Page 17 - Australian Pork Newspaper

Trimming the fat makes for soap from heritage pigs
PRODUCING soap from heritage pigs is helping Andrew Hearne clean up at the markets.
He is producing a lem- on-myrtle scented soap based on the fat from his slaughtered pigs.
They are raised on his farm near Pappinbarra, west of Wauchope on the NSW mid-north coast.
It is part of his determi- nation to not waste one part of his porkers.
“It’s one way of us com- pleting the nose to tail ethos,” Mr Hearne said.
“Nothing is wasted.
“The whole animal is used.”
The soap is produced in partnership with a former butcher, Grace Steven, who has an Italian back- ground and spent many a day with her family making soap based on her grandmother’s expertise.
Ms Steven, who is based at Camden, south of Syd- ney, has sheathed her knives and now makes products such as soap.
“Andrew is a bit of a hero of mine,” she said.
“I love what he does.
“Knowing he was butch- ering his pigs, it seemed a natural medium to play with.”
After Mr Hearne’s pigs are processed and the meat packed for sale, the fat comes back to him and is rendered and then sent to Ms Steven.
From one pig, aged six months, about 100 blocks of soap each weighing 120g are produced.
The finished product is very different to the soap Ms Steven experienced in her childhood courtesy of her grandmother.
“It wasn’t that great a product,” she said.
“It cleaned clothes per- fectly, but I daresay their hands were pretty dry.”
The present process re- sults in glycerine “one of the great unsung heroes of hand-made soap” being produced.
She said this was not retained in many of the mass-produced soaps, in- stead used in moisturising products.
Apart from the glycerine and lemon-myrtle, coco- nut milk is used to give
it a luscious and creamy texture.
“It is 100 percent ed- ible,” Mr Hearne said.
“If you don’t like wash- ing in it, yes, you can eat it.
“It is very creamy and lathers up very well.”
Apart from supplying his pork to some of Syd- ney’s upmarket eateries, Mr Hearne enjoys good sales at the Bondi mar- kets.
The soap has been met with mixed responses.
“People love the scent,” Mr Hearne said.
“They’ll pick it up and smell it.
“Others say, ‘I wouldn’t wash in that, I wouldn’t feel clean’.
“Then you get to explain to them where lard comes from and how soap used to be made.”
Despite the interest, and using lemon-myrtle
as part of wanting to uti- lise all of his pigs, Mr Hearne is primarily a farmer.
“We’re actually in the pork business, we are not going to diversify and cre- ate a range of soaps,” he said.
So for the time being it is unlikely there will be a silk purse made out of one of his sow’s ears.
Lemon-myrtle scented soap made from rendered fat
Originally published at
abc.net.au Hearne
from Andrew Hearne’s heritage pigs. Photos: Andrew
The heritage pigs at Andrew Hearne’s property forage throughout the farm.
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