19/10/2021
News from The Fat Pig Farm. Why not book into the 2Cs and we will transport you to the farm.
Please ensure you are double vaccinated when you book.
Let’s all be COVID safe.
COMING OUT OF HIBERNATION...
G'day Fat Pig Friends,
It's been a while since our last newsletter. We've been on holiday! Sadie started with the Three Capes walk across the plunging dolorite cliffs of south east Tassie. If you're in need of a bit of "awe" we highly recommend this glorious three day walk (and then celebrating with a feast at Fat Pig Farm). The whole family (all three of us!) then scooted up the coast of Queensland, dodging hotspots, dipping into cool fern-fringed waterholes and wondering at the warmth of ocean swimming with turtles and batfish. Luckily for the cooks in us, we dropped in on a couple of farms, our old friend Jono in Natural Bridge, and a lovely place in Eungella to pick up super fresh organically grown veg and camp with fireflies by cool creeks. We also caught up with our friends, the dairy farming Tommerups. They milk a small herd of mostly Jersey cows (all gorgeous - we wanted to take them all home with us). Kay makes the most amazing butter and Hedley reckons the best yogurt ever (very lightly sweetened with honey), as well as running weekend farmstays. As always we are in awe of the farmers we meet: their intense concentration and love for their soil and vegetables and animals and how that hard work and care is revealed in the flavours of the food they produce. And how much difference it makes to smallholders when they can connect and sell directly to their customers.
Holidays also mean catching up on reading so scroll down for a pile of recommendations.
We arrived back to the farm to find knee high grass, the willows (which we both love and hate) thick with bees and pale green leaves, the apple trees in full blossom and a nesting sow. Slips (piglets) due any day now... we are obsessively checking but she is in no hurry. As we type, Lady Penelope, the new heifer and next generation milker, is mooing obsessively, looking for a bull. But she's too young to breed from, so we'll just weather the noise. It only goes for a day or so. Outside the farmhouse door, we have khaki campbell ducklings under a heat lamp, the goats are in the top dam paddock eating blackberry leaves as they sprout, and the mud isn't going anywhere for a few days yet, much to the pleasure of the fat pigs.
The good thing about a family break is that it means we're rested and ready to think about the next few months. We have workshops and feasts galore, including Saturday feasts. And we set sail once more to picnic aboard the Yukon. Before we left we hosted a brilliant lunch with Sam Connew from Stargazer. We love matching our food with her wine and her new vintage is (as always) bloody tasty! (Sam has made our new house white, too, a lipsmackingly good riesling/pinot gris blend that just arrived at the farm this week.) Our delightful neighbours Jim and Daisy Chatto have also released their new pinots and have been hosting the occasional pinot noir tasting before a feast which is a great way to work up an appetite. We've enjoyed hosting these special collaborative feasts so stay tuned as we plan more.
Our new chef Niccola has been inspired by the produce and Tassie's wild places, beaches and farmland. She's been baking, curing and testing dishes ready for the warmer weather ahead. Her whey sourdough is coming along nicely, and looks like it could well be our new house baked bread.
Read on for all the news of what we're doing.
Best,
Sadie, Matthew and the Fat Pigs
ONLINE SOIL BOOK TOUR
So many books, and all of them illuminating. We've taken a deep dive into Gabrielle Chan's Why You Should Give a F*ck About Farming The answer is "Because you eat!" and if you eat then we reckon you should read this book. Gabrielle grapples with the big tricky questions: the politics of water, is bigger really better, what about corporate vs family run farms, how to pay farmers enough to both grow food and look after the soil. This last question is one we have been grappling with on our tiny farm: if good soil and growing trees, having clean and bio-diverse waterways, and increasing rather than depleting soil carbon is good for community, the state, the nation, the world, should farmers be compensated for looking after the land? And if so, how? Through the cost of food? Carbon credits? Creating and pricing national assets?
Anika Molesworth is a young farmer who has been thinking about the impact farming has had on climate change and therefore the impact it can have on mitigating change. Her book, Our Sunburnt Country is a terrific call to arms, and is evocative in its description of the big sky, dry farmland around Menindee, marginal country and very much at threat from a warming climate.
Closer to home, we're loving Hannah Maloney's The Good Life - an exuberant manifesto on how to live a better, more satisfying life and mitigate climate change at the same time. Jade Miles takes up a similar challenge in Futuresteading: Live life like tomorrow matters. And Alexx Stuart has done all the research you wish you had time to do. Low Tox Life: Food gives you plenty of tools if you're looking for better options to fill your supermarket trolley.
And if you're looking for a quieter meditation on life and land, Sadie reckons you should subscribe to Maggie Mackeller's gentle once a week newsletter, The Sit Spot.
WHAT'S ON THE FARM
In addition to our regular Friday Feasts we've put up some Thursdays and (yay!) Saturdays between now and Christmas. Including this Saturday, 23 October to celebrate the long weekend. Come taste what Niccola and Matthew do with all the gorgeous spring veg and some truly excellent pork.
BLUE POD DERBY
Matthew and Sadie are heading to Derby to cook a slap up meal as part of one of Blue Pod Derby's three day mountain bike experiences. Book in on November 1 and join us for a farmhouse feast on night 2. We're just a little bit excited to try out the trails through the mountainous and beautiful derby landscape. Luckily we cook first and bike later neither of us has had much biking experience recently. Thankfully, we have had a lot of recent experience in the kitchen.
SUPER SOIL SKILLS FOR HAPPY VEGGIES
While most of the Goodlife Permaculture classes at the farm are sold out, one of the most important one day courses you can do still has a couple of spots. Nadia and Sadie are putting together a super all day workshop to turn all that abstract interest in soil into practical skills to use in your very own garden. You'll learn how to identify the fundamentals of your own soil and how to amend and improve it with compost, worms and homemade fertilisers. They'll also cover how to measure that improvement and taste the results in healthy delicious veggies. Soil is where just about all flavour starts.
BROAD BEAN RISOTTO
(serves 4)
If you can find small and sweet, young, bright green broadbeans you may not want to double peel them. Most, however, in Australia, need the second skin removed. You do this by quickly blanching them in boiling water, cooling them in iced water, and then slipping off the coarser, pale skin. I actually like to add some at the start and some at the end, but if you want them all squeaky, add them at the end. Substituting the beans with some, or all fresh green peas is also a very nice thing to eat.
30 grams butter
1 medium leek, pale parts only, washed and chopped finely
400 grams risotto rice (vialone nano is the easiest to get the texture right)
400 grams double peeled broad beans
500 mls white wine (unwooded or lightly wooded is preferable)
about 1 litre chicken stock (use water rather than a stock cube), simmering
about 50 grams Parmigiano cheese, finely grated
Heat the butter in a largish pan and fry the leek well to soften.
Add the rice and continue to fry over a gentle heat until it starts to stick slightly. Don’t brown it though, or the leeks.
Add half the broad beans and the wine. Turn the heat up and constantly stir as the wine evaporates. When the rice is starting to look dry, turn down a bit and add a ladle full of stock at a time, stirring pretty much constantly as it cooks. Stirring releases amylopectin, so your risotto will be more naturally creamy if you do it. I think stirring is most important at the start.
Continue adding stock, stirring and allowing the rice to absorb the liquid until it’s cooked but each grain retains a slight starchy centre. You may have stock left over, or you may have to add more liquid (use water if you run out of stock – it’s fine). True risotto can be a little runny or drier, depending on your preference (and your origins). Toss in the remaining broad beans and half the cheese. Taste for salt and pepper then turn off and allow the rice to settle for 3-4 minutes.
Serve with extra cheese on top and on the table, and a glass of something glorious.
EPILOGUE
What we're reading: Lots (see above) and The Arbornaut by Meg Lowman
What we're listening to: Stuff the British Stole by Marc Fennell
