The Joy of Pigs

Friday, 14 May 2004

From: Cuisine, Issue 104, May 2004
by Charmian Smith

Ian McCallum-Jackson of Havoc Farm near Waimate in South Canterbury loves his pigs, many of which have names. They are smarter than sheep and cows, inelligent, challenging and amusing. He admits they sometimes cause havoc, but says you can put up with a lot of you can have a good laugh at the end of the day.

The British-born farmer always dreamed of owning his own farm and raising pigs his own way - outdoors, the piglets weaned late to give them healthier immune systems without the need for antibiotics, and with careful controls on the feed.

However, once he sold them, they disappeared into the mass of New Zealand and imported pork.

Then Linda came into his life, causing havoc, she says with a laugh. Now known locally as Lord and Lady Havoc, the couple decided to produce and market their own pork, and found retired Timaru butcher John Batchelor to process it for them.

Batchelor's aim in life was to make the perfect sausage. Linda says that when he ran his butcher's shop, he had once refused to sell someone a particular cut because she didn't know how to cook it and wouldnt listen to his instructions!

They spent a year experimenting iwth products and trying them on friends and neighbours, before opening a stall at the Otago Farmers' Market in October last year. Now, Linda's son Cain Lindegreen looks after the marketing and also sells at the Oamaru, Timaru and Christchurch markets and to restaurants.

Their bacon is cured the old-fashioned way so it doesn't stew before it fries. The full range includes andouille (a smoked sausage with which Linda, a fan of Lousiana cuisine, gives away her gumbo recipe), other types of sausage, hams, pickled pork, pork hocks and trotters, fillets, chops and other cuts, and even suckling pigs to order. Next in their sights is prosciutto.