FRESH game meat supply has hit the Blue Lake city with Fox’s Chook House Chicken and Game Meat hosting its grand opening event last week.
The butcher, which opened in early February, brings a point-of-difference to the Limestone Coast which owner Matt Fox believes can make an impact not only on customers’ plates, but in the lives of those harvesting the meat.
Offering an array of game meat including camel, crocodile, wild boar, kangaroo, goat, buffalo, emu and venison – plus traditional chicken – Mr Fox believes the business will be a valuable asset to the community.
“I have always grown up eating game meat,” Mr Fox said.
“Being a butcher, I wanted to get into the game meat side of the industry but did not have the opportunity until I decided to open my own business.
“Most butchers stick with your traditional meats so it’s a nice change of pace to offer things a little unusual.”
With the idea of a game meat butchery in mind, Mr Fox then sought out somewhere to source his produce from.
This is when he found Something Wild.
Something Wild is an indigenous-owned native green and game meat wholesale business supplying butchers and restaurants across the globe.
Owned and operated by former AFL great Daniel Motlop, the business started when Mr Motlop retired from the football and sought a way to bring awareness to the variety of native foods on offer in Australia.
“Daniel and his family started the business a few of years ago after starting off hunting magpie geese,” Something Wild state manager and fellow former AFL footballer Danyle Pearce said.
“He wanted to find a way to supply the magpie geese at a wholesale market and then became the first ever licensed business hunt and commercially sell the geese.
“The business continued to grow from there, incorporating a range of meats and greens sustainably harvested on Aboriginal land.”
Mr Fox said the partnership with Something Wild was the perfect fit for the new business.
“It was really important to us to partner with Something Wild,” he said.
“We have all of this amazing food available right on our door step, why not take advantage of that while supporting indigenous communities.
“The work the boys do at Something Wild is amazing and we are proud to offer their produce in store.”
Mr Pearce said all of the produce was harvested by indigenous people, putting an importance on building industry in Aboriginal communities.
“Our products are all harvested and hunted by indigenous people – we believe its incredibly important to create jobs in indigenous communities so they are not having to leave to the city for work,” he said.
“They can stay and work on their own land doing something that has been done in this country for centuries.
“We hope embracing the food we have on offer in our country helps raise that awareness for indigenous and non-indigenous people alike.
“We have so much culture and history in this country, embracing native food is just one way to celebrate that.
“It’s important to bring this awareness to regional areas like Mount Gambier and we are proud to be working with the team at Fox’s Chook House to do so.”
Mr Fox said he looked forward to maintaining the partnership into the future.
“It’s a really great way to embrace our country’s history while eating some pretty great food,” he said.
“In addition to the varieties of meat, we also change things up all the time with different flavours to give our customers a range of options.
“I hope the community can come out and try something a little different from the ‘norm’ and support two great Australian businesses.”
