By Kath Gannaway
HEALESVILLE butcher Eric Duff isn’t ready to completely hand up his apron, but after 60 years in the main street of Healesville, he does have a generational succession plan.
Eric started an apprenticeship with Alex Christie who had a shop where K&B Butchers are now, and started his own business, The Beef Joint, about 13 years later after Alex passed on. He is by far the longest continuous serving retailer in Healesville, perhaps even in the Yarra Valley!
The family, Eric and wife Val, son Ben who works full-time in the business, and grandsons, Cooper and Harrison, celebrated the milestone in December with a sausage sizzle outside the shop he moved into all those years ago.
The initial attraction was the opportunity to ride the Christie horses, for fun and at the picnic races, which led to the offer of an apprenticeship.
Looking to the future, Eric opted to do the longer Master Butcher apprenticeship which involved working in an abattoir and smallgoods factory and doing animal husbandry.
“The whole time I worked for Alex, I still did the farm where they used to fatten their own lambs and grew their own cattle, every weekend,” Eric said.
His own father had died when he was nine, and he said Alex became like a father to him.
There have been some obvious changes over the years … no sawdust and prepared meats are just two.
He said the biggest change was when government gave an independent group authority to control the fresh meat industry.
“They handed them the meat industry and after that live poultry, then fish and then rabbits,” Eric said.
He remembers when shanks and lambs fry were cheap meats and attributes the popularity of cooking shows to motivating a new generation towards fresh produce and back to home cooking.
The streetscape has also changed, along with Healesville.
“When I first started, I had 50-plus guest houses operating, so had to start at 3am to get all the meat cut and delivered so they had meat for breakfast.
He was one of the first to do pre-prepared meals and Val comes in to do pies, quiches, pates and terrines while Ben recently went overseas to study smallgoods.
Eric said he was semi-retired now and enjoying the luxury of a bit of time off.
Looking at Cooper and Harrison turning sausages, it’s fair to say Eric is looking to keeping the Duff name firmly ensconced in Healesville’s main street for a long time to come.
