Pasture Perfect Organics

Winter is here with a vengeance. Crispy, crackly ice every morning (well, almost every morning) since late April. Shorter days make us really manage our time with more care, although sometimes we still find that we are working well after dark, especially with the expecting mothers (sows).

Pasture Perfect® Pork

The pigs are doing well and seem to be enjoying the break from summer’s heat. They build beautiful, big grass nests and sleep in them tight up against each other, belly to back. Even though we put the mobile shelters in the areas for them, they still prefer to sleep outside!!.

Our coldest morning so far has been -7 degrees Celcius, but it warms up quickly as the sun comes out.

The sows are all in pig too and are farrowing now. Lots and lots of cute little piggies running about. Some of the sows are first timers and not very experienced. Jack and I were up until 12 the other night with 2 of these. One wanted to have her piglets right on the riverbank, and the other right on the electric fence.

We usually allow the sows to choose where they will have the litter and move the shelter to them, but with these, even though we only moved the nest a few meters from where they were originally, they didn’t want any part of it. We waited out with them for a few hours until a couple of piglets were born before we could get them to hop into their nice warm shelters, lined with grass and straw for bedding.

Most sows are pretty smart though, thank goodness!! Here is one of our girls making her farrowing (birthing) nest. She takes a few hours to gather up a great big pile of dry grass to nestle down into with her new family.

All we need to do now is put the shelter over the top of her. Sam (the pig pictured) is now the proud mother of some very cute little ones!!

The Pigs are also enjoying the pumpkins that were spoiled by the early frosts too. So every cloud does have a silver lining!

PASTURE PERFECT® VEGETABLES AND CEREALS

Our Broccoli is coming along nicely and we have planted organic spelt wheat, barley and lucerne as well. Our pumpkins are still being sold to Organic wholesalers in Sydney and to the public at our stand at the Northey St Markets in Brisbane as well.

MARKETS

For those of you who are not aware, Pasture Perfect® Pork (in conversion Organic) is now at the Northey St Markets. A huge thank you to Ron Sinclair and Jason Richards, who have been helping us out by attending the markets on our behalf. Due to personal commitments, however, they will not be able to continue and have handed the reins over to Peter Jepson. A lot of you who have attended the Northey St Organic Markets are familiar with Peter and we are sure that an excellent job will be continued.

Many of you have sampled our fresh pork and our Nitrate/Nitrite free cured products as well. We will endeavour to continue supplying you with what we believe is the best pork. The 100% pork Sausages and Bacon have been an really big hit. (So much so that we sometimes have a hard time keeping up with the demand!!) Jack and I will try to come down once a month to keep in contact with our customers and answer your questions about what we do on our farm.

Thank you also to the crew at Di Bella Coffee Breakfast Stand for doing a wonderful job in cooking up a storm every Saturday Morning.

As I said previously, we have planted spelt wheat. We would like to know if you would like us to get the grains hulled so that you can buy it to grind yourself? (You all are probably aware that you start to lose nutrition once the grain has been ground, so the fresher it is the better.) We would have it packed in calico bags min weight of 5 kg. We can only do this if there is enough interest, so please let us know. It wont be avaiable until early next year.

Remember when you buy organic to ask for the certification number and certifyng body. It is always disheartening to us, when we see products advertised as organic when they are not certified. SOMETIMES THEY ARE NOT EVEN FED ORGANIC FEED!! Be aware!

Thank you also to all of you who send us encouragment through emails and comments on the webiste. It really is great to know that we are appreciated for what we do. It makes it all worthwhile.

P.S. We didn’t get to go on our Second Honeymoon, but I did get a visit from my three Sisters. Maybe not as special for Jack as it was for me. I thought it was wonderful, with all the great things that Sisters do for each other, Hot Baths, Facials, Wine and Cheese, Chocolate, Shopping and of course lots and lots of Long talks. It wasn’t all easy going for them though, they wanted to help out so out came the loppers (and later on the chainsaw) and we got in and pruned all of the fruit trees and grape vines, put in a flower garden bed and planted out roses. When Spring rolls around, I should have heaps of Flowers and fruit!! Thanks so much sisters!!!

Well that’s about it from me, we hope that you are all well and happy. Take care of yourselves and those you love.

Cheers

Miriam and Jack Neilson