Jack and Miriam Neilson own and run Pasture Perfect Organic Pork, raising 100% free-range Berkshire pigs on their certified organic property in northern NSW.  Their products are carried by several Sydney retailers, listed here.

We decided to grow free-range, organic pork because… we had a bit of an epiphany while we were travelling in South America.

We had been fattening cattle in central Queensland, and had decided to stop using chemicals because we were both having bad reactions to them.  Then the property was sold, so we took some time out to travel.  While we were in South America, we realised how badly we’d been eating - suddenly there was all this great fresh food in the markets, and we were eating so well, but also losing weight.

At the time no-one knew their producers in Australia.  There were no farmers’ markets like today.  We wanted to bring that connection back with us - great food, produced ethically.  We figured beef production was already pretty good, as most cattle in Australia are still grass fed, but we thought there was an opportunity with organic, free range pigs.

Pasture Perfect Organic Pork is different from supermarket pork because… our pigs always have access to pasture; they are totally free of chemicals, including antibiotics and even vaccines; and they’re Berkshires, which means they have great flavour.

Demand in the current economic environment is… holding up ok.  We’re not seeing a downturn due to economic circumstances, but we haven’t yet got up to full production.

The most satisfying thing about raising free range, organic pork is… getting out and spending time with the animals.  It’s like watching little kids playing - they’ll run around in circles in the grass, sometimes so hard they lose their balance and fall over.  Then they’ll look around to see if anyone saw them.  I’d describe it as joyous.  They really love being out in the pasture.

The most frustrating thing is… finding business partners who share our passion for making great product every time.  Our cured products are made without preservatives, and it’s our name on them, so getting it wrong could be the end of the business for us. It’s been a long battle to find a processor who really cares.

The best meal I’ve had this year was… a producers’ lunch at Universal with Christine Manfield.  There were producers from all over Australia, as well as top chefs and wine people.  The degustation and matched wines were beautiful.  I felt really blessed to be part of it - we don’t often get to experience fine dining, given where we live.

My most treasured food memory is… really more a set of memories.  I learned to cook by bringing a new flavour back into the kitchen and trying to recreate it from smell and taste, using the herbs and spices on hand, rather than by following recipes.

Slow Foodies should check out… The Weston A Price Foundation and their book, Nourishing Traditions.  It has some great information on how modern conveniences have undermined traditional health and cooking.

The one thing Slow Foodies can do to make food in Sydney better, cleaner and fairer is… to get to know how your food is produced.  As soon as we start closing our eyes, we start running into problems.  Seek out good food, and savour it - really appreciate it!

We grow free range saltbush lamb because… since the early 90’s we’ve seen the writing on the wall regarding climate change.  We began experimenting with ideas to evolve a kind of agriculture that is truly sustainable, or ‘regenerative’ as I prefer to call it.

I’ve always been uncomfortable with the word ‘drought’, as though a single word can absolve our society from admission that we still have no idea of how to live with the reality of this continent’s climate.  But I think the wool is starting to lift from most people’s eyes as they increasingly see farmers with progressive attitudes and practices bringing their produce directly to market.

People are also waking up to the fact that many of the people they once thought of as farmers are not actually farmers at all:  they’re commodity producers with very little regard for where their produce ends up, who eats it and how it effects them.

Oh yes, the lamb!  Saltbush is an amazing plant. We mostly use Atriplex nummarlaria or Old Man Saltbush, but also grow Creeping Saltbush (Atriplex semmibaccata) and Thorny Saltbush (Rhagoida spinescens).  OMSB is extremely hardy and handles dry conditions well as it has three root systems:  a deep one that can go down to 10m, a mid-range system and a shallow root system. It has a high protein content and provides essential year-round green plant material that ruminants need for their digestive systems to properly function.

We started growing the saltbush for its benefits in dry conditions as it’s virtually indestructible.  As far as livestock were concerned, we were mainly wool producers when we started planting saltbush.  It’s only been since 2006 that we’ve been producing ‘Arcadia Saltbush Lamb’.  It started as an exercise to see how lamb raised on our saltbush would be received in the marketplace, as it’s been known for a long time that
sheep grazed on saltbush tended to have particularly positive eating qualities.

Saltbush lamb is different from supermarket lamb because… it has a very ‘clean’ taste - there’s no strong sheep-y, woolly flavour, and none of that greasy mutton chop fat.  Put simply, the saltbush diet combined with other factors such as excellent water access and low stress seems to purge the animals of all that stuff which can give lamb a bad name. In addition, we hand-pick each animal before sending to slaughter, and work on a very small scale.

Our animals have access to wide variety of plants, not just saltbush.  We’ve planted around 500,000 trees and acacia shrubs since 1996. We are also bringing back native perennial grasses into previously cropped paddocks. I think the overall mineral-rich diet is a big factor in producing such tasty animals.

Another important difference to get your tongue used to (won’t be very difficult!) is the high moisture retention of the meat. One of my favourite ways to cook the lamb is to bone out a leg, cut thick steaks across the grain and cook on the barbeque. It’s great rare or medium rare, just like steak. The lamb also has fantastic flavour and moisture retention using any slow cook method.

“with all the trouble in the world,
people are realising that life’s too short
to eat crap food”

Demand for saltbush lamb is so high right now because… with all the trouble in the world, people are realizing that life’s too short to eat crap food.  There’s no doubt that interest in slow food, farmers’ markets, farmer-direct food, etcetera has increased in recent years. So apart from riding some of that wave, I guess people are no longer satisfied by QA labels alone. They are saying: ‘OK so it’s organic, but how much energy went into producing it?’, ‘Yes it’s free range, but what does that mean?’, ‘Does it actually taste better?’, ‘Is the farmer good-looking with a sense of humour?’ and other very, very important questions.

I think demand for Arcadia Lamb is high because we attempt to provide straightforward answers to these questions.  So far our customers seem to be happy with this approach, judging by feedback from Becasse, Etch Dining, and MUMU grill in Crows Nest.

Another reason for high demand right now is that I’ve run out of lambs!  One of the things about maintaining quality is not trying to push the system too hard.  All our lambs are born and raised on our property.  We don’t buy in and ‘finish’ stock. I think this is one reason why the product integrity stands up. I hope to have Arcadia Lamb back on menu in Sydney around mid-March when the new season lambs catch up.

I think seasonality is fine as long as everyone communicates. It gives a chance for lots of small producers to share markets.

The most satisfying thing about producing food is… how appreciative our customers and supply chain partners are when you show them some basic respect.  This sort of relationship is very difficult, if not impossible, in the industrial food production business. It’s divorced from the nurturing value system associated with real food. I really like the contact with like-minded people, the occasional trip to Sydney, and also being challenged and meeting those challenges to improve what we do.

One of the things I’m particularly grateful for are the relationships we’ve secured with Junee Abbatoir and our distributer and butcher Dick Stone.  These two partners are ideally placed in the supply chain so that the food miles are kept to an absolute minimum, and they’ve been doing a great job getting Arcadia Lamb to Sydney.

The biggest frustration in producing food is… never a frustration, but an opportunity.  I’ve found if you keep things as simple as possible, and know everyone in the supply chain, then there’s no dramas at all.  In an ideal world I’d like to supply Arcadia Lamb a lot closer to home, but we still have a lot of work to do to stop those abandoned shopping trolleys sprouting and growing into major supermarkets in regional towns. I wish Monsanto would develop a herbicide for them!  I do a little bit of business for a butcher in Jerilderie, but it’s a simple fact that the markets are in the major cities.

The best meal I’ve eaten this year was... my friend Heather’s famous chocolate cheesecake.  What makes any meal from Heather’s kitchen special is being warmly invited over to share it.  The other reason is that the main course is equally delicious and usually contains some garden produce.

My most treasured food memory is… when Mum hit a Crested Pigeon in the Kingswood, circa 1980, and brought it home and cooked it for my tea. It was delicious.  I’m wondering with the speed it hit the radiator, would it have been classified as fast food?  It made it to my plate pretty quickly, too.

Slow Foodies should check out… my website first!  Something else to keep in the radar is anything about ‘pasture cropping’ or ‘perennial polyculture’. There are some good people growing crops into living perennial grass pastures without chemicals or cultivation: A really exciting example of a ‘third way’ that’s asking all the right questions when it comes to finding a system that works in our unique environment.

Also check out ACT-based providore Pennie Scott at Bush Goddess Foods.  Pennie has a fantastic approach to the slow food ethic.

I could go on and recommend books but I think the strength in the slow food movement is realising the power of nurturing personal relationships through food.  So go and find someone to wander down to the farmers’ markets with and enjoy good food and life!

“I think the strength in the slow food movement
is realising the power of nurturing
personal relationships through food”

The most important thing about the sustainable food movement is… that it’s the seed for the revolution.  The high energy-using, polluting, industrial system will collapse, it’s only a question of when.  It will keep producing for years but the cost will be more food safety scares, a more intense level of risky manipulation, such as GM crops, and lower nutritional levels in food as soil nutrients are depleted and houses are built on the best soil.

Unfortunately I see this trend continuing for some time yet, until we have a major disaster that triggers a change in people’s thinking.  The challenge will be to unravel the damage done by industrial agriculture, so it’s critical that we keep the fire burning so we are well prepared when the day does come.

To make food in Sydney better, cleaner and fairer, we should all… keep the fire burning, but try not to be zealots.  We need to recruit as many folks as possible from all walks of life, and not alienate people.  Whenever you can, subtly introduce people to clean, ethical, tasty, unadulterated food.  Try to do it without them even realising - then they’ll completely own that life-changing moment when they crunch into an amazing organically-grown apple.  Build the tribe!