Simon Haslam
You know the real estate market’s crazy when even Byron’s pigs have million-dollar views. But the Berkshires raised by Byron Bay Pork and Meats have always been special, especially to John Singh, a third-generation local farmer whose grandfather first came from India in the 1890s. John’s father sold vegetables from a horse and cart in the 1930s, and now the three Singh brothers have divided the land, with one growing bananas, another cattle, while John sells his pork and other meats through his Mullumbimby butcher shop, and at their new Byron store (formerly the Wholly Smoked premises).
Unfortunately, only the pregnant sows and piglets get the view across the Cape – they’re kept near to the house so that John can keep an eye on them. The other pigs live at John’s farm in Tenterfield where, owing to a diet of carefully selected grains and an emphasis on slow growth, they produce marbled meat, more like Wagyu beef, which does not dry out during cooking.
By the way, if you like buying your pork from a big supermarket, this is not how your pigs are raised. Chef Matthew Evans’ book On Eating Meat describes not only how supermarket pork is made more moist by saline injections, but also the hideous piglet-raising methods that are a world away from the Byron Pork methods.
Ray Hambly (himself from an old Byron family, whose father grew up in Newrybar) has been the manager at the butcher’s shops for the past eight years, and says that people are increasingly looking for healthier meats and alternative cuts. ‘One thing I’ve noticed about the customers in the new Byron store,’ he says, ‘is that they know their meat, and they’ll often ask for something special, which we’re happy to get in for them.’
‘In Byron we specialise in organic meat,’ he adds. ‘This wasn’t on the sign initially, and as the premises used to be Wholly Smoked, everyone wants to know whether it’s still organic, and the answer is: Yes! Our meats are all organic, and antibiotic and hormone free’.
Byron Bay Pork and Meats is a local, family-owned business that sources pork, beef, lamb and goat from their family farms (about 60 per cent of their meat comes from their own farms, and the remainder from other local farms). They focus on quality, locally-produced meats and smallgoods. Whilst they are the place for smoked leg hams, pork roasts, turkeys and chicken, right now it’s barbecue time, and they have award-winning and gluten-free sausages (or GF rissoles, even their crumb coatings can be GF), which are perfect for a summer meal out on the deck.
Find Byron Bay Pork and Meats at:
70 Dalley Street, Mullumbimby (open 7am–5pm, Mon–Fri and 8am–12pm Sat.)
120 Jonson St, Byron Bay (open 7am–5pm, Mon-Fri and 6am–12pm Sat.)
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