A CARTERTON organic hobby farmer has a plan to make organic, free range Wairarapa grown pork products readily available to all ? all he needs is time and co-operation.
The SPCA is encouraging people to buy only free range pork products, or forgo it entirely, so as to avoid intensively farmed
pigs, but if you want to eat locally reared stuff you would be hard pressed to find it.
Free range pork and bacon is available at some butchers and food outlets in Wairarapa, but none of it is locally grown.
But Carterton man Don Baskerville, who this year organically reared two Wessex Saddleback wieners and has now turned them into salami, prosciutto ham and other goodies, said a combined effort from a collective of organic farmers could see enough pigs produced to keep a constant supply going.
His original reasons for doing it himself were purely selfish, though.
"This was the only way I can get organic salami ? to make it myself. So I got the pigs as wieners from another organic grower in Tinui.
"This allows me to eat something that would cost me $85 ? $100 per kilo otherwise. I've got the only free range prosciutto possibly in New Zealand, but definitely in Wairarapa."
Producing certifiably organic and free range pork requires handlers of the meat at every stage of the process, from growing, processing and distribution, to adhere to organic principals.
This means putting only organic feed into the animals, no inorganic materials into the ground, and making sure every set of hands in the chain of custody fits the organic bill.
Getting all that set up would be "expensive and time consuming" for one person, but a collective could share the load.
"It's a matter of getting the infrastructure in place. The group would be the easy entry way of getting the infrastructure in place."
His plan would see maybe 10 of the 30 or 40 organic farmers in the region add three or four pigs to their product list, which would see one or two ready for slaughter every couple of weeks.
Mr Baskerville said the soon to be operating farmers market would be the ideal outlet for such a scheme.
All this could be years away, but in the meantime Mr Baskerville will continue to enjoy his salami and prosciutto in his back garden.
