Everyone loves to scratch a piggy

One of our goals for Mount Gnomon Farm is to open it up for the public as much as we can.

This week we had a visit from a group of parents and children who home-school.

It was wonderful to watch the kids scratching a pig for the first time and laugh as they saw the piglets’ ears flop around while they chased each other.

It ‘s really important for children to learn where their food comes from, and that there are different ways of producing meat – some ethical, some not.

And when we talk to their parents we can explain why we need to protect rare breeds, and why free-range is the only humane system.

Hopefully we can sow seeds that will change people’s buying habits, in time.

Domino has a seat while Guy talks to the group, and Betty and Big Bertha line up for scratches.

Telling Tales

We've got three new arrivals on the farm! Guy's just been to Victoria on the boat and brought back two sows and a boar of different bloodlines. So we need to think of names....we like to keep the first letter the same as the name of the line, so for example we've got Bramble, Betty and Big Bertha who are from the Beatrice line. Our two new girls comes from the Lass and May lines, and our little boy is a Satellite. Any suggestions for L, M, and S names?

Our Lass girl has a strange tail. There's no denying it. But we celebrate difference on this farm, so all's well. She might just have to practice curling it up in the Mount Gnomon Farm way (see below).

Some pig farmers don't have the pleasure of watching pig's tails unfurl and wind-up. On intensive farms where the pigs are kept inside they cut off their tails when they're a week old so they don't chew them off each other when they get bored.

We're yet to try eating tail, but we've just bought a book from the UK, Nose to Tail Eating by acclaimed St. John Restaurant chef Fergus Henderson that has lots of offal recipes in it (Offal, not awful...). We're going to try this recipe and we'll let you know how it goes...

You need: 8 long pig's tails, 2 onions, 2 carrots and 2 celery sticks roughly chopped, bundle of fresh herbs, 3 bay leaves, 10 black peppercorns, 1 head of garlic, zest of 1 lemon, 1/2 bottle of red wine, 1.1 litres chicken stock, 2 tbsp English mustard, 4 eggs whisked together, 450g seasoned flour, 225g fine white breadcrumbs, a large knob of butter.

Fergus says to put the tails in a dish with the vegetables, herbs, peppercorns, garlic, lemon zest, wine and stock, and then cover and cook for three hours in a medium oven. Allow them to cool in the stock, then take them out before it turns to jelly.

When they're cold and firm, mix together the mustard and eggs, then dip them in flour, roll through the mustard and egg mixture and coat them in breadcrumbs. Get a large roasting tray hot, melt the butter, then add the tails and cook in a hot over for 10 minutes, turn them over and cook for another 10. Sounds yummy - we'll have to start collecting our tails.

Carrot-pulling pleasure

Why do shop carrots taste so much worse than homegrown carrots? The difference is astonishing. So it's a major relief to be pulling my own now they're starting to get a bit of size. The few months over winter when we had to buy vegetables - we'd only just come to the farm and it was too wet and cold to grow anything - was a good reminder of how important it is to grown your own. The shop veggies were droopy before I even got them in the car, their flavour was dreadful, and I would be surprised if they had any nutrients left in them by the time they got to the table. Guy complained we weren't eating enough veggies - well I wonder why?!

But now! I can go in to the patch each evening and select what we're having for tea and it goes straight from the soil to the pot or plate. The choices are still fairly limited because of the time of year...we've been eating a fair bit of silverbeet, bok choy and broccoli (Beet and broc au gratin is surprisingly yummy with lots of cracked pepper and good cheese). The salad veggies are also coming on and here's a selection of what we had last night.

The potatoes are poking through, the corn's going upwards, the garlic's almost ready to harvest, I've had my first handful or raspberries (don't tell Guy!), I've got the best germination of parsnips I've ever seen, and the pumpkins, squash melons etc are doing a terrific job at standing up in the ferocious winds that come across the garden. Hurry up and grow shelterbelts!

Had a bit of a disaster with my tomato seedlings...I started a different shift at work and forgot to open up the cold frame they were under. It wasn't a super hot day, but by the time I got home I had 58 dead seedling and two live ones. The soil was still moist, but they were fried. Am scrambling now to get a few left-over seedling from friends.

If you've got a couple of pumpkins that need using at the end of the season, I tried this recipe from Hobart cook and writer Sally Wise. Quite unusual and delicious.

3 tablespoons olive oil, 250g chopped onions, 1 cooking apple, cored and chopped, 500g diced pumpkin, 8 garlic cloves, 1 cup water, 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, 2 teaspoons mustard powder, 1 tablespoon salt, 125g sultanas, 375g brown sugar, 90g white sugar, 2 cups cider vinegar, 1 teaspoon ground allspice, 2 teaspoons curry powder, 1 teaspoon nutmeg.

In a saucepan saute onions, apple, pumpkin and garlic for five minutes. Add the water and cook until pumkin is tender. Add everything else, bring to boil, then simmer for about 40 mins till it becomes like chutney. Put in sterilised jars, keep for two weeks in the pantry then eat!