007 retires

No not James Bond - Phil Westwood the Egg Corp Assured Auditor with the 007 prefix.
I've been part of the audit team set up by the Australian Egg Corporation since the inception of the National Egg Quality Assurance Program. But now I will spend more time on the farm and consulting on environmental issues.
The ECA program has evolved over the years and it now covers some aspects of environmental management as well as  food safety standards on farms. It also audits grading floors - whether they are part of a farm operation or a separate entity, grading and packing eggs from various suppliers.
The costs associated with being an auditor for the ECA program make it unviable for a small operator like me. There has been insufficient work to justify the expenses - which is presumably one of the reasons the Australian Egg Corporation is handing over auditing rights to a 'global auditing company'.
The program has been vital in trying to gain consumer confidence in the face of all the scandals about the lack of 'truth in labelling' . There have been so many examples both here and overseas where smart operators have substituted eggs so they could make a quick buck.
The ECA logo on a carton of eggs is one of the assurances consumers have to give them confidence about product traceability which guarantees that the eggs in the carton were produced by the method identified on the label.

The only real issues about 'truth in labelling' concern 'free range' eggs. No-one is going to pretend that they are selling cage eggs if they are really free range - but some producers want the financial benefit that comes with claiming that their eggs are 'free range' when they are from barn or even cage operations. From consumer research at Farmers' Markets, it's known that 100% of buyers of 'free range' eggs believe that the hens are not de-beaked or beak trimmed and that they are roaming on pasture all day. Unfortunately that is not the reality. Most 'free range' eggs are laid by de-beaked hens and many may only have 'access to' an outdoor area for part of the day - but they spend little if any time outside. At best, they comply with the legal requirements of the Model Code of Practice for the Welfare of Animals - Domestic Poultry, which is the only 'free range' test of Egg Corp Assured compliance for this aspect of the program. But at worst, they don't even meet the low standards of the Model Code and yet they are sold as 'free range' eggs.
To be sure that the hens really are allowed to range freely, buyers should always look for the logo of the Free Range Farmers Association, which conducts independent inspections of member farms every year to ensure compliace with strict standards.

'Chooks and Nature' feature in The Furrow

An article on Freeranger Eggs appears in the current issue of 'The Furrow', a widely circulated magazine for the farming community produced by John Deere. It publishes various editions around the world and says it is read by 15 million people.
The two page spread entitled 'Balancing chooks and nature' was written by Liz Harfull after she visited us last year.
It covers a lot of the reasons we got into egg production and a recognition of the environmental values of the property.
The only significant problem with the article (for anyone who knows where we are) is that it says our property 'overlooks Port Phillip Bay'. In fact we overlook Westernport!

Saying 'NO' is so hard

Demand from restaurants etc for free range eggs is showing no signs of slowing down. We are taking on another restaurant in Cowes on Phillip Island but this week we have declined two other requests to supply our eggs. One potental order from a restaurant in Melbourne (part of a major chain) for 150 - 200 dozen eggs each week would have taken half our weekly production.We also had to knock back a cooking school which is starting in Carlton because we simply don't deliver that far. They only wanted one or two boxes a week (30 dozen) but it was too far away.
It's very hard saying 'NO' but our food miles policy limits us to within one hour of the farm.

It's great that there is such an underlying demand for free range eggs and that consumers (professional and private) are increasingly aware that many so-called 'free range' eggs are produced on farms where the hens are de-beaked and have little or no direct access to pasture.
It's really only by looking for the logo of the Free Range Farmers Association on packs of eggs that consumers can be sure they are buying genuine free range eggs. Member farms are inspected annually to ensure that they comply with the strict standards of the Association - such as no de-beaked birds, stocking density requirements and a clear audit trail for the eggs produced and sold by the farm..
We are currently receiving three or four requests each month from restaurants in Melbourne and that probably has something to do with publicity such as the Mercurio's Menu TV show last month and our website which gets over 1000 hits each week. There will be a spot on Talk To The Animals this month, so the phone will keep ringing!

Excellent market at Churchill Island

We had an excellent Farmers' Market at Churchill Island on Good Friday. The weather was kind to us and enough people came along to make it a busy day.
Our garlic and chillies sold well, as did the eggs and there were heaps of new customers (which is expected during the holidays).
It's a pity that the market manager is not pushing for the market (and Inverloch which he also runs) to be accredited by the Victorian Farmers Markets Association. We would certainly be more comfortable if it was recognised as a genuine farmers' market - at present there are a number of stalls which do not meet the criteria for VFMA accreditation but that could be rectified with little effort (or revenue loss for the manager).

We will be trying out a new Farmers' Market at Red Hill on the Mornington Peninsula which is being held on the fourth Sunday every month.
And next Saturday will probably be our last Pakenham Farmers' Market unless there is a dramatic increase in the number of customers. There has been no improvement since the change from Pakenham Racecourse to behind the Cultural Centre. It will be a pity to stop going because we have supported the market for years  but it's a decision that has to be made. There are heaps of things that need to be done on the farm which are more productive than standing around for five or six hours to sell 20 or 30 dozen eggs.

We may not be here much longer if the arsonists have their way!

A 'controlled fuel reduction burn' is planned in the next week or so for the Grantville Flora and Fauna Reserve next to our property and we are not too happy about it. But of course there is nothing we can do because general public opinion demands that the Department of Sustainability and Environment conducts burns on native vegetation to make it 'safe'.

We have expressed our objection to the planned burn and I must say that we feel more threatened by the prospect of a deliberate burn being ignited by DSE staff and our local CFA than by a wildfire which may start naturally.

So many of these 'controlled' burns (which the proponents say are necessary to reduce the understorey load they see as a threat) get out of control because they are deliberately lit on inappropriate days when wind shifts are likely. Rarely is an assessment made of the actual threat to 'assets'.

The vegetation here is generally wet forest and it's going through a natural transition which will be set back by human interference in the form of a widespread burn. OK, it's reasonably dry at the moment, but putting a burn through now will not reduce the fire threat next year – it may in fact increase the danger for residents in the Adams Estate which is an old and inappropriate subdivision. They have been clamouring for a burn to 'protect assets' without any understanding of fire behaviour or fire ecology. This fire will kill koalas, bandicoots, possums and other wildlife. It's likely that immediately after the 'controlled burn' residents will have problems with snakes looking for a new home. Countless will be killed by panicky people wielding spades.

But at the end of it all, the fire threat will be the same next year – nothing will have changed except more native wildlife will have been killed and more habitat will have been modified for no purpose other than appeasing an insatiable demand for 'someone to do something' about the threat of wildfire.

The current Royal Commission into last year's fires will probably come up with nonsense about justifying the need for more burns – even though those are likely to increase fire danger by changing vegetation types from damp to dry.

Anyway, no-one will take any notice of us. But if this 'controlled burn' get out of hand and generates problems, DSE can expect a bit of trouble. Who is going to be out there finding burned animals? Who is going to euthanase those too badly burned to be rehabilitated? What happens next year if a wildfire goes through and this year's burn is seen as a useless exercise? There's not much point in trying to find somone to blame. And who cares?

New silo should help our efficiency

We've just installed a new silo (the one of the left of the picture).It holds 6 tonnes of chook food - the same as the older version which is due for some repair work on the top and on the cone. Once that's done it will be almost as good as new and we will probably use it for storing corn to add to the feed ration when there's not much green feed about. I'll set up an old grister (grain grinder) which has been sitting down the back of the shed for years. All that needs is for a belt pulley wheel to be attached so I can fit an electric motor. I really don't feel like hand grinding tonnes of corn!
It's something we have been thinking about for a while and it's one of those job which I have finally got around to doing.
Thw first delivery into the new silo should be tomorrow and I expect the old one to be empty by the middle of next so can start work on it. (Not easy to fix up a silo when it has a couple of tonnes of feed inside!)
The silo isn't exactly new - just new to us. It was advertised on eBay and I was the only bidder so it was just a matter of ringing the silo manufacturer and organising him to pick it up and deliver to its new home. We've had the concrete pad ready for a few years as we always intended to get a second silo.

Mercurio's Menu Channel 7

For those of you in Melbourne who watch television, a segment about the Freeranger Farm will feature in Mercurio's Menu at 5.30 pm - Channel 7 on Saturday March 20.
Paul Mercurio and his crew spent a couple of hours on the farm filming egg collecting and then packing them in the grading room.

They then went to Caldermeade Farm - which is one of the restaurants we supply for Paul to do some cooking.
And next month there will a piece about the farm on Talk to the Animals.

Sustainability Festival in Korumburra

The Sustainability Festival held at Coal Creek in Korumburra on Sunday was an interesting exercise. We spoke to quite a few people about sustainable farm practices as well as some lengthy discussions about Deep Ecology, Regenerative Agriculture, Brittle Landscapes and even riparan vegetation.
It's always great to have one-on-one discussion on these topics because there are so many misconceptions about 'sustainability'.
I'll always remember the views (expressed to me a few years ago) of a sandminer about the sustainability of his business. He genuinely believed that his business was sustainable because he would move to another site when the sand resource was finished! Unfortunately that's the view of most people in business, and probably the majority of the rest of the community.

Sales of eggs weren't great on Sunday. We sold a bit of our garlic but surprisingly not a single chillie ristra. Had a number of enquiries about 'what is a chillie ristra' and of course the answer can be seen on the left. It's a bunch of chillies strung together, hanging to dry. Ours are very hot and we have a great time adding them and our garlic to the beef and lamb also grown on the farm.
The Sustainability Festival was run for the first time by South Gippsland Shire Council and it worked OK as a first event, but they will need to attract more people if it is to work long term. We like to support this type of initiative but there have to be enough patrons to make the event 'sustainable' in terms of sales. We need to at least cover our costs to make it worth the effort.
Check out some of the info on the Friends of Bass Valley Bush website and blog at http://bassbush.htmlplanet.com/

Venus Bay Farmers' Market

We will be at Venus Bay Farmers' Market on Sunday for the first time. It's a special market being run because of the long weekend here in Victoria (Labour Day is Monday.)
Don't know how many eggs to take but I'm told it's been a pretty good market when run in the past.Venus Bay is about on the limit for us as far as distance is concerned - it's almost an hour from the farm and as a matter of policy that is our cut-off point.
Then next weekend we have two markets - Pakenham Farmers' Market at the Pakenham Cultural Centre for the first time. Hopefully there will be a bit of promotion and we will get a good crowd.
Then next Sunday we will be at a sustainability festival at Coal Creek Heritage Park in Korumburra. We expect that in between selling eggs and garlic, we will have time to talk about farm sustainability principles and things like Deep Ecology,  Brittle Landscapes and Regenerative Agriculture.

Lucky Rooster!!

We've just discovered a rooster in our latest flock of Isa Brown pullets. They are all in full lay now with a daily production rate of  97%.
I have no idea how this little devil managed to get through to this stage. He must have been slipped through when the chicks were sexed at day old - so he survived the hatchery process and wasn't identified during rearing.
He's the only rooster on the farm with 850 hens!!!
We have been hearing some strange, muffled noises in the early mornings for a few weeks, but I thought it was coming from a neighbours property.
The rooster seems to know he is not supposed  be here - he doesn't venture out on his own, prefering to stay in the middle of the flock surounded by hens. It seems he thinks we won't recognise him in the midst of all those hens.
I think he will have to go as he is starting to become aggressive, so if I find someone who wants an Isa Brown rooster- he's theirs.
Otherwise he'll fit nicely in the roasting pan.

Snake bite a bit of a worry

We had a flury of activity on the farm on Wednesday night when Anne was bitten on the leg by a Tiger snake (probably) at around 9.30pm. It was dark as she went through one of the gates so she didn't see what bit her but we know that a large tiger snake hangs around that area.
She went into the grading room and rang me (because I wasn't on the farm). It took me about 10 minutes to get there and when I saw the two puncture wounds, we put on a tight bandage, bundled her into her car, rang 000 and headed for Dandenong Hospital.  It would have taken too long for an ambulance to get here so I thought it would be far quicker to take her myself.
The ambulance phone operator rang ahead to make sure Dandenong Hospital had anti-venene on hand. At 120 - 130kmh it took almost an hour to get there and she was wheeled into the emergency room straight away.
After a couple of hours when everything seemed to be stable and the blood tests were looking good. I went back to the farm to check on the dogs etc as we had left everything in a bit of hurry. I also emailed a couple of people who I was supposed to be meeting later in the morning. Then back to the hospital at about 5am by which time they were just about ready to kick her out.
We arrived back home around 7am.
I must say the staff in the emergency department at Dandenong were terrific!!

Kangaroo Apple for shade and protection

Kangaroo Apples are among the plants we are encouraging in the range areas for our hens. They grow quickly and can provide shade and protection – as well as a food source for the birds.


The green fruits gradually turn orange and then red when ripe and the hens love them.

Hopefully by next summer all our paddocks will have sizeable stands of these shrubs which grow to about 3 metres tall and spread about 4 metres.

The fruits should also help to keep yolk colour looking good during dry  summers.

As you can see, a Kangaroo Apple covers quite an area and it only takes a few months to give the birds protection. And one of the great things is that when the hens eat the fruits, they pass the seeds out in their manure and hundreds of new plants pop up  - how's that for sustainability!

Purslane - better than colouring additives

We have been doing everything we can to try to maintain yolk colour in our eggs – everything that is short of putting colouring additives in the chook food.


It's always difficult at this time of year when everything is so dry and there is little green in the paddocks.

We are feeding as much green leafy stuff as we can from the veggie garden and encouraging purslane in the pasture.

The plant purslane is regarded by most people as a weed but it is a rich source of omega-3 fatty acids, which everyone seems to want in their diet these days. Some reports say that purslane is one of the most abundant vegetable sources of omega-3 fatty acids. Fatty acids such as linoleic acid and palmitic acid have also been identified in purslane seeds.

Purslane is a rich source of vitamins, with vitamins A, B, C, and E contained within the plant. Purslane is high in carotenoid content, including Beta-Carotene. Beta Carotene is one of the natural substances which helps to generate deep coloured yolks. Calcium, magnesium, potassium, folate, and lithium are also found in the plant.

For all those reasons we are trying to grow as much purslane as we can because we reckon it's a much better bet than putting colouring additives in the feed – which is the choice made by virtually all other egg producers. Many of the colouring additives used by egg producers are synthetic but even the one's processed from things like capsicum and marigold can have adverse effects on people with allergies.We sometimes hear people saying that they are allergic to eggs - well it's probably not the eggs they are allergic to it's more likely the additives put in the chook food for cosmetic reasons.

Prom Country Farmers' Market

Freeranger Eggs will be at the Prom Country Farmers' Market in Foster for the first time this Saturday. The usual egg seller there has advised that she cannot attend and as we have plenty of eggs, we are happy to fill in.
The weeks immediately following the January holidays nearly always see us with a surplus of eggs as we have geared up production to try to cope with the demand from tourists - but once they have gone home we still have that high level of daily production.
We are selling off a flock to people who want hens for their backyards but it takes a few weeks to get back down to the numbers needed to match demand.
We will be offering eggs on trays as well as cartons - and of course we will have our garlic.

First Pakenham Rotary Farmers' Market went well

Well the first Farmers' Market run by Pakenham Rotary Club went pretty well despite a change to the venue which caused confusion for customers.
As a first effort it was encouraging and we will stick with it to see how things progress. Patronage will need to at least double for it to be considered successful.
One of the big poblems it faces (and the reason for the decline of the market when it was previously held at Pakenham Racecourse) is the sheer number of so-called farmers' markets which have been springing up everywhere.
It if it is a genuine farmers' market with only farm-based stallholders and products it is likely to attract a  loyal number of customers looking for quality food. But if it's just another market selling anything and everything there will be nothing to set it apart.
Rotary has some tight guidelines for the market which make it look promising and they appear to be making an attempt to get it rolling as a genuine farmers' market - let's hope they go for accreditation with the Victorian Farmers' Markets Association.

First Pakenham Farmers' Market at new venue

All stallholders have their fingers crossed that the Pakenham Farmers' Market will work on Saturday at it's new temporary venue - the Pakenham Football Club ground on the highway.
Apparently there was an objection from a neighbour to the proposed venue, behind the Cardinia Cultural Centre, and until that is sorted out the maket had to look for a new temporary home.
Most of the stallholders were not convinced that the Cultural Centre site was a good idea anyway and it has been a toss up to decide whether to stick with the market (which has been slowly dying at the Pakenham Racecourse for two years or so) or pull the plug and find a more productive market.
We will stick with it for a bit longer but patronage needs to improve for it to be viable. The Rotary Cub of Pakenham has taken over running the market, but there has been a distinct lack of communication between Rotary and stallholders and there appears to have been very little promotion of the new venue. The danger is that no-one will know the market is on and if there are even less customers than normal, many stallholders are unlikely to return.

Eggs healthier from hens on pasture

Here's a chart prepared by the US magazine, Mother Earth News. It was drawn up to illustrate some of the essential differences in nutritional qualities between eggs from hens raised on pasture and those from hens in cages.
Full details are at
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/2007-10-01/Tests-Reveal-Healthier-Eggs.aspx

Why does yolk colour vary?

It's that time of year again when people start to complain that yolks are pale instead of the usual vibrant deep yellow or almost orange.
The reason of course is the lack of green feed and the carotene it contains to add the colouring intensity. On all cage egg farms and most 'free range' egg farms, the hens are fed a diet containing colouring additives to keep yolk colour consistent throughout the year.
Here, at Freeranger Eggs, we use no colouring additives and consequently yolk colour varies with the seasons. We feed out some lucerne and use greens from the veggie garden when the pasture has died off, but it's obviously not enough. The eggs taste the same and have the same nutritional value - they are just pale when compared with those laid at times of the year when there is plenty of green feed about.
Those buyers who want consistent yolk colours and who have no problems with eating chemical-laden food should trot along to the supermarket or buy from other producers who use coluring additives as a matter of course.

How to grow garlic

We are getting heaps of enquiries from customers about how to grow garlic - so here's some basic info that works for us.
A garlic bulb is made up of many individual cloves (maybe as many as 15 or 20) and the garlic plants are grown from the individual cloves.


Garlic needs a garden site that gets plenty of sun and seems to grow best in light, sandy soils. They need plenty of manure dug into the soil before planting and they should be well watered in the early stages. But don't waterlog the soil because the plants will rot. Each clove should be planted upright, about 2.5 cm under the surface and about 10 cm apart, in rows at least 45 cm apart.

It has been traditional to plant garlic on the shortest day of the year but this year we will start planting towards the end of February and keep going into April.

Garlic is plant friendly and grows well in a flower and vegetable garden. It's great co-planting with many others and it does seem to help with pest control.

It will take six months for the garlic to mature and you will need to keep weeds under control to maximise your crop. We use no chemicals so hand weeding is the way to go.

Harvesting the crop

As your garlic matures, the leaves brown-off then fall over. This is the indication that it's time to harvest the crop. If you harvest too early the cloves will be small, too late and the bulb will split.

After picking, hang your garlic up to dry then gently brush off any dirt. Then enjoy the delicious results of growing your own garlic in your own garden.

A break from the farm

I've just had a couple of days away from the farm to help my brother Dave celebrate his 70th birthday in Albany, Western Australia. I headed over there on Thursday night and was back early Sunday morning - so Anne had to do the Churchill Island Farmers' Market, and son Bryan helped collect eggs and made sure that the chooks had enough food and water while I was away.
It was an excellent trip - a surprise birthday dinner at the Albany Sailing Club organised by Dave and Sue's daughter, Jennifer. It was great to see the stunned look on Dave's face when he walked in and saw us all there. Great job Jenni.
We had to stay out of Albany on the Friday in case we bumped into Dave in the town, so we went to Denmark which is a tremendous little place just a few kilometres along the coast.
But apart from the birthday dinner, the highlight of the trip was discovering a distillery. The Great Southern Distilling Company in Albany which makes single malt whiskies. It's very much a boutique business (much like our eggs) as usually there are only a few hundred bottles of each batch. I bought bottle 242 of the 61% proof M23 Limeburners single malt. What a drop!!
Have a look at http://www.distillery.com.au/whisky.aspx