Passion and Belief

To market, to market to buy a fat pig. The Farmer’s Market was on today in Wauchope, too enticing these days to pass up. There really was a man there selling fat pigs, well pork. His name is Brian Wehlburg and his farm is in Kindee in the next valley to the south, where he also raises beef and eggs, free-ranging on pasture. We met him when he gave a small talk a while ago at one of the Small Farmers Network workshops organised through Landcare, and then again when he ran a weekend workshop on pasture management, introducing us to cell grazing and opening the door to what we don’t know. He does a good job promoting his produce, made easier because he has both passion and belief in what he is doing. A powerful combination when used for the powers of good. We dig swine, but mainly bacon and prosciutto so we’ll pass on his cuts of pork but it looks like we might get one of his beef packs. We ran into some friends at the markets and sat around drinking coffee, trying to work out how much beef we could fit in our freezers if we shared half or quarter of a cow.


Noah was fascinated watching a spinning demonstration, four women lined up with their wheels, ready to take on any comers, turning alpaca fleece into yarn. Outside in a light splattering of rain Elly was hosting a cook-off where the contestants had to use produce from the markets, fresh and local. Leeks were sautéed, egg whites stiffened, mushrooms and tomatoes enveloped in a local, free-range, organic omelette. The judges couldn’t separate the dishes so they split the prizes and drew straws to see who progressed to the semi-finals.


Home is a nice place to be on a rainy Saturday afternoon, sitting on the verandah, listening to the rain, watching the mist in the hills. Dozing.

“I’m grateful that I had a little run around with Denny, and Denny chased me.”
(Confused? Look)