On the Pig's Back
Thursday, 14 September 2006
From: NZ Life & Leisure, Issue Nine, September/October 06
by Jo Bates
A Southland couple believes that pampered pigs make prime pork. Their range of prized gourmet products is the result of the good life lived by their happy herd.
"Down here you don't talk about kilometres, you talk about time," says Linda McCallum-Jackson, the ex-human resources consultant turned pig farmer and producer of Havoc gourmet pork products. The question was how far away is their Waimate butchery from the Hunter pig farm that she and husband Ian run. The answer is about 15 minutes. It's a simple question but it's relevant to Linda and Ian's unique and sustainable pig-farming practices. Their philosophy ensures that their herd of around 90 - a cross of Large White, Landrace and Duroc - is the happiest in the land. Surrounded by quintessential Southern scenery, the pigs have 30 hectares in which to frolic. And they can create as much havoc as they like - which is what happens when 90 sows have around 10 piglets each at the same time.
"We breed happy pigs here at Havoc and we believe that happy pigs taste better," says Ian. "I farm sustainably and aim to leave the land in a better condition than I found it. My pigs' welfare comes before anything else and while they are with us they have the best life we can provide. It goes without saying that we don't use any antibiotics or growth promotants."
Ian was born in Scotland, raised on a pig and poultry farm, studied pigs at agricultural school and has worked with them for most of his life so he knows his pigs and what's best for them. And he's found an advocate for his philosophy in Linda. She quips that before marrying Ian in 2002, the closest she had been to a pig was a pork chop in a supermarket, but she's become passionate about pig farming and producing top-quality pork products. She is horrified that nearly 40 percent of the pork consumed in New Zealand is imported and she'll "bend the ears of anyone who will listen" about the subject.
"Imported product is not labelled as such in the supermarket. It can say New Zealand made if it is processed here, yet it is imported meat!" she exclaims. "It's a matter of public awareness. I tell people, `I really don't mind if you are buying our product or not, but when you are buying pork, please buy New Zealand pork'." It's not just that we are buying pork imported from Australia, Canada and China but that we are subjecting ourselves to an unacceptable level of interference such as growth promotants and the practice of chemical castration - both banned here. Havoc's free-range, closed herd is fed twice daily on Ian's mix of locally grown grain blended with soy oil and seasoned with garlic and cider vinegar. Huts are dotted around the paddocks for sows to suckle their young in a bed of hay and piglets are weaned at six to eight weeks, as opposed to three weeks on many other farms.
While Ian runs the farm and Linda takes the helm at the butchery, the Dunedin Farmers' Market (about two hours from the farm) is where you'll find them every Saturday. The couple has been selling their prized product there for three years. In spite of the fact that they distribute throughout New Zealand via www.foodlovers.co.nz, their goods are available at selected delis and restaurants and they sell from their Waimate factory-cum-butchery, Ian and Linda remain faithful to the market. "It gave us an oppertunity to grow our business without a whole lot of risk and it's absolutely wonderful to meet our customers," says Linda.
And it's the customers turned taste-testers to whom Linda is also grateful as they returned every week with comments on the products she was developing, enabling her to fine-tune her recipes. She's become quite famous for the range of largely gluten-free sausages that includes Andouille, Bratwurst, air-dried Italian and Borewors, pure pork and Cumberland, which her butcher recently added to the list. No mixes are used and Linda blends all her own spices, using as much local produce as she can source. The factory, which has an old-fashioned smoke-house and drying room, produces "anything that comes off a pig" including four types of bacon, secret-recipe ham and a range of fresh cuts. "We don't muck around with the meat. It's cut up, vac-packed and sold," explains Linda.
Business has boomed to the point where Linda almost wore out her last and much-loved butcher. Demand was so high for Havoc products that he could barely keep up with his own clients. Courtesy of her HR acumen and contacts, Linda imported her current butcher from the United Kingdom and now his wife runs the packing side of the business.
The butcher may have come a long way but Havoc products will be remaining fairly close to home. "I really do believe that food miles are something we are all going to have to look to in the future. People ask when they can expect to see our products in the supermarket and I say `not while I draw breath'. We take so much pride in our product and we work very hard to get it into the best condition. I don't want anyone else messing around with it."