At A Taste of Paradise Farm, we offer a one-on-one mentoring program for young people who have experienced a tough start in life. The various enterprises of the farm are used to work with young people, to build trust, develop safe and reliable relationships while teaching the young people new skills. In our poultry enterprise, the young people help to hatch the baby chickens, feed, and care for them as the birds mature, and then eventually collect, clean, sort and package the eggs.
Our poultry are certified organic and free range, which allows them to go in and out of their houses and roosts at will. They lay eggs naturally and are free to scratch around the ground looking for and eating bugs, worms, grasses, and seeds, which makes the eggs even more nutritious and delicious! In a natural system such as this, few eggs are laid during the cooler months as the chickens have a rest and grow new feathers. This is always a big challenge financially with next to no egg sales and customers often say we have created a problem for them as they have not found an alternative supplier whose eggs they enjoy as much as ours. It is only a small enterprise that delivers great outcomes for young people amongst all the other enterprises on the farm.
Both foxes and our local family of wedge tailed eagles love to eat our chickens so another aspect of protecting the enterprise are our Maremma Guard Dogs. For many years our old dogs “Lano” and “Woodley” successfully defended the chickens and formed great relationships with our young people. The dogs became overnight internet sensations when filmed with the chickens sitting on their back at feed time. Our succession plan is the training of new puppies “Samson” and “Ranger”. They too are a great hit with our young people and are learning the art of looking after the chickens and not playing with them!
A Taste of Paradise certified organic free-range eggs are available from the Berry Farmer’s Market on Thursdays from 3 to 6pm, at the Showground.
And also from:-
Flavours Shoalhaven – 113 Queen St, Berry
Milkwood Bakery – 109 Queen St, Berry
Strong Organics Farm Shop – 131 Millbank Rd, Terara
So, what makes our eggs so delicious?
The chickens have a happy, nurtured, stress-free life.
