At My Chef, we’re constantly improving and educating ourselves on sustainability. We try to work with the best farming families in the Riverina region; those equally passionate about supporting local, saving the planet and producing delicious ingredients in the process. When we heard about Jacob Wolki of Wolki Farm’s regenerative practices, we knew we had a partnership made in heaven. He’s also taught us a tip or two to take back to the My Chef veggie patch!
Regenerative farming is the conservation and rehabilitation practices of farming. This can involve increasing biodiversity, topsoil restoration by way of crop rotation and composting, or improving the water cycle on the land. It’s farming in a way that won’t decrease or maintain the soil, but will actually improve it!
For Jacob, this starts with five pillars of decision making that guide who Wolki Farm is and attract their “tribe”. These pillars include “welfare advocacy”, “community-conscious” and “healing food” – which means happy animals, educated communities and nutritious produce.
Where some farms focus on breeding one animal or plant product, Wolki Farm plays host to a ‘Noah’s Ark’ of the farming world, further enhancing their biodiversity. From pigs to cows, bees to schnauzers (yes, you heard us right), they provide the Riverina region with an array of meat, all raised according to their welfare advocacy.
Take the double-aged dairy cows, for example. When a cow ‘retires’ (AKA hasn’t taken calf, so can’t be milked), Wolki brings them to the farm to be grass-fed for a further six months, before being dry-aged minimum of 30 days at Wolki Butchery. A far superior send off than in commercial farming, ending up as pet food or cheap burger meat.
As for the chickens, they receive egg-cellent sight-seeing tours around the farm by way of the ‘Eggmobile’. The portable coops are moved to fresh pastures 2-3 times a week, so the chickens always have access to fresh grass, and in turn, the ground gets the benefits of free fertiliser. It’s a win-win!
There are loads more ways Wolki prioritise animal welfare. You can taste the difference when your dinner comes from a happy animal.
With the My Chef kitchen just an hour's drive from Wolki Farm, we’re lucky enough to source pork and seasonal veggies from this passionate farming family. That means we know each piglet has been raised in the care of Jacob, his wife and two young boys. “Moving to fresh pastured every couple weeks to find new tucker and give the earth a rest, these pigs are doing what they were created to do.” Find it in our pulled pork main, also served as a 1kg family feed.
Photography: Wolki Farm
