Product: Free-range beef and pork
What: From leaders in the regenerative-farming movement comes 100 per cent pasture-fed rare-breed beef from British Whites, and pasture- and whey-fed rare-breed Berkshire pork.
Where: Blampied, Hepburn Shire, Dja Dja Wurrung Country
Who: Jonathan Hurst and Natalie Hardy
Jono and Nats, how do you define pasture-fed?
We sow 15 different annuals and perennials such as turnips and radishes for the pigs to root about in. We plant clover, vetch, peas and beans, which add nitrogen back to the soil but are also high protein for the animals. We also have grasses like rye and phalaris – great roughage – but also what some farmers think of as weeds like plantain, which is deep-rooted and brings nutrients from deeper in the soil to the top. Basically, it’s all about feeding the soil microbiome, which enriches the soil, makes healthy herbage and in turn makes for healthy livestock and therefore healthy humans.
Why do you raise rare breeds?
British White cattle are an 11th-century breed and they have maintained their instinct to forage, making them perfect to pick and choose the feed in the paddocks that are best suited to their health. They have a quiet temperament, which allows us to move them frequently, and quiet cattle make better eating. Berkshires are active pigs and great foragers, and they have great intramuscular fat giving them great flavour and succulence.
You also value-add to your products.
We have biltong made for us by a South African to a traditional recipe. We also make a nitrate-free bacon cured with brown sugar and salt brine and smoked over red gum. We don’t add spices, so we let the quality of the pork do the talking. It’s a favourite of well-known food writers.
Where can we buy your products?
You can come to our farm each Friday at 340 Blampied-Kooroocheang Road, Blampied, but call ahead to book. You can see the farm. We also attend the Daylesford, Trentham, Alphington and Carlton farmers’ markets. We also supply our beef and pork to Jack Powlay at Sault and Alla Wolf-Tasker at Lake House in Daylesford and Annie Smithers at Du Fermier in Trentham. brooklandsfarms.com.au