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A little while ago, I was lucky to share a meal with Nadine from Wattlebank park farm.  

Winter recipe at Jacican, Cooking School, with Wattlebank Park Farm

Nadine is the owner and operator, let just call her the farmer, of Wattlebank Park farm, located at St Clair, about halfway between Inverloch and Wonthaggi. A mixed farm of dairy, beef, pork, and lamb, Nadine produces a way range of meats and small goods that she sells through her farm gate butchers shop and at many of the local farmers' markets. In a collaboration with Prom Country Cheese, she produces a range of cow’s milk cheese. 

Wattlebank Park Farm roast pork

As you all know that I like to buy direct, where I can, from the farmer and as Wattlebank Park farm offers the whole range, it is one of my first go to shops for beef, pork, lamb and small goods. Nadine makes the best ‘Polish Sausage’ you have tasted. You can find her polish sausage atop many of the wood-fired pizzas, made and served locally.

Wattlebank Park farm roast beef

Not only is Nadine a farmer, and businesswomen, she is a fantastic cook. The day I visited, she was up earlier, stoking ‘Betty the Rayburn’ to slow roast my meal. Her delicious serving of slow cooked lamb, cooked through chicken, melting in the mouth beef and crackle, yes, the crackle crackled, roasted pork, made me want to return to the kitchen and cook up a winter roast feast!

Jaci

You can find the full version of this article, along with Nadine's recipes in the Winter 2018 issue of Gippsland Country Life Style magazine

Perfect ham secret shared 

It is a tradition to serve a glazed ham at Christmas, a leg of moistened, warmed through ham glazed with a mixture of something sweet and a little bit of spice.

 

For a local’s unique and beloved way of glazing ham for Christmas, we had the privilege of visiting the Kyabram Main St Butcher and acquiring Troy Pycock’s mum’s one-of-a-kind recipe for glazed ham.

Troy’s mum, Janet, was handed this recipe from an American friend, Lynn.

Troy, the new owner of Kyabram Main St Butcher, now raises pigs locally for his Goulburn Valley Pork brand, bringing farm-fresh ham and pork to our community.

Troy and his wife Abby, along with their three children, lovingly raise heritage Berkshire Hampshire cross free-range pigs and beef on their family farm in Wyuna.

Here is the recipe for Baked Glazed Ham:

Ingredients

Half a leg of Goulburn Valley ham

1¼ cups of apricot jam

¼ cup of brown sugar

Optional: 2 tsp of Dijon mustard

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 180℃.

2. Combine the jam, sugar and mustard in a small saucepan. Heat, stirring, until the sugar has dissolved.

3. Remove the rind from the ham, leaving as much fat as possible. You may need to ask your butcher to do this for you.

4. Make cross cuts in the ham to hold the glaze, creating a diamond pattern.

5. Place the ham on an oven tray and pour an even amount of glaze over it, getting the glaze into all the cuts.

6. Cook at 180 °C for approximately 1 hour. A rule of thumb is 15 minutes for every kilo of weight.

7. You will need to baste the ham every 30 minutes to keep the glaze oozing into the meat.

Get your hands on Goulburn Valley Pork at Kyabram Main St Butchers, or visit their stall at the Echuca Farmers’ Market and other nearby regional markets.

Troy strongly recommends ordering your hams as early as possible, as stock is limited, for pick-up the weekend before Christmas.

This will ensure you’re well-prepared for the festive season.

While apricot jam works wonderfully, why not try an exciting twist?

For an extra flavour kick, grab a jar of Cherry and Black Pepper jam from Quincey Jones Jelly at the Echuca Farmers’ Market.

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This article was taken from an article I wrote for McPherson Media Group, Riverine Herald Christmas Gift Guide, page 4

You can find it below.

 Christmas ham article

A couple of other notes: due to the tyranny of distance, I couldn't just pop up to Ky and grab pork from the Ky Main Street Butchery, so like normal, I relied on Matt at Rosedale Butchers for the ham in the recipe and photo. 

Walk amongst the weeds

jacican harvest lunch

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Acknowledgment of country

Hello, I’m Jaci Hicken, from the lands of the Brataualung clan, which is where I’ve spent most of my life.

I would like to acknowledge all of us here today to cook together and share a meal.

I love sharing my dream of growing the food this country has to offer and share it with you.

The traditional place that we come together today is on the lands Gunaikurnai people

And I’d like to pay my respects to our elders past, present, emerging leaders, along with all the young people in our community.

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