The Handcrafted History of Harrington’s Smallgoods
Harrington’s got its start with Colin Nelson Harrington Bridge. A Wellingtonian with a permanent twinkle in the eye, a serious sense of humour and a singular talent for creating incredible flavours by crafting the finest artisan smallgoods around. He’s an inspiration to us today.
Colin was your classic entrepreneur. In his 20s, he set up his first business, delivering milk in Oriental Bay and Roseneath. One particular morning, his milk truck ended up in Evans Bay after he forgot to pull the handbrake on. It was conclusive proof that, despite the name, milk floats don’t actually float.
Along the way Colin unlocked that serious talent for artisan smallgoods. He owned a butchers shop in Wellington called Embassy Meats where he and a Hungarian mate used to swap favourite artisan recipes. Over the next few years he opened quality butchers in Newtown, Courtenay Place and in 1992, a shop called ‘Harrington’s’ in Island Bay.
Like today, there was no room for mass-production at Harrington’s. Pork and bacon was cured in traditional fashion. His Black Pudding was loved for its delicious notes of spicy pepper and exciting nutty texture. At Christmas, if you didn’t serve Harrington’s ham, it wasn’t a proper Christmas.
Now in Miramar Wellington, we continue Colin Nelson Harrington Bridge’s tradition for fine smallgoods. We believe in traditional quality yet we love experimenting. There’s always something exciting happening in our test kitchen, and when we perfect a new recipe we’re always excited to introduce it to you.
100% locally crafted with 100% care
We believe that the best smallgoods are made using time-tested techniques and top-quality ingredients, authentic recipes, and old-fashioned craft. We use only New Zealand-raised pork, beef, lamb, and venison. It’s not about putting more ingredients in, it’s about not needing to put extra ingredients in so that the true taste shines through. We value authentic tastes above all else.
We take a traditional approach to dry-curing, and to craft our smoked products, we use our own custom-made smoker, which burns manuka chips. So, even wood for our smoker comes from New Zealand. Throughout the process, we ensure high-quality food safety, risk management, and state-of-the-art traceability.
Look for the ‘free-range’ symbol
It’s on many of our products, and shows that the pork used in those products is free-range. This means the pigs can run around outdoors, at will. They’re provided with shelter and they can move in and out of the shelter, and freely around the paddocks. There are some other times when, for their wellbeing, they need to spend a short amount of time indoors. For example, to receive veterinary treatment, in the case of an emergency, or if required or directed by relevant authorities, for example in the case of an exotic disease outbreak. Under this definition of free-range, Harrington’s sources different types of pork for our different products: ham and bacon and sausages.
Read more about the different types of pork right here.
Our sustainable packaging is better for the planet
The trays which our delicious, handcrafted sausages and bacon come in can be recycled. Made from plant-based recycled materials, all elements of our packaging, except the soft plastic wrap sealing tray, can be recycled. Even the ink on the packaging sleeve is recyclable!
Following world-best practices and meeting the requirements from New Zealand’s leading retailers, including New World, PAK’nSAVE, and Countdown, our trays can be turned into something useful when you’re finished with them, like more trays or beverage bottles.
Read more about our eco-friendly packaging here.
Harrington’s Team. Crafting New Zealand’s finest smallgoods.
Every single sausage, slice of bacon, black pudding or other delicious delicacy crafted at our home in Miramar is the work of our skilled artisans. Our fifteen craftspeople fashion the finest flavours for you guided by Angus Black, and Harrington’s brilliant original recipes of course.
Harrington’s pays the living wage
The Living Wage concept is the hourly wage that a New Zealand worker needs to pay for the necessities of life and “participate as an active citizen in the community.”
We introduced the Living Wage in 2018 because we believe in investing in our people. We have rolled out the Living Wage to all of our employed staff, as part of our goal to be an ethical employer.
The taste of success –
our award-winning smallgoods
We can think of no better benchmark than being judged against other New Zealand artisan food producers. That’s why we enter select local food awards, we love to see how we stack up against the best of the best. To us awards are all about inspiration not congratulation.
We’re very happy to say that, over the years, we have picked up several awards for our smallgoods against excellent competition. To see our awards, including the latest prizes, please check out our trophy cabinet right here
Harrington’s Head Honcho Angus Black knows the importance of doing things properly, he says “We craft our smallgoods the old-fashioned way. There may be faster ways, cheaper ways and probably easier ways, but there’s no better way if you want top quality smallgoods.”
Angus oversees our creation of Harrington’s range of artisan smallgoods. As an experienced chef Angus knows a thing or two about creating incredible flavours, and at Harrington’s Angus and our talented team work hard to craft the best smallgoods we can. We hope you enjoy them.