12Aug2004

Peter and Justine Salter live at Pukekura which is between Fergusons and HariHari. Pukekura is not all that far from Lake Winthe, Urquharts and Duffers Creeks. This has got to be the West Coast. And it is. They run a café at Pukekura and one of their specialties is possum pies. Over a long period of time Peter and Justine have perfected a recipe which has enabled them to turn possum into passum. Well passum as far as the meat goes. The recipe, like Colonel Sanders secret recipe of 100 herbs & spices for KFC is likewise a secret. There are only two other people on the Coast who have been let in on the secret. They are the Salter’s accountant and solicitor. “We feel very comfortable sharing the secret with them” says Justine. “Neither of them can cook”. They did reveal however that apart from possum which forms the body of the pies there are carrots and the whole concoction was flavoured with rosemary, garlic, lemon and balsamic vinegar. All this is to mask what they refer to as the “rather gamey smell”.

So last week in an export drive the Salters cooked up a batch of pies and headed for the North Island. Wellington to be precise. The target was Bellamys Restaurant at Parliament. They were of the opinion that they could persuade Bellamys to stock the pies. The whole idea behind this was that they and the members of Parliament might make a real effort at conservation. “Our slogan is ‘save trees eat a possum’. Apparently at the last census seventy million possums registered. And of those who answered the questionnaire it was revealed that on an average night between them possums ate 21000 tonne of trees. Peter and Justine arrived at Parliament dressed in possum skin hats and jerkins with a stack of pies to deliver to Bellamys. On first sight the Speaker Jonathan Hunt thought that this was another two person hikoi of protestors to the foreshore and seabed legislation. He ordered the police to investigate. They did but apparently they found there is no provision in the regulations governing conduct in the grounds of Parliament which specifically prohibited the public exposure of pies. Pies of any nature. Even possum pies. The Salters were asked were they presenting a petition. Well yes they were. They wanted the pies in Bellamys. I don’t know what then transpired but Bellamys management declined to allow its chefs even to sample the pies. In entered Nick Smith, MP for Tasman, intrepid explorer, tramper, kayaker but first and foremost a politician. He seized the opportunity notwithstanding the fact that the pie makers are not from his electorate. Nick knows well from his many tramps in the Kahurangi National Park that Tasman’s got more possums than electors. There could be a few votes in this. Coughing a mouthful of the rosemary lemon garlic and balsamic flavoured possum pie he declared “this is not pie in the sky stuff, this is the real thing. I’m a regular eater of Bellamys pies and I would rate these as good if not better. They are little like chicken. A little like mutton.” Peter Salter after receiving Nick Smith’s assessment was pleased. He said that he had received other feedback “one guy said they tasted like guinea pig”. He had to take his word on that. He had never tasted guinea pig.

I’ve not tried them. Unlike Nick Smith I don’t need the votes. But I wondered about the carrots and 2-4-5 T. I know that’s a mixture favoured by possums. “Not a problem” said Peter. “All our pies are Ministry of Agriculture approved. They told us we could feed these pies to 2 or 4 or even 5 for tea without any problems.”

I suspect the Salters are back at Pukekura. I’ve got a pair of possum and merino gloves. They’re great. I wonder if they added a little merino to their mixture the pies might just lose that guinea pig flavour?