Madelaine Scott knows the importance of organic better than most. Her parents are organic farmers, and together with her siblings the family runs Hollyburton Park - devoted to supplying the freshest, best tasting produce money can buy.
Early Riser
Madelaine was only 8 years old when she first started her own little organic egg and meat farm at Hollyburton Park, (her “parents are very passionate about organic”), with only “20 chickens” to her name. These days, she has a flock of over 900 hens, including “Rhode Island Reds, New Hampshires, Australorps and Isa Browns.” Her passion for producing delicious, nutritious eggs and other products free of any chemicals or other nasties sees her working long hairs daily, cleaning the eggs and nurturing the ‘girls’.
Free Range?
Most people buy free range eggs thinking they are doing the right thing - that the chickens who’ve produced these are roaming freely around a large paddock, filled with fresh grass and nutritious feed. Madelaine is quick to dispel that myth - “there can be up to 10 000 chickens per small yard. These chickens are often fed yellow food colouring to make the yolks in the egg look brighter.” Not to mention that free-range hens are also still fed hormones, antibiotics and other things we definitely don’t want to be consuming. That’s why Madelaine and her family are so passionate about bringing truly organic eggs and products to the tables of Australians.
Where You Can Buy
Madelaine sells her eggs at “a variety of health food shops around Melbourne”, as well as farmers markets in the same area, You can order a ‘farm box’ online, customize it with other products that Hollyburton sell (organic meats and sauces are also their specialty) and have it delivered to selected locations.
How You Can Help
Looking after an entire farm of free-range chickens is hard work, and with new hygiene laws being introduced, Madelaine and the farmers in her area now need a helping hand. Through crowd-funding, Madelaine needed to raise “$60,000 to buy an egg grading/cleaning machine that’s guaranteed not to break down”. There are cheaper Japanese versions on the market, but she knows through first-hand accounts that these machines “break down after 3 years”, and the one she has her eye on “will last for 70 years”, and not only benefit her, but “future generations of farmers” in the area.
Update: Fortunately, Madelaine not only reached her crowd-funding goal, but surpassed it! Now she and the other egg farmers in the area can continue to supply Australia with fresh produce.
If you’re feeling a little bit disheartened about the fact that even the free-range eggs we buy aren’t free from chemicals and unnatural substances, and you live too far away to benefit from Madelaine’s delicious produce, perhaps you should consider starting your own flock! You’ll have fresh eggs each day, and can be comfortable in the knowledge that they’re totally organic.
