The Power of Paté

Here we are at the end of another strange year. We're very proud that we've been able to keep our business going, grateful to the farmers who continue supplying us with beautiful produce and the customers who support us, and very proud of our wonderful team who have performed so well, despite all the pressure.

But there's only so much an ethical omnivore can take and when Scott Morrison announced on 21st December that Australians must take 'personal responsibility' for managing covid, Mr Bone finally blew a gasket.

Enraged out of his habitual gentle demeanor, he turned into a Frankenstein combination of The Thick of It's Malcolm Tucker and Basil Fawlty, marching about the butchery shouting mask-muffled insults at Scotty from Marketing and and writing heavily ironic signs about personal responsibility for the hundreds of Christmas customers we were serving.

It wasn't like having some Trumpian lunatic in fur and horns coming at you inside the Capitol, but it gave us a sense of how quickly things can get out of hand and it was quite alarming. Fortunately, this episode didn't last too long, Malcolm and Basil retired and Mr Bone regained his senses, about the same time our leaders re-introduced masks and contact tracing. Too little, too late. (Mr Bone's current sign says 'Personal Responsibility didn't work out so well. You know the drill.')

So, for our last newsletter of the year, we're avoiding anything that might prompt a relapse and instead we're opting for a beautiful story about endings and beginnings and the way that food, more than anything else, can bring people together.

The Power of Paté
This story was told to us by the lovely Sabrina Sharp whose equally lovely husband, Ian, has been a customer for over 10 years (and whose recipe for pork vindaloo is in our book). We found it deeply moving and inspiring.

Sabrina, a nurse, has been volunteering on weekends at the Medically Supervised Injecting Centre at Kings Cross for years and worked alongside her friend, Anita, an enthusiastic 'foodie'. This year, Anita turned 62 and Sabrina gave her a lovely bottle of wine and a jar of our Organic Chicken Liver Paté for her birthday.

Anita loved the paté so much that she decided that her best friends - a couple who proudly make their own chicken liver paté - must try it as well, so she deposited money in Sabrina's account and asked Sabrina to buy another jar and bring it to work. But two weeks later, before Sabrina could see her again, Anita suffered a sudden heart attack and died.

Devastated by the loss of her friend, Sabrina decided that she must honour Anita's wish and take a jar of Feather and Bone paté to Anita's paté-making friends, whom she'd never met. After a little detective work, she found a number and nervously called to tell them that a complete stranger wanted to give them a jar of paté from their dead friend. Of course, the couple were deeply touched and the three of them got together and ate paté and had a little party in memory of their dear friend.

Somehow, a jar of dolled-up chicken livers was able to bring strangers together, create connections and become a celebration of Anita's compassion, generosity and friendship.

On that note, we'll leave it for 2021. We hope you have a lovely New Years Eve and we wish you a happy and healthy 2022.