I’m so happy I came across this site. I will chase down your pork in sydney. Do you also sell lard? Or parts of the pork that I can use to make lard.
Also, in another discussion you referred to Mangalica. Just wondering if you have that breed in Australia?

Keep up the good work
B

Cheers Miriam

Another interesting point that most people don’t realize is that most pork is raised on a diet high in polyunsaturates like soybean meal, canola meal, corn meal etc. When pigs eat these products they make a fat higher in polyunsaturates, than if they eat a pasture and grain diet. The types of grain that are fed can effect the benefits of the pork/fat. We also soak our ground grain overnight before feeding out. We don’t feed any soy or canola products to our pigs at all. We figured that if it is not good for us, it can’t be good for them. My Husband found a great website about a rare breed of pig that was primarily grown for its fat the Mangalitsa. http://woolypigs.com/_introduction.html There is some great information about how these pigs were traditionally raised in Austria and how if you want to grow a pig for the best quality lard, and dry curing or fermenting, you need to feed it differently than if you want it for just meat production. There is a really good part about rendering lard as well that we found really interesting. Happy reading, it kept us rapt for ages!!

All the health experts advise that we must be eating “grassfed” meat in order to reap the health benefits of the good staurated fats.

One book mentioned that grassfed animals who are fed even a small amount of grains, lose much of their health properties…ie. “grassfed” was a must.

Would love to hear others comments.

I was hugely surprised tonight to have my sister call me and congratulate me for being in the Courier Mail today. I had no idea they were writing a piece about what we do. Nice to be noticed in a positive way though. Thanks for all the support that Pasture Perfect Pork gets from people like you all that truly wish to nurture and nourish themselves and their families.

Wholly Smoked Butcher at Byron Bay now has the certified organic fresh pork as well. Thanks to the dedicated Nourishers that campaigned for it. Clive is due for a box of porkie goodies!!

Miriam

P.S. I didn’t respond to the blog for quite a while as I had lost the password. Sorry folks, but I will try to get through them now.

Bronwyn, The pork is available at Dulwich Hill Gourmet Meats, Marrickville Road Dulwich Hill, is that inner west enough?

Adrian, We are trialling a sodium and potassium nitrite free dry cured salami at the moment, but it will be 4 - 6 weeks until we get to try the end result, if it is all good, then we will have a selection of dry cured, fermented certified organic salamis that we think are really exciting!!

Sandy, Yes we do have kurobuta. We were some of the founding members of The Australian Berkshire Breeders Association that had DNA testing done (sent to Japan to confirm with Kurobuta DNA).

Ron, Thanks for your kind support. Comments like yours make the hours worked seem shorter and the challenges, just hiccups along the way.

Denise, Fundimentals at Paddington should have the certified organic Pasture Perfect ham and Bacon. Its a pity we don’t go to the Northey Street markets, I used to really love the immediate feed back we got from customers when we had the face to face contact at Markets.

Try the Northey Street Organic Markets in Brisbane on Sunday mornings from 6 - 11 am. You will find all your certified organic requirements there. You can also obtain raw milk as “Bath Milk” without a herdshare in Brisbane. Check at the markets on Sunday and you should be able to source Aphrodite Bath Milk there, which is certified organic milk, from grass fed jersey cows. Nitrate free pork products are available via Pasture Perfect, check the webwsite for stockists in Brisbane - the pork is delicious, and certified organic.

There are such things as natural Nitrates. I didn’t know previously, but Nitrates naturally occur in Sea Salt. They occur in very small amounts and are not chemically altered in any way from how they occur naturally, but they are there. Nitrates also occur in Green Leafy Plants and Vegetables. I am definitely not saying that natural nitrates are bad and that we should stay away from sea salt or green leafy plants/vegetables. When nitrates occur naturally and are not chemically isolated from the other salts and compounds around them, they do not seen to have the same harmful effects. Salt Sequestrants such as Sodium Nitrite, Potassium Nitrite, Saltpetre or Quick cure are chemically isolated/altered and should be avoided.

For those of you looking for Ham and Bacon, there are a few outlets in Brisbane and surrounds that stock it. I have written a new post on the difference between Certified Organic and Free Range Pork and have an updated stockist list on it. I also am updating our website, http://pastureperfectpork.wordpress.com where you can see our pigs grazing on the pastures that we grow from them.