Red Pig Dreaming

25/11/2025

Sharing a significant disappointment 🙄😪. A two-month wait to hear the final decision of an eminently-qualified prospective lessee for the Red Pig ended yesterday afternoon ended in a NO.

Found on Google from pinterest.com

16/11/2025

Serendipity: we're on a road trip to the Apex Bakery in Tanunda SA to collect two new peels (Scotch oven bakers' poles to you 😉) that have been specially made for us by an elderly gentleman. We stop at a bakery in Tailem Bend for breakfast, and lo and behold it has the remnants of its original oven 😯❤️❤️. Martin MacLennan

06/11/2025

Better late than never 😉. (My Messenger is a nightmare of unreliability). The wonderful Cavell Ferrier made this little collage of what we called the 'Handover Ceremony' at the bakery on September 14, 2024. A few weeks earlier we discovered we had no-one to hand it over to, but we went ahead anyway 😆. The purpose was to thank everyone involved with the project: town planner/architects/builders/tradies/supportive neighbours and friends. Did my heart good to remember what a happy day we had ❤️❤️.

Maggie Ene Michaela Bunda Garry Massey Marie Coles Andrew Scott John OC Rhonda Longo Sally Conroy Graham Peters Monika Kucewicz Elissa Jackson Mark Boyle

29/10/2025

No posts for quite a while now, sorry ... it's not easy typing when you're holding your breath and all your fingers are crossed ... Does that mean I might just be on the verge of making a very important announcement? Yes it does 😉😯 🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞.

But here is something that DEFINITELY IS happening ...

Many of you are aware that the old shop that was part of the bakery complex has housed my art gallery Rare Earth Studio Gallery for almost the whole period of the bakery project. We focus uniquely on paintings in natural earth pigments, most locally-sourced, as well as a curated range of ceramics, turned wood and other related work, all by local artists.

Not only is Rare Earth reopening this weekend after our long winter break, but we have a great night coming up on Saturday 22 November 😯😯🧡. It may be of interest to you if you've never seen the bakery but would like a sneak peek 😉.

I only do music gigs when I come across something unique and extra-special, and Sadie Mustoe is no exception.

8pm, $30, with COMPLIMENTARY DRINKS IN THE BAKERY from 7.30. Trybooking.com/DGFBT , call in at the gallery (reopens Cup weekend) or you can contact me via this page.

11/07/2025

Thank you FlorenceandTom Martin for sending me this beautiful artefact from the days when the Toora bakery (now Red Pig Historic Bakery) was run by Mr Rispin. I'm gradually building a comprehensive list of all the people who've owned or run the bakery since the 1890s when it was built. Sally Conroy ❤❤

19/06/2025

Did you ever wonder if not finding a lessee/buyer for Red Pig Historic Bakery would impact on the substantial Regional Tourism Infrastructure Fund grant we received 🤔?

Well, I certainly did 😳. The moment our baker withdrew from our arrangement after 5 years on board, I called my grant liaison officer in a panic to ask if there would be any negative fallout if we weren't able to quickly source another operator 🥴.

She reassured me that the terms of the grant contract were to restore the old oven/bakery and add the cafe, and that these milestones had been achieved. I have a document called an "executed grant agreement" that states that all my responsibilities in regard to the grant have been met.

So those of you who might kindly have wondered if I would be obliged to pay the money back to the government can rest easy. Fortunately they take the same attitude as me ... that the building is there, it's beautiful, and it's ready to go when the right person comes along to run it.

I live in hope that that will happen very soon ... later today I'm putting an ad (around $3000 worth) in the highly-regarded business-to-business Hospitality magazine.

Sincere thanks to all who continue to support me through the vicissitudes of the Red Pig passion project 🙏.

02/06/2025

Sometimes he plays in the country/Sometimes he plays in the town.

The advantage of seeing Andy Baylor play in the country ... ie Toora 🤔? The venue is an art gallery where his first exhibition is on the walls ... An art gallery that was once the shop and tearooms of what is now Red Pig Historic Bakery.

Gather before the show for a drink on us in the ready-to-go but as-yet-bakerless bakery 😉🥴🙄🥺😬😆.

Come on guys, get behind a consummate musician/artist and have a great night out on Saturday 7 June.

Trybooking.com/DBJEQ

30/05/2025

Would you like to have a sneak peek at the bakery in all its unopened glory 🤔😉? A rare opportunity exists TODAY Saturday 31 May 😮.

Come along to the 2pm opening of Andy Baylor's exhibition of landscapes and still lifes in oil and watercolour next door at Rare Earth Studio Gallery (the former bakery shop), and once the formalities are over, we'll open the bakery/cafe building for attendees and followers of Red Pig Dreaming. Just till around 4pm 😉.

There are lots of other great things to see and visit in Toora:

Tooradeli
The Panton Store
The Windmill Cafe Sams Patch
Toora Heritage Pear Orchard
Toora Woodfired Pizza
Agnes Falls

in the setting of one of the most intact streetscapes in South GippsLand.

The Middle of Everywhere

13/05/2025

Fulfilling the shire's requirements for registering our kitchen got a big step closer yesterday when local plumber and plasterer Brian Allan removed plumbing fixtures and moved our gigantic proofer to begin installation of retro-fitted plaster on one of the walls 😃❤.

I don't criticise the shire for this: I do wonder about some (actually let's just say ONE) of its heads of department 🥴. More on that later 😉 ...

We'd previously had to remove a hand-wash basin and electric hand-dryer from the wall.

The builder's quote to complete this work was $7000+, but with local tradies and painters on the job, the cost was significantly reduced 🙏.

Keep your fingers crossed that She Who Must Be Obeyed at the shire will soon pronounce us fit to operate.

28/04/2025

27/04/2025

There's our ad, bottom left corner in Baking Business, the national baking industry magazine.

Bear in mind that the plan was always to lease or sell the Red Pig (I certainly can't run it myself). Nothing's changed 😃.

Please consider praying to whatever god you worship, or perhaps St Jude, the patron saint of lost causes 😉, or keeping your fingers permanently crossed, or ... anything at all really, so that we can take the final step and get this beautiful building doing what it was made for.

Thanks for the mentoring, 🙏❤❤.

21/03/2025

Congratulations to Boat Harbour Jetty B&B, tireless supporters of so many small businesses, including mine 🙏❤❤❤.

Huge congratulations to Sharon and Mark Radon .....winning a silver 🏅 at the Qantas Australia Tourism awards last night
Sharon and Mark work tirelessly to provide the ultimate holiday experience for their guests Boat Harbour Jetty B&B
And promoting their patch Visit Port Albert and the wider area.
We are so lucky to have you in our area