After setting up our cool room trailer, we have been able to deliver porkers and suckers direct into Sydney. One of the new restaurants we supply now is Bishop Sessa at Surry Hills. Paul Copper Chef and co founder of Bishop Sessa prides himself in being a nose to tail chef, meaning he buys a whole pig weighing about 55kg and develops a menu to use up every little bit from the nose to the tail.
If you find yourself in Surry Hills Sydney check it out, at 527 Crown St Surry Hills.

Check out the photos and blog about Melanda Park on Bishops Sessa's blog at.

http://bishopsessa.com.au/producer-chat-matt-and-sue-simmons-from-melanda-park-free-range-pork

This is a photo of me delivering a 60kg porker to Bishop Sessa.

Melbourne Food & Wine Festival

Sue and I spent the weekend in Melbourne at the food and wine festival, watching in on several master classes with Chefs such as Matthew Evens the Gourmet Farmer, Karen Martini, Annabel Langbein, The Free Range Chef, and the boys from the 3 Blue Ducks at Bronte. The highlight and the reason we were there was to support Martin Boetz from Longrain. Martin was de-boning a Melanda Park suckling pig and cooking it in a Thai masterstock before roasting it and serving it with spiced blood plum sauce. The dish was absolutely brilliant, which inspired me to learn how to de-bone a whole suckling pig. Surprisingly it should be reasonably straight forward but I will let you know in a few weeks how it goes.

Shelter in the Sorghum

Just before Christmas I planted an acre of sorghum, with all this rain it has grown unbelievably well. It's now over 2 metres tall now and we released the first batch of 150 weaners into it last week. I haven't seen more than 20 at any one time since. If i walk through the sorghum i just hear rustling and odd bark and then more rustling and the sound of 30 or 40 little pigs taking off through the the grass with absolutely no idea where they are going or even where the end of the paddock is. I've got no chance at all of getting them back until they eat the stuff down a little.

Lyndey Milan visits Melanda Park

Our new paddock of gilts watched suspiciously as Lyndey Milan cooked the perfect pork steak yesterday. Lyndey came to the farm to film for her 'Taste of Australia' series. All the pigs behaved themselves on camera and the whole thing went really well.

Pilu and Ormeggio farm visit

Melanda Park is now delivering suckling pigs direct to Sydney restaurants, every week we head off to the big smoke with another load of free range suckling pigs for restaurants like Ormeggio at the spit and Pilu at Fresh Water. On Monday Pilu and Ormeggio brought out there whole team out to the farm as part of a team building exercise and learning experience. Giving every one from head chef to waiter a better understanding and appreciation for the fine product that is Melanda Park Free Range Pork.