Butchery was a surprise career twist for Amanda Turner. Now, she wouldn’t consider anything else.
“I’ll be doing this until I retire, I’m so passionate about it, I just love it,” Turner said.
Turner’s new business, The Butcherette, turns homekill and wild game into gourmet offerings.
Working out of a purpose-built shed outside her home in Eighty Eight Valley, 35 kilometres southeast of Nelson, Turner’s feet have barely hit the ground since she opened her doors three months ago.
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To keep up with demand, she’s hired her first employee: her mum, Michele Wykes.
The two women are trained chefs with years of catering under their belts. With this experience they turn their clients’ cattle and game into gourmet products.
Turner’s move into butchery came from a desire to upskill.
Martin De Ruyter/Stuff
Amanda Turner at her Butcherette home kill business in Eighty-eight Valley, near Wakefield, south of Nelson.
Her chef training had only skirted the edge of what she felt was a critical part of food preparation. To gain knowledge, she did some work experience at a butchery.
“I fell in love,” she said.
Work experience turned into a full time job, then a four-year apprenticeship, where Turner learned the art of smallgoods, curing, and smoking meat.
From a farming background, she has a lot of respect for the animals she works with.
“I love being able to take a piece of meat and turn it into so many beautiful things.”
The “beautiful things” set her business apart from other home kill operations, she said.
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Amanda Turner’s mother, Michele Wykes, has been a vegetarian since she was 7, but that hasn’t stopped her partnering up with her daughter to get through the increasing workload.
In the chiller, Turner pulls out goods she’s created from a deer brought in by a hunter: pastrami, crumbed schnitzel, meatloaf, sausage rolls, marinated kebabs and meatballs.
“People are shocked with what you can get from what they bring in.”
She’s had a few people ask to come in and buy a few sausages, but Turner works solely with animals brought to her by clients: wild game they’ve hunted, or home kill from their farm.
“Go to Hunting and Fishing, get some gaiters and a gun, bring me whatever you want,” she said.
“Then, we look at the animal’s condition, how much fat, whether it’s a stag or a hind: we take these different things into consideration as to what we’ll make with it.”
To keep up with demand, Turner’s been working seven days a week, getting up at 4am and knocking off after 7pm.
With her mum on board, she’s hoping to ease the pressure. The pair had worked together for years, and made a good team, Turner said.
There’s just one problem.
“Mum hasn’t eaten meat since she was seven. She said, if anything comes in here with a head on you’re putting a bag over it.”
