de Poorter, will have a fit. I'm reliably informed
that Kim has been know to hurl verbal abuse, probably in French, at the
judges of said program. I really must tell him that's it not real, it's
called 'local content' infotainment television!
We finished up
with 13mm of rain for May, nowhere near enough to replenish dams or soil
moisture. Still, it could have been worse as 12 km east (Canberra
airport) they received but 2mm for the month. Here's hoping for a wet
winter so that our top dams are filled, the lower ones are still at 90%
thank goodness.
We have sold out of Whitshire hogget, but there
will be more available on Sunday 19th July if all goes to plan.
There
is still some pork left in 5 and 10kg packs, but no mince or sausages
until Sunday 5th July. After the July pork there will be a substantial
pause in production. Why? Well my boar seems to be besotted with one
particular sow and doesn't notice the other 'girls'. He is obviously
attracted to larger and older females, as she is both. I'll have to
separate her from the rest so the other girls get a look in.
The
beef is coming along nicely and will be available late June.
© 2007,
2008,2009 by Michael Croft and Mountain Creek Farm, All rights
reserved.
negative response from the Organizing Committee citing "without
prejudice", "Intellectual Property" and "Copyright". So much for YAN
performing as a network and in the spirit of the common good. We had
planned to edit the day and interviews down to 5 or 6 minutes, and give
all our professional footage to them to use as they see fit.
But
not to worry that YAN are playing petty bureaucratic power games in the
midst of a climate crisis and mass extinction event - we have bigger
fish to fry. We will interview the scientists we want at another time
and place and leave YAN to their own confused agenda.
15
October 2009
Just a quick update. Was in Sydney again this
morning filming with the ABC 7:30 Report, and it seems there will
be a Slow Food, paddock to plate feature on in the very near future.
I'll be back in Sydney over the weekend, where the ABC will finish
filming the Carlo Petrini Slow Food welcome dinner at Bird Cow Fish. So
I anticipate the piece will air some time next week, but I will advise
the date and time when I know.
On Saturday we film the Slow Food
Australia inaugural conference, with Carlo Petrini in attendance at the
UWS. I get to do a 15 minute talk on farm animal biodiversity issues at
the conference and then field questions with the panel.
On the
Sunday Fred Harden and I will be filming Peter Andrews, of Natural
Sequence Farming and Australian Story x 2 fame, at the Royal Botanical
Gardens in Sydney. Here we will also get to briefly interview Carlo
Petrini and then film Carlo and Peter as the visionaires meet for the
first time. After that we film the public address by Carlo at the Opera
House and subsequent interview by Joanna Savill.
On Monday we
film a rather special meal at Justin North's Becasse Restaurant, with a
few celebrities present. Then it's home to do what I love most which is
look after the farm. Truly, I have no idea why anyone would choose to
live in Sydney, it's OK for a visit, but ....................
As a
result of all the above, Elizabeth will be on her own at the markets
this Sunday and may not be able to take as much produce as usual, so
please be nice to my wonderful and long suffering wife :-)
I
missed this one, but Christine Salins had more nice things to say about
us http://www.psnews.com.au/dinepsn186.html
By the way, our open day is still going to be November
3, Family Day holiday in the ACT and Melbourne Cup day everywhere
else. Be warned we will be filming the event, so if this is a problem -
don't come this time. This is going to be a simple affair mainly aimed
at children - a gentle "meet your food" event, without it being too
obvious. Please register by dropping us an email, and I'll send you a
mud map. Our sausages will be cooked and available on the day for a
gold coin donation - all proceeds will go to the ACT Karen Refugee group
for seeds, seedlings and anything else required to get them started on
the farm.
14 October 2009
OK so I am biased about our
latest beef and my comments of a day ago are not to trusted, but what
follows is part of a reorder email I received last night.
"Wow, we are about to enjoy the last of our 'Slow Pack' when we eat a
lovely slow cooked stew tomorrow night...All I can say is WOW.
I probably haven't done the beef justice with my cooking skills but it
is just so darn tasty. And the sausages...I was lost for words when I
ate the sausages. They are the nicest sausages I have EVER eaten,
without a doubt. It takes me back to my childhood, eating a sausage
that actually tastes like beef, not sawdust...it's unreal, thank you!
The kids are enjoying eating the meat from the 'Happy Cows' (as we call
them)."
We think it's pretty good too, and it's really nice to
know our efforts are appreciated. Heritage breeding, grass finishing,
extended dry ageing, careful handling, chemical free, and attention to
detail all add up to good, clean and fair food.
BTW there will be
a few changes to our website very soon as the Big 'O' organic industry,
in cahoots with Standards Australia, have legally stolen the words
organic and biodynamic for the preferential and exclusive use by their
certified members. Of course the move is all covered in spin about
preventing the deceptive behaviour of the unscrupulous, and we, and
those like us, are merely collateral damage. But I ain't finished with
the well intended fools yet!
In essence we will no longer be able
to call our product organic or biodynamic unless we are certified as
such by an approved certifying body. So hence forth our catch cry will
be "Beyond Organics!" and will will join the likes of Joel
Salatin in the USA giving the bureaucracy curry for it's innate
ineptitude. Much more on this later.
12 October 2009
Just
had some of our latest lot of Beltie Beef, and I must say this is some
of the nicest beef we have ever produced. I guess it's the difference
some good spring grass makes to the finish, and the beef is slightly
more tender than usual and sweeter too. We still have some of this
spring grass finished beef left, so I suggest trying some while it's
available, it's pleasantly different and won't last long.
A bit
tired at the moment as the Sydney International Food Festival takes it's
toll, but I really feel for the chef's like Alex Herbert who must be
running on pure adrenalin after many successive 18+ hour days.
This
morning I took what I am calling Carlo's pigs to the abattoir. Two of
our Wessex Saddleback pigs joined the food chain for Carlo Petrini's
Slow Food welcome dinner at Bird Cow Fish. They were just the best
pigs, so well behaved and the kill was quick and humane.
Alex
Herbert now knows I'm a real softy when it comes to my pigs. They made
brawn form the heads of the pigs at Bird Cow Fish, saved the skulls,
then boiled them clean as a display for the Fergus Henderson tribute
dinner - which was a total success by the way. Anyway as I was cradling
a skull before the dinner, Alex and Fergus came over and asked me
something about the pigs. As I was telling them that only days earlier I
had been patting and talking to this very pig, as she contentedly
browsed in the field, the tears welled. What can I say, except
sometimes it's just plain hard to be human.
The pigs however,
were much honoured in the eating, and during the dinner I had a
revelation. I think it was as the mains streamed past me to the 80 or
so diners (Kylie Kwong and Sean Moran were guests) that I suddenly
realized that my pigs were making a lot of people very happy. It sounds
silly, and hard to describe, but I'd not seen my pigs feed so many
people in one sitting, and prepared to such a high standard. It was a
good feeling anyway. And no I am not supplying any more pigs to Sydney
restaurants!
I now have the skull at home, and I think Alex
plans to send another one of the cleaned skulls to Fergus as a memento.
Perhaps my pig's skull will end up on display at St John Restaurant in
London - now that would be something.
5 October 2009
Wow,
oh wow, "you should have been there!" as they say. It's taken me a day
to recover form the amazing joy ride that was the opening of the Sydney
International Food Festival. 3 of our pigs on spits being celebrated
by the whose who of Sydney's chefs/restaurants: Jared Ingersoll, Justin
North, Matthew Kemp, Kylie Kwong, Jeremy
Strode, Alex Herbert, Paul McGrath, Martin Boetz, Colin Fassnidge,
Warren Turnbull, Lauren Murdoch and Sean Connolly, all under the helpful
hands of Margot and Fergus Henderson.
I was so busy with the
filming for the doco that I didn't take any photos, but here's a link
with some pictures of our pigs on the spits http://grabyourfork.blogspot.com/2009/10/siff-nose-to-tail-barbecue-with-fergus.html
you'll have to scroll down a bit to get to them. Also did an
impromptu radio interview with ABC Radio 702 - Sydney and managed to
say my rare breeds bit. Here's another food blog that shows the chef's
and spit http://fooderati.blogspot.com/
I
came home to 16.5mm of rain and it's drizzling as I write this with
another 4mmin the guage. Now to help Elizabeth with the gst for the
quarter, and then back to Sydney for the Fergus Henderson tribute dinner
and more filming. Alex Herbert took pity on me as the dinner is $200 a
head, so Fred Harden and I will be relegated to the kitchen to eat at
no charge - some hardship! ;-)
1 October 2009
September
yielded 86mm of rain, a great result. Pastures are recovering and all
is looking better as we head into summer.
The doco idea has wings
and I'm off to Sydney this Saturday to film three of our pigs on spits
in front of thousands of ravenous foodies at the SMH Pyrmont growers
markets. Fergus and Margot Henderson will be doing the honours, which
is in turn a great honour for us. The pigs are to be whole, but boned
out for easy carving - I can't wait.
Next Tuesday we will be
interviewing Fergus at Bird Cow Fish and then filming the tribute dinner
which also stars our Wessex Saddlebacks. Mind you at $200 a head I
baulked at the price. Yes I know it's Sydney and Fergus and special,
but even so It takes your breath away. I suppose I'll just have to curb
my composting socialist tendences for the event.
Here's an
article that I found interesting on the future of food http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/09/30/2701245.htm
My
guess is that it will be used to justify GM crops being further
expanded across Australia.
And here's another article, but a good
news one that tickled my fancy http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/09/30/2700352.htm
As Paul Kelly sings "From little things big things grow". I'll try to
get his permission to use his song in our doco :-)
24
September 2009
Our seasonal vegetable 'Plan A' is back on
track. I think we first offered the
opportunity back in the spring of 2007, and it is now 2 years
later and we may have real potential for a win/win. It's all very
exciting.
To cut a short story even shorter, Amie Hope is a volunteer case manager
for Canberra's Karen refugee group, I suggested our Plan A for the
growing of seasonal vegetables, she thought it
would be a possibility, and the Karen group are coming to investigate
the farm and possibilities, next Friday (to be confirmed).
The Karen peoples of Burma/Myanmar have suffered enormously under the
brutal and self serving military
regime that has been in power for decades. Catholic Care is looking
after the Karen refugees that are in Canberra, and by chance I met Amie
at the Food Dialogue run by the ANU and
Canberra Uni.
I can see this working very well indeed. The Karen will undoubtedly be
good farmers and hard workers. We will provide the land, water and
infrastructure for them to grow food for their families here on our
farm. If they are interested, we could develop the growing further
so that the surplus is available for sale at the farmers markets
seasonally. This would have many benefits to the group including:
social inclusion, much English language practice, financial return, and
so on.
More on this later after the meeting and farm inspection
takes place.
22 September 2009
I am getting increasing
numbers of daily requests for pork and lamb. This is fantastic and we
appreciate your desire to support our farm and enjoy our produce.
Unfortunately, and barring a minor miracle, we will have no pork or lamb
for six months at least. That's the bad news, but I know you
understand that quality takes time and is worth the wait.
The
good news is that we have quite good supplies of our beef at the moment,
and I must say it's looking really good. This mainly because we have
had a mild winter and early spring with almost average rainfall for the
last 4 months. The rains have meant good pasture growth, which results
in stunning cattle as they finish on the fresh green shoots of spring
and early summer. Yes folks even beef is seasonal - or it should be.
Oh, and the green shoots are real btw, not the imaginings and spin born
of a GFC!
The seasons do make a difference to both the quality
and quantity of beef we can produce, not only that but our beef tastes
different season to season depending on the composition of pasture
species and their palatability. So with beef (and lamb) not only is
terroire evident in the aromas and flavours, but also the seasons.
OK
I'm back on my high horse now. I'd like to couple food miles, food
processing and agriculture into one carbon footprint. At the moment
they are accounted for separately, with agriculture contributing to 19%
of Australia's carbon emissions, transport about the same, and
manufacturing or processing of food another percentage. I suspect if we
linked all the carbon emissions of bringing food to the consumer, the
percentage would be closer to 35% of Australia's total carbon
emissions. Particularly so since the average Australian's shopping
baskets 29 most common items travel 70,803 kilometres by the time they
reach your refrigerator or pantry shelf. If you are not shocked by this
fact, you should be! Flying and trucking food thousands of kilometres
is symptomatic of what is wrong with our planet's climate and the reason
we are in the middle of a mass extinction event.
Change what
you eat, and who, how and where it is grown, and you change the planet -
it's that simple. Let the politicians deal with coal and aluminium
smelters, simply "be the change you want to see" - Ghandi
21
September 2009
Back to the doco idea. Things are moving quickly
on that front as we have a unique opportunity to capitalize on the
Sydney International Food Festival bringing various food
heros/stars/gods together in one place in October. So Fred Harden
(editor of Regional Food Magazine)and I have teamed up with the
intention of giving any and all of these famous people another few
minutes more of fame by articulating what they are doing, and how this
is benefiting the the people, the planet and profit. Profit is
essential for the good works to continue and facilitates the expansion
of local, national and international movements dedicated to the triple
bottom line.
For us the triple bottom line is aptly expressed by
the Slow Food movements credo that food should be good, clean and fair,
or as Carlo Petrini put it in a letter to me, "the principles that the
food we eat should taste good; that it should be produced in a clean way
that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or our health; and
that food producers should receive fair compensation for their work."
OK so the letter was a form letter that went to all Terra Madre
delegates, but it's the thought that counts.
We also work our
farm using the principles of Holistic Management, and this is best
expressed by the idea that businesses should be socially,
environmentally and economically viable and sustainable. Furthermore HM
states, and we know it to be true, that if you ignore one of the three
pillars the business/system/country/planet eventuyally collapses.
This
is reflected in the local Canberra group SEE-Change,
the SEE standing for Society, Economy and the Environment.
Again this is bringing the triple bottom line of people, planet and
profit to the fore.
Most people accept the principle of triple
bottom line accounting, but in the cut and thrust of a globalized world
the emphasis is usually placed on profit with lip service, or minimal
attention, to people and the planet. This is hardly surprising as we
have been force fed a great deal of economic rationalist dogma poop over
the last few decades. As long as governments and corporations refer to
their people as a 'resource' to be used in the most
efficient/productive/profitable way possible, demanding efficiency
dividends for every gain in working condition or pay, we have a major
problem. The mere names of Human Resources Department or HR manager
tells us we have a systemic problem that won't be easily 'fixed'.
But
I digress (as usual). What we hope to do is produce a doco or dvd
(perhaps several) that will show people how their simple food choices
determines what is farmed, and how, when, where, and by whom. So in
essence to educate all comers, that when they spend money on food (or
edible food like substances), this leads to social and environmental
outcomes of which they are currently oblivious. We hope to use good
science (and scientists), celebrity chefs, global food heros (authors
and activists) to underline the point. Hopefully all wrapped in an
appetising package that ends with a convivial long table meal and a
positive message.
The reason I am passionate about this is that
food is life, eating is an agricultural and environmental act, and we
all eat. The trick will be to give the audience an empowering
infotainment experience. The way we source the food we eat can save the
planet, AND be a healthy, pleasurable and social experience. What's
not to like about that?
16 September 2009
I had the
ABC's 7:30 Report at the farm for the afternoon yesterday. They were
filming a segment for the Slow Food dinner to welcome Carlo Petrini,
founder of the Slow Food movement. This is to be held at Alex Herbert's
Bird Cow Fish restaurant on October 17. Apparently they were filming
the paddock component of this 'paddock to plate' dinner.
I think
the reporter and cameraman weren't sure what to make of our farm, there
were animals everywhere, all tame and approachable, and all edible :-)
They filmed me driving to the paddock, feeding the animals, talking to
the pigs that will end up on the plate and so on. Last filmed was the
interview component, and I have no idea how I will come across to
viewers. Whilst I think I offered eloquent and intelligent answers,
truth is I may sound like the village idiot. It all depends on the
editing, so we shall see - I might be edited out altogether.
Anyway
I think I was waxing more or less eloquently about rare breeds, Slow
Food, etcetera, until one question threw me completely, and I have Alex
Herbert to repay for this ;-) The question was "It has been suggested
that you yourself are a rare breed, what do you say to that?" No idea
what I replied, but thoughts of "they're coming to take me away, ha ha"
influenced my answer. Whilst what I do seems odd to the majority, like
most people I see myself as perfectly 'normal' so the question gave rise
to fleeting cognitive dissonance. But here is something to ponder;
convention is merely innovation that was successful. We are successful,
so with dedicated effort our type of farming will become conventional,
of this I am convinced. I will admit that I can count the people and
farms in Australia doing what we do on one hand so, until more farmers
rally to the cause, that does make us rare.
Perhaps what I
should have said is "Yes our farm and way of farming is rare at this
point in time, but the Slow Food Terra Madre experience made me realize
that we are part of a large and growing global movement." Ahhh, the
benefit of hindsight. Perhaps I'll get to say this on camera at the
dinner.
Anyway the experience had sparked an idea (not another
one I hear you say) and I will talk to several 'doco' makers we know
about putting together a short film about our farm and what we are
trying to achieve/demonstrate. This, in case you don't realize, is a
small scale working and replicable example of a socially,
environmentally and economically viable farm. A farm that will remain
viable in a carbon constrained and climate challenged world.
15
September 2009
A wonderful article about us has appeared in the
Public Service News http://www.psnews.com.au/dinepsn185.html It is written by
Christine Salins a food and travel writer and her site is at www.foodwinetravel.com.au
.
14 September 2009
Some of the 12 day old chicks have
been sold and Briana has another sixty eggs in the incubator.
The
lambs have formed a brat pack and are running, jumping and playing
together all over the front paddock.
The piglets are healthy and
growing fast.
The cows are due to drop calves any minute and I'll
head out soon to check on them.
I love spring and the promise of new
life.
4 September 2009
Twenty chicks and still more
hatching! Twin lambs have started to appear too. Two sets arrived last
night and, as it was raining, is further proof that sheep prefer to
birth in foul weather.
Some talks I think you may enjoy from the
TED site. The first is by Cary Fowler about crop diversity and it's
importance to our survival. It is here.
The
second is by Michael Pollan who wrote Omnivore's Dilemma. He talks
about Joel Salatin's farm which is the one we try to emulate allowing
for climatic differences. Michael's talk is here.
The third is by Mark Bittman and is about what is wrong with
what we eat (and how it is farmed) and is here.
I thoroughly enjoyed and commend these talks to you. All make
salient points about what is wrong with the agro-industrial food system
that dominates globally. More importantly they all make suggestions for
change for the better.
2 September 2009
There is much
excitement in the household this evening, my youngest daughter fired up
the egg incubator 21 days ago and baby chicks are appearing. We have
had baby chicks before of course, hatched and raised by broody chooks,
but this time we are watching them break out of their shells. Briana is
quite literally counting her chickens before they hatch, 7 so far and
possibly 53 more to go!
Briana selected the eggs vary carefully
from only Australorp chickens, and as we only run pure bred Australorp
roosters the theory is we will have pure bred chicks. So far so good,
as the chicks are black with the markings that indicate purity.
31
August 2009
Looks like we finished up the month with 66mm of
rain, and I'm happy with that. It's still below our monthly average for
August, and we are at 43% of our annual average rainfall when we should
be at 66%. Still, we have faired better than most and the pastures
have some ground moisture to carry us through spring. Summer will be
another matter.
Lambs are appearing at a rapid rate. I have no
idea why they seem to chose the coldest and windiest periods to make
their first appearance, but it seems to be that way. Last week it was
18 degrees and sunny and no lambs arrived. Over the weekend it sleeted,
rained, the winds blew and a dozen or so lambs decided it was time.
All arrived without need of my intervention, which is as it should be.
We
are out of pork by the way, and it will be 6 months before there is
more. I am still working on getting a Wessex Saddleback pig breeding
co-op going in our region. It's early days but I have two others
interested in sharing genetics and marketing of the pork. A third
farmer breeds a very nice breed of outdoor pig and I hope to convince
him to start with the Wessex. Divided we are weak and combined we are
not much stronger, but the survivability of the Wessex will be better
served if we join forces.
27 August 2009
It appears
that the pork label mentioned yesterday is incorrect. It is simply not
possible
as no live pigs come in and out of Australia, there are even
restrictions on processed pork products entering Oz.
So either the label is a hoax, or was mislabelled (deliberately or
otherwise) in Belgium. Either way I was sucked in, and I'm sorry if I
caused alarm.
Anyway, it seems we can all breath a sigh of relief that the world
is
not completely mad after all.
26 August 2009
The world has gone mad, and I have the
proof! Below is a link you simply must see, it shows that pigs are
being born in Canada, shipped to Australia to be raised, and then
shipped to Belgium where they are killed.
The photo is of a
supermarket pricing sticker from the EU which has strict country of
origin labelling laws. Note the bottom section.
http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs200.snc1/6769_110320909669_777904669_2101748_3468300_n.jpg
The
only reason I have this photo, is that when Kim de Poorter told me
about it, I said, "Impossible, it can't be true, no way is anybody that
stupid", so he supplied the evidence to prove me wrong. And I thought I
knew a lot about how bad food miles are, but this has taken it to a
whole new level, and Australia is complicit in this environmental
vandalism.
25 August 2009
This is very scary stuff
folks, the H1N1 has been found in birds, turkey flocks to be precise.
The H1N1 virus (swine flu) is very contagious, if it links up with the
very lethal bird flu there will be a pandemic and possibly millions of
human deaths.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/08/21/2663128.htm?section=justin
The
H1N1 was first discovered in humans who were exposed to the virus from
an industrial piggery in Mexico, now H1N1 is in birds at an industrial
turkey farm in Chile. Bird flu is transmitted to humans working in
intensive factory poultry situations. I should not need to point this
out, but the common denominator of this potentially fatal pandemic
waiting to happen, is the industrial and intensive farming of animals
for human consumption. Either the authorities can't or won't see where
the cause of the problem lies, and will continue to treat symptoms - 2
million doses of Tamiflu won't stop a fatal pandemic if it takes off, so
consider yourselves warned.
As an eternal optimist I hope the
above will not eventuate, and "she'll be right mate", but I suspect (and
epidemiologists agree) it's not a matter of if H1N1 and "bird flu"
combine, but when.
22 August 2009
A week ago I
mentioned a special dinner in Sydney that we might be supplying our pork
to, well it's official, we will be supplying Wessex Saddleback pork to
Alex Herbert of bird cow fish, for a welcome dinner for Carlo Petrini,
the founder of Slow Food. Carlo is visiting Australia in October to
launch Slow Food Australia timed to coincide with the Sydney
International Food Festival. A big honour for us and I will break our
self imposed embargo on supplying Sydney for this special event.
This
is a must read article for those of you who take the environmental
impacts of your food choices. The article encapsulates what we have
been saying for many years and our catch cry of "beyond organic". And
please don't dismiss the article because it is about American
agriculture and food systems, in many ways our agricultural distortions
are just as bad and in some cases worse.
19 August 2009
Like
many of you I am increasingly annoyed at the game playing, spin and
point scoring surrounding Emissions Trading, and the increasing number
of free permits to the major polluters. Politicians can't help
themselves of course, but the foolishness of free permits to major
polluters should evident to all. However just in case it isn't, here is
my take on it at the personal level.
Smoking is a public health
issue the government wishes to address, smoking is both addictive and is
known to cause cancer and many other seriously debilitating diseases.
Government wants to lower the number of cigarettes consumed so places
heavy taxes on cigarettes and simultaneously funds quit smoking
campaigns. The story sounds familiar so far, but now the government
does something very strange, it gives out free cigarettes to some
'special case' smokers. In fact the government decides that the most
addicted and heavy of smokers, those smoking 4 packs a day or more, will
receive their cigarettes free of charge.
The above example is
ridiculous of course, and would not be tolerated in a civilized society,
but it is exactly what the government is proposing with the ETS and
free permits to pollute to be issued to the largest emitters. Of course
it is all rationalized and wrapped up in spin like "if we don't give
them free permits, they will move off shore and jobs will be lost", but
when all said and done, we are subsidizing the major polluters to give
us and our planet the equivalent of "passive smoking" diseases.
15
August 2009
As I was saying our pigs risk catching swine flu
from humans, the Royal Adelaide show has decided not to have pigs on
show this year to protect the pigs and their owners. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/08/15/2656946.htm
14
August 2009
The Bureau of Meteorology is confirming what I was
predicting some two months ago - another el nino event. Our dam inflows
match those of the ACT's water supply and are down by some 90% http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/08/13/2654961.htm
Soon I'll have to start pumping water from the lower dams that are at
90% capacity, to the top dam which is at 30% capacity and falling. The
top dam gravity feeds the stock troughs and fire fighting hoses at the
house and sheds.
I was in Sydney yesterday and visited Alex
Herbert of bird cow fish. It seems the Sydney International Food
Festival can't get it's act together fast enough (too many cooks
spoiling the ...........?) so they have missed out on our pork for the
opening. Their loss is our Canberra co-producers gain. The good news
though is that the Fergus Henderson diner is still on, and there is the
potential that we will be supplying for another VIP diner at bird cow
fish too. Can't say who, what or why yet, but all will be revealed
shortly.
Yes I know, I have publicly stated my philosophical
objection to supplying Sydney with our produce, but I am prepared to
break my self imposed embargo for maybe 4 or 5 special people in this
world. Two of them just happen to be in Sydney this October, and as
Groucho Marx said, "Those are my principles, and if you don't like
them... well, I have others" ;-)
11 August 2009
I
think the Fireside Festival event went well, with Kim managing to feed
50+ people with 4 courses. Unfortunately we ran way overtime so it was a
very long lunch. Not sure if I'll bother doing it again next year,
it's a lot of time and effort for a negative financial outcome.
It
costs us to be involved in the festival and we lose several hundred
dollars for our efforts - I guess I'm over it. To put it into numbers
for you, we supplied over $600 worth of saleable meat and put in many
hours of effort, to receive $400 in return. I know it's for a good
cause, promoting the Slow Food philosophy of good clean and fair food,
but it would be much easier to just donate $200 and put my efforts into
other things. Do we get any publicity out of it to compensate? I
sincerely doubt Mountain Creek Farm will get any, but hopefully Kim
will, Mt Majura winery will by being the venue, and the novelty factor
of local truffles will ensure some publicity for Sherry.
The
first of our seasons lambs have arrived and the Llamas are very
protective. Even though I am the Llama's 'friend' (well I feed them and
they definitely like that), they instinctively put themselves between
me and the lamb. Hopefully they will dispatch any foxes that are
tempted, but I wonder if they will see the crows as a threat. Crows
are a nasty threat to lambs as they eat the eyes of newborns whilst
they sleep - nature is indeed red in tooth and claw.
Our
Wessex Saddleback pork will be available again this weekend. I
inspected the carcasses early this morning at the butchers and they
looked great.
Our next lot of Belted Galloway beef is on
it's way and is ageing nicely in the coolrooms. The first beef will be
available on Sunday 30 August.
An apology to a few of our
beef customers. In our last batch of beef there were 8 carcasses, 7
were destined to be sold as cuts in packs, and 1 was deemed not up to
our usual standard and was to be turned into mince and sausages.
Unfortunately the one due to be minced was sold as cuts and one of the
good ones was minced. So if you received some very tasty but
uncharacteristically tough beef from us last month, we sincerely
apologise. If you come and see us at the markets, or let us know via
email, we'll make it up to you with something special and assure you it
won't happen again.
1 August 2009
Some of you may have
wondered why we closed the farm to visitors after the "swine flu" first
hit Australian shores, well this is why http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/07/31/2642757.htm
Basically pigs have been infected by humans in NSW and it is this
swapping of the disease between humans and pigs, and the possible
mutation of the disease into something really serious, that concerns us.
We
finished off July with some 65mm of rain - we're happy with this even
though it's a bit below average.
30 July 2009
Piglets
have arrived! Three of our Wessex Saddleback girls have produced 19
squealing little pigs all on their own. Not bad for first time mums. I
was present for one the deliveries acting as midwife and I wasn't
needed, but placing a wet piglet on a nipple and getting it sucking made
me feel useful. Another girl is due today, so I'll be keeping watch.
Two of the new mums have been with a family on a property east of
Canberra for a few weeks, and are doing well. In fact the owners are so
impressed by the temperament of the Wessex, that they are contemplating
2 more sows!
Well things are getting interesting with the
Fireside Festival event at Mt Majura Winery this Sunday. French chef
extraordinaire Kim De Poorter, is stressing about the ability of the
facilities to serve the 50 or patrons their 4 courses and keep things
warm. If we were doing this within a commercial kitchen it would be no
problem, but we have one smallish commercial oven, and a domestic cook
top. I have no doubt Kim will excel on the day, coordinating the event
with aplomb which was a sell out soon after bookings opened.
I'll
be talking to a prominent restaurant business (arguably the best) in
Canberra next week, about supplying rare breed meats to them on an
ongoing basis. If we can make this work, it will enable us to expand
the production of the "best pork on the planet" via a co-operative
network of small farmers. If it works for pork, it should work for beef
and lamb as well. This is a very exciting development and I should be
able to reveal all next week.
More exciting still, 'bigger than
Ben Hur' and very daunting, is the prospect of supplying the relaunch of
the Sydney International Food Festival with the planet's best pork! If
this comes off, it has the potential to pull the Wessex Saddleback pig
back from potential oblivion. The publicity potential in having 8 or so
of Sydney's best chef's, coordinated by a world great, and then cook
with the best of rare breed pork singing it's praises, is huge. More on
this next week too :-)
24 July 2009
The Llamas have
settled in well. I still have them confined to the small paddock above
the house with the ewes so they bond. I'll let them out into the front
paddock early next week - some of the ewes look ready to burst and I
expect a good drop of twin lambs. Funnily enough I was hearing fox
calls before the Llamas arrived, but these have stopped - might be a
coincidence? Secretly I hope the mere presence of the majestic Llamas
has scared them off.
Speaking of lamb, we still have some of our
Wiltshire lamb available. We had a leg roast the other night and it was
very refined, subtle flavours and tender. This lamb is much smaller
(restaurant size) than previously, as they were weaned earlier to
protect the ewes during the drought. Still, feedback so far has been
very positive with the only question being about their size. This is
our last lamb for 9 months or so.
Great News! Alex
Herbert of birdcowfish
thinks our pork is "amazing, flavoursome and tender", and so the Fergus
Henderson diner is now a goer. I not so secretly hope to address the
gathering about the wonders of Wessex Saddleback pig - we shall see.
Back in early June I posted the following about the event:
And
now for some exciting news. Well it's really exciting if
you are a foodie or a chef. I have been asked if I could supply some
pork to birdcowfish for a special dinner in October for a visiting
chef's chef. Fergus Henderson, of St John
restaurant London, and Nose to Tail cook books/philosophy fame, single
handedly rekindled global foodie interest in offal and other cuts of
meat rarely seen in restaurants. Apparently jaded chefs and foodies
from all over the world visit St John to get a taste of "the real". As
producers of food that's real, this has always been music to our
palates.
Anyway, his books have pride of place in our cooking
library, and many of you will know that we enthusiastically support
honouring our animals' ultimate sacrifice by eating all cuts. That
said all this may come to nought, as Alex of BCF hasn't tried our pork
yet and may change her mind when she does. OK, so Alex not liking our
pork is unlikely, given the feedback we get, but you never know, and we
can't assume it's a given. So fingers crossed.
20 July 2009
Have
password, can email. Yep, we're back on-line with a monster modem that
looks like it came from the set of first series of Dr Who. So all
being well, "I'll get back to you" - after I've waded through the
mountain of spam. My various filters are swinging back into action, but
it will take a while to teach them what is OK and what isn't.
Enough
boring IT stuff. Tomorrow I pick up the two newest members of the team
- Llamas! We were discussing ways and means of keeping our lambs and
piglets safe from foxes. We had narrowed it down to the Maremma dogs,
or Alpacas. Reason eventually prevailed and I decided that a Maremma
spending nights at the foot of my bed would not be an effective fox
deterrent. So off we toddle to find a suitable paddock dwelling Alpaca
fox chaser.
Reason did not prevail when we were offered a
choice of Alpaca and Llama. For me it was love at first sight. Sure
Alpacas are cute, but Llamas and I just clicked. I can rationalise the
purchase of course - and justify it to the tax man too.
So today I
introduce the Llamas to the Wiltshire ewes in a small paddock. This is
so that the ewes don't run a mile at the sight of their large guardians
- both stand 2 metres tall or so. They will live in the front paddock
which will be our lambing paddock, and this happens to surround the pig
breeding area. This should mean both lambs and piglets are safer from
becoming a fox dinner. Not sure what the Belties or Llamas will make of
each other .................. we shall see.
18 July 2009
Trials
and tribulations with Telstra. Apologies for the lack of response to
any emails you may have sent. Thanks to Telstra I have yet again been
off air for 10 days and still can't retrieve my emails. The latter is
not Telstras fault but mine. In installing the new wireless broadband
etcetera, it required my email account password - which I have
forgotten. I am attempting to retrieve said email, but in the mean time
please ring if it's urgent.
8 July 2009
Two things of
significance have occurred in the last few days. The big 'O' organic
certification industry and I are of the same mind - shock horror. They
are now admitting what I have been banging on about for years, that when
they certify a business or farm as "organic" it is only "point in time
certification". This means they know they can only be sure that the
produce, farm, processor, etcetera is organic, at the time their
certifier was present. So for the other 364 and half days of the year,
the produce might be "organic" or might not - common sense really.
So
common sense it is, and it was most likely brought home to the
certifying bureaucracy by the insurance industry. Just imagine trying
to get indemnity insurance cover for your business, against wrongful
claims by a third party once removed, for a business you have no control
over and inspect half a day once a year. I'm sure it could be done,
but the conditions, exclusions and premiums placed on such a policy by
the insurers would be severe. This would be the same insurers that
forbid the certifiers, many of whom are very experienced farmers
themselves, giving advice to the farmers whose properties they are
inspecting because they might be sued if the advice is less than
perfect. So now the insurance industry, driven by a fear of litigation
and risk minimization, is determining how 'organic' food is being
'handled' by the certifying bureaucracy!
Rant part two. As a
composting socialist, the second bit of stupidity and inhumanity I'm
pee'd off about is the decision by the Fair Pay Commission to 'freeze'
the wages of Australia's lowest paid workers. How's this for logic in
the country of the fair go? Last year the commission doesn't grant a
rise to workers because of inflationary fears, this year they don't
grant a rise because of recessionary fears. So if inflation is a threat
our workers don't get a rise, but if the reverse is true they still
don't get a rise. So under what idyllic conditions will out lowest paid
workers be granted a pay rise? And will an employer really sack
someone because they will cost the business the equivalent of an extra
cup of coffee a day ($16 per week)? And someone on $544 per week will
spend every cent of their $16 and stimulate the economy - I thought this
was desirable during the GFC and what the $900 cash bonuses were about?
6 July 2009
First real frost of the year this morning
at -2 Celsius.
1 July 2009
Bad news I'm afraid, I've
just been studying the Bureau of Meteorology site and it looks like
we're heading into more drought. The ENSO, SOI and various other long
range indicators are not good. I don't think we can call it drought any
longer, as this is becoming the norm - perhaps it will be known as "the
drying". It seems odd to be writting this whilst it rains. Anyway, as
we have already implemented "plan B", it leaves us no room for error.
Maintaining the fertility of out farm is paramount and so further stock
reductions, pending more weather and climate investigations, are likely
:-(
1 July 2009
A prosperous new financial year to you
all. We finished the end of the financial year paperwork yesterday
literally at the 11th hour - couldn't do it without the interweb. Also
finished up June with 78.5mm of that glorious wet stuff that falleth
occasionally from the sky, so a good month for rain. Interesting how
that which was previously known as an 'average' month has been elevated
to 'good' status. We're still in rainfall deficit though, as the total
for the first 6 months is 258.5mm when it should be around 450mm - our
rainfall is not seasonal. No wonder the top dams are still low and not
filling.
Fast Food = Low Grades
A new study on the
consumption of junk food and academic performance, involving 5,500 10
and 11-year-olds, has found that a higher-than-average consumption of
fast food can have a significant impact on students' academic ability.
The study, led by Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, is the first to
show a conclusive connection between high-fat and sugary foods and low
academic results.
So the link between diet and academic
performance has been scientifically verified, well wonders will never
cease............
On the other hand, Slow Food = Good, Clean
and Fair food, and better performance ;-)
Slow Food’s approach to
agriculture, food production and gastronomy is based on the concept of
food quality defined by three interconnected principles: good, clean and
fair.
Good food is tasty and flavorsome, stimulating and
satisfying for the senses;
Clean food is produced in a way
that respects ecosystems, animals, biodiversity and the landscape; its
consumption is not harmful to human health.
Fair food
production is respectful of social justice, meaning fair pay and
conditions for all involved; prices must be affordable for consumers and
fair for producers.
Our Aquaponic investigations are progressing
- aquaponics is the symbiotic production of fish and plants in an
extremely efficient closed loop system. We purchased a "commercial
package" from Hawaii which is a detailed set of plans and instructions
on building a system. Obviously our climate will dictate many changes
to the system, as it will to the species we can grow. We chose the
Hawaiian system as it is one of the few commercial systems successfully
operating, with owners happy to share their info and experience at a
modest price.
We will be trialling two small but scalable systems
to see how they perform, staring this spring. The first will use rafts
floating on ponds to grow semi aquatic edible plants, the second will
use river gravel in beds, with the fish water flowing continuously
though them, to grow the fruiting plants (tomatoes etcetera). Both
systems will driven by various species of native fish, yabbies and fresh
water mussels.
22 June 2009
Forgot to say yesterday,
that our Belted Galloway beef is back on the menu. If you have some on
order, all the bulk orders will be ready for collection this coming
Sunday 28th June.
Again I must say the beef looks superb, and in
talking to Darren, our butcher, he says we pay a high price for this
quality. In Darren's professional opinion we are loosing at least 20%
of our potential saleable meat due to the extended ageing we insist on.
Moisture evaporation is part of the issue, and the balance is the extra
trimming of the dark and hard dried edges of the meat. So Darren is
telling us that our meat should be at least 20% dearer than all others
(unless they do an extended dry ageing too, and we know they don't),
this is before we take into account the rare breed, pasture finishing
and slow growth rates, the extra care and time in ethical treatment,
etcetera.
Incidentally, this dry ageing is why our co-producers
tell us our meat is better than all but the very best of restaurants. I
am also told you can count these restaurants on the fingers of one
hand, for the whole of Australia! Most butchers will only age meat for a
week at best, a few will age meat for ten days. The better restaurants
will then take delivery of this meat as primal cuts, and often 'wet
age' it for another couple of weeks to make it tender.
Wet
ageing is very different to our dry ageing and you may know it as
cryovacing or vacuum packing/storing. Wet ageing is an anaerobic
process with the meat encased in plastic without air, which produces
different bacteria (anaerobic bacteria) that slowly breaks down the
fibres of the meat, changing it's texture and taste. This is an
artificial ageing process that was purely designed to save money, by
preventing moisture loss and extending shelf life. The world's best
chefs and gourmets will tell you that this is not good practise and
spoils the natural flavours of the meats - we have tried it and agree.
We
on the other hand dry age our beef for a minimum of 3 weeks, with the
beef being processed in the fourth week. However we often age it for 4
to 5 weeks This last lot for example), and sometimes even longer. The
best steaks our chef and foodie friends say they have ever had came from
a 6 year old cull cow who had been dry aged for 6 weeks! This cow, who
was way too old to eat according to mainstream food 'wisdom', is our
benchmark for quality.
Dry ageing is how meat should be made
tender and flavourful, and has
been the preferred method for centuries if not millennia. Well it was
the preferred method of improving meat until the economic rationalists
reorganized food as an industrial commodity with profits to be
maximized, and costs externalized, wherever possible.
Anyway, I worry a lot about charging a fair price for our meats, but
it is becoming increasingly obvious that there must be a price rise for
our beef soon. It will be our first price rise for two years, so I
hope our co-producers are sympathetic and will pay for the extra care
and attention that goes into producing quality food.
21 June
2009 Happy winter solstice!
On the Sunday 2nd of August at 12
noon, we are teaming up with chef Kim de Poorter to do a special
Fireside Festival lunch at the Mt Majura vineyard and winery. We did
this last year with some success, and being suckers for punishment, we
are doing it again. These events sell out very quickly and are superb
value for money (about $50 a head incl. wines), so get in quick.
Perhaps I should tell you that producer/chef dinners like this in
Sydney are $125+ a head, and considered cheap at the price.
Menus have been posted on the festivals site, but take our menu with a
grain of salt as it will be subject to change without notice!
In
essence there will be our beef, lamb, pork and egg dishes, with local
truffles featuring in one or two dishes as well. We "plan" the
following range of delectable dishes including twice cooked
Whiltshire lamb shank in puff pastry, Belted Galloway beef fillet with
truffle mash and Madeira jus, and Wessex Saddleback Toulouse pork
sausages in/on/with something, for your pleasure. For desert Kim will
show us how to make a sabayon. Homeleigh Grove extra virgin olive oils
will be served at table and all dishes will be accompanied by a range of
current and museum release wines from Mount Majura Vineyard.
The
reason I say we "plan" the dishes, and that this means they may change a
little, is that most have no idea how difficult it is as a micro
producer to co-ordinate the timing of growing, finishing, transporting,
slaughtering, ageing, processing, and delivery of 3 different species
simultaneously. Particularly as we have reached the limits of our farms
sustainable production capabilities for these species, and are having
trouble supplying our co-producers as it is. So I'm fairly sure I'll
won't be supplying all three animal species simultaneously again.
Anyway
many of our co-producers were disappointed last year when they
missed out on the Fireside do, so get your skates on, farm out the
kids, park the parents, and book as soon as you can.
I really
hope Mt Majura have their proposed bubbly in production by the festival,
because I had an advance tasting of the one and only bottle, and it was
superb - told them not to change a thing too!! OK, so I am
opinionated, but I'll definitely be buying a case or three for our
summer solstice celebrations ;-)
11 June 2009
Well
winter has arrived with a vengeance, and our first calf for the year
arrived in the thick of it. We had wind, rain, sleet and a little snow
over the last few days, and for some reason Belties calve in the worst
of it - the cold and miserable weather must remind them of home -
Scotland. Anyway mum and bub are both well, and we await more of our
special girls to calve.
We don't normally calve at the beginning
of winter, we like an early spring calving when the cows get the boost
they need from the new and fast pasture growth. However we are bring
our herd back into sync with the seasons as our herd is a composite of
smaller herds, and these calved whenever they could get a bull. Many
smaller herds don't run bulls, they borrow or lease them when available,
usually after the bull owner has finished with him for the season.
Anyway
this cold snap delivered 9mm of rain, taking our monthly total to date
to 30mm. Not counting our chickens before they hatch, but this might
turn out to be a wet winter - touch wood - as our dams are in need of
topping up.
And now for some exciting news. Well it's
really exciting if you are a foodie or a chef. I have been asked if I
could supply some pork to birdcowfish for a special dinner in October
for a visiting chef's chef. Fergus Henderson, of St John restaurant London,
and Nose to Tail cook books/philosophy fame, single handedly rekindled
global foodie interest in offal and other cuts of meat rarely seen in
restaurants. Apparently jaded chefs and foodies from all over the world
visit St John to get a taste of the real. As producers of food that's
real, this has always been music to our palates.
Anyway, his
books have pride of place in our cooking library, and many of you will
know that we enthusiastically support honouring our animals' ultimate
sacrifice by eating all cuts. That said all this may come to nought, as
Alex of BCF hasn't tried our pork yet and may change her mind when she
does. OK, so Alex not liking our pork is unlikely, given the feedback
we get, but you never know, and we can't assume it's a given. So
fingers crossed.
9 June 2009
Spent a lot of the long
weekend in Sydney asleep to be honest, so just as well they are
understanding friends we stay with. Our Saturday night outing to Bird
Cow Fish was interesting for many reasons. And forget parking anywhere
near the venue on a Saturday night - take a taxi. Actually we only had
to park a block and a half away, so I exaggerate.
Anyway we
ordered one of every main (there were 6 of us) and tried most entrées
that BCF had to offer too, and all were good. BCF don't know it, but
their toughest test was their grass finished beef sirloin steak -
something we know a little about. Their steak was very good, cooked to
perfection, even had flavour, but I am also pleased to announce - not as
good as our Beltie steaks. Having done this 'test' a few times, I am
now firmly convinced that quality ingredients are the key to good
cooking. A good chef can make an average ingredient better, but an
average cook can do as well if starting with better ingredients. Not
that the steak at BCF was average, far from it, it was superb, probably
Angus, and really I don't think you could find a better steak in Sydney.
All
in all we had a good night, topped with a special cake I had BCF to
make and be delivered to the table for my daughter's birthday. I also
got a quick look inside the kitchen in full flight too - most
impressively busy with chef's litterally dripping with the effort of
creative endeavours. I managed not to disrupt the flow in the kitchen
and now we await the verdict on our pork, as I left some belly and
roasts for Alex to play with.
I have just faxed off the cutting
list to Darren and Megan (our butchers) for our beef, which has been
aging nicely in their coolrooms for several weeks. So with a bit of
luck some of the outstanding beef orders will be filled this Sunday,
with the balance the following two Sundays.
2 June 2009
Please
note we will not be at the markets this coming weekend, we're having a
short break - yeeeehah!!
We will be staying with friends in
Sydney and going to bird cow
fish on Saturday night. I was at Slow Food's Terra Madre with Alex
Herbert (chef/owner of BCF) and promised to take her some Wessex
Saddleback pork to play with when I visited Sydney next. I don't think
we will ever be in a pos
We finished up with 13mm of rain for
May, nowhere near enough to replenish dams or soil moisture. Still, it
could have been worse as 12 km east (Canberra airport) they received but
2mm for the month. Here's hoping for a wet winter so that our top dams
are filled, the lower ones are still at 90% thank goodness.
We
have sold out of Whitshire hogget, but there will be more available on
Sunday 19th July if all goes to plan.
There is still some pork
left in 5 and 10kg packs, but no mince or sausages until Sunday 5th
July. After the July pork there will be a substantial pause in
production. Why? Well my boar seems to be besotted with one particular
sow and doesn't notice the other 'girls'. He is obviously attracted to
larger and older females, as she is both. I'll have to separate her
from the rest so the other girls get a look in.
The beef is
coming along nicely and will be available late June.
27 May 2009
The next lot of beef is ageing nicely in our
butcher's coolroom. I must say it all looks superb, and some will be
available in early June. Whilst most of it is sold, there will be a
little left over and for the first time we will try selling individual
cuts. These will not be available all the time, and will not be able
to be ordered in advance, so first in first served. We haven't figured
out prices yet, but expect to pay similar prices as you would at a
quality butcher.
By the way we are almost out of lamb/hogget and pork, and there will be no more until late July.
As the Swine flu numbers spike here in Australia, our farm is off limits to all human visitors until further notice! As funny as this may sound, we don't want our visitors potentially giving our pigs the flu! It's a biosecurity measure.
15 May 2009
Apologies
to all for the lack of email and internet communication. Don't we all
just love Telstra? Two weeks ago my wireless broadband modem starts to
die. Having tried all the 'help menu' suggestions I ring Telstra. I
attempt to argue with the voice synthesised idiot computer, and
eventually get to a technician. This is after the computer generated
voice becomes exasperated with me and decides I am the idiot. Anyway I
follow all the instructions of the helpful tech who then informs me
that the modem I am using is faulty (i knew this salient piece of
info). He then says that the model I am using is prone to faults and
will be replaced under warrantee in 2 to 4 days - so far so good.
On
day 3 I received an officious threatening letter from Telstra that
states should I fail to return the dodgy modem they will charge me for
it, but no replacement modem has arrived. Day 10 arrives, by which
stage I am truly suffering internet induced isolation/withdrawl
symptoms, and the new modem is in the PO box - things are looking up.
I race home and open the package to find an identicle and possibly also
dodgy modem! No matter I need to get on the net - banking to do and
bills to pay (including bloody Telstra's). Following all instructions
to the letter I fire up the beast - it works, but says I must register
the beast online. But to register the beast online you have to be able
to get online - a classic catch 22. So back onto the techical support
line, deal with the idiot voice recognition computer to eventually get
to a human being.
Finally get a real live person on the line who
is also helpful. She says she will get me registered forthwith. But
no can do. I must be transfered to the department of lost causes to
have my modem registration performed 'manually' - the mind boggles at a
manual registeration of a high tech digital device which the support
people can't do on a keyboard. So I am transfered to somewhere where
they attempt to do a manual registration. This is successful BUT it
will take up to 48 hours before it is effective?? I was having visions
of a telephonist circa 1940, inserting various plugs into sockets after
her rostered day off. Day 13 arrives, I hope the RDO was good, and I
am finally back on line - but still have to register the modem online,
but this time I can do it. Now all I have to do is wade through the
120+ emails and reply to those I deem worthy.
OK rant over and
on to farming stuff. The beef is on it's way but will not be ready
until early June - it looks fantastic. We still have some outstanding
pork left but this will be the last for many months except for some
mince and sausage. We have a little lamb/hogget left but this be all
gone in a week or two.
Did any of you hear the ABC666 producers
lunch on Wednesday? It went live to air between 1 and 3 pm with
Genevieve Jacobs and her crew. It's hard to tell how it came across,
but I think well? Anyway I had a ball. Joyce Wilkie and Michael Plane
were marvellous hosts as usual, and we all cooked up a storm. Anyway
for those interested here is the link to the ABC story http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2009/05/12/2568263.htm?site=canberra&rotator=true
My
pork and the crackling were a bit of a hit, the sausages surprized
Genevieve and crew (some ate 3 or 4!), however the bull porterhouse
roast was a bit dry. Partly due to the old gas oven, and partly due to
my ineptitude as a cook. The flavour was good though.
The technical
side of things was fascinating for me as decades ago (pre digital days)
I worked a little in high end recording studios, we even had an
anechoic chamber for recording musicians without reflected sounds. But
the digital sound and broadcast equipment they had was simply
fascinating.
Anyway for those who may have been listening I
fluffed the ethical meat question posed by Genevieve as I fail to pose
THE question. The question I didn't ask, in the context of animal
welfare and meat eating, was; "Is a short happy life better than no
life at all?" This is the toughest of questions for the non meat
eaters to answer. Even Peter Singer deflects and dodges this one. Let
me put it another way, if you were offered a choice of living a short
happy life (say to age 20) and then dying a quick and painless death,
or not existing at all, what would you choose? As impossible and silly
as this question may seem, I would choose to live a short happy life.
Now,
I do not support the industrialisation of meat production, the same
systems that are giving use bird and swine flu and the potential for
pandemics. And I also support the eating of considerably less meat
than we do, perhaps a 90% reduction as a nation. That said, there are
genuine and valid ecological, cultural, health and social reasons for
eating some meat. Always provided that none of the costs associated
with the production of this meat are externalized - socially,
environmentally, economically, and ethically. As I have said before -
please eat less meat, and when you do make sure it is good, clean, and
fair - slow food.
1 May 2009
April ended with some
decent rain and brought the monthly total to 96.5mm. The rain very much
needed and we are still getting some pasture growth so things are
looking up.
I mentioned in an earlier entry that I was studying
aquaponics, and this continues. What I have found so far that
aquaponics does indeed offer great potential for vegetable and fish
production using less than 10% of the water of conventional
horticulture. It has none of the built in problems of aquaculture and
artificiality of hydroponics from whence it developed as a symbiosis of
systems. Furthermore it can certified organic in the USA - but not in
Australia, basically because the Ozzie organic bureaucracies are too
busy with a turf war to get their acts together at the moment. Pity
because aquaponics is a system that is difficult to cheat, and if any
synthetic or even natural pesticides/treatments are used, the fish die
- which defeats the whole purpose. Also aquaponics lends itself to
being a truly closed loop and minimal environmental impact system,
which is the gold standard for organics, but one that very few farms (I
can count them on one hand) achieve.
Anyway with a bit of luck
I'm off to study the latest developments OS and bring those back and
implement them here on farm. Once again I'll be at odds with the "big
O" organic bureaucracies because I will loudly claim organic status for
the produce of the system - a system that they are too backward to even
recognize, let alone certify.
23 April 2009
Well the
Food for Friends night at Bungendore went well last Saturday night, so
there will be more. The pork rillette was excellent and there was
lashings of it (our pork), but personally I'd have liked a touch more
salt. The Tunisian Lamb and eggplant was also very good (it was
hoggett actually which gave it better flavour), but the batch needed
better stirring at serving time as some people got very little meat and
a lot of sauce and eggplant. In fairness it is hard to tell which is
which when everything is covered in a darkish sauce, and if mention to
the staff more lamb was happily provided. In fact there was no
shortage of food and several people had second helpings. The rhubarb
panacotta had fantastic flavour but, and I'm being picky now, I would
have liked them to have been a bit lighter in texture. So minor
criticisms out of the way, most people I talked to went home very happy
and well fed. When you take into account that this was Chris's first
such dinner and it was for over 50 people, it was an outstanding
success!
Once again we have been doing a lot of thinking,
analysis and soul searching here on the farm. We've been in drought
with little let up for 7 years, and have been seriously wondering if
our farm and modus operandi are truly sustainable. To this end we are
in the process of doing a whole of business review and energy audit -
energy in the fullest sense of the word and not just fossil fuel
inputs. As good as we are when compared to convention agriculture,
initial indications are that the farm is NOT sustainable in this
current environment. Not when we look at the triple bottom line of
environment, financial and social, and then project reduced stock
numbers, outputs and consequent income. We are not sure of the
eventual outcome of deliberations, all we know is that we will continue
farming, and that there must be changes to how we operate.
The
most likely scenario at this stage is reduced beef and lamb production
due to the ongoing dry, and an increase in pork and eggs. We will
continue selling direct and what this probably means to our
co-producers is that the waiting lists for beef will get longer, and
the pork waiting list will get shorter. The lamb, hoggett and mutton
availability will remain much the same. Of course all our projected
numbers are rubbery due to our assumption that demand for our produce
will remain as it has; constant, high and growing.
16 April 2009
Rain
at last! We received 45mm in the last week and already the paddocks
without stock are tinged green. Hopefully the warmish weather will
stay a bit longer for some decent pasture growth.
I may not have
mentioned, but this Saturday night, 7:30 at Cafe Woodworks Bungendore,
there is a foodie event. Chris Curtis is coming out of the closet and
declaring himself one of them, you know - a cook. Anyway a long table
diner of local fine foods is planned, including our pork and lamb, and
a brief talk by yours truly about good clean and fair food, and another
on oysters, and possibly another by Chris on the making of a cook?
Cost $60 per head BYO, and I believe there are a few places left - well
there were last Friday. The menu consists of an oyster tasting, pork
rillettes, Tunisian lamb with couscous and eggplant, and rhubarb
pannacotta. The food press will be in attendance with articles to
follow. So if interested in "Food for Friends" (great name) call the
Cafe on 02 6238 1688 and bookings are essential.
8 April 2009
The
things you see when you don't have a gun! At 1am this morning I scared
the tail off a fox wanting a duck dinner. I awoke to unusual duck
noises from the Aylesbury pen, looked outside to see a huge fox on the
roof attempting to break in. I rushed outside in nothing but shoes and
the sight scared the fox so much, it won't be back for a while. Stupid
really, and half asleep, next time I'll remember to take a gun as well
as shoes. It was the biggest fox I've ever seen. In the full
moonlight it appeared to be the size of a Labrador.
Forgot to
mention the other day that the rainfall for Jan, Feb and March is
<20% of "normal". This low rainfall occurred at our hottest and
driest time of the year too, which hasn't helped matters. The
temperatures are now dropping to single digits over night and soon,
even if we do get rain, the pastures will be mostly dormant - such is
life.
So in the absence of rain I've had to do a little lateral
thinking. I'll be making the paddocks even smaller in size and
planting forage trees around the perimeters. The trees will be drip
irrigated for a few years until established and their roots have gone
deep enough to survive extended droughts. The smaller paddocks will
enable more frequent moves to fresh pastures which will help pasture
growth and animal health. The fodder trees will provide protein and
mineral rich feed in the tough times, as well as wind breaks which
should help the pasture by reducing evaporation rates. What I am
proposing is not the same as the usual Landcare type treatment, it is
far more intensive and should drought proof the farm making it a closed
loop system exporting nothing but converted solar energy in the form of
meat and eggs. At this rate I'll be working the farm in my second
century!
Easter is nearly upon us and you will find us at the
National Folk Festival again this year. I simply love the atmosphere,
the music and food, not to mention the ales on tap. One of my
favourite haunts is the Sessions Bar post 9pm. Here, as the venues
close, many musos gather to jam and continue playing. Nothing beats
sitting next to musicians playing for the love of it. So 'do ya self a
favour' and check out the National Folk Festival.
6 April 2009
The
things you see when you don't have a camera! Millie, our Whippet, was
barking at something as I was mixing more dry lick for the cattle and
sheep. A Whippet barking is a bit unusual (sight hounds rarely bark)
so I investigated the cause of this behaviour. A 1.5 metre (5 foot)
Goanna with a small bunny rabbit half way down it's throat was a sight
to behold. Milie has some competition for her raison d'etre.
Anyway
an Australian native taking revenge on an introduced pest is a most
gratifying sight. When I got there the Goanna's jaw appeared to have
dislocated to accommodate the bunny, and all I could see were the back
legs and the cotton tail. The Goanna then disappeared down what I
thought was a disused burrow, hopefully to digest and feed on another
bunny. A few less Easter bunnies could only be a good thing - bah
humbug.
6 April 2009
Well march has come and gone and
we ended up with a grand total of 11mm - we had the same result in
February. The Feb and March rains evaporated as they fell and no
pasture production resulted. All in all I have not seen the country
this dry. To preserve the precious topsoil I have moved all the
animals into smaller 'sacrifice' paddocks where it looks as though we
will be feeding them until spring. This will not be good for our hip
pocket nerve as we attempt to keep the breeding herd and flock intact
and as healthy as possible. It is with some foreboding that I ponder
the consequences of this being our climate from now on - don't even
want to contemplate it getting worse!
Directly related to the
'dry', some of you may know I am investigating something called
aquaponics and will begin to play with it soon. In essence aquaponics
uses fish in tanks to feed plants in grow beds in a completely closed
loop self regulating system. It appears to offer enormous advantages
in a dry environment, using one tenth of the water to produce leafy
greens, in a little over half the time. Such claims deserve skepticism
and scrutiny which is what I am doing at the moment.
This
application of low technology and high intelligence to food production
in a natural way appeals to me greatly. The benefits to the worlds
driest continent appear immense. Furthermore an increase scale does
not disproportionately benefit the big guys. This technology is as
much at home in a suburban backyard as on large farm. The technology
is relatively simple and has application in the developing world too -
fish for protein and plants for bulk. Don't like fish? Use ducks to
drive the system. All you need is something that naturally excretes
into a body of water and then recirculate this nutrient rich water
though the plants grow beds. And it isn't entirely new either, the
South Americans were building floating rafts on fish and bird rich
ponds to grow vegetables over a thousand years ago.
Anyway I
hope to have a demonstration model of this technology up and running by
our open days in the coming spring. For those interested check out
this Australian forum http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/index.php
and be impressed by the variety of system types (micro to huge)
applications and climate zones (Tassie to FNQ and outback mining towns)
etcetera.
By the way we will not have any beef packs (except
mince and sausages) until late June. There will also be a few changes
to the beef packs to be advised shortly.
26 March 2009
Some
of you may have heard about the red and processed meat study in the USA
that linked cancers with it's consumption. This is largest study of
it's kind and involved 500,000 people over a ten year period. Well be
that as it may, the study is fundamentally flawed! And I say that with
with mixed feelings as we are strong supporters for a reduction in
industrial meat consumption.
My daughters will groan if/when
they read this, but "the quality of question results in the quality of
answer". To lump two entirely different variables (unprocessed red
meat and processed meats) into one category was stupidity by the
researchers in the extreme! Processed meats contain nitrates and a
whole host of other preservatives, flavour enhancers, colours, fillers,
extenders, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Unprocessed red meats usually
do not (the exception being minced meat that often has preservatives
added to prevent discolouring). How they could lump the two together
and treat them the same and then label 'results' is beyond me. So the
question that now should be asked is this: is it the meat or the
processing that is the problem? My extensive research over the last
decade indicates that the culprit is the industrial processing of all
foods (meat included) coupled with excessive consumption of same.
Of
course the other issue with this seriously flawed study is that not all
unprocessed red meats are the same. Pasture finished red meats have a
healthy balance of the essential fatty acids, grain finished (feedlot
or CAFO) red meats do not. So even if the researchers had separated
the processed vs. unprocessed variables, there would still be doubt
about the results. And of course we haven't even discussed the
excessive consumption or obesity of the participants, and these effects
on the "results". So all I can say about this "study" is, beware of
well intended idiots!
23 March 2009
Our new bull Yabba
is proving to be a hit with the 'girls'. He's very vocal - perhaps
they like a good communicator? Anyway he's easy to spot in the heard
as he is a good foot taller than the cows and the one the girls all
gravitate to. Can't wait the 9 months to see his progeny, we are
hoping he will put some height and frame back into the herd. I'll get
my daughters to post some photos on the site as he really is a
magnificent specimen, even in working condition. Yabba really puts
some gravitas behind the appellation of stud bull, he is no
metrosexual, all trussed up and pedicured for show, but the real deal -
walking his talk.
This is a heads up for all our beef
co-producers - our Beltie beef will be at the markets this Sunday. BUT
we can't fit it all in the mobile freezers, so we'll be bring in half
this coming Sunday and the balance next Sunday. As it is we will have
7 chest freezers fully laden and double our usual volume, but still
this will not be enough. We will ring/email you later this week and
let you know which Sunday your beef will be ready. I'm pleased to say
it all looks really good.
We're out of pork mince and sausages
for approx 6-8 weeks, when there will be a large quantity available in
mid May and no more for 6 months or so. That's the bad news. The good
news is that we have a good supply of the 5 and 10 kg pork packs. And
speaking of pork sausages, we were at a 50th birthday do last weekend
and our pork sausages were there for the taking. Several attendees
(who didn't know my connection with the snags) said they were the best
sausages they had ever had.
I've been talking to a few chefs
about joint ventures and value adding to our pork. Basically making
ham (jambon, jamon), prosciutto, bacon, spec, salami and speciality
sausages. Things are moving on this front and we will be doing some
taste tests mid year. This will allow us to sort out our brines for
curing, I'm very partial to the nitrate free beer and apple cider ones,
and then our cold smoking techniques. After that we have to jump
through all the 'food safe' and health regulation hoops before we can
sell the end product - so don't expect any goodies until much later in
the year ;-)
16 March 2009
Well that was quick, the
Mutton is all sold. Our regulars, and the people who tried it last
week, returned and bought up all that was left raving about the quality
and flavour. Sorry if you missed out, but there will be a little more
mutton in approx 8 weeks time all going to plan - which it often
doesn't.
It's that time of the year when we start getting ready
to do our Autumn spraying of the biodynamic preparations. We have the
preparations ready and waiting in stainless steel containers,
surrounded by peat moss and stored in the wine cellar which is at a
constant 17 degrees Celcius (it's underground). Now we wait for are
the right time and conditions, ground moisture being desperately needed.
We
will also be making our own 500 and 'putting down' some 800 cow horns
again this year, not to mention making more barrel compost. I'll have
to do something above a large but distant Apple Box Eucalypt. This
tree's roots have travelled 80 metres horizontally and down two 1.5
metre drops (through what appears to be solid roock) to get to the pit
and consume it's energy - no wonder the tree looks so damn healthy. I
think it'll be easiest to move the pit.
13 March 2009
Mucho
Magnificent Mutton!!! We had some of our mutton last night and I was
blown away, it was the best meat I've had in a long time. So I cooked
1.15kg of chump chops (4) on the bbq and we had one each, along with
sweet corn and mashed potato (with raw butter), carrots and some green
stuff - a really basic meat and three veg evening meal. The mutton
chops were superb, more like prime beef sirloin only better marbled,
nothing like lamb or hogget, and it was definitely not the cook's
skill.
Can't wait to try the leg roast on the week end. In
fact those chops were so good, I might just withdraw the rest of the
mutton from sale - just kidding. I'll state here and now that mutton
will definitely become another Mountain Creek Farm signature product.
Pure meat breed sheep, raised and finished on pasture, dry aged for 4
weeks (a week for every year of age), simply superb. Here I am waxing
lyrical about old sheep, perhaps I should move to New Zealand - I hear
it rains over there too.
12 March 2009
The dosing of
the chooks appears to be working, they seem much happier and lively.
Still no eggs for this week, but eggs will be back on the menu next
week. What's happening to all the eggs? The pigs are getting a high
protein treat and they love eggs, shell and all!
Late last week
I picked up our new stud bull, Greenthorpe Yabba. He is magnificent,
placid, a proven sire of carcass competition winners and a few rRoyal
show wins as well. As an ex show bull he was led onto the float in a
halter - he's still wary of me but will tame up nicely. Yabba talks
continuously and sounds like a teenage boy grunting replies - I suspect
he likes the sound of his own voice too. Anyway he is in the paddock
with the girls and working, so we expect his first calves in early
December. Yabba will be on display in spring at our open farm days.
Our
beef drought is almost over. Some magnificent (even if I do say so)
beef is aging nicely in our butcher's coolrooms. I was a bit worried
about this lot of beef as the season has not been kind (bloody awful
actually) and finishing the steers on pasture was hard and slow work.
However our patience has paid off and the beef looks superb and should
make for very good eating. Beef mince and sausages should appear in
two weeks time, and the beef packs will be available in three weeks.
But
first the bad news. Most, if not all, this beef is sold. So if you
haven't forward ordered there may be a few unalloctaed packs of beef
available, but don't count on it. The good news is that there should
be more beef in 6 to 8 weeks time. Most of the next lot of beef is
available, but orders come in daily so don't delay.
Pork. Our
last pork for several months has joined the food chain. I know many of
you have just taken delivery of this great pork, but consider putting
some away for later - it keeps for 6 months if kept fozen.
I
took a small load of porkers to their terminal destination on Tuesday,
and it was the quickest kill I have ever witnessed. I unloaded the
pigs into a holding pen, they were inspected, the paperwork checked,
and 2 minutes later we had moved them up the line and they were dead.
This may sound strange, but it was the quickest and most humane death I
have witnessed to date, making the trip and effort worthwhile. We try
very hard to walk the talk of ethical meat producers and often it is
most difficult when the system is geared to the industrial production
of meat where efficiency is paramount and ethics secondary, but this
time it worked extremely well.
Speaking of pork, Steve Feletti
of Moonlight Flat Oysters of Batemans Bay paid us a big compliment.
Steve produces some of Australia's best oysters and you'll only find
them at the very best of resturants in Sydney and Melbourne, and the
Ginger Room in Canberra. He calls himself a tough critic when it comes
to fine food and I suspect he has a well developed palate too. Anyway
he purchased some of our pork and lamb saying "it's really hard to get
good pork these days". He rang back a few days ago and said
"congratulations on a great product" adding that he will be back for
more.
11 March 2009
Fencing in this dry soil is
hard work. The new sheep yards and holding
paddock are taking shape, but it's slow work when you have to jack
hammer the post holes down to depth, and use the same jack hammer with
an adaptor to put star pickets in the ground. For the US readers, in
Australia a
'star picket' is what you would call a 'T picket' or 'T post', except
that in both countries the picket is shaped like a Y when viewed from
above or in section - makes perfect sense doesn't it?!?
And
we are not discussing the lack of rain which makes fencing such hard
work!! That said I believe the climate has shifted to a dry cycle/era
from which it may not emerge in my lifetime. I base this statement on
reviewing the 160 year farm rainfall records, almost daily internet
searches on climate and weather prognosis, following the evolving
evidence of polar meltings and ocean acidification, and also part
intuition coupled with direct observation. Suffice to say that the
weather/climate change is making grass farming in this region marginal
at best so we are looking at measures to keep us viable.
To
preserve the soils and their ability to respond to infrequent but
heavier rainfall, one measure I am contemplating is dedicated
'sacrifice paddocks'. These will be smaller paddocks that I can move
the cattle and sheep during the dry times of the year where they will
be fed hay and our lick supplement. I plan to locate these paddocks
higher up on the farm to make use of that old management addage; "S**t
flows downhill". I'll also chose poorer soil areas and sow drought
tolerant pasture after the stock is moved on. I suspect the fertility
of these areas will soon be some of the best on the farm due the animal
impact, but they will look terrible initially as the fertility increase
is incorporated.
3 March 2009
We have dosed our chooks with garlic infused into their water. All
the organic/alternative books say this is a good wormer and tonic for
the chooks, and all issue a warning about garlic tainted eggs. Well
it's true. We had some this morning and voila - super garlic infused
eggs. I loved them, but I think you'll smell me at 10 paces. We also
noticed that our pullets we raised in Novemeber have started laying
their first eggs. Small, perfectly formed, and yokeless.
For 3
months I've been feeding garlic to the sheep and cattle in their
mineral lick. I'll keep this up for a while and see if it affects the
flavour of the lamb and beef. The cattle take to the lick more readily
than the sheep. What's in the lick? Dolemite (calcium and magnesium),
sulfur, coppersulfate, seaweed meal, cracked lupins (a pulse for
protein), fermaphos (commercial phosphorus lick with no nasties in it),
salt (attractant) and garlic. The lick is dry and in a mobile trough
to move with the stock, and it really helps the cattle and sheep digest
dry roughage; which is all we have at this time of the year.
I've
had a neighbour helping with fencing and other duties. Stephen is a
fourth generation sheep farmer who has forgotten more about sheep than
I will probably ever know. However he is amazed/bemused at my small
flocks behaviour as I have trained them to a call. I call and the
sheep come running and will follow me anywhere - into the yards, down
the lane way, up the hill, into the shed. Of course it's simply
Pavlovian conditioning, the sheep believe they will be fed a treat and
I usually oblige, so this obliging flock comes at a cost. However due
to the strong flocking nature of sheep, once they start to move with me
they all come - not one is left behind, and there's no need for dogs,
shouting or breaking into a sweat. It's just too easy and better for
the sheep - they really want to do as I ask. The locals are already
convinced I'm a fruitloop, so becoming a sheep whisperer will not seem
out of character - but I'm no wannabe Kiwi :-)
As soon as I
finish typing this I am off to collect the last of this seasons Hogget
which will be available this Sunday. It's nicely aged, as tender as
the lamb, and with better flavour. So if you haven't tried our Hogget,
this will be your last chance for the year.
2 March 2009
I
had a brush with death a few days ago. I was removing a calf from the
tree allotment, she was enjoying the knee high grass and nibbling the
trees, when I almost stepped on a brown snake. I caught sight of the
snake just as I was about to step on it, and all I saw was a section
about a foot long and 2 inches thick. Now you know all those safety
lectures about standing still and the snake will move away from you
etcetera? Well easier said than done. I simultaneously swore and
jumped diagonally sideways about 6 feet! Got my pulse rate up a bit
too.
Whilst I'm confessing my lack of manhood. My chooks have
past their use by date and I know I should cull the old girls, but I am
having difficulty doing the deed. This means our egg production is way
down and the quality is not as good as it could be. These old girls
have been with us for 6 years and some even moved to the farm with us 8
years ago. I will buy more day old chicks to rectify the egg short
fall, but........
I am building/converting new yards for the
sheep at the moment. At the front gate there is an older set of cattle
yards which is being modified for our Wiltipol sheep. Some welding is
involved and you guessed it, I started a grass fire - it was out as
soon as it started. Yes I know welding in the field in summer is
stupid but I had water, pump and truck on standby. Lesson learnt
though, and today I will have several buckets of water ready as well as
the fire unit and a neighbour to douse any flame. There's little wind
today so I'll start soon - it's nearly light.
Whilst building
the yards I had to reattach and tension the fences - big mistake. The
termites have eaten much of the bases of the timer posts and in
tensioning the wires I pulled the strainers out of the ground. Net
result is that there is now a kilometre of fence to rebuild. I spent
all day Friday and Saturday setting steel posts in concrete when I
discovered another issue.
The ground moisture is non existent.
In putting in new posts I dug down to 1 metre and it was powder dry all
the way down. So dry that the soil fell out of the post hole shovel
(pincer type) and I had to add water to get the soil out. This is not
good news for the trees and environment. There must be some moisture
further down as the trees are not moisture stressed yet. But I noticed
on the way to the markets early Sunday morning, that the Murrumbidgee
has almost stopped following at Uriarra Crossing. The 'Bidgee is the
lowest and slowest I've ever seen. Long time locals tell me they have
seen it stop following at the crossing "but that was a long time ago".
Good
reports are coming in about the hogget, and the mutton we tried was
superb. Our mutton is only available as roasting pieces and, biases
aside, I strongly recommend it. Best tasting sheep meat I've ever had
- apart from those Sunday roasts mum used to bake some 40 years ago
which I vividly and aromatically remember.
23 February 2009
Sorry of the long pause in updates, but we've been having computer issues again.
Not
sure what to say about the Vic fires, except that it has brought back
strong memories of the 2003 fires. The images on the TV screen are
just too much for our family at times and we have to leave the room or
turn it off. Although we were lucky in 2003 and only half our farm
burnt, we empathise strongly with those affected in Vic.
More
delays with the beef! This weather is making it all but impossible to
finish our cattle on grass. When it's hot they just eat for
maintenance and don't "finish", or finish very slowly. Anyway there
will be really good beef available in late March, but not as much as we
had hoped. This means most is pre sold, so don't delay with those
orders :-)
To be honest I'm not really sure how this happened,
but our co-producers are telling their friends, neighbours and
co-workers that we produce the regions best meat - beef, pork and now
lamb. Personally I don't think it's true, because I know we can do
better and we're still improving with a fair way to go. But several
chef's and food writers have independently told us "your xxxxxxxx was
the best I've ever had", so we must be on the right track.
We
also have a few of food bloggers as customers (I didn't realize that
food blogging was being done let alone 'hot' - note to self - must get
out more). Anyway one told a friend of ours (before she realized the
connection) "that's the only place in Canberra I buy my meat", and
another was heard to say on Sunday, right in front of our stand, "This
is where you get the regions best meat". Sorry to disagree, but we
think our meat is normal and ordinary (OK maybe a bit better than
avearge), and how all meat should be - if not better.
6 February 2009
A
quick reminder that the Lamb will be available for collection from the
markets this Sunday, the Hogget next Sunday the 15th, and the Pork
Sunday 22nd.
We all know it's been hot and dry, but very
recent research has indicated the cause of our extended dry. It's not
so much the El Nino/La Nina Pacific cycle, but more to do with the
Indian ocean. Apparently if the Indian Ocean is in negative territory
(by a measure I've yet to research) we get moist air being dragged
diagonally across the continent from Northwest to Southeast which
brings rain. The Indian ocean has been in positive territory for a
decade, as it was for the Federation drought and the WW2 drought.
Exciting
news!!! In New Zealand those other wonderful antipodeans have
developed a way of testing product which can determine how it was
grown. At this stage the test is most effective on leafy greens and
looks at the nitrogen/carbon composition. A mass spectrometer is
involved, but the test is affordable and will catch out those falsely
claiming 'organic' status. The test can tell if synthetic fertilizers
were used etcetera. The certification bodies are jumping with joy. Of
course they haven't realized that this testing procedure renders
certification superfluous. Why? Because if anyone can buy a product
and get it tested, who needs certifiers and the associated
bureaucracy. Initially an organization like choice magazine could
'out' the lies/false claimants, but eventually the test will be cheap
enough for most citizens to afford to do their own testing. Bring it
on I say - more power to the people!
More exciting news. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/02/03/2481211.htm
Basically Mike Dennis has developed a solar powered air-conditioner. I
have had an idea for solar air-conditioning for a long time and have
discussed it with a few people. The potential commercial application
is huge. In essence my idea was to use the old kero fridge principle
on larger scale, powered by a solar collector/heat source, with the
cooling coil/loops running on the ceiling. Very simple and very energy
efficient, the only moving part would be a small pump to circulate the
refrigerant, and even that would not be required if the installation
allowed for thermocycling. If anyone reads this blog and thinks this a
good idea, grab it and run with it - for the sake of our planet.
Another
simple idea I had was to legislate that all housing roofs must meet a
high reflectivity index. As it stands it is illegal to have white
roofs in many council areas in Australia, and dark roofs predominate -
black being popular. However if all roofs were white, or close to it,
this would reflect much of the sun's energy rather than absorbing it
and heating up - a bit like snow. Admittedly it 's not on the same
scale as snow, but every bit helps. Every time I see a black roof I
cringe, all that solar absorption happening AND the airconditioner
running flat out at umpteen kilkowatts trying to cool the Tuscan
McMansion - then you realize they are wall to wall and there's
thousands of them.
3 February 2009
Well we've had a
short break and now it's back into things. I've just returned from my
butcher's shop and have seen the lambs and hoggets in various stages of
preparation - they look great! I am really looking forward to the
hogget taste test!
Mutton. Some of you have been waiting most
patiently for our Mutton, the first of which will be available at the
markets on the 15th of this month. The mutton will only be available
in roasting pieces, so racks, leg and forequarter roasts etcetera.
This is because it really needs to be slow cooked to bring out it's
best. Anyway you know the drill first in best fed.
Bloody
foxes! Whilst on our break one of the sows had a litter of 8 piglets.
There are now only two left. I found the half eaten remains of two of
them but the rest have disappeared. These is our first losses to foxes
in 6 years and I can only put it down to the demise of our Welsh
Springer. She was a great stock guardian with the best nose and deep
bark, and I am convinced she kept the foxes at bay. So now I'm going
to acquire a Mareema dog that is bonded to chooks. I'll only have to
bond the dog to the pigs and sheep. If you are unaware of 'bonded'
stock guardian dogs have a look here.
They are being used to protect penguin colonies form foxes. Anyway I
will be putting into practice what I have said elsewhere, ie. never do
anything an animal will do for you naturally.
Rain for January
was a little disappointing at 48.5mm, but in comparison to last year
it's fantastic. It was only disappointing in that Canberra received
much more than us and we could what it failing 'over there'.
Major changes to our open door policy in the short term.
We are being swamped by enthusiastic people wishing to visit the farm
and see what we are up too. This is fantastic and also a problem as
there are only so many hours in the day. In starting this polyculture
farm I have bitten off a big chunk of work, and am attempting to do it
all single handedly. In short I am burning the candle at both ends and
running out of wax. So whilst we really want to be transparent about
all that happens on the farm this has come at a hugh price in time, and
as a consequence things that should be getting done on the farm are
not. So in the interests of sanity, a marriage, and the farm's
integrity, our farm will not be available for inspection until spring
later this year. By that time I should have caught up with all the
neglected projects around the place and again be open to any and all
comers. Post spring we will have numerous open days and farm tours.
Sorry if this disappoints but we do have a major but limited resource -
time.
15 January 2009
A wonderful new year to all.
Firstly apologies, the lack of email replies and also phone calls is
due to phone and computer issues. My computer problems are on going,
but a new machine arrives tomorrow - nothing flashing, just a second
hand stop gap until I build a new one. My next computer will run
nothing but an open source operating system and open source software
(just making another public statement about where my allegiances lie).
I am no tech head and so will be guided in the process by my 79 year
old geek mother. At the same time she will be building her latest all
singing, dancing and conquering computer - dual quad cored, terra bits
of ram, mega terra bits of storage, with double overhead canunjulators,
cooled with liquid nitrogen to enable her to overclock the sucker to
warp speed.
I have declared this the year of the pig here at
Mountain Creek Farm. This year will see our pig numbers increase to
meet demand along with a modicum of automation so we can get away for a
day or two for short breaks. Speaking of which we wil be at the
farmers' markets this coming Sunday but not the following two.
Essentially we have little to sell but some pork mince and pork
sausages this coming Sunday.
Because I have declared 2009 the
year of the pig, I must apologise to those who wish to buy breeding
stock from our Wessex Saddleback herd. I have decided not to sell any
breeding stock for at least a year until I have the boar and sow lines
truly sorted, our breeding program bedded down, and our numbers under
control. If you were one of those seeking breeding stock, please send
me an email and I will supply you with alternate sources and contact
details.
Produce availability? Lamb will be back on the menu
Sunday February 8. For those who have ordered this superb rare breed
(Hampshire Downs), pastured finished and 'chem free' lamb, I am pleased
to say they look magnificent. I saw them hanging on the hooks at the
butchers yesterday, and they had perfect fat cover for our extended
aging process. A rare breed meat lamb, superbly pasture finished, and
extended hanging - it doesn't get any better than this except
...........
we will also be offering some pasture finished White Suffolk hogget two weeks latter.
The
White Suffolk is essentially a meat breed sheep that is used to infuse
Merinos (a wool breed) with better eating qualities. To cut a long
story short, a near neighbour is using pure bred White Suffolks to
produce terminal sires and we came to an arrangement to take his
unwanted lambs which are now hogget. So in 4 weeks time we will have
some superb hogget on offer. They were really fat (hoggets go to fat
as they get older) so extended aging will be possible. In fact they
should hang for as long as our beef! The eating quality promises to be
every bit as good if not better than the Hampshire lamb.
Beef.
Due to the time lag in producing beef (it takes 3+ years from
conception to consumption) we are suffering a shortage due to the 2002
- 2008 drought. There is no quick and easy solution to this problem so
our beef will be in short supply for the rest of the year. There will
be some more beef available in March but be warned, much is already
sold.
The search for a new dog has commenced. It will be
impossible to replace our Welsh Springer (my best mate) but we do need
a dog to scare the foxes away from our chooks and lambs. Anyway a
Maremma is high on the list of potential stock guardians that will bond
with the stock and property. A Pyrenean Mountain Dog is also high on
the list and I suspect they are very closely related to the Maremma.
These dogs are meant to live in the paddocks with the live stock, so I
will have to curb my desires for a large lap dog and companion! Not
sure I will be able to keep a dog permanently outdoors, we shall see.
© 2007, 2008,2009 by Michael Croft and Mountain Creek Farm, All rights reserved.