Freshness and flavour from the farmgate by Richard Cornish

FROM EARTH freshness and flavour from the farmgate

“It just tastes better,” says Sophie O’Neill from Torello Farm. “Seriously, local produce tastes better. It gets picked that morning, can be on the shelf by lunchtime and in your kitchen for dinner that night. Fresh local food tastes better, and if that is the only reason you buy it, that is brilliant.” Sophie and her husband Mark Brancatisano, along with his brothers and their wives, bought the 11.5ha farm at Moat’s Corner on the corner of White Hill Rd and Nepean Highway, Dromana, back in 2016. The site had been a market garden for decades, with two big dams and swathes of free-standing sandy loam perfect for growing vegetables. The families worked together, planting seedlings and renovating the run-down buildings to open a farmgate to sell their produce.

Six years on and Torello Farm is now a successful hub of local farming attracting a workforce of young farmers and a small team of chefs who value add to the produce. In total, Torello Farm employs 25 people, making it an important local business. From their farm at nearby Tuerong comes rare breed Dorset Downs sheep for lamb and Scottish breed Belted Galloway cattle for beef. The kitchen team turn the ‘ugly’ veg and lesser-loved cuts of meat into ready-to-eat meals. “We’re a no-waste business,” says Sophie. The rest of the vegetable waste is composted to make fertiliser for vegetable beds. Both Sophie and Mark have been involved in the direct-to-customer food business for decades. They were instrumental in founding Jindi Pig, a butchery in Gippsland that specialised in rare breed animals. Sophie was also heavily involved in the Victorian Farmers’ Market Association in its formative years.

Torello Farm is not the only local producer selling direct to the public. They work closely with Peninsula Fresh Organics, who have recently purchased more land near their farm in Baxter to help grow more veg for their market stalls and farmgate. Another farmgate is Hawkes Farm, a family business growing seasonal veg in the sandy soil at Boneo. Other great local producers include Peninsula Pure Honey, renowned for their raw honey; Sunny Ridge strawberries at Main Ridge; and Boatshed Cheese in Dromana. Then there are the markets at Emu Plains in Balnarring, the Mount Eliza Farmers’ Market and the Mornington Wednesday Market. Add to this the retailers, such as Red Hill Cellar and Pantry, who go out their way to stock local produce.

Sophie continues on the reasons for eating locally. “You cut down on food miles,” she says. “Zucchinis from Queensland could travel 2500km. Local produce travels a few kilometres at most.” Sophie says that eating locally means eating with the seasons when fruit and veg are naturally ripe and full of nutrients. “That also means having to understand that we have brilliant tomatoes from summer to autumn, but after that we can’t grow them down here. You might want beans but they are a summer crop. Try the broad beans in spring. We have good soils and great rainfall on the Peninsula. When you buy local you help preserve the rural amenity that makes the Mornington Peninsula so beautiful.”