We are currently seeking a motivated butcher to work over the busy period at Koallah Farm's on-farm processing facility.
The casual position would start immediately and run right through to Christmas 2016. Ongoing casual employment after Christmas may be an opportunity for the right person.
Responsibilities, not limited to;
Breaking down beef, lamb and pork carcasses
Slicing, boning and trimming meat for retail packaging
Ensuring that all meat is handled and stored correctly
Ensuring a clean, safe, and organised work environment
Complying with all health, sanitation and legal regulations
Complying with all company policies and procedures
Requirements;
Experience in a quality retail butchery environment
Works quickly and efficiently
Energetic with a "can-do" attitude
Works well in a team environment and independently
Good hygienic practices
Mature, honest, reliable and dedicated
Well organised and shows attention to detail
Willing to provide employment recommendations
Relationships
Reports to Senior Butcher and Production Manager
Please send a cover letter and current resume to [email protected] or call the office on 5594 5222 to discuss the opportunity and register your interest.
Koallah Farm currently has a job opportunity for an experienced milker to work in its dairy, which is located 10 minutes east of Camperdown.
We require someone who can complete 7 milkings each week - milking 230 cows in a 20 aside swing over dairy.
Days, hours and pay will be negotiated as part of the interview process.
The successful applicant will be reliable, have previous milking experience and a current Australian Drivers Licence.
If this sounds like you we’d love to hear from you. Please call Steven Castle on 0428 084 367 to apply or find our more.
Applications close on Friday September 30 or sooner for the right candidate.
Koallah Farm’s new range of natural, additive-free milk hits the shelves today as the business continues to grow its trusted paddock to plate operations.
The fully integrated meat producer from just outside Camperdown has launched Koallah Farm Dairy, with full cream, low fat and non-homogenised varieties now available.
Managing director Steven Castle said his family had been dairy farming at Koallah for four generations and the decision to launch their own dairy brand was fast-tracked following recent milk price cuts by large dairy processors.
“We had always planned to expand into dairy products and ultimately the way farmers were treated earlier this year, including ourselves, has just expedited that move,” he said.
“It’s a natural progression for our business though because we are passionate about supplying customers with products that haven’t been manipulated or altered.
“We’re very much about keeping all our production at a sustainable level where the quality of our products is the result of healthy animals that are farmed naturally on pasture.”
Koallah Farm's Steven and Rachel Castle have added a line of dairy products to their existing free range meat operations.
Mr Castle said Koallah Farm had engaged the expertise of Inglenook Dairy near Ballarat to process, bottle and label the Koallah Farm Dairy products.
“We currently milk 230 Holstein Friesian cows at Koallah Farm where we are lucky to have very productive volcanic soils that produce plenty of grass and high quality milk,” he said.
“It was important to us that if we were going to market our own milk that it remained as close to the raw product as possible and Inglenook Dairy has delivered that for us.
“We didn’t want any artificial enhancements made to our milk to change how it looked or to make it last longer. Like our meat, we wanted our milk to be as healthy as possible for well informed customers who value natural products and natural taste.”
Mr Castle said the irony was that through minimal processing Koallah Farm had achieved a shelf life of 18 days – well in excess of companies that use additives.
He said as milk sales increased, the company would look to launch cream and yoghurt products as soon as possible.
Koallah Farm Dairy products are available through the company’s retail brand Simply Free Range, which provides an online/home delivery service and operates two wholly owned butcher shops in Mt Waverley and Rosanna.
Other initial stockists include IGA in Anglesea, Gamekeepers in Moorabbin and Piedimonte’s in North Fitzroy.
Koallah Farm’s boutique abattoir has become the state’s first licensed processor of alpacas and llamas. It has also added deer and buffalo to its service offering.
The new species add to Koallah Farm’s existing PrimeSafe licenses to process beef, lamb, pork and goat at the fully accredited on-farm abattoir near Camperdown.
Managing Director Steven Castle said he was pleased that the facility was continuing to diversify and fill more service gaps for Victorian farmers.
“We commissioned the site in 2014 with beef and lamb, then added pork and goat last year and now we’ve met the requirements for buffalo, deer, alpaca and llamas,” he said.
Andy Cowan and Ken Lang with the first Yarra Valley Game Meats venison processed at Koallah Farm
“The staged introduction of the additional licenses has been driven by farmers who, like us, wanted fairer access to markets and improved returns for the meat they produce.”
Mr Castle said Koallah Farm had fielded steady enquiries about deer, alpacas and buffalo processing over the past 18 months.
He said the decision to become licensed for the species meant farmers could now develop markets and retail their own products.
“Until now, alpaca growers right here in south-west Victoria had to truck their animals interstate for processing. Similarly, it was very difficult to have private buffalo and deer processed, boned and packed fresh for retail,” he said.
“Farmers work hard to breed and grow quality animals on their properties and we’re passionate about helping them maximise their returns by helping them access markets.”
Mr Castle said Koallah Farm’s integrated on-farm meat processing operation meant producers could drop their animals off and have them slaughtered, aged, butchered, vacuum packed, labeled, boxed and ready for retail.
“We’re already seeing pretty strong demand from venison producers and have started to work with a couple of alpaca and buffalo farmers who can see opportunities to add value to their operations through the sale of their own meat products,” he said.
Ken Lang from Chum Creek in the Yarra Ranges has already had two lots of deer processed at Koallah Farm.
Mr Lang operates Yarra Valley Game Meats and produces venison on his own property, in addition to buying animals from other nearby growers like Andy Cowan of Buxton.
“What Koallah Farm have done here has a lot of potential for the venison industry in Victoria,” Mr Lang said.
“Over the years abattoirs have either stopped processing venison…or made it difficult to get the animals done and back to market quickly enough.
“I supply restaurants, hotels and meat distribution companies and there is plenty of potential for growth now that we can be serviced here at Koallah Farm.
“I’m also very interested in marketing alpaca, llama and buffalo meat for other growers who can now be serviced here at Camperdown.”
Mr Cowan said the Victorian venison industry was a fraction of what it was 20 years ago.
“Back then there were over 50,000 deer processed annually, which is more than the total number of deer in Victoria now,” he said.
“Once word spreads that Koallah Farm is processing venison, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if numbers in deer farming rose again.
“The development of this abattoir will be a real boost for our industry.”
Growing pigs is a relatively new thing for the Castle family at Koallah Farm. In fact it was only last year, after our on-farm abattoir received its pork licence that we introduced pigs to our property for the first time.
Until that point we had relied on other reputable free range growers for our online pork sales and for our Simply Free Range butcher shops in Mt Waverley and Rosanna.
While we still rely on six other free range pig producers to breed our Koallah Farm approved animals, we’re now successfully raising the pigs right here on the farm.
We currently purchase 16 piglets every fortnight when they are weaned off their mothers at about 6-8 weeks of age. The piglets are brought to Koallah Farm and tended to daily in large paddocks where they have access to shelters and are free to do whatever they like and to grow at their own natural rate.
We’re lucky to have some stony rises country at Koallah Farm where underlying volcanic rock provides grazing areas that are less likely to become wet and boggy. This is important to us, because it means we can farm pigs without them causing long term damage to vegetation and the natural environment.
Access to pasture plays in important role in the diet of pigs. Aside from the succulent fresh grass, pigs forage beneath the surface where the soil and plant matter contains all sorts of natural minerals and proteins that keep them healthy. We also supplement their feed with a vegetable-based meal.
Depending on their individual growth rates, the pigs spend between 3-4 months at Koallah Farm until they reach processing weight. Each week, we process eight pigs in our boutique abattoir for your online orders and for our butcher shops in Melbourne.
At any one stage, we are now raising about 100 pigs at Koallah Farm. Controlling the environment they are grown in, their nutrition and they way they are cared for is important to us and to the quality of our pork products.
Sugars provide energy, meat amino acids, spices a variety of antioxidants, but smoke has no nutritional value at all. So why have humans evolved to love its taste in food?
Many have prophesied our love of smoke comes from a primal yearning. The theory goes that we gravitate towards smoke and fire because smoking was a way of curing food to stop it going off. Is it ingrained in us that smoked food is good food?
Most of the flavour of smoke is actually smell - a trigger some believe awakens our inner cave man. But if all this sounds a bit airy-fairy and you're not a believer in ancestral memories - maybe the reason we love smokey food isn't even important.
Our pantries are full of smoked salt, olive oil, brown sugar, paprika and all sorts of goodies. More and more we're hearing about the art of smoking meat - low and slow, American style. This has been a wonderful trend that has made a hero of lesser cuts like briskets and ribs.
If you're not ready to splash out on a backyard smoker, we'd suggest taking baby steps with a hooded charcoal grill like a good old trusty Weber. There's some tips on getting started here or checkout our friends at Misty Gully - we stock some of their wood chips at our Rosanna butcher shop.
An easier option is the tried and tested backyard spit - you can easily add a smoker tray to your gas burner.
It doesn't need to be over complicated, just have a go - it's a fantastic thing to do with your family on the weekend and a great way to develop a love of cooking in young people. Check out this simple but effective method our managing director Steven Castle and his family enjoyed on the weekend.
An exciting job opportunity exists for a motivated person to join the small and passionate team at Koallah Farm & Simply Free Range.
We are seeking an experienced person for a casual position as a meat delivery driver. The position will be based at Koallah Farm near Camperdown.
The successful applicant will present well, have a positive can-do attitude, be able to work unsupervised and show an understanding for boutique, artisan, paddock-to-plate food production.
A current Light Rigid (or higher) Australian Drivers Licence is essential and the successful completion of VCE is preferred.
Experience in loading and unloading meat carcasses is preferred, but not essential.
Early morning starts are mandatory and it is estimated that the successful applicant will complete between 30-40 hours of work each week - Monday to Friday.
Remuneration will be negotiated with the successful applicant.
Good personal hygiene will be critical, as will the ability to physically lift hanging meat and boxed product.
If this sounds like you we’d love to hear from you. Please send a cover letter and current resume to [email protected]
For further information please call Koallah Farm on 03 5594 5222.
Applications close on Friday May 6 or sooner for the right candidate.More details and a Position Description can be downloaded here.
With the cooler weather on its way, we thought it would be great time to share one of our family recipes for amazing, grass fed, free range, gelatinous beef stock. This recipe makes about 4 litres of stock, which you can freeze into smaller containers for use through the middle of the year.
Ingredients
2 kilograms of marrow bones cut into roughly 50mm pieces
3 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar
1.5 kilograms of meaty chuck, brisket or rib bones
3 onions
3 carrots
3 celery stalks
2 leeks (white part)
3 thyme sprigs
1 teaspoon of crushed black peppercorns
1 whole garlic bulb, cut in half across the cloves
2 handfuls of parsley stalks
Method
Place the marrow bones in a stockpot or very large saucepan, add the vinegar and about 4 litres of cold water - or enough to cover the bones. Let it stand for one hour. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.
While the marrow bones are soaking, place the meaty bones in a roasting pan and roast for half an hour, or until well browned. Then add the roasted bones and the vegetables, roughly chopped, to the stockpot or saucepan containing the marrow bones.
Transfer the fat from the roasting pan into a saucepan and add one litre of water. Place it over a high heat and bring to a simmer, stirring to make sure that no lumps coagulate. Then add this liquid to the bones and vegetables and add more water if required to cover the bones.
Bring the stock to the boil, skimming off the layer that rises to the top. Reduce the heat to low and add the thyme, peppercorns and garlic.
Simmer the stock for at least 8 hours. The longer you cook the stock the richer and better it will be. Just before the end of this period, add the parsley and simmer for another 10 minutes.
Strain the stock into a large container. Cover and cool in the fridge. Remove and discard the congealed fat that rises to the top. Transfer the stock to smaller, airtight containers and place in the fridge, or for longer-term storage, the freezer.
The stocks will keep for 2-4 days in the fridge and three months in the freezer.
We're all busy people with busy lives and this often impacts on our evening meals. The freezer might have some meat in it, but that will take too long to thaw and cook, right? So eating out, ordering takeaway or heating a prepackaged meal can become the quick fix.
If this sounds all too familiar, meal planning can prevent it. Meal planning plays an important role in ensuring you and your family enjoy a healthy balanced diet. It also alleviates the daily stress of deciding what's for dinner, puts a stop to the constant trips to the shops and saves you money.
We've developed a few tips to help you and your family (the kids will love to get involved) plan your meals and enjoy fresh, natural and healthy produce.
1) Sit down and work out what you would like your weekly plan to include in general terms. For example, each week would you like to have one stirfry meal, a pasta meal, a slow cooker/soup meal, a salad, steak or mince beef meal etc. This template will vary depending on how much meat you like to eat, your budget, household and likes/dislikes.
2) Think about maximising some cheaper cuts of meat, as well as treating yourself to some premium cuts. The slow cooker is a great way to turn things like lamb shoulder, gravy beef, osso bucco, chuck and ribs into family favourites.
3) Decide on a handful of dinners that your family will enjoy regularly. These can form the foundation of your meal plan and rotate onto your dinner table every week or two. You might decide on 10 dinners, for example, that you use once every two weeks. This would leave two dinners a week to add variety to your meal plan and try new recipes and flavours.
4) Once you've decided on the look and feel of your meal plan, considered how you might use different cuts to stretch your protein dollars and developed your core dinner recipes, it's time to buy what you need. With our online ordering and free home delivery service, we would encourage you to order on Wednesday nights for Friday/Saturday delivery. This allows you to pick up your fresh fruit and vegetables on Saturday morning and kick off your first dinner for the week that night.
Nutrition Australia has some useful meal plan templates and recipes that might help you further here.
We're always pretty excited with the quality of our Koallah Farm beef, but we're extra excited this week with one of our newly bred lines reaching the processing weight. Traditionally, we've grown mostly Shorthorn Hereford Cross cattle at the farm, but in the past year we've begun crossing our Hereford Cross cows with Charolais bulls. Pictured are the first lot these 10 month-old Charolais Hereford Cross cattle ready for processing today.Our Simply Free Range moto is 'meat the way nature intended' and we mean every word of it. These beef cattle were bred naturally in their paddock, with their mothers covered by a bull. The mothers carried them in our paddocks at a ratio of one cow and one calf to three acres. In addition to pasture, the cattle receive hay and silage harvested from our properties. When calving time approaches, our cows are checked at 5.30am, midday, at 5pm and again at 10pm. If we need to render assistance with a calving we do, but in the vast majority of cases the calves are born naturally in their paddocks.The first 24 hours are very important for a calf, which needs a good feed of its mother's colostrum. Colostrum contains important antibodies which protect the calf from disease. While some farmers intervene in this process, we leave it to nature and the success rate is excellent.After about three weeks the calves will begin to eat grass from the paddocks and hay and silage when they want to. They remain with their mother and drink from her right through to processing. The cattle pictured here, for processing today, fed from their mothers until yesterday.Sometimes seasonal conditions can make it very difficult to grow beef cattle to the standard our customers deserve.
If necessary, we can now supplement their feed with a specially designed pellet that meets pasture-fed certification guidelines. These animals didn't require it and reached our target 420kg weight on their mother's milk, pasture and fodder alone.
These cattle were separated from their mothers late yesterday and travelled less than 2km to our on-farm boutique abattoir at Koallah Farm. They spent last night together in a large soft floor pen. Cattle that spend nights on concrete can become stressed and get quite sore hooves and legs which can impact meat tenderness.
They were handled respectfully and processed by our own staff in our accredited facility at 6am this morning. The carcasses will be aged for about 10 days before being butchered for online orders and our shops in Mt Waverley and Rosanna.
Incidentally, their mothers are already about seven months pregnant with their next calf. They now dry off naturally and have two months to put all their energy into the health of their new calf before it is born and the process starts again.
So that's what we mean when we talk about pasture fed, free range beef. To us it means no antibiotics, no added hormones and plenty of wide open space where nature can take its course.
We currently delivery throughout Victoria. Please provide your postcode and we can check if and when we will deliver to your area.
If your postcode is not listed please contact us to discuss when we can deliver.
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Difference
Humane farming values, no antibiotics or hormone treatment and pasture fed
No grain, no cheap farming short cuts
Our family values, tradition, passion, love for how we live and the animals we raise
Our family has always farmed sustainably – with minimalist intervention sanctioning the free-roaming and natural development of our magnificent animals.
Our family operates with heart, passion and a primal respect for the land and animals they rear, fighting for humanity in the world of animal agriculture. This is rigorously upheld by adhering to a free range, no-hormone-intervention policy, with all animals being grass-fed to ensure peace- of-mind and consumption.
Quality
Quality of life determines the quality of the taste
From paddock to plate best possible experience every step of the way
Farming the way nature intended
Our beef, lamb and pork are testament to the pasture-rich, open paddocks in which they are free to graze and develop naturally. Under this legacy, Castle Estate continues to rear and cultivate livestock with freshness and fairness in mind along each animal’s trajectory from paddock to plate, delivering only the finest quality cuts to meat-loving Australians.
Traceability
Follow your meat from paddock to plate
On-site Abattoir
Our fully accredited, on farm, boutique abattoir. This made us the only fully-integrated operation of our kind in Victoria, and we’re bloody proud of that.
It means our animals are grown the way nature intended. That means they aren’t transported vast distances, they’re processed naturally and butchered and packed by our own dedicated team, before being delivered directly to our loyal customers.
Discovery
Experience what real meat tastes like – The meaning of authentic free-range farming lies in the trajectory of the animal’s life. This means the animal is pasture-fed and grass-grazing. Our animals are outside in the open air, consuming fresh, verdant fields. Celebrated for their natural unique shapes, sizes and growth, each animal is farmed with humanity and a no-waste policy, for an ultimately superior taste on your plate.
In addition to the superior taste of free range meat and the improved conditions for free range animals, there is growing evidence of the health benefits of eating products from pastured animals. And we simply can’t argue with that.
Discover new cuts of meat to expand your cooking repertoire – eat the whole animal not just the popular cuts
For the zealous gastronome or experimental foodie, this presents a wonderful opportunity to become more creative in the kitchen than ever before. The Castle family encourages consumers to expand their cooking repertoire and experiment with new cuts of meat.
The traditional values of reducing waste have never been more relevant than now. When the Castle Estate (butcher and abattoir) prepares an animal as a source of food, they operate under the firm belief system that the whole animal must be utilised to minimise waste and avert frivolous farming.
Recipes
New products from the Providore
In addition to the superior taste of free-range meat, and the elevated conditions for free-range animals to roam, grow and graze on, there is surmounting evidence bolstering the health (and taste) benefits of eating products from pastured animals like those offered by Castle Estate.
Koallah Farm’s new range of natural, additive-free milk hits the shelves today as the business continues to grow its trusted paddock to plate operations.
The fully integrated meat producer from just outside Camperdown has launched Koallah Farm Dairy, with full cream, low fat and non-homogenised varieties now available.
Managing director Steven Castle said his family had been dairy farming at Koallah for four generations and the decision to launch their own dairy brand was fast-tracked following recent milk price cuts by large dairy processors.
“We had always planned to expand into dairy products and ultimately the way farmers were treated earlier this year, including ourselves, has just expedited that move,” he said.
“It’s a natural progression for our business though because we are passionate about supplying customers with products that haven’t been manipulated or altered.
“We’re very much about keeping all our production at a sustainable level where the quality of our products is the result of healthy animals that are farmed naturally on pasture.”
2 kilograms of marrow bones cut into roughly 50mm pieces
3 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar
1.5 kilograms of meaty chuck, brisket or rib bones
3 onions
3 carrots
3 celery stalks
2 leeks (white part)
3 thyme sprigs
1 teaspoon of crushed black peppercorns
1 whole garlic bulb, cut in half across the cloves
2 handfuls of parsley stalks
Transfer the fat from the roasting pan into a saucepan and add one litre of water. Place it over a high heat and bring to a simmer, stirring to make sure that no lumps coagulate. Then add this liquid to the bones and vegetables and add more water if required to cover the bones.
Bring the stock to the boil, skimming off the layer that rises to the top. Reduce the heat to low and add the thyme, peppercorns and garlic.
Simmer the stock for at least 8 hours. The longer you cook the stock the richer and better it will be. Just before the end of this period, add the parsley and simmer for another 10 minutes.
Strain the stock into a large container. Cover and cool in the fridge. Remove and discard the congealed fat that rises to the top. Transfer the stock to smaller, airtight containers and place in the fridge, or for longer-term storage, the freezer.
The stocks will keep for 2-4 days in the fridge and three months in the freezer. 
We've developed a few tips to help you and your family (the kids will love to get involved) plan your meals and enjoy fresh, natural and healthy produce.
1) Sit down and work out what you would like your weekly plan to include in general terms. For example, each week would you like to have one stirfry meal, a pasta meal, a slow cooker/soup meal, a salad, steak or mince beef meal etc. This template will vary depending on how much meat you like to eat, your budget, household and likes/dislikes.
2) Think about maximising some cheaper cuts of meat, as well as treating yourself to some premium cuts. The slow cooker is a great way to turn things like lamb shoulder, gravy beef, osso bucco, chuck and ribs into family favourites.
3) Decide on a handful of dinners that your family will enjoy regularly. These can form the foundation of your meal plan and rotate onto your dinner table every week or two. You might decide on 10 dinners, for example, that you use once every two weeks. This would leave two dinners a week to add variety to your meal plan and try new recipes and flavours.
4) Once you've decided on the look and feel of your meal plan, considered how you might use different cuts to stretch your protein dollars and developed your core dinner recipes, it's time to buy what you need. With our online ordering and free home delivery service, we would encourage you to order on Wednesday nights for Friday/Saturday delivery. This allows you to pick up your fresh fruit and vegetables on Saturday morning and kick off your first dinner for the week that night.
Nutrition Australia has some useful meal plan templates and recipes that might help you further here. 
When calving time approaches, our cows are checked at 5.30am, midday, at 5pm and again at 10pm. If we need to render assistance with a calving we do, but in the vast majority of cases the calves are born naturally in their paddocks.
The first 24 hours are very important for a calf, which needs a good feed of its mother's colostrum. Colostrum contains important antibodies which protect the calf from disease. While some farmers intervene in this process, we leave it to nature and the success rate is excellent.
After about three weeks the calves will begin to eat grass from the paddocks and hay and silage when they want to. They remain with their mother and drink from her right through to processing. The cattle pictured here, for processing today, fed from their mothers until yesterday.
Sometimes seasonal conditions can make it very difficult to grow beef cattle to the standard our customers deserve.
If necessary, we can now supplement their feed with a specially designed pellet that meets pasture-fed certification guidelines. These animals didn't require it and reached our target 420kg weight on their mother's milk, pasture and fodder alone.