Our Story
The "how and why" of the HomeGrown Farm
Responsible Farming
We operate our farm in a way that ensures the best outcomes for our land, animals and staff, resulting in a business that is sustainable long-term.
Affordable food
We strongly believe that REAL food can still be produced LOCALLY AND AFFORDABLY by improving on-farm efficiencies and sharing resources.
Connected food chain
We strive to reconnect people with where their food comes from through direct sales, social media content and working toward operating an open-farm.
It all started when...
I never wanted to be a farmer. I always said I wasn’t going to farm. We’d had family discussions around whether or not “us kids” would take over the family dairy farm, and I gave a resounding NO!
I was raised here on the farm in the ’90s through seemingly never-ending drought and observed the impact of the stress that had on my parents physical and mental health. Why would I want to carry that on in my own life and be so reliant on factors outside of my control such as the weather or milk prices? No thank you.
Instead, I left school early, trained in youth & outdoor recreation before landing a job in a large school’s I.T. department. I developed a passion for customer relationships, and had a knack for things to “just work” whenever I walked into the room.
I married young and our first of three daughters, Roseanna, came along in 2017. This triggered the first inkling that maybe a life in full-time employment wasn’t where I wanted to be.
Two years later, my father, Bert (you may have met him delivering our eggs!) underwent treatment for cancer that stopped him in his tracks. He couldn’t work, leaving the entirety of the dairy work to mum and my sister.
With a busy calving season ahead, I decided it was time. I quit my comfy desk job, sent my wife, Stephanie, back to her social work career to pay the bills, and committed to helping out wherever I could on the farm, with an 18mth old Rose in tow and no long-term plan.
So, why eggs?
After a year of working on the farm, I knew I didn’t want to go back into the 9-5 workforce. Dad’s health was improving but he wasn’t ready to take on his full workload yet and we needed some extra income to make things work financially.
It was around the morning tea table after milking that my parents said the words “why don’t you get some chooks? You always loved the chooks when you were younger, why don’t you look at a small chook business?” Well…
Six months later we had decided on the Pastured farming model, bought 200 Isa Brown hens , a couple of old mobile chook trailers and were selling eggs to families throughout West Gippsland and into the heart of Melbourne.
from our family to yours
When you buy your produce from us, you know you’re supporting a true family farm. This is the sole income for our family of five, and we currently support one part-time employee to help with the everyday jobs while Stephanie is busy with our three young girls.
One of our biggest motivations for farming now is for the opportunities it gives our children to grow and learn in an agricultural environment. The responsibilities and respect for all living things that come with farming are simply irreplaceable and we hope to pass this on to our children and their children as it was to us.
Respect for the land
Our land is absolutely crucial to us, it feeds our animals and it feeds us. It’s only natural that we give back the very best.
Our chooks share the land with the dairy & beef cattle and they work in harmony to manage the land, fertilise it and regenerate it. All our animals are rotated around the paddocks to ensure no area is overgrazed and the land is given time to regenerate between cycles.
Our farm has well established windbreaks, but in our view, the more trees the better! Our vision is to surround the land with a diverse selection of trees & plants to improve the water retention of our soil provide more shelter for the animals as an added bonus. Watch this space for how you can help…
A hen-centric lifestyle
Right from the start, our focus has been on the hens, not the eggs. Our passion is the chooks, the eggs have always been just a nice result of properly caring for the hens. To us, eggs are not a commodity but a privilege that is abused by commercial farming practices.
Our hens all have purpose-built mobile housing that provides warmth in winter, cooling in summer and protection from our strong winds.
They are free to forage 24/7 on our open paddocks, protected by our pack of Maremma Livestock Guardian Dogs (all rescues!) and the base of their diet is a top-quality crushed grain mix that is free from any synthetic material or hidden nasties like meat meal.
We get asked frequently: “How long do you keep your hens for and what do you do with them afterwards?” This is a major point of difference for our farm compared to a commercial farm. We DO NOT allow our hens to go to slaughter. After 12-15 months on our farm Every. Single. Hen. finds their forever home in a backyard or on a hobby farm where they will be loved and provide eggs for years to come.
A face to food
Knowing who is eating our eggs has always been important to us. We could have taken a distribution deal at the start and had a white truck pick up our eggs once a week to be on sold under someone else’s brand. That would have been the easy way out!
It did not appeal to us one bit. We needed the connection with the people eating our eggs to make it all worthwhile. Why else would we strive to have the most healthy hens producing the tastiest eggs possible?
So we took a different approach. We started with home-delivery as our first and favoured sales avenue. This was right as COVID-19 was starting to hit Victoria and it was perfect timing to introduce a delivery service as many were locked down and unable to shop at the places they loved. To this day ~50% of our eggs are still sold direct to homes, and the rest go to local cafes, butchers and produce stores that we have built great relationships with!
OUR VISION FOR AFFORDABLE PRODUCE
Before we sold our first eggs, we visited many supermarkets and produce stores to find out what everyone else was selling their eggs for. We spoke to other farms and couldn’t believe some were getting up to $14 for a 700g dozen eggs.
This didn’t sit well with us, how could anyone afford that? If we were going to feed people, it had to be affordable. After running the numbers we decided we could price-match the big chain supermarkets with their commercially-farmed eggs because we have the benefit of shared farmland and resources. It has been amazing to prove what is possible when you work in community and strive for efficiency.
The impact of inflation
Raising our prices was not in our game plan. When we started The HomeGrown Farm, a key pillar was affordable food. We believe strongly that farming must be ethical but must also be affordable for the average family. We met the supermarkets at their commercial price and we have maintained that price for over 2 years, absorbing multiple cost increases.
At a time when finances are tight for so many, we desperately want to keep our eggs at this price, but with a 15% increase in grain costs, 25% increase for cartons and the huge jump in fuel prices over the last 6 months we are no longer a viable business at this price point.
We have made the very difficult decision to acknowledge that our costs are not going to go back down anytime soon, it’s not a wave we can ride out and, therefore, we need to raise our own prices.
Affordable food still means a great deal to us so our commitment to you is that we will constantly work on cost efficiencies without sacrificing our ethics.
As fresh as it gets
from paddock to plate
Our direct home-delivery service ensures you get the freshest produce every time, guaranteed. No warehouses here!