Q. What cuts did you enter in the awards?
We entered loin bacon and a ham — our loin bacon, or middle bacon, won a gold in its category and we didn’t have any luck with the ham.
Q. How many categories are there?
Five bacon categories and two ham categories.
Q. What were you judged on?
The smoke flavour and the amount of salt — it’s all cured and a real salty bacon is not likely to win. They’re looking for a nice balance of sweet and salty, which is not overpowered with smoke or salt.
Q. What’s your secret to getting the right balance?
We mānuka-smoke all ours and we put it in a controlled smoke oven. We put in a $60,000 machine three years ago and everything is controlled and computerised and everything is consistent.
Q. Where do you source your pigs to create the winning loin bacon?
Havoc Farm Pork in Dunedin. We get a pig off them every week.
Q. Why did you enter loin bacon over any other type of bacon you make?
I’ve always felt we have had a good loin bacon and it’s one cut I know we always make with New Zealand pork.
Q. If you’re making a fry-up for a friend, is loin bacon your cut of choice?
I think it’s one of the better cuts of bacon because it has a nice bit of eye meat but it also has the fat from the belly meat, which you’d usually get with streaky bacon — so you’re getting the best of both.
Q. Since you’ve won the award, have you seen a rise in demand for your loin bacon?
Yeah, we’ve had good sales and feedback.
Q. What is the motivation for entering the awards?
It’s good publicity. We use the same recipe to make the bacon in our home-kill business, so if you want a gold-medal bacon with your home kill, you can use us.
Q. What is demand like for pork compared to other proteins?
We probably sell as much pork as beef and lamb. Most of the pork is sold as bacon and ham.
Q. How much bacon and ham do you sell?
Bacon is a sale you’ll get all year round, where ham is a Christmas sale. We probably do 500 legs at Christmas time. We probably do 300kg of bacon a week. We supply some big cafes in town and we probably do 200kg of streaky bacon a week and another 100kg in the shop.
Q. So farmers don’t have to fear everyone is becoming vegan?
No — there’s a massive market for bacon. It’s one of those things that goes with everything, isn’t it?
