On this free range, rare breed farm, we have seen the full spectrum from birth to plate. This included day-old piglets, bottle feeding calves, and well... making sausage. We have had the opportunity to learn a great deal from our hosts (along with their friends, organic dairy farmers). We covered everything from NZ farming in general, how bacon is processed and smoked, how to make lard, NZ gardening techniques, as well as the less appetizing things like how prosciutto is aged for a year.
We have also gained some interesting insight in farmers markets. Although we are both used to going to the farmers market, I for one have never acted as the vendor. I learned a lot about how people act, as well as body language that can predict whether we were dealing with a "browser" or a "buyer". Surprisingly, Kiwi can be frugal with their food purchases and complain that the Soggy Bottom free range, nitrate-free, no additives (snout, feet, floor-droppings) added meat is just too expensive. Lesson learned: real food is supposed to cost money.
Although much of our time at Soggy Bottom was spent mucking about or in the butchery, we also got to leave the farm a few times for our own little adventures. This included re-attempting and completing the Tongariro Alpine Crossing after much of the snow had melted, delivering meat to Raglan (for the organic burger shack) and staying for a surf, visiting an organic dairy operation, and going swimming in one of the Waikato regions many lakes.
So many thank-yous to the Walkers, Torben (our fellow WWOOFer, a spunky German who embraced our "words of the day" while feeding the pigs), and Stonker.
Soggy Bottom Bacon
Makin' the bacon
the bacon.
planting an oak at the top of the farm
Lanna, Torben, and Number Two
feeding Moosley
a moment for the Discovery Channel- Emerald Lakes at Tongario Crossing
the morning embrace.
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