Fiona Stocker
After watching too many television chefs from the safety of their sofa, new Tasmanians Fiona and Oliver Stocker turned their five acres into a free range, gourmet pig farm.Raising Wessex Saddlebacks among the eucalyptus trees, they took their premium pork to the local award-winning farmers’ market. There they learned what it’s like to be behind the counter in a food business. What’s the most you can charge for a pork sausage? And what’s it like to be called ’the pig lady’?Struggling to keep business, family and marriage together, they found that things aren’t always easy behind the farm gate. But they also found a deep love and respect for those most magnificent of creatures - pigs.Saddleback Wife is a book for foodies and those who want to know more about where their food comes from. It’s for anyone who wants a behind-the-scenes look at the foodie-haven of Tasmania, and the pork ’underbelly’ of farming life. It’s also the story of two Saddleback sows called Rosie and Bella, and a boar called Co-Pilot Bob.Told with trademark wry humour and at times heart-breaking honesty, Saddleback Wife is a story about the struggle to make a living from land and livestock, and the reality behind the dream of gourmet farming.
