photographs courtesy of Flinders + Co
I’m standing at a restaurant pass in Launceston watching a notable French chef carving a joint of Tasmania’s best lamb. He has slow-roasted and chargrilled it with the tenderness of a lover, and will plate it simply with a frothy oyster sauce.
It won’t be the chef’s Michelin-starred credentials that make the best of this ingredient, however, but its provenance. This is Flinders Island saltgrass lamb. The sheep from which it derives graze freely on windswept pastures off the north-east coast of Tasmania, their burly fleeces immune to the roaring forties gusting without mercy or relent, their delicate mouths nipping at the salt-encrusted grasses, and their soft tissues absorbing, whether by osmosis or alchemy, the salts which imbue the resulting lamb with its distinctive and delicious umami flavour.
Many believe it’s the tiny droplets of ocean spray picked up by the winds and coating the island’s pastures with dewy seasoning which results in the rich flavour profile of this lamb. Others believe that the ocean, which is higher in iodine than the earth, augments the coastal regions, resulting in richer grazing land.
Lamb like this has long been prized. In the Brittany region of France, sheep graze on salt flats at low tide around Mont St Michel, and in Wales the saltmarshes produce lamb which is a benchmark worldwide.
Sitting opposite me at the table in Launceston, meanwhile, is one of the men responsible for bringing this particular lamb to our plates and our attention. James Madden and his father David are the original partners in Flinders + Co, formally Flinders Island Meat. David farms the lamb along with other farmers on Flinders and runs the tiny processing plant there, and James takes the product to market.
Theirs is a story of risk-taking and bold enterprise. James discovered Flinders from its best vantage point, the air. The youngest ever Australian to gain a pilot’s license – at the age of 15 – he was flying passengers to the island to clock up hours for his commercial license. His passengers were somewhat nonplussed when his mother dropped him off at the airport since he had no license at that point to drive a car. But nothing distracted James from the possibilities lying below, and it was he who persuaded his father that buying the island’s defunct meat processing works and setting up as processors for its farmers could be the foundation for a business.
The first couple of years were rough. James admits that buying a small, inefficient, outdated abattoir on a remote island in regional Tasmania was not a plan they examined as closely as they might have.
It needed more skills than the duo had to brand and package a product attractive to the retail market. With nothing to lose, and with an unshakeable belief in the distinctive meat he’d named “saltgrass lamb”, James decided to give it a crack himself. For two weeks, he walked the streets of Melbourne with a cooler bag of samples, door-knocking top-end restaurants.
The chefs he met, such as Shannon Bennett of Vue de Monde, had no concerns about butchered cuts and packaging, but immediately recognised a product with the flavour profile to create real excitement in their dining rooms. And they leapt at the chance to buy meat of such great provenance direct from the producer – a young man and his family with a great story.
Overnight, Flinders + Co appeared on the menus of Vue de Monde, Jacques Reymond and a host of other luminary three-hatted names across Victoria – and a flagship Tasmanian brand was born.
James’ seizing of the day and new-found chance to talk directly to chefs got Flinders + Co noticed by other farmers, who approached him to do the same on their behalf. The resulting business soon outgrew its origins on Flinders, and the Melbourne arm of the company now distributes more than a hundred product lines –– including premium beef and wagyu, veal, chicken, duck, venison, pigeon, partridge and rabbit – from small farms around Australia to top end restaurants.
Back on Flinders Island, David Madden developed his skills in processing low-volume, high-quality meats and the company’s facility is now a conduit for a stable of 15 farmers who now put Flinders saltgrass lamb onto fine-dining plates in the best establishments year-round. They are proud to have it considered the best there is.
Between them, the Maddens have also created a market for that other quiet achiever in the kitchens of top chefs, wallaby. These apparently unassuming creatures descend in their thousands onto farm pastures from surrounding bushland at night-time, razing pastures and posing a huge threat to farming operations. Across Australia, many farmers shoot to cull, then simply leave carcasses to rot.
James’ approach was motivated by environmental, humanitarian and business sense. Wallabies produce almost no methane, grow on bushland rather than arable land, and are a low-impact, mild-flavoured, lean and nutritious meat. They should be used, not wasted, he believed.
In the hands of that legendary French chef visiting Launceston, wallaby presented a wild and indigenous ingredient rich with potential and was served for lunch at Josef Chromy Winery with a jus of oranges, Rooibos tea and hibiscus flowers, the fruity flavours complementing the dark meat perfectly.
The people of Flinders Island eat no less well these days and the company has become an economic driver for the community. The Maddens have added the local butcher’s shop to their business stable and offer a selection of gourmet meats there which couldn’t be more local. The pub has a menu that goes well beyond the usual counter-meal fare. The abattoir provides employment and the company is set to streamline operations further, expanding into export markets with both Flinders and Tasmanian branded lamb. It’s an enterprising story, particularly for a young man who initially believed the notion of saltgrass flavoured lamb to be a bit of a crock. Now he can definitely tell the difference, as can we all.
Fiona Stocker dined courtesy of the Great Chefs Series and Josef Chromy Winery. More about Flinders + Co can be found at flinders.co and it can be bought online for home delivery anywhere in Australia at organicmeatonline.com.au
Fiona Stocker is a Tamar Valley-based writer, editor and keeper of pigs. She has published the books A Place in the Stockyard (2016) and Apple Island Wife (2018). More of her writing can be seen at fionastocker.com.
This article was first published in issue 85 of Forty South magazine.
