Amazing Woofers

This year would have been just about impossible without the help of the Wwoofers that we get.

What is a Wwoofer?, you say.  Well they are usually backpackers travelling Australia and wanting to see more than the cities and tourist spots can offer, and wanting to have a “Real” Australian experience.  They are sometimes Australians wanting to experience where their food comes from.

The worst part about it most of the time is saying goodbye.

We have been blessed with the most amazing Wwoofers this year!.  We had a Family from the UK that had an organic farm so they really new what they were doing!!  Gary and Matt (UK) stayed with us on and off for over 3 months, and we have never laughed so much or enjoyed our farm as much as when they were with us.  Laura and Paul (UK) were absolutely fantastic.  Laura became the foster mum of several piglets and sent us loads of beautiful photos that she took of the farm. Soi (Korea) was like a sister to me and her time here was too short.

Thank you to all that have stayed and helped out.!!

 

Super Saver Saturday at Mrs Flannery’s Robina

I (Miriam) will be at the Mrs Flannery’s Robina store on Sat 7th November for tasting our delicious Certified Organic Ham and New Certified Organic Salami Range and answer all your curly questions about how we grow our certified Organic Pork and then how it is made into such delicious and nutritious treats as the certified Organic range of smallgoods that we make.  It will be great to see you there!!

Mrs Flannery's Robina store, Lazy T Center, Jusfrute Drive, Robina

Then on Sunday the 8th, I will be back at the Northey St Organic Markets with Alaringa Organics. I had a heap of fun meeting you and catching up with some past clients (I still can’t believe it has been about 3 yeas since I was travelling up to Bris Vegas Every weekend for the Farmers Markets)

The drive home this time was pretty eventful with the car deciding it wanted to stay a little longer in the big smoke.  Luckily I have some great friends who helped me find a mobile mechanic (or helped him find me) and we got the parts and got me back on the road by lunchtime.

 

October is Organic Month.

Well every month is organic month here on farm… but for the rest of Australia as well October is Organic month.   One of our Queensland groups of retail outlet stores, Wray Organics has taken this onboard and has a whole host of specials across their 4 stores in Newmarket, Palm Beach, Broadbeach and Indooroopilly. (Including specials on the Pasture Perfect® Pork small goods!) I was at the Palm Beach store 2 weeks ago sampling the range, and will be at Newmarket on the 24th October.  I would love to see you there if you can make it!!

 

Organic Expo 2009

Its been a hard year for so many organic producers and we are no exception.  So many things went wrong just before we were about to leave that we really didn’t know if we would get there or not… the organic feed was late arriving, the bank account was almost bare and the automatic transmission went on the car to mention just a few. But with the support of family and incredibly generous friends we were able to make it.

It was great to see so many exhibitors at the organic expo though.  Here is Jack and Jamie J (remember she is the one that raised Lucy) on the stand talking about and selling our certified organic Ham, Bacon, Chorizo and Vienna, and sampling the organic fermented Fennel, Chilli, Truffle and French salumi.

What a weekend!  We were absolutely exhausted by the end, but also exhilarated by the Hugely positive response from the the public and the retailers/cafe owners/restauranteurs.   Melbourne loved the products, which made us very proud, because Melbournians are well know for having great food, and if they loved ours… well it just made us feel like the long hard road has been worth it.

There were so many others asking about the way that we raise our animals, and is it really free range.  Well, I don’t think it gets any freer than the way we do it.

Do they really eat pasture? Do they really live outside or do you just put them out on the paddock for the photos? Could we really visit your farm if we wanted? Yes, yes and yes.  There really is no way we could hide what we are doing anyway as you could just hop on Google Earth and check our farm out.

It was great to be in Melbourne (apart from the very chilly breeze) and it was a great chance to get out to the farmers Markets to talk to other producers.  I met Anne-Marie from Holy Goat and would have gone out to spend a day working on her farm, but the cold and the long hours took their toll and by Monday Morning I was incredibly fluey and really didn’t want to share whatever I was suffering with others, so I decided it was a day best spent collating all the contacts that had given us their cards.

I am still away from the farm and will be attending the Food Challenge Awards tomorrow night so hopefully it goes well!!

As always, thanks for your support.  Your seeking out and buying our organic pork products makes it possible for us to give pigs the kind of life they have on our farm… a happy one, full of running about, grazing, playing, digging and living a full, piggy life. We wouldn’t farm any other way, and would have to stop farming if it wasn’t for your purchases.  THANKS!!

Mim and Jack

 

A better image for pork.

This is a new video that has been made by Anvil Media for Australian Pork Limited to help educate consumers about the different ways of growing pork in Australia.

Just remember, It is you the consumer that has the power to support whatever type of farming you believe in. 

Thank you for your support!

Miriam and Jack Neilson

© copyright, all rights reserved, Pasture Perfect ® 2009

 

Western Australia now has Pasture Perfect® Pork

Great news for those people that have been waiting patiently for our certified Organic pork smallgoods in W.A.!!

Blue Cow Cheese, PO Box 952,  Cloverdale WA 6985.  Telephone: 61 8 9477 5277  Facsimile:   61 8 9477 5311 have taken on distribution, so you should be able to get our smallgoods at quality outlets.  I will update the retail outlet page with stores that are now stocked.

CELEBRATION OF FOOD AND WINE – Noosa 1st – 3rd May 2009.  Miriam will be at this event as a finalist in the Vogue Entertaining + Travel  2009 Producer awards.  Last year was a superb event and we have no doubt that it will be the same this year, so if you can, come along and check it out for the most amazing food and wine experiences!

We are up against another 16 Producers in the Paddock section of the Vogue Producer awards and the lineup is very impressive!  We are certainly very proud that our products are in such prestigious company.

Copywrite © Pasture Perfect® 2009.  All rights reserved

 

Exciting Times

On the Farm

Things are really starting to look good on the farm with the Pigs and the Pastures responding really well to our grazing management.  Butchers are really happy with the product as we now have a bigger loin muscle (The main meaty part of a chop) and a lower fat score.

Sows and piglets seem much more content with the higher green diet and the piglets are growing much more evenly.  Seeing the piglets playing and hiding amongst the greenery is a real treat too.

This has been the best year we have ever had for dung beetles as well. You may well ask what am I talking about bugs for, but they are an integral part of a healthy grazing system.  Many environmentally trained people cringe at the thought of having our pigs grazing right on the catchment of a really clean and beautiful river, but the dung beetles truly have done an amazing job of incorporating the poo into the soil and removing the potential for a nitrate/phosphorous laden runoff into the river.  My sisters have a good laugh at me with my monitoring camera taking photos of the dung beetles decimating the poo, but it is one of the keys to a good grazing system.  I remember when Jack and I went to Africa and came back with the photos, they asked to see them and next thing they were up me because of Elephant and Rhino Poo shots I had taken (you should see the size of those Dung Beetles!!)

Also we have had a film crew out here recently so hopefully I can update some of the videos that we have soon.  It helps so much when you can see just how the pigs live here and how well the paddocks and pastures are doing.   I didn’t know how tiring it would be standing out in a paddock and answering questions, but when you need to cut each time a fly lands on you or the pigs walk out of shot it can drag on a bit.  Jack (AKA Brad Pigg) did really well also although he says I totally hog the camera.

We have had some great wwoofers here helping as well.  We were lucky enough to get an entire family from the UK that had an organic farm but were now travelling in Australia.  Amazing people!  Also I got Jamie back for a day.  (Jamie foster mother of Lucy the pig) She brought her parents along as well and it was really good to catch up. 

In the News

Wellbeing Food Magazine featured an article by John Newton about our farm and our piggies.   Thanks John for a fantastic article!

Vogue Entertaining + Travel Food Awards 2009. We have been notified that we are finalists in this years paddock section of the food awards.  It is so exciting to have our certified organic small goods up there with the best of Australian Produce.

The Marketplace

New Distributor in South East Queensland Tomewin Farm is making it easier for you to get the Pasture Perfect Certified Organic small goods In Brisbane and On the Gold Coast.

New Distributors in Victoria Original Foods and Cherry Tree Organics can supply your local Melbourne gourmet deli, organic store or Health food Shop with our certified organic small goods.

Fresh Pork can also be found at :                                 

                                                                    SYDNEY                          Dulwich Hill Gourmet Meats

For More info on where to find our Organic Pork Products please CLICK HERE

Other Interesting Bits

I was very fortunate and honoured to be invited to a producer luncheon Hosted by Christine Manfield of Universal Restaurant.  It was truly amazing to be able to sample such incredible food made from the Base Ingredients that were provided by Producers at the table.   It was pure pleasure.  Great also to meet other fantastic chefs like Martin Boetz from Longrain (whom I was lucky enough to be sitting next to), Peter Gilmore of Quay and Alex Herbert of Bird, Cow, Fish.   For someone who doesn’t get off the farm much and eats out very seldom, it was the best! Thank you so much to Christine for the invitation and for the best eating experience of my life so far!!

Copywrite © Pasture Perfect® 2009.  All rights reserved

 

Christmas at the Farm

Christmas came to us this year with some extra special gifts, not the ones you put under the tree, but ones that mean a lot more becuase they are unexpected, extremely timely and, sorely needed.

A huge thank you for your support this Christmas, your emails and messages mean a lot to us and it really does give us an extra boost of encouragement.  Thanks so much for your support of our certified organic pork products, I think the proof is in the eating and the increase in our sales proves to us that it is as well. (The bank loves that you are buying more of our Hams and bacon than ever too!) 

 cma1

Thanks to the Gwydir River Catchment Authourity for making our plans a possiblitly much sooner than we had expected.  We have recieved funding to help us fence off the 2.5km of River frontage and Plant perennial, deep rooted pastures to stabilise the riparian zones, and also to aid us in putting in 2km of water piping, making it possible for us to totally fence off the Riparian Zone of the Severn River, but still give our pigs cool, clear water, whenever they want it for drinking and wallowing.  We always planned to do this, and have been putting in permanent perennial pastures, water lines and fences as we could afford them, and had already completed over 8km of internal fencing, 2.8km water pipelines, and 140 acres of pastures.  For Helping us reach our environmental goals faster than we ever thought possible… THANK YOU!!!

To the Extra Special Wwoofers that have helped us through the hardest year we have ever had, a huge thank you and our very best thoughts and prayers are always with you. 

To our Family and Support Network of Freinds and Fans of Pasture Perfect Pork, you keep us inspired and motivated. We couldn’t do this without you.

To our Abattoirs, Processors, Transport suppliers, Distributors, Retail Shops and very importantly our loyal customers a very Merry Christmas and Happy and Prosperous New Year.

May we all be blessed with everything that we deserve in this new year… Prosperity, Happiness, Love, Fulfillment, Peace.

Love you all

Mim and Jack

 

 

Copywrite © Pasture Perfect® 2009.  All rights reserved

 

The Good Food Affare

Just a reminder that we will be in Sydney (Castle Hill) at the Good Food Affare from the 21st November to the 23rd November.  Come and sample some of the incredibly yummy organic pork products that we have there (and of course all of the other yummy food and wine that will be showcased)  See you there!!

 

Copywrite © Pasture Perfect® 2009.  All rights reserved

 

Meet Lucy

Meet the newest addition to the household… Lucy. 

We have a backpacker staying with us at the moment, Jamie (Thank God She’s Here!!) and a couple of weeks ago she found a piglet in the paddock wondering around.  I wasn’t there so Jamie bundled her up and brought her home as she couldn’t find the mother.  Needless to say, Lucy (Jamie named her and said it is short for Lucifer as she was a little devil to try to sleep in the same room with!!) has the best foster mothers available… Jamie, Jack and I.

Lucy at 2 days with Jamie

Jack with Lucy at 2 weeks

Lucy with Miriam

We Love Lucy

We Love Lucy

She knows exactly what to do and who to go and whinge to when she wants a bottle (even if she has only been fed minutes before), she nibbles on our toes and generally makes us all smile a lot more often.  When we go out to do jobs in the morning, guess who tags along?  She helps us wake the piggies up and move them onto the irrigated pastures. When we head out to chip weeds, she is only half a pace behind.  We have had another 6 backpackers join us as well and they absolutely love her… when she is not biting their toes or running around the house like a puppy dog with someones sock in her mouth.  Spider Pig is her Nickname!Its not that she doesn’t know that she is a pig, she goes out and talks to the other pigs all the time, she is just clever enough to see the gravy train when it is heading her way!!

It didn’t occur to me that she shares the same name as an infamous, unhappy pig that animals australia have promoted as what Australian Pork Farmers do to their animals, until a couple of days ago.  Its just not true, not all Pig farms are the same.  If our Lucy were to speak, I think it would be squeals of delight and happiness (except if we are not quick enough to fulfill the bottle demands).  Its time for a good story about Pigs that are raised with respect and care, so Lucy is going to embody that.

We have decided that Lucy is going to be our Mascot and we will keep her for a breeding sow.  I will keep you all updated to her size and what she has been doing lately. She may even end up with her own page.