Winter is here and we are so blessed

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Winter turned up yesterday looking chilly and determined. (Although you wouldn't know it at our place where Feral Three insists on loping around shirtless, pausing frequently to flex and admire his reflection in the windows before inhaling half the contents of the fridge, grunting and then loping back to squeeze into his cave amongst the weights and headphones and piles of fetid rugby gear. Oh, the joys of the 15 year old male.) But for normal humans, this is lovely weather for snuggling in and cooking up a storm. Naturally, we're here to help.
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In this newsletter
~ The May winners of The Year of the Pastured Pig competition and a digression about African Swine Flu.
~ The joy of 'secondary' cuts (see yesterday's SMH Good Living).
~ Fresh Chorizo sausages .
~ Fresh Grassland Sommerlads, always cause for celebration.
~ Malfroys Gold Post Brood honey is coming back, get your orders in now.
And Sift Produce will be here again this Saturday so you can load up on fresh fruit and veg for the long weekend.
What a week! How lucky are we? How good is Australia???? (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Chorizo sausages
Who doesn't love chorizo sausages? Smoky, spicy, juicy, porky and an ornament to any meal. We like ours grilled, roasted, barbecued or braised or poached or stuffed between two layers of crusty sourdough with crunchy rocket and gem lettuce leaves. Last night Mr Bone made a delicious chorizo sausage, tomato and chick pea stew (a bit like this one) and the ferals lurched off to school today with the left overs in sandwiches. Delicious.
We've just made a fresh batch so get your chorizo snags here or come into the butchery.

The 'under-loved' cuts'
Yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald SMH Good Living included a welcome piece about using the so-called 'secondary' cuts that are over-looked in preference for the more familiar steaks and chicken breasts. Naturally, we blathered on endlessly about the importance of eating the whole animal, not wasting a skerrick and the joys of cuts like lamb breast or ribs. The article includes some good recipes for all sorts of other cuts as well such as pork hock, brisket and chicken marylands which are, hands down, the best part of the chook.

Speaking of chook, this week we welcome back Kim and Bryan Kiss' Grasslands Sommerlad Heritage birds to the butchery. That's one above, contentedly roosting on a low branch, snapped by the Kisses at Grasslands a couple of months ago. We almost don't want to call them chickens because they're so profoundly different to the white, Cobb or Ross chickens that comprise 99.9% of the Australian meat bird industry. They are slow growing, long legged, strong boned, vigorous, thick-skinned, athletic, powerful and this year, for the fourth year in a row, they were winners in the State Delicious Produce Awards. So don't just take our word for the fact that the combination of genetics and a genuinely free range production process produce a bird that is streets ahead of any other in flavour. There is nothing quite like them in Australia and we are proud to be Sydney's main stockist of this wonderful bird grown by Grasslands Poultry.

Feast your eyes on those lovely pigs above, trotting through the grass at Extraordinary Pork, near Dubbo. The photo was taken by the talented Alex Hicks during Mr Bone's last visit to Alex and Michael's farm and it's a reminder of the way that a paltry 3% of fortunate, pasture-raised Australian pigs live. Not all pigs are so lucky.

Before we talk winners, let's talk African Swine Flu.

Chinese all over the world may be celebrating the zodiac year of the pig, but for real pigs living in intensively-managed hog farms in China, the year of the pig has been worse than usual as a wave of deadly African Swine Flu sweeps across Asia. Up to 2 million Chinese pigs have been culled (some in live burials) in a desperate attempt to curb the spread of the virus which continues to rampage through Asia and is showing up in Europe. There's no cure and it's fatal so immediate 'disposal' is the only option.

But conditions in the Chinese pork industry are perfect for disease incubation and distribution. The majority of China's 440 million pigs are jammed into vast, closed sheds where keeping disease at bay is a constant battle and the incarcerated pigs lack the vigorous and complex antibodies developed by animals that are raised outside. In addition, it's a genetic monoculture of Landrace breed pigs which (like the dominant white broiler chicken) have been bred for desirable characteristics - docile, quick growing, long bodies that yield a higher proportion of belly and loin, lean and with no unsightly black hairs. This allows the industry to deliver a commercially consistent product, but the intrinsic fragility of monocultures just amplifies the vulnerability of the system. When something like African Swine Flu comes along, there's no genetic diversity, hybrid vigour or healthy natural antibodies to help with the offensive. (Oddly, most discussions about containment seem to conclude that the only option is to restructure the industry so that only operators large enough to invest in serious biosecurity remain. In other words, the problem isn't the idea of a factory that necessitates rampant cruelty and environmental degradation to produce meat as though it were any other kind of inanimate commodity, the problem is that we just haven't perfected the technique yet.)

As far as we know, conditions for intensively-raised pigs in Australia aren't quite as dreadful as they are in China - but, we couldn't really be sure because the big, Australian pork producers like Rivalea won't allow anyone into their sheds to see. (In 2016, Matthew Evans spent a year trying to get access to a large scale intensive pig farm with no luck which, of course, just made him even more suspicious. What is so awful that they don't want us to see it?)

In 'Bred Free Range' systems, the sows have a better time of it because they are permitted to farrow outside in paddocks, but the piglets destined for market are weaned at about three weeks and then spend the remaining four months or so in sheds. Which means the pork you're eating isn't free range at all. Certified Free Range pigs, such as the big, Queensland Borrowdale brand, are another notch up the humane ladder because all pigs have access to outside areas. But it's very unclear exactly what that actually means. There are a lot of appealing statements about 'displaying natural behaviours' and 'freedom to truffle, play and wallow in the mud' but no real information or photographs about how these outside areas are managed on a daily basis. If large numbers of pigs are digging and grazing in the same paddock adjoining a fixed shed every day, day in, day out, the paddock would be reduced to dust pretty quickly. After spending several hours wading through the various Australian Pork Limited standard documents, I am still none the wiser as to the specific guidelines relating to the management and size of the outside areas accessible by pigs from fixed sheds and the stocking numbers of pigs in those areas and in the sheds. It's all a bit of a mystery.

What we do know, without a shadow of a doubt, is that about 97% of pigs in Australia are white skinned and raised predominantly inside sheds.

A small percentage, about 3%, are made up of different breeds (including black-skinned pigs) and are raised in a rotational, pastured system with mobile shelters and regular, usually weekly, access to fresh paddocks. These pigs are genuinely free to express instinctive behaviour, to dig and graze and explore and the farmers welcome scrutiny, happily share information and are proud of the way they raise their pigs. This is the pasture-based production system that we support and that we're celebrating in this Year of the Pastured Pig.

Right, let's get onto the winners.

May winners of The Year of the Pastured Pig competition!
Ladies and Gentlemen, yesterday we drew our two inaugural, May winners! Please put your hands together for the lovely Andrew Stockings and the lovely Maggie Godin who will each be taking home over 3.0 kg of Wessex Saddleback breed pork neck, shoulder and fresh chorizo sausages. On receiving the news, Andrew said 'You little beauty!' and Maggie said 'Hell yeah!', so we think they were pretty chuffed.

Now it's your turn. Will you be one of our two June winners?

YEAR OF THE PASTURED PIG ~ PORK GIVEAWAY!
To celebrate The Year of the Pastured Pig, for six months from May to October we're giving away one sixth of a whole, NSW pastured pig.
Buy a Feather and Bone box to be in the running to win.
We'll draw the second winner on 1 July.
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The more boxes you buy the better your chances. Go for it!

Malfroys Gold amazing Post Brood honey is back!
Don't miss out. Email us to order your advance jars now. $32.00 per 500 gm jar.
The photos above are taken by Tim Malfroy and show the post brood honey combs and the wilderness locations of Tim's hives. It is extraordinary stuff. This is what Tim says about the Post Brood honey:
'Produced exclusively from Warré hives, post-brood is honey that has come through the broodnest over time (via the nadiring process unique to Warré method apiculture). The combs (built entirely by the bees) spend 2-4 years inside the hive, and the resulting honey is unlike any other honey, both in flavour and composition. The dark combs are fantastically rich with bee bread (fermented pollen) and propolis, giving the honey a layered, deep and complex flavour profile. We press the combs at room temperature, settle the honey, then bottle into glass jars in autumn when the honey sets into a finely textured, thick creamy consistency. The honey has tested at UMF 10+ to UMF 20+ (high medicinal activity), and has up to 80,000x the pollen grains of conventionally produced honey. '
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We sold out of this incredible honey months ago and Tim Malfroy tells us that he's just bottled up the new batch and we'll have it in the next few weeks.
Don't just take our word for it. Malfroys Gold Post Brood honey was a State Winner in the Delicious Produce Awards and is in the national competition held later in the year.
Don't miss out. Email us to order your advance jars now. $32.00 per 500 gm jar.

CHEW THE FAT Read our blog for stories from the farms, produce and event news, ruminations on value and trust, a few dodgy jokes and the occasional rant about food labelling. Sometimes we talk about our pets - chickens, children, dog.

NEW BUTCHERY HOURS!

We've changed our weekday hours and our new opening times are as follows.
Tuesday to Friday: 10.00 am ~ 5.00 pm
Saturday (no change): 8.00 am ~ 4.00 pm
Parking
If you're planning to come by car, please park in front of Feather and Bone, Unit 8. If there's no room in front of our place, hang five because a space will come up pretty soon. Alternatively, please park on the street just outside the front gate. We and our neighbours thank you for your consideration.

SHOP ONLINE FOR PICK UP OR DELIVERY
Pick up: order by close of business.
Delivery: order by 12.00 the day before.
Check out where we go and on which day.

FEATHER AND BONE BUTCHERY
Pick up an order or browse.
Open Tuesday - Saturday:
8.00 am - 4.00 pm
8/10-14 Lilian Fowler Place
Marrickville, NSW 2204

CONTACT US
(02) 9818 2717
orders@featherandbone.com.au

SIFT PRODUCE:
FRESH FRUIT AND VEGETABLES
Order a box: pick up on Saturdays
Produce stall: every 2nd Saturday