Hands up if you developed a new-found love (or obsession, no judgement to the plant mammas and pappas out there) of plants over Covid lockdowns. We feel you. Just like many households, we turned to the garden as a new hobby and way to get outside. Over the months, our passion project grew to become a fully-fledged farm garden; one that now supplies herbs and veggies for our Farm Door meal range!
Even our children, Freddie and Alice are involved in the My Chef farm garden. Together we plant, water, weed, pick and wash herbs such as rosemary, thyme, oregano, sage, mint, parsley, basil, as well as leafy greens like silverbeet and chard. We’re even preparing beds for rhubarb to feature in our dessert range! If you’ve tried our chilled range like the Harissa Chicken with Spinach Rice, or the kids’ range including the ever-popular Kids Lasagne, then you’ll have tasted our fresh herbs for yourself. Because we don’t use any additives or added flavours or colourings in any of our meals, almost all our recipes are flavoured with our farm herbs of some variety!
Sustainability is a big focus for us. We take the My Chef food scraps back out to the farm as compost to boost soil health and work hard to source as much produce as possible from local farms. It’s all part of our effort to reduce food waste and carbon emissions associated with the transportation of foods. With the My Chef farm just a 10-minute drive from the kitchen, when we realised the level at which we were growing, we realised it was the perfect opportunity to utilise home-grown produce and reduce food miles.
Though we can’t promise a mere 10-minute journey for all of our ingredients, we’re proud to say many of our suppliers are within a 30-minute radius of our home in the Riverina Food Bowl.
If you’re one of the many parents who struggle to get their kids eating their 5-a-day, we’re going to let you in on a little secret…
“There’s no better way to get kids excited about fruit and veg than to have them growing it themselves.”
Zoe grew up on a working farm and her farm-to-table ethos has been pivotal to our company’s success; it’s something we’re keen to pass on to the next generation. As a family we plant seeds, dig soil, water, watch the seedlings grow and harvest crops together. Alice loves pulling carrots from the soil — especially the ‘wiggly ones’ that aren’t your average supermarket shape. It’s an opportunity to educate on what real, farm-fresh produce looks like, and that even if it’s oddly shaped, it still tastes delicious. We think home-grown tastes better than anything you could find on supermarket shelves!
As well as the farm garden, the education continues to the compost bin. Freddie loves ripping up our eco-packaging and disposing of carrot tops — not to mention checking in with the worms living inside the bin.
There’s an unbeatable satisfaction that comes from cooking up home-grown ingredients. Luckily for us, we get that satisfaction 10x over knowing that it’s not only us and the kids that are eating them, but your families too.
From our family to yours, enjoy!
If you’ve read this and would like to be part of the My Chef farm garden, email hello@mychefcuisine.com.au.d6nu7ydmok-xoy4w0yg73pw.p.temp-site.link. The help of volunteers allows us to grow even more produce onsite and keep our carbon emissions as low as possible. We’d love to hear from you!
