Now this is a tough one because it feels like I just woke up one day to find that I had opened a deli and a new chapter of my life was about to begin… it was terrifying because we just had to close our eyes and jump.

My husband Craig and I have spent a lot of time in Melbourne which is European food central and we have also been very fortunate enough to have travelled quite extensively through Europe and the one thing we couldn’t believe when we moved to the Newcastle/Hunter region was the lack of really good food in the way of cheese and charcuterie. I was working at Audrey Wilkinson winery and Craig was always away with work so we just dreamt about the idea of opening a deli ‘one day’. Then in September 2013 I travelled to France to work for a fantastic winemaker in Burgundy with a dream of furthering my wine making career. This all came to an abrupt halt when after six weeks of eating 2kg of cheese a day I decided that I couldn’t live without it. I knew I could get good wine anywhere in the Hunter region but getting fantastic, mind blowing cheese was impossible so when I arrived home I quit my beloved job and Pork Ewe Deli was born.

We expected the first few months to be very slow and that during this period I could learn the ropes of running a deli as I had never used a meat slicer or even cut large pieces of cheese until the day we opened. However, as soon as we opened the deli we were inundated with people falling through the doors and 12 months on it shows no signs of slowing up, we just keep growing and getting busier which is wonderful.