Farmers’ stories in new book on food

South Canterbury businesses have been highlighted in a newly released book which aims to tell the stories behind New Zealand’s food.

Source New Zealand is the product of more than a year’s work finding stories from the regions that provide products for the food industry.

Authors Gerhard and Henri Egger spent nearly 15 months travelling the country and approaching farmers to write ‘‘their story’’, Henri Egger said.

Four South Canterbury businesses are featured in the book Mt Cook Alpine Salmon, deer farmer Graham Carr from Peel Forest Estate, Havoc Farm Pork at Hunter Hills and deer, sheep and beef farm Clayton Station, near Fairlie.

Clayton Station manager Hamish Orbell said the feature was an exciting chance to be able to share the heritage of the farm. Orbell is the third generation operating the station, which the family has run since the 1960s.

‘‘This is what we’re trying to do, this for the story.’’

He said for all farmers it was about sharing the love and pride of the land, whether they were stock or crop farmers. ’’It’s why we do it.’’

Havoc Pork owner Linda Mccallum-jackson said she and husband Ian had been in the business for 17 years - and ‘‘everything is for the pigs’’.

She said ‘‘it might not be the tidiest farm but our pigs never suffer’’.

The operation prided itself on how it was able to tell people how their meat was produced, she said.

’’Most New Zealanders have an affinity with farming, whether that be through family or friends, and we’ve lost that,’’ Henri Egger said. ’’A lot of people in cities don’t realise cows make milk and cows have a calf [for example], it’s perhaps the story of where it came from.’’

She said the Mackenzie businesses had ‘‘rich’’ stories to tell, mostly all with strong family ties, and the farms were all working towards a sustainable future.

Mt Cook Salmon, for example, grew from a group of fishermen into a fully-fledged business - and ‘‘it’s beautiful’’, she said. ’’It is about the people who make it happen, the source if you like, of where it all begins.’’