How to locally source your Christmas lunch in Sydney, from prawns to pudding

"We've only just hit December and I'm like, 'what's going on with the Christmas orders?'," says Adam Stratton, owner of Tender Gourmet Butchery in Hornsby.

"I've never seen people order so much ham, pork and turkey this far out from Christmas. Families have missed out on celebrating Mother's Day, Father's Day, birthdays, anniversaries, you name it, so they're saying, 'let's have an extra special shindig and put 2020 behind us'."

More consumers are looking to buy locally grown or produced food this Christmas too, according to data from market research firm Mintel. 44 per cent of Australians said they were trying to buy local food all or most of the time in 2019, but in 2020 – after bushfires ravaged the east coast and COVID-19 disrupted food supply chains – that number has grown to 52 per cent.

"It's been a hard year for suppliers," says Colin Holt, co-owner of Hudson Meats, which has stores in Cammeray, Drummoyne and Mosman. "Supporting local is the way to go, especially getting behind the guys raising animals on pasture instead of in feedlots.

"Some of the produce is more expensive than the supermarkets, yes, but once I explain to a customer why that is, they're happy to pay the extra price, especially at Christmas when it's cause for celebration."

Stratton says anyone who hasn't put their Christmas order in should do so as soon as possible to avoid missing out on ham and turkey from an independent butcher.

"I've been speaking to other butchers across Australia, and many of us have experienced a massive influx of customers thanks to COVID-19," he says.

"When mince restrictions hit supermarkets in March, a lot of people returned to their local butcher for meat. Those customers have kept coming back, I think because they like our cooking tips and hearing paddock-to-plate stories of where their food comes from."

Here's how to shop for Christmas lunch classics and support NSW producers, farmers and fishers in the process.

The oysters

Like the Opera House sails and Coffs Harbour's banana, rock oysters are something NSW can be truly proud of.

"Although there are a handful of farms outside of the state, every Sydney rock oyster I've ever eaten has been from NSW," says Sydney Fish Markets tour guide and seafood expert Alex Stollznow. "Rock oysters also have a diverse range of flavours, depending on the body of water they're from."

Merimbula oysters from the south coast have a high brine intensity, for example, due to minimal freshwater input to estuaries in the region. Meanwhile, a diet of mangrove nutrients means oysters from the Hastings River near Port Macquarie have an increased level of sweetness.

Top oyster retailers include Fish Butchery in Paddington, Marrickville's Faros Brothers, and Oceana Traders in Avalon Beach. Online vendor GetFish is home delivering rock oysters and other fish-market freshness to most Sydney suburbs until December 23 and 24. For the bivalves chefs love, order direct from Gary Rodely at Tathra Oysters.

Stollznow recommends always buying oysters unshucked to experience their full taste profile. Unshucked oysters will also keep for up to a fortnight stored in a cool place (not the fridge) and covered with a damp cloth.

The prawns

"Eastern king prawns are what you're looking for if you want to support local fishers," says Stollznow. "In NSW, we've long had a culture of buying fresh local king prawns from co-ops."

Stollznow also suggests keeping an eye out for royal red prawns caught off the NSW coast from Port Stephens to Ulladulla. The ring-finger-sized crustaceans are often sold peeled because the species has a shell prone to quick oxidation and black spots. Currently retailing for around $17 a kilogram (which is "obscenely cheap", says Stollznow), royal reds are great for salads or crumbing and frying.

Cooked king prawn prices are expected to remain stable at around $40 to $69 per kilogram depending on size, says Seafood Industry Australia chief executive Veronica Papacosta. The closer to December 25, the more expensive the prawn, and buying frozen prawns now to defrost on Christmas Eve is a smart idea.

The ham

Holt sources hand-raised Byron Bay pork for his Hudson Meats hams, cured and wood-smoked in Marrickville at Black Forest Smokehouse. Expect to pay $225 for a seven- to eight-kilogram Black Berkshire full leg. Luxury Woollahra butcher Victor Churchill offers northern NSW Black Berkshire hams for a similar price, smoked over beechwood for 12 hours by Sunshine Meats in Milperra.

Other excellent butchers from which to order a NSW ham include Haverick Meats in Banksmeadow, and Marrickville's Feather and Bone, which sources ethical, pasture-raised pork from Casino in the north, all the way to Wallendbeen near Young.

At Tender Gourmet Butchery (which has stores in North Ryde, Brookvale and Bondi Junction, in addition to the Hornsby flagship), Stratton only uses free-range legs from female pigs for his hams, smoked by Kaczanowski & Co smallgoods in Strathfield.

"Those guys know how to give ham the perfect balance of salt and smoke," he says. "I also find female pigs have a more pleasant flavoured meat than the strong boar-like taste of the males." An 11-kilogram Tender Gourmet whole leg ham costs $209.

The turkey

It's not easy to find a NSW-raised turkey if you want to avoid mass-produced birds from Ingham's and Steggles. "There are about four million turkeys grown in Australia every year and about 95 per cent of them are sold by those two companies," says John Watson, president of the Australasian Turkey Federation. "It's getting harder and harder for small producers to compete with their prices, often further discounted by supermarkets."

Watson owns Pooginagoric Free Range Turkeys near Bordertown in South Australia and supplies to Craig Cook Natural Butcher stores in suburbs including Balgowlah, Leichhardt and Dee Why. In NSW, family-owned Quast Turkeys has been operating for three generations out of Tintinhull, near Tamworth. Tender Gourmet is the best stockist for Quast turkey in Sydney.

"I've been buying turkeys from the Quast family for 20 years," says Stratton. "There are no additives or water injected into the birds to plump them up, so you're getting five kilograms of actual meat. It makes a big difference in the eating quality too."

The pudding

Sydney bakeries are rich with locally made pudding and Christmas cake, and great examples of the boozy desserts can be found at Flour Drum in Newtown, who make theirs with fruit mince aged for more than 18 months.

Itha's Pudding is selling calico-wrapped plum-and-treacle puds online, made to a century-old family recipe in Miranda. Croydon-based yuletide specialists Our Festive Puds have more than a few figgy treats for sale too, available from their website or Carriageworks Twilight Christmas Market in Eveleigh on December 23.

Botany baker Nonie Dwyer will also be at the Carriageworks evening event, plus Northside Produce Market today and December 19. The Nonie's Bakery Christmas cake might be the most sought-after gluten-free creation in town, made with organic figs, prunes and sultanas mixed with Australian walnuts and hazelnuts.

"Many larger bakeries source nuts from overseas, but we only use new season Australian nuts," says Dwyer. "Most people are used to eating rancid-tasting, three-year-old walnuts in their cakes, so new season nuts are a much more enjoyable experience." The one-kilogram cake is also available from the Nonie's website for $85.