Our food boxes showcase the greatest local Victorian produce, and the greatest local Victorian producers!

Back Alley Bakes

Back Alley Bakes is a micro-bakery based in Preston. Their approach is simple, they provide fresh, hand-crafted bread to the community via subscriptions and delivery to Melbourne’s inner northern suburbs. They use freshly milled flour sourced from Rock, Paper, Flour and always use local, fresh ingredients to ensure delicious healthy bread!

Dalhousie Farm Eggs

Dalhousie Farm is located in Willowmavin, which is between Kilmore and Lansfield, in central Victoria. Dalhousie Farm is a mixed regenerative farm, using permaculture and holistic grazing management techniques.

The Dalhousie Farm pastured eggs are chemical-free and are laid by very happy hens that have been raised outdoors. After two years of laying eggs, each hen is rehomed locally to ensure they have a good work-life balance.

Wattlegully Produce

Wattlegully Produce is a small, chemical-free, flower and vegetable farm located in Upper Plenty, just 40 minutes from Melbourne’s North. The farm is tended by a first-generation young farmer, using practices that are good for the land, the water, and the community that surrounds it.

The Little Red Apple

The Little Red Apple was founded in 1993 by Simon and Vicki and is a family-run fruit and vegetable store located on the Midland Highway at Barkers Creek (halfway between Castlemaine and Harcourt, Victoria).

This little shop houses local fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as a diverse range of locally produced jams, chutneys, honey, and herbs…and it operates seven days a week! They are also the owners of the award-winning Harcourt Apple Juice (which is produced on-site!)

You can purchase their products via the Melbourne Food Hub or direct from their shop!

Peninsula Fresh Organics

Peninsula Fresh Organics is a certified Organic Market Garden located in Baxter, Mornington Peninsula.

They grow broccoli, cauliflower, cabbages, brussels sprouts, carrots, radish, Asian greens, leeks, lettuce, and much more, including heirloom varieties!

You can find their produce direct from their Independent on-farm store, via their website, or through the Melbourne Food Hub veggie boxes.

Schulz Organic Dairy

Schulz Organic Dairy is an innovative family-run business, proudly farming chemical-free since 1972.  The farm is located South West of Victoria, about 20 minutes from the infamous 12 Apostles. Striving to keep their products “simple, pure and delicious”, Schulz Organic Dairy process in small batches using great attention to detail, and add nothing but natural ingredients. Their philosophy is simple: Happy cows produce delicious milk.

Holy Crumpets

Holy Crumpets provides top-notch, handmade sourdough crumpets which are baked daily. Their crumpets are made from sourdough starters, flour, water, good bacteria, and wild yeasts, providing higher nutritional content, flavour, and texture!

Kingfisher Citrus

Kingfisher Citrus is a proud family-run farm, which was founded in 1938 in North-West Victoria. It’s currently being tended by fourth-generation farmers near The Murray River and more recently in Nambrok, Gippsland. They grow avocados and cold-tolerant citrus fruits such as blood oranges, lemons, oranges, grapefruit, pomelos, tangelos, mandarins- they also make a delicious strawberry balsamic vinegar, preserves, and much more. “Farming is a passion and we pride ourselves on producing quality, great-tasting produce that is picked at maturity, is full of juice, and is pesticide, fungicide, and wax free.”

Cafresco Organics

Cafresco Organics is a certified Organic mixed crop farm in Koo Wee Rup, Victoria. Founded in 1975, Cafresco Organics now produces over 20 different types of organic vegetables with the main ones being asparagus, onions, beans, corn, tomatoes, capsicum, eggplant, broccoli, artichokes, pumpkins and cauliflower. Cafresco Organics is also a part of the Cardinia Food Movement- a community food network in the Cardina region.

The Melbourne Food Hub Farm

The Melbourne Food Hub (MFH) Farm is an urban farm, located at Melbourne Innovation Centre in Alphington, Melbourne. MFH’s head farmer Clare uses regenerative farming techniques, which engages biodiversity and focuses heavily on soil health. The Melbourne Food Hub Farm is an initiative of Sustain-The Australian Food Network and is a direct result of Clare’s hard work.

Days Walk Farm

Days Walk Farm is a certified organic farm, located in the Keilor Valley just outside of Melbourne’s CBD, which makes it a Suburban farm. Days Walk Farm provides seasonal veggies to restaurants, Coburg Farmers Market, and us of course. 🙂 Their selection ranges from carrots and beetroots to obscure and heritage varieties all while using regenerative farming techniques and practices.

Thriving Foods Farm

Thriving Foods Farm is an organic, permaculture, market garden located in the infamous Cardina- Koo Wee Rup Region, Victoria. They are family-run and grow delicious seasonal vegetables and happy eggs. Their produce includes beetroot, cauliflower, cucumber, eggplant, broccoli, kale, leeks, lettuce (cos, green and red frilly), onions, parsley, pumpkins, radishes, silverbeet, spring onions, tomatoes, and zucchini. You can find their produce via the MFH food boxes and at local farmers’ markets, or you can collect produce directly from their farm gate!

Remis Patch

Remis Patch is an organic, artisan market garden, located at Dalhousie Farm in Willowmavin, Victoria. Remis Patch is run by Remi Durand and his small, dedicated team. He draws inspiration from bio-intensive farming systems, which have been used by Market Gardeners in Paris and London since the 19th Century. Bio-intensive farming systems consist of a lot of compost (focusing on nutrient dense soils), weeding and harvesting by hand and by planting in tight spaces to produce as much food as possible.

Baw Baw Organics

Baw Baw Organics is a not-for-profit group based in Warragul that sources organic produce for the community in the Baw Baw area of West Gippsland, Victoria. Baw Baw Organics is passionate about accessible food and believes that a happy, healthy community is one where the local food economy is thriving with high-quality food being available to all.

Stones Throw Olive Oil

Stones Throw is a boutique family-operated farm from South Gippsland’s Tarwin Valley producing high-grade, deep character and chemical-free extra virgin olive oils.

 

Cooking with Koji

Yoko makes organic miso every year with her family in Japan, and this lifework continued even after she moved to Australia.

She started Cooking with Koji to share the knowledge and benefits from Japanese fermentation and healthy cooking through running workshops and making yummy Japanese ferments like Miso.

Lard Ass Butter

Lard Ass creates delicious cultured butter that is full of flavour, texture, and high-quality ingredients. Their batches are made on a small scale using single batch churned cream with a starter long enough to bring out flavour, then it’s hand-kneaded and packaged by hand. The butter is produced from grass-fed cows and every step of the process is made with love and care.

Sporadical City Mushrooms

Sporadical City Mushrooms is a small urban Mushroom Farm located in Alphington, Melbourne. From small beginnings in a repurposed carport in Carlton in 2018, Sporadical City Mushrooms takes great pleasure supplying local restaurants and the community with exceptionally fresh mushrooms grown using organic methods.

The Mushroomery

The Mushroomery is a little urban mushroom farm located in the inner Melbourne city suburb of Alphington. The Mushroomery aims to localise the community food system and spread more understanding within the urban bubble on where food comes from and how it is grown.

The Mushroomery hopes to bring unique varieties of mushrooms to the local community and restaurants.

You can also purchase  “Grow Your Own” Kits, and Mushroom Mulch for the garden- you can find these goodies at your local farmers market (info on The Mushroomery’s website), by subscribing to weekly mushrooms via the Melbourne Food Hub food boxes or by ordering and collecting directly from The Mushroomery’s Alphington farm.

The Fermentary

The Fermentary deal only in small-batches, naturally culturing food and drinks, slowly and with minimal intervention. They aim to source ingredients as locally, in season as possible, each season ending up with salvaged fruits for water kefirs. 

They use local vegetables, Australian native botanicals, herbs, barks, and Franklinford spring water, so each ferment captures the unique tastes of their region. And, unlike current food standards which encourage anonymity, they don’t use any synthetic starter cultures or other processes to help speed ferments, making them ‘wild fermenters’.

This may sound a bit rogue, but really this makes the products more traditional and old-fashioned than radical.

Benny’s Berries

Benny’s Berries is a family-run farm located in Mooroolbark, Victoria. Benny has been growing strawberries in Mooroolbark for 40 years, along with seasonal veggies, and blueberries. He also has award-winning jams up for grabs. You can find his produce at farmers’ markets, direct from the farmgate, open every day 8 am – 6 pm, online, or via the MFH food boxes.

The Practical Beekeeper

Benedict is a well-known registered Beekeeper; as The Practical Beekeeper, he collects swarms, manages hives, extracts honey, teaches, and loves bees.

Benedict is also a commercial migratory beekeeper who runs around 100 beehives across Victoria. He produces small-batch, raw local honey which is available through Farmers Markets and select retail outlets. His bees also provide pollination services for Almonds and other horticulture crops.

Benedict is the resident Beekeeper at Ceres (Centre for Education and Research in Environmental Strategies) and is approved by the City of Darebin to keep bees in Darebin Parklands and Bundoora Park. 

Benedict regularly runs school incursions about bees and beekeeping, he also delivers adult educational courses at Melbourne Polytechnic and CERES in Brunswick as well as at Edendale Community Environment Farm in Eltham.

Benedict is also the founding President of The Australian Pollinator Alliance, a not-for-profit dedicated to promoting the health of bees and all pollinators, critical to our food and natural environment, through education, research, and conservation.

Gippsland Mushrooms

Growing up Chris Puyol always aspired to be a farmer, so when he and partner Anne Marie, found second-hand mushroom growing equipment for sale in a rural newspaper, they took a leap of faith and are now successful mushroom farmers.

Gippsland Mushrooms specializes in delicious white buttons, cups and flats, Swiss browns, and Portobello mushroom varieties and currently have six climate-controlled growing rooms on their property in Krowera, Gippsland which produce up to 500 to 800 kilograms of mushrooms a week.

Gippsland Mushrooms supply their mushrooms in Gippsland, at farmers’ markets, to local restaurants, and to The Melbourne Food Hub.

Farm Raiser

Farm Raiser is an urban, not-for-profit, organic veggie farm run by three young farmers Charlotte, Kirsty, and Patrick. They specialise in growing chemical-free veggies and follow organic and regenerative farming principles. They are located in Bellfield, Melbourne, and supply their produce through weekly mixed veggie boxes and via the MFH food boxes.

Weeping Grevillea Nursery

Weeping Grevillea Nursery is located on the outskirts of Melbourne in the town Kangaroo Ground, Victoria. They specialise in herbs, lemons, limes, jams, and marmalade all year round and provide seasonal veggies such as pumpkins, blood oranges, and grapefruit. Weeping Grevillea Nursery’s produce is available via their Roadside Cart, the MFH boxes, and Warrandyte Riverside Market.

Hurstbridge Farmgate

Hurstbridge Farmgate are dedicated advocates when it comes to supplying locally grown food and supporting Victorian farmers. Hurstbridge Farmgate is located on the fringes of Melbourne and supplies seasonal and sustainably grown produce, specialising in seasonal veggies, herbs, and microgreens.