MEET THE LOCALS: Megan & Wil Seiler of Bottle Tree Hill Organics

Tell us a bit about your background and why you decided to start Bottle Tree Hill Organics farm?
Wil's mother and father settled here in 1979 to retire from their very large farm 100kms west of Murgon. We took over about 20 years ago both having a huge interest in organics and Permaculture since we were teenagers. This was during a period of prolonged drought so it was very tough and we had to seek outside work to keep our cattle alive but we worked on our self sufficiency out of necessity and enchantment with the ideal! Also not wanting the heat and dust and dry to beat us!

Starting in 1998 we went through 3 years of organic certification which at that stage was for our mixed veges, olives and of course the cattle. We also spent those 3 years driving a local olive cooperative where we ran the press (hands on Italian woven mat press) and at that time this allowed us to be exposed to the birthing of Farmers Markets and the local eating movement. So from that time on we were in love not only with olive oil (which isn't hard to do) but also the amazing quality of produce being made by like-minded people. Mixing this with our own veges, milk, eggs, meat, bread our life as rampant Epicureans was cemented. It also made us realise there were a growing number of people who wanted good, ideally organic produce, and it seemed we had the means to produce it.


How large is your property and how many pigs do you usually have on it?
We have 540 acres with various soil and vegetation types and microclimates. We use about 60 acres for pigs through their rotations of pasture/planted grazing and gleanings, 100 acres all up for cultivation at any given time and the bulk cattle land but we also have areas locked up for over 6 months at any given time for fauna and flora regeneration and then the cattle go in to eat down grass for maybe a month. The pigs have moveable shelters and waterers and are outdoors from birth until the day they die. We usually have about 200 pigs as growers here at any point but for reasons you can read about in this blog we have scaled down for a time to only 3 sows and 20 growers at any one time. We are striking down the barriers one by one and hope to have more pork again as time goes on but not at the scale we had as it is unsustainable.


What breed of pig do you use and why?
In 1999 we were given a pair of little wild pigs by Wil's brother with the idea to fatten them quickly and eat. They were very sweet. We didn't have the proper fencing for them but our place is so large (540 acres) with no neighbours to be seen we would let them live with the house cows through the day and whistle to them to bring them home of the night. The time came to eat them and we did despite the tears. We missed not only the pork (which we didn?t eat before this) and saw the way that they were great users of unsaleable veges, so we found some rare breed pigs locally. The first was a young Tamworth sow named Treacle and later two pure Saddleback sisters named Sarah and Sabrina who have all now passed but were the grandmothers of our current ladies. Saddleback pigs were actually an endangered breed for the reason that black pigs fell out of favour with intensive indoor systems. We love them as they are great for the outdoors. They are fantastic mothers with plenty of milk and have just enough black hair to be able to cope with sun and the taste is better than any other breed (well we think so anyway).


Do you only sell your products direct from farm to customer, or do you sell to butchers and supermarkets as well?
We love selling direct to the customer as we get immediate feedback, retain more of the money and we can adjust to when we want to sell. Although it is very difficult to arrange and coordinate, it is worth it for us. We used to sell to butchers and wholesalers but at the moment we are happy with the amount of pigs we have to value add this way. We do sell to a few cafes and small outlets and at the occasional market when we have a glut. We also sell veges, honey, olive oil, some grains, some fruits and dried goods all from the farm.


Do you have a favourite recipe you'd like to share using Bottle Tree Hill Organics pork?
We are spoilt here as we have a cob oven and there is nothing like a smoky roasted pork leg coming out of that.

A good summer recipe is:
Stuffed Tenderloin
large pork tenderloin (about 1.5 kg)
3-4 rashes of bacon
butter, salt and pepper
1 onion
fresh herbs including thyme, oregano and basil
lemon juice

Lie the bacon rashers out in lines horizontally so they lie over the baking pan. Leave gaps between the strips. Lie the tenderloin piece on top. Cut down through the centre length ways to about one inch in depth. Open up slightly.
Chop finely the onion and about 2/3 of the herbs and place in a separate bowl. Add softened butter and a squeeze of lemon juice and mix with salt and pepper.
Stuff the cut with this mixture and then crush the extra herbs with your hands and place on top. Wrap the bacon around the tenderloin and tie up like a very tight parcel with string.
Bake at 210 degrees for about 40 minutes and rest for at least 10 before slicing.
Cover with foil for about 20mins of cooking and take off for the last 20 minutes.
Serve with baked Jap pumpkin with the skin on, Nicola potatoes and lightly steamed butter beans.

A winter recipe:
Gourmet Snags and Posh Mash
1 kilo of Rainforest bush sausages (from us of course)
750 grams of young chat Desiree potatoes
3 cups of freshly shelled peas
butter
milk
salt and pepper

Slow fry or bake the sausages to retain the moisture until just cooked. Steam the potatoes with skins on. Mash the potatoes roughly and add butter, milk and salt and pepper to taste.
Steam peas very quickly at the end.
Nice when you chop and mix together on the plate like a kid!