I started farming in late 2013, wanting to establish a working organic smallholding which could one day support my dream to open a restaurant on the farm mainly using  ingredients grown directly on the land here. I wanted to educate myself through a first hand experience of farming, connecting with the land, the seasons and my local community.

Becoming a farmer was a somewhat unconventional career choice for me following my university degree in English & Psychology, but after travelling through Europe WWOOFing on organic properties in Italy, France & Spain, I knew that farming and working with food was where my true passion lay. Inspired by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall of River Cottage and “lunatic” farmer Joel Salatin of Polyface, I knew I wanted to farm in a way that produced food with integrity, care for the land in a sustainable and regenerative way, and make a living doing something truly worthwhile and fulfilling.

I started out with  an inherited herd of alpacas, a small herd of scottish highland cattle and the beginnings of a market garden. Then came three pigs (Piggy Minaj, Piggy Smalls and Greg), a flock of chickens and our hand-built clay wood-fired pizza oven, the true heart of the farm. Our market story started at the Daylesford Farmer’s Market in November 2014 with delicious free range egg & bacon wraps and since then we’ve gradually built up to 2 markets a week with a loyal customer base. This has enabled us to start converting an old horse float into our first ever Danny’s Farm Food Trailer, which is due for completion in late 2021.

Currently the farm consists of cattle, alpacas, chooks, ducks and bees all working hard to build healthy soil and sequester carbon in a beautifully complex system of diversity.

I‘m so proud of all that Danny’s Farm has achieved so far, and I couldn’t have got this far without the invaluable support of friends, family & animals, wonderful WWOOFERS, our supportive local community,  and the help of like-minded & inspirational people with a steadfast dedication to producing and serving high quality, seasonal and sustainable food. Let’s see where the next year takes us!

Danny

Mission

• To grow and produce food in a way that respects the animals and ourselves, regenerates the land, nourishes our local community and reconnects them to their food.

In the Media

• Farmlife – Gestalten – February 2018
• ‘Danny’s Farm Food – Secrets Magazine’ – October 2017
• ‘Danny Kinnear Could Well Become the Face of a Major Movement in Australian Farming – The Weekly Times’  – June 2016
• ‘Danny’s Farm in Daylesford Challenges Definition of Farmer – ABC’ – March 2016
• ‘Trailblazer for Ethical Food – The Courier’ – December 2015
• ‘Our Future Farmers: Danny Kinnear – Sustainable Food Trust’ – October 2014

Watch

• Pozible Campaign Video – This is the promo video for the Danny’s Farm Pozible campaign, which successfully crowdfunded $7460 to build a brand new food trailer that will serve food fresh from the farm

• The Making of a Wrap – This little video shows how we make our delicious free range egg and Jonai Farms’ bacon wraps. Everything made from scratch, all fresh, all completely delicious.

• The Moving of the Chooks – Here’s a quick video of us moving the chickens! We gave them half a ton of organic fruit and vegetable scraps at the same time and when they’re done with it we’ll cover what’s left of the pile with straw and when the chickens rotate back to this spot they’ll spread it over the pasture – fertilising it and finding worms at the same time. Caution this video contains duelling hill billy banjos because, well, it’s a video about chickens and there’s a windmill in the background.