Poachers Pantry: Stylish Country Fare

Gourmet Traveller Wine - Apr/May 2004

When recession forced Susan and Robert Bruce to look for alternative ventures for their 300ha sheep and cattle property on the outskirts of Canberra, they considered farming everything from wildflowers to emus. In the end, it was a love of smoked foods that led English-born Sue to set up Poacher’s Pantry, a business that has now extended to include the Smokehouse Café and Wily Trout Vineyard. The Bruces installed their first smokehouse on their property, Marakei, in 1991. Sue’s brother, Michael Stride, who had trained as a chef in London and was looking for new ventures in Australia, was invited to “play with it”. Michael learnt the techniques for curing and smoking the meat by trial and error, reading extensively and travelling abroad to see how it was done. Guided by his palate and remembering the smoked foods he had enjoyed in England, he set out to create a range of smoked poultry, game and other meats.

“He came up with a fabulous product range,” Sue said of his initial efforts which soon captured the interest of chefs Australia-wide. Combining the management skills and financial resources of the Bruces with Michael’s culinary skills, they built up a thriving business which grew far beyond the small cottage industry Sue thought she was creating. The competitiveness and innovation of Poacher’s Pantry was soon recognised by the Federal Government, which gave it a Best Practice Award and a grant that enabled the Bruces to further expand the business. They added two smokehouses that they designed themselves, allowing them to smoke red meat at very low temperatures. Using beech imported from Germany, the equipment allows them to produce both hot and cold smoked products with a delicate, unique flavour that is not too salty. It’s a time-consuming process that can take up to three months in the case of the cold-smoked products or three to five days for the hot-smoked products.

Although Michael left the business in 1994 to resume his career as a chef – he is now running the restaurant at Lambert Vineyards, near Lake George – the products he created remain the backbone of the business. Andy Beyer, who Sue credits as having “a great eye for detail”, now manages the smokehouse, overseeing the manufacture of 23 products, including honey-cured ham, peppered sirloin, bresaola, prosciutto, smoked turkey breast and hot-smoked lamb sausages blended with mountain pepper. Also in the range are hot-smoked chicken, duck, quail and lamb racks which simply need reheating, making them a wonderfully easy main meal. The smoked duck breast is their biggest seller in dollar terms, while chicken with tarragon and lemon is their biggest seller by volume. Smoked chicken thighs, which are done in various ways including Thai and Cajun-style, are also popular.

Sue says they sell an “awful lot” of kangaroo prosciutto, possibly because of its novelty value but also because it has a great flavour. It matches beautifully with nectarines and peaches, the salty/sweet combination working well. Recent additions to the range include smoked tomatoes – “I think I’ve found a legally addictive product,” says Sue – and smoked garlic, which loses its pungency and takes on a pleasant nutty flavour from the smoking process. Like the smoked meats, they are ideal in salads and on antipasto platters and canapés. Each year at Christmas, they produce hams on the bone; for the rest of the year, there is the Poachers Little Ham, a 1.5kg ham without fat or rind. All the products are vacuum-packed and have a shelf life of six to 12 weeks. Early on, Sue identified a niche in the market and began selling to leading hotels, restaurants and catering companies throughout Australia.

However, it had a major setback in the wake of the Ansett collapse in 2001. Ansett was their largest customer at the time and the Bruces were owed a lot of money. Sue fought back by pursuing retail opportunities, taking it to delicatessens, supermarkets and small independent retailers. Canberra customers were particularly supportive. “It is really thanks to Canberrans that I managed to get over that nasty loss to Ansett,” she said. The retail side of the business is still growing strongly, boosted by the opening in October 2002 of the Smokehouse Café in an old farm cottage overlooking an 1870s slab woolshed on their property. The old Canberra cottage was moved to Marakei in the 1960s and carefully restored by Robert to offer a smart but casual atmosphere befitting its stylish country fare. Chef Mel Hanns, who previously worked at Canberra restaurants such as Ottoman and Chairman & Yip, incorporates the Poachers Pantry products in dishes such as Smoked Chicken Breast with Pomegranate Butter and Kipfler Potato Salad, and Smoked Lamb Cutlets with Eggplant, Caramelised Garlic and Honey Aioli.

The café doubles as a cellar door for the Bruces’ Wily Trout wines. The first vines were planted on their property six years ago, and 90 per cent of the crop from their 50 acre vineyard now goes to the Hardy Wine Company. The Bruces have drawn on the talents of two leading Canberra winemakers, Roger Harris and Andrew McEwin, to make the Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Shiraz and Merlot that are bottled under their own Wily Trout label. A Cabernet Sauvignon is to be released later this year (2004). The combined café, cellar door and farm shop makes much of its rural setting. Cast iron kettles, farming implements and other items add a rustic note, while a paved terrace offers a delightful spot to relax outside. It’s a welcome rest spot for those exploring the wineries in the Murrumbateman area north of Canberra.

Deciding that the wineries needed a collective approach to marketing, Sue came up with the idea of the Poachers Trail, a self-drive route taking in local wineries, food producers, cafes, B & Bs and other attractions, including the Smokehouse Cafe. A brochure was printed and a website created (www.poacherstrail.com.au) to guide visitors on the trail. At one stage, Sue was trialling exports to Indonesia, Germany and Singapore, but she is no longer pursuing export opportunities, deciding instead to focus on her expanding Australian sales and the burgeoning café business.

Although Poachers Pantry still responds to its customers’ requests, it is no longer actively working on product development. Sue feels they have got the products right, and that the range offers plenty of variety. She says café guests are frequently impressed at how easily the products can be incorporated into dishes with stunning results. “When people see what we’ve done in the cafe, it often spurs on their creative skills, and they buy the ingredients to take home,” said Sue, who relishes being involved in the production chain from beginning to end. “We were very good bulk commodity producers but it was very hard to build on that. This way we’re in control of our products,” she said. “When we started I just thought we were doing a little cottage industry but I realised very early on that we had the tail of a tiger.”

Poachers Pantry and the Smokehouse Café are in Nanima Road, off the Barton Highway north of the ACT border.
The Poachers Pantry farm shop is open daily from 10am to 5pm.
The café is open 10am to 5pm Friday, weekends and public holidays. Bookings are recommended: 6230 2487.

© Christine Salins

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