Last market in these holidays

It will be interesting to see how the Farmers' Market at Churchill Island goes this Saturday (January 30). I will be in Western Australia for my brother's 70th birthday - so Anne will be on the stall. We should have at least 150 dozen eggs for the market which will take our week's sales to around 600 dozen.

The market will be last of the weekly January markets on Churchill Island to cater for the insatiable tourist demand during the holidays - then we get back to 'normal' with a market on the island on the fourth Saturday and other markets on the second Saturday and third Sunday every month.

The first of the 'new' Pakenham Farmers' Markets will be on Saturday February 13 - and we hope it works although it's not looking good as the new operators, the Rotary Club of Paknham don't seem to have their act together and haven't been in touch with stallholders with promised details.
If the first one at the new venue is a fizzer, it will be a disaster and most stallholders (and customers) simply won't go back.

The first really hot day this summer!

The temperature here got to 43 degrees celcius yesterday and I spent quite a few hours going around putting bottles of ice in the chooks' water and spraying water everywhere in an effort to keep them cool.
It worked pretty well although we lost five hens through heat exhaustion.
I don't know why I should be amazed, but I always am at the different reactions henshave to summer heat. Some lay around basking in the sunshine - as though they are posing on the beach at San Tropez. Others perch in the trees and try to lose body heat by opening their wings and their beaks to pant away the unwanted heat. And then some huddle together - increasing the heat problem. That's how the five died yesterday.
If they had been on the slatted floor in one of the mobile sheds, there may have been enough airflow to keep them cool. But they chose to huddle on the ground under the sheds.
As the sheds are on skids, there was enough room for the air to flow freely around those on the outside of the 'group hug' but it obviously couldn't reach those in the middle which probably ended up suffering temperatures of over 50 degrees C.

New venue for Cardinia Ranges Farmers' Market

From February, the Cardinia Ranges Farmers' Market will be held outside the Pakenham Cultural Centre at the Lakeside housing devlopment, rather than the Pakenham Racecourse.
There have been some misgivings about the suitability of the venue but hopefully the move will revitalise the market which has been slowly dying for a couple of years.
It has been a good little market, with some loyal customers - but not enough of them. It's rather disappointing to spend five hours or so (plus travelling) on the second Saturday every month to end up taking a heap of produce back to the farm.
When it started, Cardinia Ranges Farmers' Market was magnificent but since then, many so-called Farmers' Markets have popped up and consumers are getting jaded.
The market in its new venue will be operated by Rotary and, as long as it is promoted well, patronage should improve. Hopefully the name will also change to the Pakenham Farmers' Market because of confusion when the Cardinia market is mentioned on the radio with no indication that it is in Pakenham. Another point of concern is that the organisers don't appear to be interested in accrediting the market with the Victorian Farmers' Markets Association.
If it turns into just another market where people sell anything they like even if they haven't grown it or made it themselves, we probably won't be involved for long.

Huge market at Churchill Island

We had massive day at the Churchill Island Farmers' Market on Satuday selling over 200 dozen eggs and quite a bit of our freshly dug garlic.
The sales included over 30 packs of pullets eggs in ten packs (decimal dozens) and 24 dozen Megga Eggs (950 grams). The Megga eggs always sell out first no matter how many we take - people just love really big eggs especially when they are double and triple yolkers.
Our sales for the week totalled just over 650 dozen, including our home deliveries as well as shop and restaurant deliveries.
Collecting, grading and packing that quantity is a bit tiring for just the two of us and we couldn't keep it up for long wthout putting some automated systems in place (such as a belt egg collection system and keeping the chooks locked up until they laid their eggs) but that would defeat our purpose in having a genuine free range farm.
We'll try to have a bit of a rest when the holiday season is over at the end of January - but things never seem to settle back down to the previous level once new customers taste our eggs. We know we will get a constant stream of enquiries from holiday customers who live in Melbourne wanting to know where they can buy our eggs - and the answer is ... they can't - unless they come down here!

Almost meeting demand

We almost met the demand for our eggs last week but with the increased numbers of tourists on Phillip Island over the past couple of days, there's not much chance of us having enough eggs to satisfy all the customers until the end of January.
It was extremely busy at the Churchill Island Farmers' Market on Sunday and we sold out of eggs at about 11am but kept going with our fresh garlic for a while.
Altogether, we sold 460 dozen eggs last week and we expect to sell 480 - 500 dozen this week through our combination of outlets, including restaurants, health food shops, other stores and Farmers' Markets. The temporary increase in population means that the underlying local demand for free range eggs is now something like 1200 - 1500 dozen a week.
As always happens, that demand will be met by shonky operators who stick 'free range' labels on their cartons and flog them to an unsuspecting public.
Our new flock of Isa Browns is helping us to increase egg numbers but even when they are in full production (assuming the other hens keep laying at their current rates)  our total output will be something like 600 dozen each week.
I've just finished digging the final crop of late Californian garlic so that should see us through most of this heavy demand period. I expect all the garlic will be sold before the end of January.

Peak tourist season

We are at the start of our tourist season with two markets this weekend. Churchill Island Farmers' Market was on Saturday and Inverloch Farmers' Market was Sunday.
Thankfully we had plenty of eggs but it was a bit of a juggle to meet our normal orders as well. From now on the restaurant trade and our shop orders build up - orders have already been doubled for next week!
The new flock of pullets has just started to lay so we expect them to be in full production in a week or so.
Unless we are hit with problems such as a couple of weeks of really hot weather, we should have enough production to meet most of the demand although we expect to be selling out of eggs at every market during January (hopefully not too early because it's a tad embarrassing to sell out before 10am!)
We won't be doing two markets each weekend as we wouldn't have a hope of having enough eggs to offer customers on Sunday if we'd been to a market the day before. This latest weekend was a one-off and it was just fortunate (or rather fantastic planning) that the chooks were able to cope.

Carbon Credit 'Offsets' a sham

It's looking increasingly unlikely that anything positive will emerge from the Copenhagen talkfest on climate change.
And to make things worse, a United Nations board has decided that soya, palm oil and other agrofuel plantations can now receive carbon credits through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The agrofuel industry, already boosted by EU and US targets, incentives and subsidies, can now pocket hundreds of millions of dollars in extra subsidies. Vast carbon dioxide emissions from coal power stations in Europe can now be officially ‘offset’ by companies paying for soya plantations in Brazil or palm oil plantations in Indonesia or Thailand, which in turn will cause more deforestation and other ecosystem destruction - and more climate change.


The CDM was set up under the Kyoto Protocol and allows Northern hemisphere countries to ‘offset’ greenhouse gas emissions by paying for projects in the South, instead of cutting their own emissions. There is clear evidence that most of the CDM carbon credits go towards polluting industries in the Southern hemisphere, and in future, more carbon credits will go towards monoculture plantations in the South – now including soya, palm oil and jatropha plantations for agrofuels. The new CDM rules for agrofuels state that plantations must be on ‘degraded and degrading land’. This definition is so wide that, for example, any land where vegetation is declining because of increased droughts and heat due to climate change would fall under it, also any land suffering from soil erosion or soil compaction. Yet industrial monocultures are the quickest way of degrading soils, destroying biodiversity and polluting and depleting water resources.
We will still be doing our bit on the farm to try and redress some of the problems created by our 'civilisation' but it's looking more pointless every day when decisions are made which allow polluting businesses to 'offset' their emissions rather than STOP polluting!
More details about action you can take at http://www.rainforest-rescue.org/

New flock is out exploring

The 300 fifteen week old Isa Brown pullets in our new flock are spending their days exploring their paddock. Here are some of them under a stand of eucalypts.
There are two mobile sheds in the paddock but many of the young hens prefer to roost in the trees rather than spend their nights in one of the sheds.
Hopefully, once they start laying eggs (in two or three weeks) they will get the message that the nest boxes in the sheds are wonderful things.
The pullets quickly realised that their Maremma, Abby, is a friend and she now has an air of self-importance because for three weeks she didn't have a flock to protect.

Paul Mercurio on the farm

Paul Mercurio, host of Channel 7's Mercurio's Menu came down to the farm during the week to video a segment on eggs for an upcoming show.
The crew spent a couple of hours on the farm filming Paul collecting eggs and then packing them in the grading room.The dogs and the chooks behaved well (and so did Mr Mercurio and the crew).
Once they had enough on tape they headed off up into the hills to take a shot of the Bass Valley and Westernport - basically to show the locality.
After finishing off our day's egg collecting, I headed off to Pakenham on a delivery run. On the way back home I delivered to one of our restaurant customers Caldermead Farm - and who should be there but Paul Mercurio and his crew.
Paul had taken over the kitchen and had been cooking away for a while.
It'll be interesting to see the show but I don't know when it will go to air.

We've started to eat this crop of garlic

We've started to eat this year's crop of garlic and we are very pleased with the quality. We eat heaps of garlic because of its flavour, it's especially delicious with eggs, roast beef or lamb, cooked with pasta and greens, in fresh tomato sauces, and with potatoes or beans.

We will keep at least four or five bulbs a week for us to eat on the farm, and about half of this harvest for planting next season. The rest, mostly the biggest bulbs, will be sold at farmers markets (starting next Saturday at Churchill Island) where the hardneck varieties are always popular.

Garlic or allium sativum, adapts to the local soil, and does well when it is replanted in the same space in the garden for several years. For best results, I'm told that it's good to plant garlic which originates in your region – so keeping seed from year to year is the way to go. The majority of the garlic we planted this year was bought-in so it will be interesting to see if there's much difference next year when we use our own cloves.
Did you know that China produces around 70% of the world's garlic and is driving many garlic producers out of business?
For at least 10,000 years, humans have enjoyed garlic. From ancient China, Egypt and India, through Biblical times and Greek and Roman cultures, down to the present, people have used garlic to treat a variety of illnesses including cancer, heart disease and leprosy, as well as infected wounds and dysentery.

Modern research shows that garlic is a powerful antibiotic, provides at least three beneficial effects for the heart, helps eliminate lead and other toxic heavy metals from the body, has anti-tumour properties, and said to be useful in treating leprosy and AIDS. It's our garlic's wonderful flavour, however, that keeps us growing and eating it.

You can grow garlic, too. Look for decent size bulbs at a local farmers market, hang it up until autumn and then plant it when you set out other bulbs like daffodils and tulips. In around six months you'll harvest your own and will have your own culinary delight.

Garlic almost ready for harvesting

Our first crop of garlic is just about ready to harvest and we will probably have our first sales at the Chuchill Island Farmers' Market next Saturday (November 28).

It takes a long time to grow and takes heaps of weeding but the end result looks pretty good. The latest burst of hot weather has set it up well and we won't be watering the crop anymore (at least not the main varieties). We may have to keep the water up to our late Californian variety to ensure the bulbs fill out properly - but everyone tells me to be carefull not to over-water as this could affect keeping qualities.

We should be selling our French, Australian white and Australan purple striped garlic right through to the end of January and then the plan is for the late Californian to be ready. (But the way it's growing I think the late Californian will be ready to harvest within three or four weeks.

Burn, Burn, Burn

On the farm we are getting ready for summer and what is usually seen as the fire season. I must say I find it rather pathetic that we now appear to have autumn, winter, spring and the fire season. Climate change may be upon us but most of our challanges come from brain dead people. I agree fully with the comments on the Friends of Bass Valley blogsite at http://bassbush.htmlplanet.com/cgi-bin/blog

On our property we have our three fire pumps ready and I'm equipping a couple of trailers for some rapid response around the farm.

The sad thing is that if we get a wildfire around here it will most likely be deliberately caused by: an arsonist from the Department of Sustainability and Environment (or Parks Vic) desperate for a 'controlled burn' to show that they are doing something; an arsonist from the CFA who gets a buzz from starting fires and then being called to put them out; an arsonist who just has no reason to be alive; dickheads on trail bikes riding through the bush or dumb mongrels flicking cigarette butts out of their car window.

It's much easier to live with the results of a natural disaster created by nature - lightning stike etc - but it something else to come to terms with a disaster caused by a deliberate act.
If Parks Victoria has any intention of conducting a burn in the Grantville Flora and Fauna Reserve, I suggest they talk to us first!! It it gets away on them they can expect a bit of trouble.

Food production or houses - why choose houses!

Australia's ability to produce enough of it's own food is coming under massive pressure - which is weird when you think about how efficient our rural sector has been over the years. The latest onslaught has been from the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Glen Stephens, who is urging State Governments to chop up more land for housing – and (here in Victoria anyway) that land is usually prime farmland which feeds Australia.

And the Federal Government is still doing nothing to check the impact on farmers of the flood of cheap frozen vegetables from China.

Quite apart from the health risks and the unfair competition from food which does not meet the same standards demanded by regulators here, the imports are threatening to drive many farmers out of the industry.

Huge tonnages of Chinese produce have been dumped in Australian supermarkets in the past year even though similar produce meeting higher standards is grown by Australian farmers.
It's no wonder farmers are giving up!

New flock of chooks arriving soon

We have a new flock of 300 Isa Brown point of lay pullets arriving at the end of this month so I'm busily selling off the last of our oldest flock of hens to people who want them for their backyards.
The last 100 will go on Sunday to a young guy who is setting up his own egg farm on his parents' property.
From then I'll be able to clean out the two mobile sheds, fix one of the skids which needs a bit of repair work and get them ready for the new girls.
I usually like to leave the sheds empty for a couple of month betwen flocks but we will need maximum production during the Christmas holidays when Phillip Island sinks under the weight of all the tourists.
We plan on a production level of around 600 dozen a week from mid December until the end of January - which won't leave time for much else!
So I'm getting as many farm inspections and audits done as soon as possible because it will be even more like a madhouse here than usual once the festive season hits us.

Conducting farm audits

I'm often asked what's involved in carrying out audits on farms or other regional businesses. There's a whole heap of questions tangled up there because it totally depends what the audit or inspection is for and who requires it to be undertaken.

I don't get involved in financial audits – my focus is on environmental audits, organic certification, food safety, compliance with the Egg Corp Assured program, accreditation for the Free Range Farmers Association and most recently, compliance inspections for the Victorian Farmers' Markets Association. I also organise and conduct flora and fauna surveys to provide species information for a variety of clients. (Don't know how much good it does but at least people will now what was here before the poor buggers went extinct). Unfortunately most people around here don't understand (or care) about biodiversity - it's all about chasing dollars.

The most demanding and time consuming audits I undertake are those environmental audits which require certification to ISO 14001. If the business is conducted on several sites, the audit could easily take days and possibly weeks, involving heaps of paperwork, soil sample analysis and checking through prior land use.

Thankfully most inspections/audits can be completed in a few hours and usually in under an hour if it's a simple compliance issue for a specific purpose – such as VFMA or FRFA accreditation.

I try to only work within Victoria because I have too much to do here to undertake many inter-state audits. But it's all interesting, seeing different approaches to how businesses are conducted.

Why are egg yolks yellow?

This is a question we are often asked and it's easily answered. The colour of the yolk reveals what the hen has been eating. The carotenoids in the hens' feed make the yolks yellow. They occur naturally in things like grass, vegetables and fruit. The greater the quantity of these substances in the hens' diet, the stronger the colour of the yolk. The hens ingest yellow pigments in corn or grass, but if they have no access to green fodder (such as hens in cages or sheds) additives are put in the feed to enhance yolk colour.

Some of those additives may trigger allergic reactions in some people and we think that all egg producers who use additives to boost yolk colour should have to clearly state that on their labels. There is currently a review of Australian food labelling laws under way, and we will be making a submission to suggest that if feed additives are used it should be mandatory for them to be declared on the label. If companies don't want to do that ....simple .... don't use additives.
Why we love yellow egg yolks

Our preference for golden yellow egg yolks is rooted in history. Pale yolks were always a sign of sick hens, worm infestation, or poor feed. Only healthy, well-nourished hens store carotenoids (preliminary forms of vitamin A) in their yolks. Bright golden-yellow yolks show that the hens are well supplied with essential carotenoids such as lutein or canthaxanthin. These protective substances are widely found in nature; they not only give the yolk its yellow colour, but also prevent the oxidation and destruction of fragile, vital substances such as vitamins in the egg.
Europeans are not unanimous where the colour of egg yolks is concerned. There is a real North-South divide where  northern Europeans prefer pale yellow yolks, but as we go further south the preference of consumers for golden-yellow yolks grows. On the shores of the Mediterranean, only bright, orange - red yolks stand a chance of reaching the plate.

Not all carotenoids find their way into the yolk. The well-known beta-carotene, for example, is completely converted to vitamin A and metabolized by the hen. Beta-carotene has no effect on yolk colour.

Canthaxanthin, another carotenoid, is different: Birds only convert about 30 per cent of it into vitamin A. The rest is stored in the egg yolk as a protective substance, causing the yolk to take on a golden-yellow hue. As long as this is ingested as part of the hen's naural feed it's fine. Allergy problems can be generated when manufactured and concentrated Canthaxanthin (or other colouring additives) are included in the diet.
There's more information about feed etc in our ebook on the Freeranger website products page www.freeranger.com.au

Our farm has a low Carbon Footprint

For some time we have been taking a look at the carbon footprint of the farm and doing some rough comparisions with other egg farms - both free range and cage farms.
Some in the industry try to claim that cage farms are more sustainable than free range or organic farms - and their bleating has been reinforced by a study presented a few years ago by Cranfield University in the UK.
It purported to show that organic egg production needs 14% more energy than non-organic and increases most environmental burdens by 10% to 33% (except pesticides), but the land area needed more than doubled. Comparing non-organic systems, it says that keeping 100% of the hens in cages incurs 15% less energy than 100% free range, with similar differences for most other burdens, although abiotic resource is 10% higher for caged birds and land use 25% less.
It seems to have been research which was designed to show that cage farms are environmentaly friendly!
What it clearly didn't take into account were things like the footprint created when the cage farm is initially established - the tonnes of concrete, steel, cooling equipment etc. etc. and the ongoing power costs associated with the massive sheds. (They don't have to worry much about cooling the sheds in the UK, but here right through summer the sheds have computer-operated climate control systems.)
At the Churchill Island Farmers' Market on Saturday we started promoting the low carbon footprint of our farm with leaflets like this:

Freeranger Eggs are renowned for being tasty, versatile and packed with goodness … and they are also green!

Freeranger Eggs are laid on an environmentally friendly farm by hens kept in small flocks. They lay their eggs in mobile roost houses and each flock is protected from predators by Maremma guard dogs. Choosing Freeranger Eggs helps you make a positive difference to the world – as well as the taste of the food you eat. Our strict food miles policy, use of solar energy and traditional farming techniques gives the farm a carbon footprint which is less than half that of most free range farms - and at no extra cost. Our carbon footprint is probably less than a third of the major cage farms.

More than half the 200 acre property is covered with remnant native vegetation and we encourage native grasses in our paddocks.

Make a difference – buy Freeranger Eggs

for more information see our website:
http://www.freeranger.com.au/
http://freerangereggs.blogspot.com/
http://bassbush.htmlplanet.com/

GM ban in Ireland - WHY NOT HERE?

The Irish Government will ban the cultivation of all GM crops and introduce a voluntary GM-free label for food - including meat, poultry, eggs, fish, crustaceans, and dairy produce made without the use of GM animal feed. The policy was adopted after some years of paying lip service to the problem.
See more at
http://www.thegreenpages.com.au/index.asp?page_id=1458

Genetically modified foods pose a series health risk for us all and it's sad to see Australian Governments allowing the major chemical companies to put our cropping areas at risk of contamination from GM crops.

Exporting Eggs?

In the UK, demand for free range eggs has become so great that distributors are looking overseas for more eggs – and one has even asked us for stocks! As Freeranger Eggs only produce around 450 dozen eggs each week and we have a food miles policy which limits our distribution to within one hour of the farm, export is not something on our agenda.

Apart from that, I don't fancy driving to the airport every day with a van full of eggs to send off to the Poms!
It's an indication that demand is outstripping supply – but another more sinister indication is that the RSPCA and Compassion In World Farming have agreed to relax their definitions. RSPCA have allowed an increase in the stocking density for hens for their 'Freedom Food' brand (which is a big money spinner for them in UK) and will now permit an outdoor density of 2000 hens per hectare – double the previous level. For some reason CIWF has given its stamp of approval.

This is just another con by the RSPCA, similar to here where RSPCA accreditation allows hens to be debeaked in its accredited barn and 'free range' flocks. Most consumers have no idea that the RSPCA allows and even encourages de-beaking even though the Model Code of Practice specifies that the practice should be a 'last resort'.

In 2008, over half of the shell egg market, by value, in the UK was from free-range eggs. This increase in consumer demand for higher welfare eggs has lead to fears from the industry that this cannot be fully met by UK producers. It is believed that if British producers cannot meet the demand for eggs, then lower welfare eggs from overseas wll be imported to meet the deficiency. (In the EU there is an even higher stocking density of 2,500 birds per hectare)

Consumers here will need to be vocal if any signs start to emerge that Australian standards for free range eggs are to be watered down. The current stocking density limit in the Model Code is 1500 birds per hectare but the Free Range Farmers Association standard is 750 birds per hectare.

New Draft Standard for egg producers

Tighter regulations on egg producers are being considered in an effort to improve food safety. The details are in a draft standard prepared by Food Standards Australia New Zealand and if it is adopted it will further restrict the sale of dirty eggs and will require all eggs sold in Australia to be individually marked to identify the farm on which each egg was laid.

At first glance it seems a bit bureaucratic, but, as a small-scale egg producer we welcome this initiative which should help to improve the system.

There are so many eggs sold on roadsides and an on market stalls which pose huge potential health problems for consumers because the backyard operators have no idea about food safety – the eggs are often dirty and have not been stored at the correct temperature. They generally have no food safety program in place, they use second hand packaging and local health inspectors usually turn a blind eye.

As long as these new standards apply to ALL egg producers, no matter how small they should go a long way towards bringing honesty back into the system.

Adding a farm identification mark to each egg is already required in Queensland and it doesn't present much of a problem - it's just another step in the process. But I do wonder how these standards will be enforced to ensure there is a level playing field for everyone who sells eggs. It's hardly fair if some of us do the right thing and then have to compete against others who cut corners by not having a food safety program, use secondhand cartons etc etc.

Here's the submission we have made to FSANZ:

As a small producer of eggs, we agree with the introduction of tighter standards designed to achieve better food safety outcomes for consumers. The current, largely voluntary requirements, have put consumers at risk.

We have been particularly concerned that backyard producers are not subjected to the same food safety and packing requirements as registered producers. There have been estimates that as many as two million dozen eggs each year are sold on roadsides, at markets and direct from properties by operators who have no food handling training, do not have a food safety program in place, are not inspected or audited and meet no labelling or packaging requirements.

The proposed change to tighten traceability by marking each individual egg will be a great step forward and we are pleased to note: 'FSANZ agrees that any regulatory obligations should apply to egg producers irrespective of the size of the operation. This is reflected in the draft Standard.'

Hopefully this means what it says and is applied to ALL egg producers. Presumably the definition of an egg producer is someone who sells eggs (regardless of quantity) and will not include people who keep hens in their backyards and give away any surplus eggs. Only if they sell eggs should there be an obligation for them to meet any new requirements. One on-going difficulty will almost certainly be the enforcement of any changes.

We also fully endorse the use of only new packaging and are pleased that in the proposal, 'retailers are required to comply with the packaging requirements in Standard 3.2.2 which prohibits the use of packaging material that is likely to cause contamination.' But does this mean that second hand cartons must not be used or is there an opportunity for producers to make individual decisions on what they think 'is likely to cause contamination' ? Unless the use of new packaging is mandatory this loophole will be widely exploited.

In our experience, the managers of many Farmers' Markets (at least in Victoria) try to ensure that egg sellers do have food safety programs in place and are registered with their local councils. The problems are more apparent with the many hundreds of general or 'trash and treasure' markets which often make no attempt to regulate egg sellers.