Providing Our Food Service Partners During The Festive Season

We’re feeling the festive spirit at Haverick Meats. With December upon us, Christmas meats have filled our cold rooms in anticipation for this year’s festive inspired menus. Offering a premium selection of turkey and ham, our culinary team also prepare house made accompaniments including sauces, glazes and stuffings to help lighten the load for our Chefs as they cater to the Christmas rush. We take great care in hand selecting the best quality Christmas meats in the country to provide our food service partners with premium product during the most indulgent season. Namely, our Free Range Almond Grove Turkeys and Rare Breed Black Berkshire Ham.

Free Range Almond Grove Turkey

Hailing from the Murray River in South Australia, our Free Range Almond Grove Turkeys are the only Humane Choice certified free-range birds in Australia. This means there are no more than 400 birds per hectare at Almond Grove Farm, which gives them ample room to develop and grow as naturally as possible. This aids in creating a moist and tender turkey.

A family owned and run business, John Holland started raising turkeys on Almond Grove Farm in 2004. Nearing 20 years later, they’re touted as one of the best turkeys in Australia, and more recently across the globe. Business has been “flat strap” according to Mr. Holland. Despite being halfway across the world, Almond Grove were in hot demand for Thanksgiving this year due to shortages In the United States. High end New York restaurants were calling in birds and spouting that they were the best turkeys they’d eaten.

While Christmas turkey orders have come in later this year, demand for birds are as strong as they’ve seen. And, it’s good news for chefs and diners alike with most turkey farmers saying it’s been their strongest growing season in a long time. According to Mr Holland, this year’s good growth rates can be attributed to strong winds which forces the birds to huddle near food and eat more. Also, “If it’s relatively cool, the birds eat more and while we’ve had some warmish weather, we’ve had quite cool mornings”, said Mr Holland.

At Haverick Meats, we hand select each of our Almond Grove Turkeys. Varying in weight from 4 kilograms right up to 12kg, 6kg tends to be the most popular.

Rare Breed Black Berkshire Ham

Sourced from the Byron Bay hinterland in Northern NSW, raising Black Berkshire Pigs is a careful craft. With the breed originally hailing from the Berkshire region in the United Kingdom, they require a temperate climate for healthy development and growth. This paired with a specialised diet and comfortable, lush and stress-free surrounds makes for premium quality ham.

Often referred to as the Kobe Beef of the pork world, Rare Beed Black Berkshire Ham is fast gaining popularity in Australia for its premium eating quality. Known for its intense marbling, it’s this that sets it apart from its counterparts. The high fat content works to keep the meat moist during the cooking process to produce juicy, tender results.

This season we’ve seen Rare Breed Black Berkshire Ham continue to garner significant attention amongst the media and food critics alike. Only this week was it titled one of the Top 5 Artisan Hams this Christmas.

At Haverick Meats, we hand select each of our Black Berkshire Pigs before smoking and curing in house. Ranging from 8-9kg for a bone in leg or 5-6kg for a boneless leg, we also offer a 4-5kg bone in half leg.