Do you welcome questions?

Yes. We believe in radical transparency in farming and food production. We answer questions honestly about our farm and how we farm, our animals and the food we produce. This empowers you to make informed and responsible choices about which farms to support and how to feed your family. Send us a question!

Is Walden Park certified organic?

No. We prefer to describe our farming methods as beyond organic. We choose regenerative, ecosystem-friendly, biological and holistic solutions rather than chemicals. We do everything we can to look after the health of soil, microbiology, pastures, waterways, livestock, wildlife (including insects) and people. We don’t ever use insecticides or herbicides on our pastures and we don’t use synthetic fertilisers. Occasionally, we drench individual animals with a dung-beetle-friendly drench if their health requires it.

Is there anything messy or difficult about your meat?

Definitely not. Your boxed hamper order arrives portioned into individual cuts, vacuum packed, labelled and ready to cook, refrigerate or freeze. It’s as convenient as buying meat from a supermarket, but so much better in so many ways.

Is your meat expensive?

Our meat is more expensive than budget lines at supermarkets to reflect the care and time (up to four years for each animal) we take to grow it and the very high quality of the product. However, we consciously keep our prices as low as we can. We believe everyone has a right to eat quality food from a farmer who cares for the land. We set aside a proportion of all we grow for our local foodbank in Kyneton. And we are very open to and discrete about requests for individual payment arrangements for anyone experiencing financial difficulty.

Do you use a mobile or farm butcher?

No. In Victoria, meat for sale must be processed in a PrimeSafe-registered abattoir. Once a month we personally deliver carefully selected cattle to our local abattoir, 15 minutes from the farm along quiet country roads. After processing, beef bodies are delivered to a local butcher, where they dry age for 21 days in a purpose-built, salt-walled cool room. At the end of this process the butcher portions, packs and labels the beef over two to three days according to the Walden Park bespoke cut list.

What is in a Walden Park beef hamper?

Our signature 5kg and 10kg hampers include a selection of premium steaks (such as ribeye, T-bone, porterhouse, rump and scotch fillet), roasts (topside and silverside), slow-cook cuts (osso bucco, short ribs, brisket, chuck and gravy beef), schnitzels, stirfry strips, diced beef, pure-beef mince and gluten-free sausages and burgers. A 5kg hamper may include something like one T-bone, two porterhouse and one rump steak and either a ribeye steak or two pieces of eye fillet, plus a 500g pack of preservative-free mince, six gluten-free, preservative-free sausages or burgers, a 1-2kg roast, a slow-cook cut and a 500g pack of schnitzels or stirfry strips. We also offer 4kg pure-beef mince hampers year round, plus family pies in winter.

Do your cattle have names?

Some do. Our breeding cows are all registered stud belted galloways, which means they have a registered name (the first letter of which relates to the year they were born, so 2022 was T, 2023 is U) and we know every detail of their bloodlines. They’re also with us for up to 15 or so years, so it’s nice to be on first-name terms with long-term colleagues! Our processing cattle (steers – castrated males – and heifers we don’t breed from) don’t usually have names although we get to know them well over three to four years of growth at Walden Park. Some have distinctive belts on their hides or crazy hairstyles, some follow the rules and some don’t, some are always on for a wrestle with their mates and some are friendlier or more shy than others.

Do you have cattle for sale?

Yes. From time to time we have surplus steers available ready for processing and welcome enquiries from butchers. We also occasionally have registered stud heifers available for sale.

Can we visit Walden Park?

Yes. We love showing people how we farm. In fact, we think talking to people about how and why we farm and produce food the way we do is one of the most important parts of our job as farmers. Email us to make a time to visit or subscribe to our email list for notice of our next farm walk and morning tea.