Makin' Bacon!

In the last week, we have cured and smoked our latest batch of home made bacon. The process takes around a week of curing in a salt and sugar mix, with treacle added in the last couple of days for an additional depth of flavour. The blocks of pork belly are smoked slowly (generally with apple wood) on our Kamado. We have been doing this for over a decade now and I struggle to eat store bought bacon any more - even the nicer stuff.

Now, I may be biased, but I believe there is nothing better than a Sunday morning egg and bacon roll with fresh home made bread, home cured smokey bacon, home grown eggs and a home made bbq sauce. When you are here, just ask!

In fact, it was bacon and sausage making at home that was the original inspiration behind the Stripey Pig name. While studying commercial cookery at TAFE one assignment required us to come up with a restaurant concept and menu. I had done a few butchery and sausage making courses and figured aligning those interest to create an integrated small goods and cafe business was the right direction for me. Given this business would be focused largely on pork based products, the pig was clearly the right logo. Add in our Tasmanian roots (and desire to someday return) and the Stripey Pig was born.

Over the years, the business concept has morphed from small goods to American style barbeque (still a specialty for us) and finally a bed and breakfast. The basic building blocks of fresh local produce, home made food and a Tasmanian location have never really changed, so the name has also stuck.

We are very much going from concept to reality now, with the building starting to really take shape, and other preparations around the place also progressing.

A freshly ploughed top paddock

In recent months we have tidied up some of the fencing around our larger front paddock. The plan is to eventually keep a few cows and sheep to fatten up and ultimately stock the fridge. This week we had some local help in to start the process of getting the pasture right. This began by ploughing it to get rid of the weeds and fill in large ruts and holes from old tree stumps. Next we will look to break up the soil and smooth the surface a bit more before planting a better mix of grasses for the beasts. We have collected a few native plants from the the paddock, hopefully they will survive and be used in the landscaping around the property.

The build is progressing rapidly. The layout of the main house is coming along, with wall framing finished and trusses arriving on site yesterday, ready to be installed. Support posts for the deck uprights have been installed off both the lounge and the bedrooms, helping us see what the outdoor spaces will look like. Even more exciting is the fact that the roof trusses for the shed have gone up today, and it is really starting to show its final shape - and size! It is looking great.

The shed is really starting to take shape

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