The Producers, a Food Podcast.

How would you go farming for a year to end up with 200 grams of product? That’s life - in a good year! - for saffron farmer Gamila MacRury. As well as saffron, Gamila grows olives in Victoria’s High Country. She’s always been connected to the land - and especially this part of north-eastern Victoria - but Gamila trained as an engineer and worked in Melbourne before buying a 12-acre block. She’s st...

With farming roots that go back many generations Greg Cromwell (Cromwell Farms) is carrying on the tradition in the Byron Bay Hinterland with wife and daughters where they are using regenerative practises to pasture-raise rare heritage breeds of animals. https://cromwellfarms.com Follow The Producers on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/producerspodcast/ Host Dani Valent  https://www.instagram.c...

Rowan Little is the Chief Innovation Officer at Montague, a family-owned fruit growing company headquartered in Victoria and now into its third generation. Montague started with an apple orchard in the 1950s and has more recently expanded into stone fruit. Today, the company tends five million trees spread across south-eastern Australia with the focus squarely on delighting consumers with wonderfu...

Duck Foot Farm owned by Justin Hartley is the ultimate example of small-scale farming that relies on land share arrangements between young farmers and landowners. It proves that small scale farming has a big role to play in the future food system and ultimately, the health of people too. https://www.duckfootfarm.com Follow The Producers on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/producerspodcast/ Host...

Is there anything better than gelato? Lisa Valmormida and her brother Jamie come from an entrepreneurial food-loving Italian family, so when Lisa identified a gap in the Australian market for high quality gelato, it set them on the pathway to Pidapipo. Ten years later, there are three popular Melbourne stores and a new Laboratorio making small batch and bespoke flavours. Pidapipo is one of the cit...

It might be hot downunder, but Christmas pudding is still a key feature for so many when the festive season arrives. There are few better than Pud For All Seasons, owned by Karen Kelly who started it all with her grandmother’s secret recipe 22 years ago. https://www.pudforallseasons.com.au Follow The Producers on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/producerspodcast/ Host Dani Valent  https://www.i...

Lucy Mackenzie and her husband Herb were running a drought-affected cattle farm with cashflow issues when they decided to branch out into free-range geese. It’s been hard. It’s been huge. They moved the whole operation from northern New South Wales to southern Victoria on the eve of the pandemic, reestablishing both farm and family. Along the way U Goose has pleased discerning poultry purveyors, w...

Chooks At The Rooke is owned by Xavier Prime and Kimberley Burridge. Along with a small team, they produce Premium Pastured Eggs centred around Animal Welfare and Sustainable Farming Practises. But even more interestingly, they’re started rearing Cockerels that would not have otherwise had the full rich lives they’re now experiencing. https://chooksattherooke.com Follow The Producers on Instagram...

Yarrie Bangura is the founder and owner of Aunty’s Ginger Tonic. Her delicious beverage is a vehicle for her entrepreneurial ambitions and a tribute to something she grew up making and enjoying as a child in Sierra Leone. After the good times turned to hard times, Yarrie ended up coming to Australia as a 12-year-old refugee. She sees her business as a way of showcasing remembered joys of her birth...

Byron Fermentary is the creation of Katerina Lazareva, a trained Chef living, farming and making in Byron Bay, Australia. Byron Fermentary is the manifestation of her experience and ancestral traditions in a range of unique fermented products made from seasonal organic produce. https://byronfermentary.com.au Follow The Producers on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/producerspodcast/ Host Dani Va...

It’s hard to get your head around picking and packing half a million dollars worth of produce in a single day. But for the six weeks that Kensington Pride mangoes are in season, that’s exactly what happens on Matt Palise’s farm in the Northern Territory. Red Rich Fruits is a family farming business, with Matt part of the third generation. The family started in Victoria’s Yarra Valley but now farms...

He may be renowned as one of Australia’s best chefs, but Giovanni Pilu (Pilu Bottarga di Muggine) is making a name for himself by producing Bottarga – a key ingredient of the food from his homeland Sardinia. The story of how it all started, is quite extraordinary. https://pilu.com.au/product/pilu-bottarga-di-muggine/ Follow The Producers on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/producerspodcast/ Hos...

Ian Fullerton is a second generation pineapple farmer on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. Growing 1900 tonnes of pineapples a year is more than a business, it’s almost a calling. Unflappable and stoic, Ian has opinions on employment policy, farming tech and the economics of agriculture. But in the end, there’s one thing that makes it all worth it: juicy fresh pineapples grown with integrity and pride....

Simon Schulz runs Schulz Organic Dairy, a family company with 50 years of history across three generations. Based in pretty Timboon west of Melbourne, Simon produces organic milk, yoghurt, cream and quark from a single herd of Friesian and Jersey cows. Focused on the impact he can have by putting climate positive operations at the heart of his ambitions, every creamy caffe latte, every dollop of y...

After making a great connection with a local hydroponic farmer, former sparky John Gunn fostered a real interest in this intensive kind of farming. When the opportunity came to take over the farm at Cooroibah Greens, he jumped in with both feet. https://www.cooroibahgreens.com/ Follow The Producers on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/producerspodcast/ Host Dani Valent  https://www.instagram.com...

This the seventh and final episode of The Producers in Launceston, a special podcast series celebrating the food, wine and people of this very special part of Tasmania.  Mr Brown and Towns is an urban mushroom farm in the city of Launceston. Best mates Michael Townsend and Fergus Brown grow exotic mushrooms in an old abattoir that’s been given new life as a hub for small businesses and startups. M...

This the sixth episode of The Producers in Launceston, a special podcast series celebrating the food, wine and people of this very special part of Tasmania. Anthony Ashe and his wife Paula run pastured chickens for their eggs at Rosella Roost in Rosevale, 25km west of Launceston. New to farming, they’ve plunged in, using their expertise in other areas of science and agriculture to get things rolli...

This the fifth episode of The Producers in Launceston, a special podcast series celebrating the food, wine and people of this special part of Tasmania. Ian White is the cellar door manager at Clover Hill, a sparkling wine producer 50km northeast of Launceston in the Pipers River wine region. He talks about dismantling the elitism of the Champagne world with sparklingly inclusive experiences and ex...

This is the fourth episode of The Producers in Launceston, a special series celebrating the producers and people of northern Tasmania, in partnership with AgriCULTURED.  Liz and Rick Mahnken grow Angus beef on Summerlea Farm in north Lilydale, 35km north of Launceston. Their children are the 7th generation of Mahnkens on this farm. After a tragic start to their working life here, Liz and Rick are...

We continue our special series The Producers in Launceston. Hillwood Berries is a family-run berry farm 25km north of Launceston in the heart of the Tamar Valley. Launched in 2010 off the back of three generations of farming experience in the region, this hilly farm has grown from a two-hectare strawberry patch to more than 40 hectares of strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries. Si...

For the second episode of The Producers in Launceston, we chat to Massimo Mele, a local chef and restaurateur who has made it a mission to nurture, highlight and champion local farmers and the produce they grow, make and coax into being. We talk about his transformation from a chef who ticked items off an order sheet for next-day delivery to a collaborator who plans menus months in advance alongsi...

The Producers in Launceston is a special series celebrating the farmers and produce of northern Tasmania.  Our first episode is with pig farmers Kim and Daniel Croker, who live and work on idyllic Fork It Farm in northern Tasmania. Their rare-breed Berkshire porkers forage, socialise and wallow their way around a small, pretty farm half an hour from Launceston. Their pork is incredibly tasty, rich...

The Reids, have been farming in Mimosa for over one hundred years. Six generations of sheep farmers that have perfected sustainable and low stress methods of farming. Lamb man Dan Reid (Mimosa Valley Lamb) and his family, farm in the heart of the Riverina in Southern NSW and supply Sydney with some of the best quality lamb in the country. https://www.mimosavalleylamb.com.au Follow The Producers on...

Wiradjuri man Zane McMillan is the co-CEO of Uncle Charlie's Tastes of Country, an Aboriginal-owned family company that makes popcorn seasoned with Indigenous flavours. Uncle Charlie's is a new company but it’s anchored in more than 60,000 years of Aboriginal connection to the land and has broad ambitions beyond offering a tasty commercial snack. It’s as much about storytelling, connection and und...

Shima Wasabi is in northern Tasmania, and shares its latitude with southern Japan. Tasmania’s cool climate is the ideal year-round environment in which to grow this rare plant to create genuine wasabi products and for Esme Atkinson, working with this amazing plant has changed her life. https://shimawasabi.com.au Follow The Producers on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/producerspodcast/ Host Ant...