Fun Stuff with Free Range Pork

IT is the ‘slow grow’ which makes meat tastier, so more farmers are turning back to older breeds of animals to produce better quality food.

Mathew Grace and his wife Lucy settled on their property Merrifield outside Merriwa after leaving careers in Sydney to follow their dream of sustainable farming producing high quality niche products and began raising Berkshire pigs, a rare older breed of pig which produces marbled meat.

In just 12 months they have a loyal following of customers, employed a local butcher to start on-farm boning and butchering last week and there are more plans in the pipeline.

“Some of the older breeds went out of favour for a while, because commercially people wanted to grow animals rapidly, but the slower breeds are coming back, not just in pigs, but chickens and breeds of cattle, people are going back to the traditional breeds,” said Mr Grace.

“We didn’t think there’d be a big market locally, we thought we’d be taking everything to Sydney but we’ve been proved to be very wrong, a lot of people have grown up with really good quality meat and they really appreciate what we are doing,” he said.

“Pigs used to live off farms scraps and the vege garden and farmers were used to good quality pork that grew up behind the shed and was fed well, people who remember what that ham was like, what that bacon was like before pigs were mass produced really love our product,” he said.

“And there are a few people around here now that want to put pigs back on their own place again which is nice,” Mathew Grace said.

The customers their pork is attracting are not only interested in the flavour but they want to know that the animals are treated humanely.

“They want to know where it comes from and they can see it is free range, that the pigs can get up and run around, get up to a gallop, play with each other and get their noses in the mud,” he said.

“We are going to be putting in an apple orchard and some Hollyoak, which grow beautiful out here and it is Hollyoak that they finish the iberico ham in Spain which is a great shade tree and high in protein.

“And a fodder unit is on the way so that we can hydroponically grow the barley on farm and feed the pigs trays of the sprouts which they digest easier and makes our operation self-sufficient,” said Mathew Grace.

Partnership with the Cottage

“We wanted to work with a chef who would use the whole animal, was really a meat person and really wanted good quality meat,” said Mathew.

“Colin found us and if he wants a certain size each month we can do that and people are trying it there and then coming to us to buy more for themselves,” he said.

Colin Selwood from the Cottage in Scone said he was excited to hear there was a local farmer growing Berkshire pigs and hopes to unearth more innovative producers.

“I find older people saying it is like the pork used to taste before commercialism, the big white pigs people use grow quickly but don’t have the flavour,” said Mr Selwood.

“Kitchens really seek out good produce for the extra flavour and the way the Berkshire marbles is ideal,” he said.

“I’m trying to find other local producers, the Yarra Valley and Barossa have lots of medium sized operations doing great produce and I’d love to see more of that around Upper Hunter and Mathew is proving it can work,” said Colin Selwood.

Mathew said operating a small farm is a different to how most farming has been approached in the area.

“I like being a small property, it’s manageable and with a bit of diversity you can make it profitable and sustainable,” said Mathew.

“We are also helping other local producers, there are rabbits produced down the road and we can now butcher the rabbits here and they can use the distribution we are using for our pork, which is great for farming in the area,” he said.

Artisan On-Farm Butchering

Last week on-farm boning and butchering became a reality after the Graces employed a local girl who had done her trade here and was looking for a job.

“I like the artisan approach to butchering, to take the whole animal and using the lesser cuts not just throwing everything through a mincer and we are going to do a lot here, we have a smoker, an again fridge and we want to run it like an up market deli, not just a standard butcher shop,” said Mathew.

“It means we can do all the fun stuff with pigs, smoked sausages, salamis and hams,” said Mathew.

“Colin at the Cottage uses the head and we have found a market in Sydney with the Chinese for the cheeks, skin, livers, hearts, kidneys, lungs and tails,” he said.

“And it will give locals an alternative for getting something butchered,” Mathew Grace said.

The Berkshire pork can be enjoyed at the Cottage in Scone, purchased directly from Merrifield Farm online or at farmers markets in Denman, Maitland, Scone, Singleton, Mudgee, French’s Forest or Gulgong.