February 25, 2024 • 46 mins
Hannah Miller is A Lady Butcher and her passion is to create purposeful meats.
Hannah’s jam is making traditional charcuterie, the art of preserving meat, with local New Zealand ingredients. She’s gaining a fan following for her range of premium dried and cured meats from local, ethically-raised animals.
She and her husband also have a restaurant and brewery, Churly’s, in Auckland. At Churly’s they do whole carcase butchery, and Hannah is committed to ensuring every cut has a place, adopting a nose to tail philosophy. The butchery itself is tucked inside the restaurant.
A Lady Butcher show notes
Website: www.aladybutcher.co.nz
Facebook: A Lady Butcher Facebook
Instagram: @aladybutcher A Lady Butcher (@aladybutcher) | Instagram
Hannah’s jam is making traditional charcuterie, the art of preserving meat, with local New Zealand ingredients. She’s gaining a fan following for her range of premium dried and cured meats from local, ethically-raised animals.
She and her husband also have a restaurant and brewery, Churly’s, in Auckland. At Churly’s they do whole carcase butchery, and Hannah is committed to ensuring every cut has a place, adopting a nose to tail philosophy. The butchery itself is tucked inside the restaurant.
A Lady Butcher show notes
Website: www.aladybutcher.co.nz
Facebook: A Lady Butcher Facebook
Instagram: @aladybutcher A Lady Butcher (@aladybutcher) | Instagram
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:08):
Welcome to down to Earth, broughtto you by a Young Country. This
is the podcast for the go getters, the big dreamers, the innovators of
the primary sector. I'm your host, Rebecca Greeves, and we're taking a
closer look at young people in theprimary industries who have dared to think big,
pushed the limits and give it ago in business. We'll be asking
(00:30):
how they got to where they arenow, what they've learned along the way,
and what their advice is to otheraspiring every innovators. So settle in
and listen up as we serve youa healthy dose of inspiration, motivation,
and maybe even challenge your thinking alittle. It's a meaty topic on today's
(00:54):
podcast. I bet she gets thesepuns all the time. We are joined
by someone who knows who around acarcass. Hannah Miller is a lady butcher
and her passion is to create purposefulmeat or meats. Hello Hannah, Hello,
it's lovely to have you on thepodcast. And I've been following along
(01:15):
on your Instagram for a little whileand I think that what you're doing is
really interesting, So I'd love you. I'd love you to just tell us
a little bit to start with.Actually, what is a Lady Butcher is
the name of the business, doesn'tit, So what is it that you
actually do? Yeah, so Imake traditional New Zealand charcuteries, so well,
traditional charcuttery with New Zealand ingredients,so dry, a cured meats,
(01:40):
the art of you know, preservingmeat to be able to eat be eaten
longer than maybe you normally would thinkthat it would be the name of Lady
Butcher came because it was a nicknameI was given quite quite a few years
ago. Uh and so that wasmy Instagram handle and for a while.
So when it came time to namingthe business, you know, my then
(02:02):
boyfriend now husband was like, youshould You're a Lady Butcher. That's just
that's who you are. That's thatshould be the business name. Uh So
yeah, sort of stuck. Andthe name for that is just because I
happen to be a female butcher,not doesn't necessarily. Yeah, that's it.
And we have sort of a feminineslant to what we do. So
(02:24):
the way that we cure, youknow, is very very detail oriented.
We produce a quite high end product, so we lean into those more royal
colors more sort of feminine designs,not necessarily flowers, but flourishes, that
sort of thing. Excellent. Well, I don't think there's anything wrong with
(02:46):
you know that you are a womanand you are a butcher, and you
know that's that's the name in it. It perfectly describes what you are doing.
And I detect that you do nothave a New Zealand accent. How
did you meet up in New Zealand? Yeah, so American born, but
I've lived all over the world workingas a chef in my past life before
(03:09):
and basically just all aspects of hospitalitybefore starting butchery back in two thousand and
seven and since then, I sortof did a butchery chefing hybrid and which
allowed me to travel, which isreally awesome. Came to New Zealand specifically
for butchery. There was a skillshortage then nine years ago. There still
(03:32):
is now it's only gotten worse.But the Yeah, we came to do
butchery and only planned to be herefor six months and I arrived in June
June first, nine years ago,and I couldn't believe that, like this
was winter. I live in Aucklandand that went winter was pretty mild,
(03:53):
and that sort of sealed the dealfor me where I was like, there's
palm trees, it's like sixty degreesfahrenheit. I'm yeah, I'm honest staying
here. Uh, And so prettymuch immediately started working on getting a visa.
Uh yeah. Now I'm a fullcitizen and I've married a Kiwi and
have a couple of New Zealand businesses. So yeah, pretty pretty set.
I guess it's probably safe to say, but yeah, welcome to the fould.
(04:16):
I read actually that you did yourbutchery pretty sip in London, mm
hmm. Yeah, so yeah,I didn't. I didn't plan to do
that. I was just chefing andjust wanted to be a better chef.
So I knew I needed to learnabout butchery, and uh there as well
as my restaurant in Auckland, Cherle's, we do whole carcass butchery. And
(04:40):
so when you do that, youend up with a lot of cuts that
you not that you can't but justdon't really order from a butcher shop,
things that usually kind of end upin mints or frim or dice or something.
And so when you have those andyou can do whatever you want with
them, Uh, there's there's alot to learn. So that's that's how
I started learning, and then wasactually like, oh, I quite like
(05:03):
this. So what is it thatyou like about it? Butchery? Well,
to me, I find butchery tobe very zen you unlike cooking is
you know, when you're cooking,and especially at your chef in a restaurant,
you know, it's hot, it'sbusy, it's stressful, people are
(05:24):
yelling at you. You're yelling atpeople. There's you know, it's people
are waiting. You're always on atime limit, right, whereas like with
butchery, you are you are onyou know, a time limit to the
fact that you'd like to finish yourday. But you you're working in advance.
You're prepping in advance, you know, like for us, we marinate
(05:45):
our sausages, you know, theday before, and then we make sasages
the next day, and then youhang them for a day before we use
them the day after that. Soyou're always very systematic, you're working through
processes. It's it's cold as opposedhot. Uh. There's you're often by
yourself or with a with a smallerteam. Uh. And yeah, I
(06:06):
find I find that relaxing. Iquite like the doing, you know,
when you're processing a whole carcass,I quite like the process of you know,
taking a minute to really to thinkabout the fact that this was this
was a life. You know,this was an animal, and we you
know, we've we've taken that lifefor our nourishment and just you know,
(06:27):
being grateful for that and taking itjust a minute to you know, appreciate
the process. And then when I'mwondering, that really helps me be mindful
of making sure that nothing's going towaste and really checking that you know,
we're probably trimming everything and really justgetting it as perfect as we can,
which not only helps with yields andwith costings, but also just with making
(06:48):
sure we're truly respecting the animal.Absolutely, I like that respecting it is
a farmer respecting the animal because youare very big on the whole nose to
tail. Yeah you said the animalat you as you just said, yeah,
absolutely, really just you know,everything has a purpose, and we
challenge ourselves. You know, wedon't we don't process huge amounts of meat,
(07:13):
and so the meat that we're processing, you know, we take our
time, we make sure that we'relike I said, you know, we're
not often in a in a rush. We're not a supermarket. We're processing
you know, tons a day.You know, we'll do a couple of
pigs a week, or side ofbeef, you know, a few lambs.
Like it's not anything kind of crazyfor butchery standards. So just make
(07:33):
it taking the time to make surethat every cut is swaner, which is
a term I learned depend on andyou know a chef of just making sure
basically everything's as good as it canbe, So getting the bones really really
clean, and you know, makingsure every just everything's getting used. Everything
(07:55):
as a home. So you know, we take the all of our back
fat you know, gets gobbled upevery which way, sausages, salami and
do you anything beef that gets mincedand rendered down and then used in the
fryers for the restaurant or as asuet for in pastry. Uh, you
(08:16):
know the same with lamb fat.So yeah, everything, everything's getting used.
We're not you know, the compostbend at the end of the day
is has very little in it.So yeah, fantastic. And the products
that you're producing, you know whobuys these products? You know, what
sort of market are you going forhere? Yeah? Well, you know,
(08:41):
I tried it. I want tosay everyone that's you know, it's
not quite true, but there isa there is a broad group of people
that buy our products. So wewe are a high end product, so
we're but we're available and you know, like Faro Fresh and Aukland New Worlds
around the country, a huge amountof you know, sort of delicatessens and
(09:05):
small smaller stores where people you know, we'll get a bit of cheese and
some meats and do nice platters andgreat for hosting. But we also have
you know, kids love our stuff. You know, who doesn't like give
it a salty like dried meat.So I love that when I see it
going into lunch boxes and things,I'm like, oh no, I like
(09:26):
you. You're a good you're you'rea good kid. I'll keep you around.
But also restaurants, so we sellto uh probably it's kind of it's
changed so much since COVID. We'reprobably probably about back to about fifty percent
of our sales our restaurants and thenprobably fifty percent to retail. Yeah,
(09:48):
so it's it's it's a it's amix. We do only sell to New
Zealand. We've been approached for exportmany times, but we are a small
company. And the whole reason Istarted a Lady butcher was because I was
so frustrated that I couldn't find goodquality cured meats in New Zealand. And
at the time, I really struggledto find meat that was cured in New
(10:09):
Zealand full, full stop, letalone quality. And so I started making
it for myself and eventually, youknow, well pretty quickly I actually had
more than than myself and my friendscould eat. Uh, And so that
became the business. But that mygoal has always been to educate and to
(10:31):
get Kiui's to be comfortable with charcuterieone saying it, secondly eating it,
and to see it as you know, something that can be enjoyed. Often.
You know, it's one of thosethings that like, you don't want
to eat one hundred grams, butI mean maybe you do, but you
know, it's less is more andand it's definitely something that is part of
(10:52):
my daily life. Yeah, whenyou say this is more, I guess
it is one of those kinds ofproducts that you might have a little bit
on a special plato with the chainand oh, you just brought up about
the pronunciation, and I I'm abit scared to say chat cutery. I
mean I enjoy I enjoy eating it, but I must admit it. I
(11:13):
don't throw that word around on thedaily. But I didn't realize you hit
a restaurant as well. I've beenfollowing the Lady Butcher, but I hadn't
quite packed up on that. Sowhat what sort of market or what sort
of cuisine are we cooking at therestaurant? And do you use the Lady
Butcher products in the restaurant? Yeah? Absolutely, So what the restaurant came
(11:35):
about? I swawld. I'd neverown a restaurant, but here we are.
So my husband owns and founded theHeemoth Brewing Company, and we raised
capital a few years ago, andwith the whole mindset have been I'm building
a brewery with a brew pub andcreating a place where people could come and
(11:56):
experience beer and then also meat,uh, the way that it's meant to
be served. And so we createdthis space and as we were talking,
we realized, well, just atap room with some sarcuitery isn't going to
be good enough. We need itneeds to be a full restaurant, uh,
And so and at the same time, I needed a production space.
(12:20):
I was outgrowing my where I waswhere I was doing production uh, and
so we built it. UH.So it's a we're in central mount Eden,
just on Dominion Road, and webuilt a it's a brewery, full
full production brewery that we've been slowlyoutgrowing, so collecting buildings around us.
Uh And and then we've got therestaurant inside of there, which serves as
(12:41):
a butchery as well. So thebutchery is tucked inside the restaurant and we
do all of our butchery kind ofbetween five and six in the morning until
about one thirty two thirty in theafternoon using the kitchen space. Uh.
And then we get out of theway and the chefs take over. So
(13:03):
it's a not only a really sustainableway to utilize a building, but also
UH makes my chefs better chefs becausethey're learning about butchery. It makes my
butchers better butchers because they're learning howto cook the meat as well. Uh.
And they get feedback, you know, every second of the day.
So you know, we're making thesehot dogs and you know, front of
(13:26):
house is like, oh, they'rejust not big enough. Like people are
complaining. We need to make thembigger, you know, and it's real
time. The butcher gets to go, oh, okay, cool, I'll
make them longer, or maybe Ishould switch the skin or you know,
and you're just immediately this this amazingability for everyone to be bettering themselves.
Uh So, how it works isthat we buy a whole carcass for all
(13:50):
of the meat. All the meaton the menu has to come from a
whole carcass. That's the rule fromacuter perspective. We do buy in some
cuts just because of the volumes we'redoing. We we we wouldn't be able
to go through enough carcass to matchthat volume for charcuteri everything else to do
buying whole carcass. Do our ownaging program. Uh So we have dry
(14:13):
agers and uh we so, likebeef carcass will age for at least two
weeks as a carcass, and thenwe'll start breaking it down and we'll take
you know, the soloins and rompsand those kind of things in age those
further while we start to use theflank and going into the hind quarter and
(14:35):
that kind of thing. So becauseof that, uh you know, charcuterie
and the restaurant equally are very equallyimportant. So we go, okay,
we have too much something, youknow, and it's like, okay,
we'll cure it. We'll make pistromi, or we'll do salamis, or we're
doing We do a lot of sausages, We do a lot of burgers.
(14:58):
Being being a group up, peoplelove a burger and beer. Uh and
so it just gets us to thattotal utilization between both sides of the business
and and then you know, it'sreally rewarding. You can you can sit
at the bar in our pub,and especially on our Friday afternoon, you
can sit there and the butchers arestill working and you know, see them
(15:20):
making sausages and you know, potentiallyfighting with the chef's for space because they're
working late and the chefs are inearly. But a lot of entertainment thinks
to see you can look in andsee all of the charcuteri hanging. We
have a our main drawing room isglass and visible through the bar, specifically
so that customers can be part ofthe experience and see, yeah, see
(15:43):
what's hanging and and what's going on. So uh yeah, that's that's the
restaurant. That's why we have one. Yeah, it sounds like quite a
unique place. And you know,beer and a burger match made in human
really, and it sounds like apassion to come to I must have been.
I don't get to Auckland very often. I kind of tend to stay
clear with the place. But thissounds like a reason to come, just
(16:07):
to go back. You talked abouthot everything has a purpose, and at
the beginning I said that your passionis to make purposeful meats. What do
you mean by purposeful meats? Soto me, it just means it means
that thoughtfulness, you know that whenyou're a chef, when you're writing a
menu and you put lamb remp onthe menu, you're thinking about, oh,
(16:29):
well, does the farmer have ahome for the rest of the lamb?
You know when a when a farmercalls me and says, ah,
Hannah, I've got so many lamblegs. Can you please do something with
them? You know? And Igo, oh, yeah, okay,
let me let me think about it, you know, and I create our
lamb protrudo. That's that's how itstarted. And just really working with farmers
(16:56):
and being mindful of uh, youknow, the you can't put the legs
back on another lamb and put itback in the paddock. You know.
You you need to everything has tobe used and and it's our responsibility as
consumers, as chefs, as farmers, you know, to all work together
in order to to not have waste. Uh. So that's so yeah,
(17:19):
so so eating meat with purpose,I would definitely say I'm a purposeful meat
eater. I'd love it. It'sabsolutely part of my diet a lot.
And but just being not just eatingsomething for the sake of eating it.
But you know, if you're gonnahave a burger, have a really good
(17:41):
burger. Uh and you know,and if you're gonna have a steak,
have a really good steak, youknow. And and and appreciate where that
stak has come back. Yeah,I appreciate where it came from, Appreciate
the process, Appreciate the all thework that's gone to get that there.
Uh and yeah, just you know, don't don't be wasteful. Yeah,
(18:03):
okay, don't be wasteful people.And I'd like to talk about your supplies
a little bit. You've meet youin them. I know that you had
various supplies for pork lamb, andI think weg you have you decide who
you work with and how do youhow you built the relationships with their suppliers
and what are you looking for?Yeah, oh man, it has been
(18:26):
a journey. So came to NewZealand nine years ago and no one knew
who I was or and the ideaof working directly with farmers bizarrely to me
still it was something that no onewas doing. And so I think there's
like one or two chefs that werekind of you know, trying and and
then you know it awesome people likeKasador who you know, are able to
(18:48):
go hunting and utilize that in themenu, but it was not a practice
thing. And so I was workingin a butcher shop and I knew about
you know, big farms like youknow, and the people that we were
getting meet from that were you know, the owners had names and stuff.
But as far as like hands on, you know, boutique small farms like,
(19:11):
it seemed impossible to work with them. I couldn't find them, first
of all, and because you know, most of them people are getting better
now, but back then, I'mat no farmers on Instagram, like you're
just like trying to you know,find social media or get contacts, and
so I you know, I wastalking talking to people, talk to anyone
(19:32):
who would listen, and eventually gotmy first contact, which was our pig
farmer, so Farm Gay Produce.They're based up in Northland. And through
talking to people like people had toldher, oh, you need to meet
this chick named Hannah, and peopletold me, oh, you need to
meet this farmer named Amanda. Andfinally ended up figuring out where on Earth
(19:56):
she sold her work and it wasat the Parnell Farmer's Market behind the library
on a Saturday morning. It's like, oh, okay, I got got
up early, went there, mether and yeah, Like at first it
was sort of a why are youso interested? Like why why do you?
Why do you care so much abouthow the animals are raised and how
(20:17):
they're fed and how they're slaughtered andhow far away from the farm they're slaughtered
and you know, our farming practicesand all these things. And I found
that with any farmers I talked to, they were all really suspicious, like,
oh, are you secretly with SBCAor you undercover for something, and
and I was like no, no, I genuinely want to know and it's
(20:44):
really important for me my products,you know the charcudru we make. If
you if you cure a really averagepiece of meat and then you dry it
and you have it lose forty fivepercent of its weight. Uh, and
it takes six months to make youend up with an even more average piece
of meat. Like I say thisall the time. You know, you
can't turn an average piece of meatand dry it out and make it better.
(21:04):
It becomes worse. But the samegoes for a really amazing piece of
meat. If you dry it outand you know, cure and dry it,
it becomes even more amazing. Andso when it came to Lady Butcher
Charcoteri, I was like, well, it has to be. It has
to be the best I can findin New Zealand. And I had her
pork and it's the best port Iever had in my entire life. I
(21:26):
actually had some last night for dinner. I still think it's the best port
of over had of my life.Nine years later, eight years later.
And so yeah, so slowly startedworking with them, started getting you know,
two scotches a week and a belly, and then you know, increased
to now that we get we getto two pigs a week. We're going
(21:49):
through right about two to two,sort of two every other week, but
kind of gonna be jumping to threereally quickly, so sort of going through
like one and a half pigs aweek from them. You know, that
has been a battle, getting thepigs delivered to us whole, getting them
directly from the avagear, having themnot have to go back north, to
go back south, to go allover. It takes a lot of work,
(22:15):
but I think it is worth itto be able to work with the
farmers that you want to work withand to get their product directly and to
cut out the middleman. It's superimportant for me because then it also means
the farmer gets a bigger cut ofthe price, and so we do that
with other farmers as well. Sowith our beef for charcuter we work with
(22:38):
First Light. We've worked with themsince the beginning. Not quite as many
challenges because they're a bit bigger,but amazing product, beautiful to work with.
From a restaurant's side, we workwith lots of quite a few different
farmers actually, I mean that's justaround seasonality of beef and who has what
when and that kind of thing.We work with a great farm in just
(23:03):
an hour south of here in thebomb Bays who we get retired jerry cow
from and we also get veal fromand so that's that's really fun. You
know, it gives us something differentto work with, working with aging techniques,
working with the farmers to make sureyou know how long that retirement is,
for how much it's just been chillingout eating grass, because that totally
(23:26):
plays into the eatability. Yeah.And then our lamb farmer we work with
a couple for the restaurant, butfor our legs that we get, they're
from Leland's Lamb in Vicargo and peoplemight be like, why on earthy bye
Lamb like in v Cargo when you'rein Auckland, And it's because they approached
us and they you know, theysaid. Bill's like found me and calls
(23:52):
me and he's like, oh,I heard that you make sure coutery and
I was like, oh, yeah, I do. And I's like,
well, I have really amazing lambexpot quality. Weiven one hundred percent of
it in New Zealand, which thatwas really cool to me. I was
like, yeah, cool, we'resupporting New Zealand. And he's like,
no, no, one wants legs. Families aren't you know, having the
big roast leg of lamb for dinneranymore? You know, crazy, Like
(24:17):
roast lamb is like the best mealever. But yeah, I can see
how it is in the two haltbasket, but that's crazy, all these
extra legs. Yeah, so,I mean, you know, price points,
families are smaller people even less meat, you know. But so yeah,
chefs want the loins and shoulders andstuff, but no one wanted the
legs. And so he was like, can you make new cure lamb?
(24:40):
And I'm like, oh, I'mnot crying lamb, Like that's gonna be
a bit intense. And he's like, we'll send you some for free and
let me know how you go,Like, you know, everyone loves free.
So you know, here we are. Oh, I think it might
be six years even that we've beenmaking this lamb proshudo and it's you know,
I did a bunch of research andwe did a lot of trial and
error and and finally came out witha product we're really happy with. So
(25:03):
continue to work with them. It'sa lot of relationships. I also like
to visit the farms. That's abig deal for me. To just really
make sure that when I'm you know, preaching about how amazing these farms are,
that I've actually been there and Iknow for myself that it's it's all
true and it's not just you know, propaganda or anything that I can really
(25:26):
stand behind behind the product. Youknow, it's fun to get photos and
all those kinds of things as well, but uh yeah, that's that's how
they pick them, is is theirethos. They're farming techniques. The relationship
we build together, you know,really plays into continuing to use them.
(25:49):
You know, farming's farming is hard. Like I have so so much respect
to farmers and the thing that youknow, it's so amazed just with our
pig farmer because we're really close withthem. You know, as I get
it. I get when the avatarmesses up the carcass. I get when
(26:11):
it looked fatter than it was.I get when something you know, animals
a bit older than it should havebeen. I get it. I like,
I've worked on farms, you know, it's bespoke. That's what makes
our products so amazing. Is No, it's never exactly the same. The
recipes we use are the same,but the animals are animals and it makes
(26:34):
me crazy. You know when peopleare like, oh this one, this
is fatterer than last time. I'mlike, yeah, it's a different pig.
What do you want? Because likesaying, you know that humans are
a bit skinnier than the one overthere, they are well, I mean
they may look similar, very similar, They are all different. You're totally
(26:55):
right. And they may have haddifferent influences or different things happened to them
in their lives that have changed howthey bro or Yeah, but I have
to say, go from Leyland soundslike a very smart man. Have some
free land. Yeah, it willdefinitely get you across the line. Yeah.
I also read on your website aboutone of your pegs applies because I
(27:17):
think you hit a couple on theevent about the pegs being for your ange
and having their own private beach,and I was like, where are these?
Where can I see them? Howcome? Yeah? Yeah that is
farm Gate up in Northland. Sothey're up in ho Hora, so literally
like just below ninety mile beach,I mean super far north. But yeah,
like the pigs, you know,yeah there's a beach. They go
(27:37):
swimming, you know, pigs actuallylike to swim them it always is something
that makes people laugh. But uh, they you know, to cool off,
so they they'll go for a swimand they're like digging in the sand
and you know, pigs are quiteplayful actually, But I try not to
think about that side of things toomuch because then i'd be sad about eating
(27:59):
them. Yeah, that's true.Don't think about that too much. It's
about like my lambs. But we'veput tags in them and they get to
this day. I don't know quiteput them on the track. But you
mentioned earlier and I, yeah,I had no idea about your beer,
your brewery and your restaurant as well. So this is really interesting. But
(28:21):
you talked about raising capital, soyou're a capital raise obviously, I'd love
you to talk me a little bitthrough that process, like what goes into
it, you know, and howdid it go? You know, what
do people need to know about acapital raise if that at that stage in
a business, Well, first ofall, it's probably like probably two hundred
times more work than you ever thinkit's going to be. It'd be my
(28:45):
first bit of advice on that.But yeah, but Andrew and I,
my husband and I we've raised capitalthree times and successfully all three times,
which has been amazing. And thekey I think is first of all,
know what you're selling, no,know what you're offering, no, and
be really sure in that the youknow, are you? Are you?
(29:08):
You know? For us, likewere we were we offering? You know,
was it oh we're gonna make morebeer, or was it we're going
to get this kit or was itwe're going to have a restaurant, we're
building a home, you know.And then making sure that your financials.
It's all about the financials, andyou know, making sure that you're set
up so that whatever you're set outto raise, you know, you sort
(29:32):
of have a minimum you need andwhat you'll do with that, uh,
an ideal of how much would begreat? And then uh and then a
blue sky you know what if whatif you get all this money? What
would you do then? And andreally plan that out, really detail it,
and then deliver. That's the hardestthing is once you're successful, actually
(29:53):
you know, you've got this moneyand it might seem like so much money
at the time, uh, andthen you start spending it and you're like,
oh, it's not that much money. So it's really important to figure
out a way that you can beyou know, if you are successful in
that race, make sure you candeliver on it. And and don't don't
over promise. It's really easy tojust go off if you get a million
(30:15):
dollars. I would do all thesethings. And it's really important to be
realistic with how far money goes andwith having contingency planning. Uh you know,
you know, but stuff always wastwenty percent over budget. It just
does. It doesn't matter how howtight you are, uh and uh yeah,
(30:36):
And that's that's what I'd said.Also say too, like you have
to promote yourself. It's like youneed to be in the media all the
time. You need to be onsocials, you need to do you know,
you feel like you're nagging people,but you're not. They have a
really short attention span and you soyou need to be in there in their
ear all the time before you're raisingcap rule and then also definitely and then
(31:02):
when you're when you are in thatprocess. You know, the most recent
one we did, we were onholiday at the time that we've done all
the prep work, and then wewere on holiday while it actually the capital
raise was going on, and wewere constantly like you know, we're in
the Sierra Nevada's we had this greattime was like, oh there's another signal,
Okay, hold on, log onand then talking to someone from you
(31:26):
know, PR something doing interviews andthen you know, hitting the road again.
So you can't if you're going toraise capital, you can't do it
partially Well, if no one knowsif no one knows who you are or
what your business is, it yourwhat your proposal is, you know,
no one's going to invest in it. So I guess you need awareness.
(31:47):
What you're saying is you need eivean awareness before you actually go out there
and ask for the money, becauseif people don't know who you are,
how are they going to find outabout you? Then, like, if
you just try and go out withthe capital raise and no one knows who
you are beforehand, you're already upagainst that, aren't you. Absolutely?
Yeah, making sure that people youknow, get get your name out there
(32:07):
to the you know, it doesn'thave to be to the world, it
can just be. But just makesure that the people that would be interested
in putting money into your business knowwho you are. Good advice. The
other thing I'd love to get yourthoughts on or some advice around is I
think you do social media really well, which is probably not surprising given what
(32:28):
you've just told me about visibility andsocial media. What do you think is
the key to well for you?Anyway to good social media? What works?
I think? I don't you know, I don't know. It's a
lot of trial and error ethics thatI've done, and there's some people that
are just astronomically better at it thanme. But for me, it's about
(32:51):
being genuine and the things that Iget the most traction on are when yeah,
I'm not you know, not tryingto sell something and not just being
like, wow, this is reallycool, sharing you know, what other
people are doing and commenting on itand saying, you know, in a
story or something like this is whatthis shop is doing. Love blah blah
(33:14):
blah. And you get engagement frompeople being being real about things. You
know. I'll so, you know, I'll tell a story of my husband
as mister Alb, and you know, I'll be like, oh, mister
mister Alb was eating this and hedoesn't he doesn't know that white mold's good
for you, and you know,and like having a play and teaching at
(33:38):
the same time, So having youknow, a good photo is really important.
Don't don't use a blurry photo orone that has weird things in the
background unless unless you want that todraw attention. And then I tried to
keep it like, you know,kind of a short title for the people
(33:59):
that are scrolling past having a lookthat then they can click on if they
want to know more, and thenthere'll be a paragraph below that has a
bit more information of like what isa retired jerry cow? Why would you
eat it? Or what is penicillinmold? Is it okay? What's its
purpose for salami? Or and teachinga bit as well. I think those
(34:22):
are the I don't know, thoseare things I think that people want,
want to know or find interesting awesome. I think that's really helpful stuff.
I'm always interested in the social mediaside of things because everyone's there these days
and it's quite hard to differentiate yourselfat times, and I always find it
interesting to win of people that Ithink are doing social media well well,
that catch my eye as to whythat might be. So I'm sure other
(34:45):
people will be interested in that too. I would love you to also tell
us a little bit maybe about you'veobviously You've done three capital rises and you've
got multiple businesses, so you clearlygot a good head for business. What
are your biggest learnings in business?Do you think? Uh, quite a
(35:07):
big question, but yeah it is. I know I'm trying to like fast
like rewind through quite a few years. But the I guess, uh,
be patient and but also I don'tI don't have spoil that's really patient,
but impatient at the same time,so it doesn't happen overnight. All the
(35:31):
people that you think, oh they'reovernight success, they weren't. Uh,
there was there was huge amounts ofwork that went into that beforehand. You
just didn't know about it. Andbut also like be you know, be
impatient at the same time of chasingpeople. Uh, you know the amount
of my day that I spend chasingpeople that I need things from, So
(35:57):
people that I want to buy somethingfrom, people that I want to sell
something to, people that I needto come do work on something, people
that I need to send me aninvoice, people, you know, and
chase it. It will not itwon't come to you. And that's that's
just not how it works. Sothat's I'd say that's probably my Yeah,
my biggest learning is realize it takesmore time than you think, and be
(36:22):
determined to chase to make it happen. I'm writing this down. I think
this is great. And from this, if we go back to the actual
cured made itself, what's your work? Like, what's your pack? If
you were going to like be strandedon that island and you could take one
(36:43):
shacuity. I'm going to try sayagain, if you could take one thing
with you, what would it be? Salami? Salami? Yeah? How
do we like salamy? Like?Is there? Is it just by itself?
For is there a beast way orfavorite way to eat something? I
need to know? Yeah? Byitself? I you know, I'm not
(37:06):
even opposed to taking a bite offof you know, the the chubb.
It's the I love it. It'salso you know, practical because the fact
that it's ours at least is fermentedso you can store ambient so you're not
gonna have to worry about refrigeration.It's good on desert island. I'm like,
(37:28):
oh, what are we gonna dohere? Yes? But also just
like you know, you get agood mix of fat and protein and it's
easy you can bite it off.You know, I really like we sell
ours. We don't sell it sliced, and that's on purpose. It's a
bit Some people are like, oh, you're such a purist. I'm like,
(37:49):
well, yes, because I likeI like the fact that you.
I don't like salami to all bethe same sickness when I eat it.
I like it to be handcut,so you get some that are sinner.
Some it's a bit sicker, andso it's a awesome texture thing when you're
eating it, But flavor slightly isdifferent if it's thinner or sicker cut.
(38:12):
But you also get yeah, thetexture. Some like you know, the
gloves right away. Some you chewa little bit more. And I just
to me, that's part of theenjoyment of it. So if I had
to pick one thing, you know, it would be that it's easy to
carry around. Uh yeah, canI get the best of both worlds.
I've never heard someone talk about thatthan that's of salami and such data.
(38:36):
But you've really got I do reallythink about it. Yeah, maybe salami
could be the new super found Yeah, hey, there we go. Yeah,
no, hen I'm conscious we areon a little bit of a time
time schedule here, so i'd loveto. I feel like I could ask
you so many more questions, andI would love to one day. But
I'd love to finish off interview todaywith past today, I should say,
(39:00):
with our five fast facts. Ifyou are ready, all right, I
think you're ready? Yep, okaycool. The first one is what is
one that you need or that youreally write to run your business or businesses?
Uh? Definitely Instagram? Yeah,easy? Effective? Yeah? Yeah
(39:22):
cool. What is the best adviceyou've ever received? Was to just say
yes? Simple? Effective? Yeah? When you're when you're asked something,
can you do this? Just sayyes and then figure it out later if
(39:42):
you don't know how to do it. Yeah. I've heard that before.
Actually on this podcast, people havesaid that, you know, just just
have a go and worry about theactual details later. I think it seems
to be a characteristic of entrepreneurial peoplethat they have their trained kind of and
ability to say no. Yeah.I took a when I was twenty five.
(40:05):
For a year, I challenged myselfto just say yes to whatever opportunity
came my way, and it ledme to climbing mountains and moving to Alaska
and going to Antarctica and all thesethings that I would have been too scared
to do. So I think itby saying yes, you push yourself out
of your comfort zone and you seewhat you're actually capable of. Well,
I hear about people saying they're goingto do that like a year of saying
(40:25):
yes or something that I've never actuallyspoken to someone who's actually do that,
But that sounds amazing. Aleska Antarctica. Gosh, you've been well over the
place and here you are in littleold New Zealand. That's good here.
Yeah, well, I'm I'm gladyou like it. I think I think
we're lucky to have you. Thirdquestion, business or a person in business
(40:47):
or a business that you look atto. I'm gonna say her name wrong,
but Jess Pirates are pirals anyway.But she's an amazing Australia in Texan
who does fantastic barbecue and insanely atsocial media and meet knowledge. Yeah,
(41:07):
she's great. What's her handle?I had to go look her up for
everyone who wants to go follow herhardcore carnivore. Hardcore Carnivore. Yeah,
it's her space. Is space mixsome things that she makes? Yeah?
Okay cool. Fourth question is ifyou could change one thing. And this
(41:29):
could be in business or in life. You know what would it be?
Uh, this is a really hardone. There's probably probably not much I
would change. I'd probably live somewherewarmer. But if I had to fix
(41:53):
something, yeah, well you couldalways move to Northland with the pegs on
the beach. You know, that'sslightly warmer. Slightly it is Arklands.
Yeah. I noticed you're our wearinga Papa jacket while we're doing this,
but it is well it's winter.Yeah. Okay. Finally, and this
(42:14):
is a very important question. Doesplineapple belong on a pizza? Yes?
I love pineapple and pizza, forsure. You're yet we're not. We're
not going to be adding pizza together, that's for sure. Not if it's
a Hawaiian pizza. Yeah, that'sit's not a go. But I I
(42:35):
must have met in the toe seasonsI've been doing this podcast. I'm in
I'm in the minority. Most peoplesay, yeah, most people seem to
like cooked frut on a pizza.I just find it sobza. That's so
funny. I would have thought.I would have thought there was the other
way around, where a lot ofpeople don't like it. But I guess
because I don't like it, Iassumed that everyone would would be on the
same page, isn't he. ButI mean it's a very unscientific experiment of
(42:59):
a very small sample. But sofar the people on this podcast generally didn't
light by neyborone Beizza. Yeah.Well, Hannah, thank you so much
for coming on the podcast today.The next time I get to Auckland,
and who knows, we met allbigs. As I said, I generally
stay clear of that place. I'mgoing to come and find your brewery and
(43:19):
your restaurant. I think even myhusband would quite enjoy this place. It
sounds like somewhere we could go.So I'm going to keep following you on
social media. I think everyone elshould go and follow Henna on social media.
She does it really well. Andwe will put all of your handle
social media handles and things on theshow notes. But if anyone wants to
find you, how can they finda Lady Butcher. Yeah, it's just
(43:42):
a lady Butcher. I'm all writtenas one word, and that's that's us,
and that's on Instagram Facebook, andyou probably your website and website.
Yep, Instagram Facebook. I'm tooold. For TikTok. So come on
next thing, I'm going to seeyou on TikTok and I'll be like,
oh, she's given him. Well, Henna, thank you for your time.
(44:07):
I know you're a very busy lady. You've just been to Australia I
think, and you've ducked out ofthe restaurant slash butchery to do this podcast
record. So we're very grateful sharingyour story and your non gen expertise with
us and all of this. Witheverything, here's thanks for having me as
(44:42):
a farmer. I really enjoyed thatchat with hid from a Lady butcher.
I enjoyed her ethos and philosophy aroundnot wasting any of the animal, appreciating
the fact that an animal has givenits life to create these products and that
helps you to be mindful of notwasting any of the animal. I think
it's a really great point to makethat it's everyone's responsibility, farmers, chef's,
(45:07):
consumers all together to ensure that thereisn't any waste. I thought.
Hannah also had some really great advicearound capitalising, which is something we haven't
actually spoken about on the podcast before. The key messages I got there were
know what you're selling and be reallysure of it. It's all about the
financials and then you must deliver,which is the hardest part. Don't over
(45:31):
promise, be realistic and have acontingency plan. Hannah also had some good
messages around promoting yourself. You needto be visible. There's no sense in
having a great product if no oneknows about it. You need to put
yourself out there. You need tobe doing social media. And in that
case, she's talking about things thatwork for her, such as being genuine,
(45:54):
sharing things that she just thinks arecool, or something that has a
slight educational event. So maybe she'steaching people something along the way. I
can't wait to go to Auckland.Well, I can wait to go to
Auckland. But when I go toAuckland next I will be definitely visiting Churley's.
So thank you Hannah for coming onthe podcast, and I hope you
(46:17):
guys took as much out of thereas I did. And we'll catch you
back here for the next episode.
Welcome to down to Earth, broughtto you by a Young Country. This
is the podcast for the go getters, the big dreamers, the innovators of
the primary sector. I'm your host, Rebecca Greeves, and we're taking a
closer look at young people in theprimary industries who have dared to think big,
pushed the limits and give it ago in business. We'll be asking
(00:30):
how they got to where they arenow, what they've learned along the way,
and what their advice is to otheraspiring every innovators. So settle in
and listen up as we serve youa healthy dose of inspiration, motivation,
and maybe even challenge your thinking alittle. It's a meaty topic on today's
(00:54):
podcast. I bet she gets thesepuns all the time. We are joined
by someone who knows who around acarcass. Hannah Miller is a lady butcher
and her passion is to create purposefulmeat or meats. Hello Hannah, Hello,
it's lovely to have you on thepodcast. And I've been following along
(01:15):
on your Instagram for a little whileand I think that what you're doing is
really interesting, So I'd love you. I'd love you to just tell us
a little bit to start with.Actually, what is a Lady Butcher is
the name of the business, doesn'tit, So what is it that you
actually do? Yeah, so Imake traditional New Zealand charcuteries, so well,
traditional charcuttery with New Zealand ingredients,so dry, a cured meats,
(01:40):
the art of you know, preservingmeat to be able to eat be eaten
longer than maybe you normally would thinkthat it would be the name of Lady
Butcher came because it was a nicknameI was given quite quite a few years
ago. Uh and so that wasmy Instagram handle and for a while.
So when it came time to namingthe business, you know, my then
(02:02):
boyfriend now husband was like, youshould You're a Lady Butcher. That's just
that's who you are. That's thatshould be the business name. Uh So
yeah, sort of stuck. Andthe name for that is just because I
happen to be a female butcher,not doesn't necessarily. Yeah, that's it.
And we have sort of a feminineslant to what we do. So
(02:24):
the way that we cure, youknow, is very very detail oriented.
We produce a quite high end product, so we lean into those more royal
colors more sort of feminine designs,not necessarily flowers, but flourishes, that
sort of thing. Excellent. Well, I don't think there's anything wrong with
(02:46):
you know that you are a womanand you are a butcher, and you
know that's that's the name in it. It perfectly describes what you are doing.
And I detect that you do nothave a New Zealand accent. How
did you meet up in New Zealand? Yeah, so American born, but
I've lived all over the world workingas a chef in my past life before
(03:09):
and basically just all aspects of hospitalitybefore starting butchery back in two thousand and
seven and since then, I sortof did a butchery chefing hybrid and which
allowed me to travel, which isreally awesome. Came to New Zealand specifically
for butchery. There was a skillshortage then nine years ago. There still
(03:32):
is now it's only gotten worse.But the Yeah, we came to do
butchery and only planned to be herefor six months and I arrived in June
June first, nine years ago,and I couldn't believe that, like this
was winter. I live in Aucklandand that went winter was pretty mild,
(03:53):
and that sort of sealed the dealfor me where I was like, there's
palm trees, it's like sixty degreesfahrenheit. I'm yeah, I'm honest staying
here. Uh, And so prettymuch immediately started working on getting a visa.
Uh yeah. Now I'm a fullcitizen and I've married a Kiwi and
have a couple of New Zealand businesses. So yeah, pretty pretty set.
I guess it's probably safe to say, but yeah, welcome to the fould.
(04:16):
I read actually that you did yourbutchery pretty sip in London, mm
hmm. Yeah, so yeah,I didn't. I didn't plan to do
that. I was just chefing andjust wanted to be a better chef.
So I knew I needed to learnabout butchery, and uh there as well
as my restaurant in Auckland, Cherle's, we do whole carcass butchery. And
(04:40):
so when you do that, youend up with a lot of cuts that
you not that you can't but justdon't really order from a butcher shop,
things that usually kind of end upin mints or frim or dice or something.
And so when you have those andyou can do whatever you want with
them, Uh, there's there's alot to learn. So that's that's how
I started learning, and then wasactually like, oh, I quite like
(05:03):
this. So what is it thatyou like about it? Butchery? Well,
to me, I find butchery tobe very zen you unlike cooking is
you know, when you're cooking,and especially at your chef in a restaurant,
you know, it's hot, it'sbusy, it's stressful, people are
(05:24):
yelling at you. You're yelling atpeople. There's you know, it's people
are waiting. You're always on atime limit, right, whereas like with
butchery, you are you are onyou know, a time limit to the
fact that you'd like to finish yourday. But you you're working in advance.
You're prepping in advance, you know, like for us, we marinate
(05:45):
our sausages, you know, theday before, and then we make sasages
the next day, and then youhang them for a day before we use
them the day after that. Soyou're always very systematic, you're working through
processes. It's it's cold as opposedhot. Uh. There's you're often by
yourself or with a with a smallerteam. Uh. And yeah, I
(06:06):
find I find that relaxing. Iquite like the doing, you know,
when you're processing a whole carcass,I quite like the process of you know,
taking a minute to really to thinkabout the fact that this was this
was a life. You know,this was an animal, and we you
know, we've we've taken that lifefor our nourishment and just you know,
(06:27):
being grateful for that and taking itjust a minute to you know, appreciate
the process. And then when I'mwondering, that really helps me be mindful
of making sure that nothing's going towaste and really checking that you know,
we're probably trimming everything and really justgetting it as perfect as we can,
which not only helps with yields andwith costings, but also just with making
(06:48):
sure we're truly respecting the animal.Absolutely, I like that respecting it is
a farmer respecting the animal because youare very big on the whole nose to
tail. Yeah you said the animalat you as you just said, yeah,
absolutely, really just you know,everything has a purpose, and we
challenge ourselves. You know, wedon't we don't process huge amounts of meat,
(07:13):
and so the meat that we're processing, you know, we take our
time, we make sure that we'relike I said, you know, we're
not often in a in a rush. We're not a supermarket. We're processing
you know, tons a day.You know, we'll do a couple of
pigs a week, or side ofbeef, you know, a few lambs.
Like it's not anything kind of crazyfor butchery standards. So just make
(07:33):
it taking the time to make surethat every cut is swaner, which is
a term I learned depend on andyou know a chef of just making sure
basically everything's as good as it canbe, So getting the bones really really
clean, and you know, makingsure every just everything's getting used. Everything
(07:55):
as a home. So you know, we take the all of our back
fat you know, gets gobbled upevery which way, sausages, salami and
do you anything beef that gets mincedand rendered down and then used in the
fryers for the restaurant or as asuet for in pastry. Uh, you
(08:16):
know the same with lamb fat.So yeah, everything, everything's getting used.
We're not you know, the compostbend at the end of the day
is has very little in it.So yeah, fantastic. And the products
that you're producing, you know whobuys these products? You know, what
sort of market are you going forhere? Yeah? Well, you know,
(08:41):
I tried it. I want tosay everyone that's you know, it's
not quite true, but there isa there is a broad group of people
that buy our products. So wewe are a high end product, so
we're but we're available and you know, like Faro Fresh and Aukland New Worlds
around the country, a huge amountof you know, sort of delicatessens and
(09:05):
small smaller stores where people you know, we'll get a bit of cheese and
some meats and do nice platters andgreat for hosting. But we also have
you know, kids love our stuff. You know, who doesn't like give
it a salty like dried meat.So I love that when I see it
going into lunch boxes and things,I'm like, oh no, I like
(09:26):
you. You're a good you're you'rea good kid. I'll keep you around.
But also restaurants, so we sellto uh probably it's kind of it's
changed so much since COVID. We'reprobably probably about back to about fifty percent
of our sales our restaurants and thenprobably fifty percent to retail. Yeah,
(09:48):
so it's it's it's a it's amix. We do only sell to New
Zealand. We've been approached for exportmany times, but we are a small
company. And the whole reason Istarted a Lady butcher was because I was
so frustrated that I couldn't find goodquality cured meats in New Zealand. And
at the time, I really struggledto find meat that was cured in New
(10:09):
Zealand full, full stop, letalone quality. And so I started making
it for myself and eventually, youknow, well pretty quickly I actually had
more than than myself and my friendscould eat. Uh, And so that
became the business. But that mygoal has always been to educate and to
(10:31):
get Kiui's to be comfortable with charcuterieone saying it, secondly eating it,
and to see it as you know, something that can be enjoyed. Often.
You know, it's one of thosethings that like, you don't want
to eat one hundred grams, butI mean maybe you do, but you
know, it's less is more andand it's definitely something that is part of
(10:52):
my daily life. Yeah, whenyou say this is more, I guess
it is one of those kinds ofproducts that you might have a little bit
on a special plato with the chainand oh, you just brought up about
the pronunciation, and I I'm abit scared to say chat cutery. I
mean I enjoy I enjoy eating it, but I must admit it. I
(11:13):
don't throw that word around on thedaily. But I didn't realize you hit
a restaurant as well. I've beenfollowing the Lady Butcher, but I hadn't
quite packed up on that. Sowhat what sort of market or what sort
of cuisine are we cooking at therestaurant? And do you use the Lady
Butcher products in the restaurant? Yeah? Absolutely, So what the restaurant came
(11:35):
about? I swawld. I'd neverown a restaurant, but here we are.
So my husband owns and founded theHeemoth Brewing Company, and we raised
capital a few years ago, andwith the whole mindset have been I'm building
a brewery with a brew pub andcreating a place where people could come and
(11:56):
experience beer and then also meat,uh, the way that it's meant to
be served. And so we createdthis space and as we were talking,
we realized, well, just atap room with some sarcuitery isn't going to
be good enough. We need itneeds to be a full restaurant, uh,
And so and at the same time, I needed a production space.
(12:20):
I was outgrowing my where I waswhere I was doing production uh, and
so we built it. UH.So it's a we're in central mount Eden,
just on Dominion Road, and webuilt a it's a brewery, full
full production brewery that we've been slowlyoutgrowing, so collecting buildings around us.
Uh And and then we've got therestaurant inside of there, which serves as
(12:41):
a butchery as well. So thebutchery is tucked inside the restaurant and we
do all of our butchery kind ofbetween five and six in the morning until
about one thirty two thirty in theafternoon using the kitchen space. Uh.
And then we get out of theway and the chefs take over. So
(13:03):
it's a not only a really sustainableway to utilize a building, but also
UH makes my chefs better chefs becausethey're learning about butchery. It makes my
butchers better butchers because they're learning howto cook the meat as well. Uh.
And they get feedback, you know, every second of the day.
So you know, we're making thesehot dogs and you know, front of
(13:26):
house is like, oh, they'rejust not big enough. Like people are
complaining. We need to make thembigger, you know, and it's real
time. The butcher gets to go, oh, okay, cool, I'll
make them longer, or maybe Ishould switch the skin or you know,
and you're just immediately this this amazingability for everyone to be bettering themselves.
Uh So, how it works isthat we buy a whole carcass for all
(13:50):
of the meat. All the meaton the menu has to come from a
whole carcass. That's the rule fromacuter perspective. We do buy in some
cuts just because of the volumes we'redoing. We we we wouldn't be able
to go through enough carcass to matchthat volume for charcuteri everything else to do
buying whole carcass. Do our ownaging program. Uh So we have dry
(14:13):
agers and uh we so, likebeef carcass will age for at least two
weeks as a carcass, and thenwe'll start breaking it down and we'll take
you know, the soloins and rompsand those kind of things in age those
further while we start to use theflank and going into the hind quarter and
(14:35):
that kind of thing. So becauseof that, uh you know, charcuterie
and the restaurant equally are very equallyimportant. So we go, okay,
we have too much something, youknow, and it's like, okay,
we'll cure it. We'll make pistromi, or we'll do salamis, or we're
doing We do a lot of sausages, We do a lot of burgers.
(14:58):
Being being a group up, peoplelove a burger and beer. Uh and
so it just gets us to thattotal utilization between both sides of the business
and and then you know, it'sreally rewarding. You can you can sit
at the bar in our pub,and especially on our Friday afternoon, you
can sit there and the butchers arestill working and you know, see them
(15:20):
making sausages and you know, potentiallyfighting with the chef's for space because they're
working late and the chefs are inearly. But a lot of entertainment thinks
to see you can look in andsee all of the charcuteri hanging. We
have a our main drawing room isglass and visible through the bar, specifically
so that customers can be part ofthe experience and see, yeah, see
(15:43):
what's hanging and and what's going on. So uh yeah, that's that's the
restaurant. That's why we have one. Yeah, it sounds like quite a
unique place. And you know,beer and a burger match made in human
really, and it sounds like apassion to come to I must have been.
I don't get to Auckland very often. I kind of tend to stay
clear with the place. But thissounds like a reason to come, just
(16:07):
to go back. You talked abouthot everything has a purpose, and at
the beginning I said that your passionis to make purposeful meats. What do
you mean by purposeful meats? Soto me, it just means it means
that thoughtfulness, you know that whenyou're a chef, when you're writing a
menu and you put lamb remp onthe menu, you're thinking about, oh,
(16:29):
well, does the farmer have ahome for the rest of the lamb?
You know when a when a farmercalls me and says, ah,
Hannah, I've got so many lamblegs. Can you please do something with
them? You know? And Igo, oh, yeah, okay,
let me let me think about it, you know, and I create our
lamb protrudo. That's that's how itstarted. And just really working with farmers
(16:56):
and being mindful of uh, youknow, the you can't put the legs
back on another lamb and put itback in the paddock. You know.
You you need to everything has tobe used and and it's our responsibility as
consumers, as chefs, as farmers, you know, to all work together
in order to to not have waste. Uh. So that's so yeah,
(17:19):
so so eating meat with purpose,I would definitely say I'm a purposeful meat
eater. I'd love it. It'sabsolutely part of my diet a lot.
And but just being not just eatingsomething for the sake of eating it.
But you know, if you're gonnahave a burger, have a really good
(17:41):
burger. Uh and you know,and if you're gonna have a steak,
have a really good steak, youknow. And and and appreciate where that
stak has come back. Yeah,I appreciate where it came from, Appreciate
the process, Appreciate the all thework that's gone to get that there.
Uh and yeah, just you know, don't don't be wasteful. Yeah,
(18:03):
okay, don't be wasteful people.And I'd like to talk about your supplies
a little bit. You've meet youin them. I know that you had
various supplies for pork lamb, andI think weg you have you decide who
you work with and how do youhow you built the relationships with their suppliers
and what are you looking for?Yeah, oh man, it has been
(18:26):
a journey. So came to NewZealand nine years ago and no one knew
who I was or and the ideaof working directly with farmers bizarrely to me
still it was something that no onewas doing. And so I think there's
like one or two chefs that werekind of you know, trying and and
then you know it awesome people likeKasador who you know, are able to
(18:48):
go hunting and utilize that in themenu, but it was not a practice
thing. And so I was workingin a butcher shop and I knew about
you know, big farms like youknow, and the people that we were
getting meet from that were you know, the owners had names and stuff.
But as far as like hands on, you know, boutique small farms like,
(19:11):
it seemed impossible to work with them. I couldn't find them, first
of all, and because you know, most of them people are getting better
now, but back then, I'mat no farmers on Instagram, like you're
just like trying to you know,find social media or get contacts, and
so I you know, I wastalking talking to people, talk to anyone
(19:32):
who would listen, and eventually gotmy first contact, which was our pig
farmer, so Farm Gay Produce.They're based up in Northland. And through
talking to people like people had toldher, oh, you need to meet
this chick named Hannah, and peopletold me, oh, you need to
meet this farmer named Amanda. Andfinally ended up figuring out where on Earth
(19:56):
she sold her work and it wasat the Parnell Farmer's Market behind the library
on a Saturday morning. It's like, oh, okay, I got got
up early, went there, mether and yeah, Like at first it
was sort of a why are youso interested? Like why why do you?
Why do you care so much abouthow the animals are raised and how
(20:17):
they're fed and how they're slaughtered andhow far away from the farm they're slaughtered
and you know, our farming practicesand all these things. And I found
that with any farmers I talked to, they were all really suspicious, like,
oh, are you secretly with SBCAor you undercover for something, and
and I was like no, no, I genuinely want to know and it's
(20:44):
really important for me my products,you know the charcudru we make. If
you if you cure a really averagepiece of meat and then you dry it
and you have it lose forty fivepercent of its weight. Uh, and
it takes six months to make youend up with an even more average piece
of meat. Like I say thisall the time. You know, you
can't turn an average piece of meatand dry it out and make it better.
(21:04):
It becomes worse. But the samegoes for a really amazing piece of
meat. If you dry it outand you know, cure and dry it,
it becomes even more amazing. Andso when it came to Lady Butcher
Charcoteri, I was like, well, it has to be. It has
to be the best I can findin New Zealand. And I had her
pork and it's the best port Iever had in my entire life. I
(21:26):
actually had some last night for dinner. I still think it's the best port
of over had of my life.Nine years later, eight years later.
And so yeah, so slowly startedworking with them, started getting you know,
two scotches a week and a belly, and then you know, increased
to now that we get we getto two pigs a week. We're going
(21:49):
through right about two to two,sort of two every other week, but
kind of gonna be jumping to threereally quickly, so sort of going through
like one and a half pigs aweek from them. You know, that
has been a battle, getting thepigs delivered to us whole, getting them
directly from the avagear, having themnot have to go back north, to
go back south, to go allover. It takes a lot of work,
(22:15):
but I think it is worth itto be able to work with the
farmers that you want to work withand to get their product directly and to
cut out the middleman. It's superimportant for me because then it also means
the farmer gets a bigger cut ofthe price, and so we do that
with other farmers as well. Sowith our beef for charcuter we work with
(22:38):
First Light. We've worked with themsince the beginning. Not quite as many
challenges because they're a bit bigger,but amazing product, beautiful to work with.
From a restaurant's side, we workwith lots of quite a few different
farmers actually, I mean that's justaround seasonality of beef and who has what
when and that kind of thing.We work with a great farm in just
(23:03):
an hour south of here in thebomb Bays who we get retired jerry cow
from and we also get veal fromand so that's that's really fun. You
know, it gives us something differentto work with, working with aging techniques,
working with the farmers to make sureyou know how long that retirement is,
for how much it's just been chillingout eating grass, because that totally
(23:26):
plays into the eatability. Yeah.And then our lamb farmer we work with
a couple for the restaurant, butfor our legs that we get, they're
from Leland's Lamb in Vicargo and peoplemight be like, why on earthy bye
Lamb like in v Cargo when you'rein Auckland, And it's because they approached
us and they you know, theysaid. Bill's like found me and calls
(23:52):
me and he's like, oh,I heard that you make sure coutery and
I was like, oh, yeah, I do. And I's like,
well, I have really amazing lambexpot quality. Weiven one hundred percent of
it in New Zealand, which thatwas really cool to me. I was
like, yeah, cool, we'resupporting New Zealand. And he's like,
no, no, one wants legs. Families aren't you know, having the
big roast leg of lamb for dinneranymore? You know, crazy, Like
(24:17):
roast lamb is like the best mealever. But yeah, I can see
how it is in the two haltbasket, but that's crazy, all these
extra legs. Yeah, so,I mean, you know, price points,
families are smaller people even less meat, you know. But so yeah,
chefs want the loins and shoulders andstuff, but no one wanted the
legs. And so he was like, can you make new cure lamb?
(24:40):
And I'm like, oh, I'mnot crying lamb, Like that's gonna be
a bit intense. And he's like, we'll send you some for free and
let me know how you go,Like, you know, everyone loves free.
So you know, here we are. Oh, I think it might
be six years even that we've beenmaking this lamb proshudo and it's you know,
I did a bunch of research andwe did a lot of trial and
error and and finally came out witha product we're really happy with. So
(25:03):
continue to work with them. It'sa lot of relationships. I also like
to visit the farms. That's abig deal for me. To just really
make sure that when I'm you know, preaching about how amazing these farms are,
that I've actually been there and Iknow for myself that it's it's all
true and it's not just you know, propaganda or anything that I can really
(25:26):
stand behind behind the product. Youknow, it's fun to get photos and
all those kinds of things as well, but uh yeah, that's that's how
they pick them, is is theirethos. They're farming techniques. The relationship
we build together, you know,really plays into continuing to use them.
(25:49):
You know, farming's farming is hard. Like I have so so much respect
to farmers and the thing that youknow, it's so amazed just with our
pig farmer because we're really close withthem. You know, as I get
it. I get when the avatarmesses up the carcass. I get when
(26:11):
it looked fatter than it was.I get when something you know, animals
a bit older than it should havebeen. I get it. I like,
I've worked on farms, you know, it's bespoke. That's what makes
our products so amazing. Is No, it's never exactly the same. The
recipes we use are the same,but the animals are animals and it makes
(26:34):
me crazy. You know when peopleare like, oh this one, this
is fatterer than last time. I'mlike, yeah, it's a different pig.
What do you want? Because likesaying, you know that humans are
a bit skinnier than the one overthere, they are well, I mean
they may look similar, very similar, They are all different. You're totally
(26:55):
right. And they may have haddifferent influences or different things happened to them
in their lives that have changed howthey bro or Yeah, but I have
to say, go from Leyland soundslike a very smart man. Have some
free land. Yeah, it willdefinitely get you across the line. Yeah.
I also read on your website aboutone of your pegs applies because I
(27:17):
think you hit a couple on theevent about the pegs being for your ange
and having their own private beach,and I was like, where are these?
Where can I see them? Howcome? Yeah? Yeah that is
farm Gate up in Northland. Sothey're up in ho Hora, so literally
like just below ninety mile beach,I mean super far north. But yeah,
like the pigs, you know,yeah there's a beach. They go
(27:37):
swimming, you know, pigs actuallylike to swim them it always is something
that makes people laugh. But uh, they you know, to cool off,
so they they'll go for a swimand they're like digging in the sand
and you know, pigs are quiteplayful actually, But I try not to
think about that side of things toomuch because then i'd be sad about eating
(27:59):
them. Yeah, that's true.Don't think about that too much. It's
about like my lambs. But we'veput tags in them and they get to
this day. I don't know quiteput them on the track. But you
mentioned earlier and I, yeah,I had no idea about your beer,
your brewery and your restaurant as well. So this is really interesting. But
(28:21):
you talked about raising capital, soyou're a capital raise obviously, I'd love
you to talk me a little bitthrough that process, like what goes into
it, you know, and howdid it go? You know, what
do people need to know about acapital raise if that at that stage in
a business, Well, first ofall, it's probably like probably two hundred
times more work than you ever thinkit's going to be. It'd be my
(28:45):
first bit of advice on that.But yeah, but Andrew and I,
my husband and I we've raised capitalthree times and successfully all three times,
which has been amazing. And thekey I think is first of all,
know what you're selling, no,know what you're offering, no, and
be really sure in that the youknow, are you? Are you?
(29:08):
You know? For us, likewere we were we offering? You know,
was it oh we're gonna make morebeer, or was it we're going
to get this kit or was itwe're going to have a restaurant, we're
building a home, you know.And then making sure that your financials.
It's all about the financials, andyou know, making sure that you're set
up so that whatever you're set outto raise, you know, you sort
(29:32):
of have a minimum you need andwhat you'll do with that, uh,
an ideal of how much would begreat? And then uh and then a
blue sky you know what if whatif you get all this money? What
would you do then? And andreally plan that out, really detail it,
and then deliver. That's the hardestthing is once you're successful, actually
(29:53):
you know, you've got this moneyand it might seem like so much money
at the time, uh, andthen you start spending it and you're like,
oh, it's not that much money. So it's really important to figure
out a way that you can beyou know, if you are successful in
that race, make sure you candeliver on it. And and don't don't
over promise. It's really easy tojust go off if you get a million
(30:15):
dollars. I would do all thesethings. And it's really important to be
realistic with how far money goes andwith having contingency planning. Uh you know,
you know, but stuff always wastwenty percent over budget. It just
does. It doesn't matter how howtight you are, uh and uh yeah,
(30:36):
And that's that's what I'd said.Also say too, like you have
to promote yourself. It's like youneed to be in the media all the
time. You need to be onsocials, you need to do you know,
you feel like you're nagging people,but you're not. They have a
really short attention span and you soyou need to be in there in their
ear all the time before you're raisingcap rule and then also definitely and then
(31:02):
when you're when you are in thatprocess. You know, the most recent
one we did, we were onholiday at the time that we've done all
the prep work, and then wewere on holiday while it actually the capital
raise was going on, and wewere constantly like you know, we're in
the Sierra Nevada's we had this greattime was like, oh there's another signal,
Okay, hold on, log onand then talking to someone from you
(31:26):
know, PR something doing interviews andthen you know, hitting the road again.
So you can't if you're going toraise capital, you can't do it
partially Well, if no one knowsif no one knows who you are or
what your business is, it yourwhat your proposal is, you know,
no one's going to invest in it. So I guess you need awareness.
(31:47):
What you're saying is you need eivean awareness before you actually go out there
and ask for the money, becauseif people don't know who you are,
how are they going to find outabout you? Then, like, if
you just try and go out withthe capital raise and no one knows who
you are beforehand, you're already upagainst that, aren't you. Absolutely?
Yeah, making sure that people youknow, get get your name out there
(32:07):
to the you know, it doesn'thave to be to the world, it
can just be. But just makesure that the people that would be interested
in putting money into your business knowwho you are. Good advice. The
other thing I'd love to get yourthoughts on or some advice around is I
think you do social media really well, which is probably not surprising given what
(32:28):
you've just told me about visibility andsocial media. What do you think is
the key to well for you?Anyway to good social media? What works?
I think? I don't you know, I don't know. It's a
lot of trial and error ethics thatI've done, and there's some people that
are just astronomically better at it thanme. But for me, it's about
(32:51):
being genuine and the things that Iget the most traction on are when yeah,
I'm not you know, not tryingto sell something and not just being
like, wow, this is reallycool, sharing you know, what other
people are doing and commenting on itand saying, you know, in a
story or something like this is whatthis shop is doing. Love blah blah
(33:14):
blah. And you get engagement frompeople being being real about things. You
know. I'll so, you know, I'll tell a story of my husband
as mister Alb, and you know, I'll be like, oh, mister
mister Alb was eating this and hedoesn't he doesn't know that white mold's good
for you, and you know,and like having a play and teaching at
(33:38):
the same time, So having youknow, a good photo is really important.
Don't don't use a blurry photo orone that has weird things in the
background unless unless you want that todraw attention. And then I tried to
keep it like, you know,kind of a short title for the people
(33:59):
that are scrolling past having a lookthat then they can click on if they
want to know more, and thenthere'll be a paragraph below that has a
bit more information of like what isa retired jerry cow? Why would you
eat it? Or what is penicillinmold? Is it okay? What's its
purpose for salami? Or and teachinga bit as well. I think those
(34:22):
are the I don't know, thoseare things I think that people want,
want to know or find interesting awesome. I think that's really helpful stuff.
I'm always interested in the social mediaside of things because everyone's there these days
and it's quite hard to differentiate yourselfat times, and I always find it
interesting to win of people that Ithink are doing social media well well,
that catch my eye as to whythat might be. So I'm sure other
(34:45):
people will be interested in that too. I would love you to also tell
us a little bit maybe about you'veobviously You've done three capital rises and you've
got multiple businesses, so you clearlygot a good head for business. What
are your biggest learnings in business?Do you think? Uh, quite a
(35:07):
big question, but yeah it is. I know I'm trying to like fast
like rewind through quite a few years. But the I guess, uh,
be patient and but also I don'tI don't have spoil that's really patient,
but impatient at the same time,so it doesn't happen overnight. All the
(35:31):
people that you think, oh they'reovernight success, they weren't. Uh,
there was there was huge amounts ofwork that went into that beforehand. You
just didn't know about it. Andbut also like be you know, be
impatient at the same time of chasingpeople. Uh, you know the amount
of my day that I spend chasingpeople that I need things from, So
(35:57):
people that I want to buy somethingfrom, people that I want to sell
something to, people that I needto come do work on something, people
that I need to send me aninvoice, people, you know, and
chase it. It will not itwon't come to you. And that's that's
just not how it works. Sothat's I'd say that's probably my Yeah,
my biggest learning is realize it takesmore time than you think, and be
(36:22):
determined to chase to make it happen. I'm writing this down. I think
this is great. And from this, if we go back to the actual
cured made itself, what's your work? Like, what's your pack? If
you were going to like be strandedon that island and you could take one
(36:43):
shacuity. I'm going to try sayagain, if you could take one thing
with you, what would it be? Salami? Salami? Yeah? How
do we like salamy? Like?Is there? Is it just by itself?
For is there a beast way orfavorite way to eat something? I
need to know? Yeah? Byitself? I you know, I'm not
(37:06):
even opposed to taking a bite offof you know, the the chubb.
It's the I love it. It'salso you know, practical because the fact
that it's ours at least is fermentedso you can store ambient so you're not
gonna have to worry about refrigeration.It's good on desert island. I'm like,
(37:28):
oh, what are we gonna dohere? Yes? But also just
like you know, you get agood mix of fat and protein and it's
easy you can bite it off.You know, I really like we sell
ours. We don't sell it sliced, and that's on purpose. It's a
bit Some people are like, oh, you're such a purist. I'm like,
(37:49):
well, yes, because I likeI like the fact that you.
I don't like salami to all bethe same sickness when I eat it.
I like it to be handcut,so you get some that are sinner.
Some it's a bit sicker, andso it's a awesome texture thing when you're
eating it, But flavor slightly isdifferent if it's thinner or sicker cut.
(38:12):
But you also get yeah, thetexture. Some like you know, the
gloves right away. Some you chewa little bit more. And I just
to me, that's part of theenjoyment of it. So if I had
to pick one thing, you know, it would be that it's easy to
carry around. Uh yeah, canI get the best of both worlds.
I've never heard someone talk about thatthan that's of salami and such data.
(38:36):
But you've really got I do reallythink about it. Yeah, maybe salami
could be the new super found Yeah, hey, there we go. Yeah,
no, hen I'm conscious we areon a little bit of a time
time schedule here, so i'd loveto. I feel like I could ask
you so many more questions, andI would love to one day. But
I'd love to finish off interview todaywith past today, I should say,
(39:00):
with our five fast facts. Ifyou are ready, all right, I
think you're ready? Yep, okaycool. The first one is what is
one that you need or that youreally write to run your business or businesses?
Uh? Definitely Instagram? Yeah,easy? Effective? Yeah? Yeah
(39:22):
cool. What is the best adviceyou've ever received? Was to just say
yes? Simple? Effective? Yeah? When you're when you're asked something,
can you do this? Just sayyes and then figure it out later if
(39:42):
you don't know how to do it. Yeah. I've heard that before.
Actually on this podcast, people havesaid that, you know, just just
have a go and worry about theactual details later. I think it seems
to be a characteristic of entrepreneurial peoplethat they have their trained kind of and
ability to say no. Yeah.I took a when I was twenty five.
(40:05):
For a year, I challenged myselfto just say yes to whatever opportunity
came my way, and it ledme to climbing mountains and moving to Alaska
and going to Antarctica and all thesethings that I would have been too scared
to do. So I think itby saying yes, you push yourself out
of your comfort zone and you seewhat you're actually capable of. Well,
I hear about people saying they're goingto do that like a year of saying
(40:25):
yes or something that I've never actuallyspoken to someone who's actually do that,
But that sounds amazing. Aleska Antarctica. Gosh, you've been well over the
place and here you are in littleold New Zealand. That's good here.
Yeah, well, I'm I'm gladyou like it. I think I think
we're lucky to have you. Thirdquestion, business or a person in business
(40:47):
or a business that you look atto. I'm gonna say her name wrong,
but Jess Pirates are pirals anyway.But she's an amazing Australia in Texan
who does fantastic barbecue and insanely atsocial media and meet knowledge. Yeah,
(41:07):
she's great. What's her handle?I had to go look her up for
everyone who wants to go follow herhardcore carnivore. Hardcore Carnivore. Yeah,
it's her space. Is space mixsome things that she makes? Yeah?
Okay cool. Fourth question is ifyou could change one thing. And this
(41:29):
could be in business or in life. You know what would it be?
Uh, this is a really hardone. There's probably probably not much I
would change. I'd probably live somewherewarmer. But if I had to fix
(41:53):
something, yeah, well you couldalways move to Northland with the pegs on
the beach. You know, that'sslightly warmer. Slightly it is Arklands.
Yeah. I noticed you're our wearinga Papa jacket while we're doing this,
but it is well it's winter.Yeah. Okay. Finally, and this
(42:14):
is a very important question. Doesplineapple belong on a pizza? Yes?
I love pineapple and pizza, forsure. You're yet we're not. We're
not going to be adding pizza together, that's for sure. Not if it's
a Hawaiian pizza. Yeah, that'sit's not a go. But I I
(42:35):
must have met in the toe seasonsI've been doing this podcast. I'm in
I'm in the minority. Most peoplesay, yeah, most people seem to
like cooked frut on a pizza.I just find it sobza. That's so
funny. I would have thought.I would have thought there was the other
way around, where a lot ofpeople don't like it. But I guess
because I don't like it, Iassumed that everyone would would be on the
same page, isn't he. ButI mean it's a very unscientific experiment of
(42:59):
a very small sample. But sofar the people on this podcast generally didn't
light by neyborone Beizza. Yeah.Well, Hannah, thank you so much
for coming on the podcast today.The next time I get to Auckland,
and who knows, we met allbigs. As I said, I generally
stay clear of that place. I'mgoing to come and find your brewery and
(43:19):
your restaurant. I think even myhusband would quite enjoy this place. It
sounds like somewhere we could go.So I'm going to keep following you on
social media. I think everyone elshould go and follow Henna on social media.
She does it really well. Andwe will put all of your handle
social media handles and things on theshow notes. But if anyone wants to
find you, how can they finda Lady Butcher. Yeah, it's just
(43:42):
a lady Butcher. I'm all writtenas one word, and that's that's us,
and that's on Instagram Facebook, andyou probably your website and website.
Yep, Instagram Facebook. I'm tooold. For TikTok. So come on
next thing, I'm going to seeyou on TikTok and I'll be like,
oh, she's given him. Well, Henna, thank you for your time.
(44:07):
I know you're a very busy lady. You've just been to Australia I
think, and you've ducked out ofthe restaurant slash butchery to do this podcast
record. So we're very grateful sharingyour story and your non gen expertise with
us and all of this. Witheverything, here's thanks for having me as
(44:42):
a farmer. I really enjoyed thatchat with hid from a Lady butcher.
I enjoyed her ethos and philosophy aroundnot wasting any of the animal, appreciating
the fact that an animal has givenits life to create these products and that
helps you to be mindful of notwasting any of the animal. I think
it's a really great point to makethat it's everyone's responsibility, farmers, chef's,
(45:07):
consumers all together to ensure that thereisn't any waste. I thought.
Hannah also had some really great advicearound capitalising, which is something we haven't
actually spoken about on the podcast before. The key messages I got there were
know what you're selling and be reallysure of it. It's all about the
financials and then you must deliver,which is the hardest part. Don't over
(45:31):
promise, be realistic and have acontingency plan. Hannah also had some good
messages around promoting yourself. You needto be visible. There's no sense in
having a great product if no oneknows about it. You need to put
yourself out there. You need tobe doing social media. And in that
case, she's talking about things thatwork for her, such as being genuine,
(45:54):
sharing things that she just thinks arecool, or something that has a
slight educational event. So maybe she'steaching people something along the way. I
can't wait to go to Auckland.Well, I can wait to go to
Auckland. But when I go toAuckland next I will be definitely visiting Churley's.
So thank you Hannah for coming onthe podcast, and I hope you
(46:17):
guys took as much out of thereas I did. And we'll catch you
back here for the next episode.
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