Your Summer Season Farmgate Guide

Words & images by Richard Cornish.

I buy most of my fruit, veg, eggs and meat straight from Mornington Peninsula farmers. With farm gates dotted across the Peninsula offering good value and incredibly fresh produce, I find it worthwhile to make these small, family-owned farms regular stops as I drive around for work and family. The food is fresher, lasts longer, tastes better and, I believe, is healthier.

This week I made fresh broad bean and coriander dip, cabbage rolls and a silverbeet pie using a box of crisp vegetables from D & A Farm Fresh Veg in Moorooduc. This relatively new market garden is owned by Dominic and Angelina Travaglia, who have recently built a brand-new farm gate store. They grow a wide range of seasonal vegetables — from zucchini and broccoli to leafy greens and root veg — with strong sustainability credentials, using compost, minimal sprays and recycled water.

Address 245 Eramosa Rd W, Moorooduc

Down in Boneo, on an old dairy farm, the Bryant family have been growing organic fruit and vegetables since 1980. Bryant’s Organics farm gate, housed in a relocated Balcombe Army Camp building, is stocked with seasonal greens and exquisite tomatoes. In late summer, shelves overflow with freshly picked figs and apples, with excess fruit turned into jams and preserves. Nothing goes to waste — vegetable scraps feed the small herd of cattle, whose manure becomes compost to enrich the soil.

Address 201 Old Cape Schanck Rd, Boneo

One of the cutest farm gates on the Peninsula is Balnarring Preserves, a charming roadside stall with an honesty box tucked beneath two old stringybarks. Here grower Melissa Perkins preserves the bounty of her orchard — freeze-dried blueberries, stone fruit, berries and figs transformed into beautifully named preserves like “Sunshine in a Jar for Melbournians”. She also grows roses for her floral cordial (perfect over ice with a splash of gin) and makes fruit leathers, bottled sauces, pickled veg, and jewel-bright quince paste and jelly.

Address 13 Turners Road, Balnarring

On Main Creek Road sits one of the jewels of the Peninsula — Main Ridge Dairy. It’s one of Victoria’s few farmhouse goat dairies, with a café, tasting room and farm gate overlooking the pastures. It’s where I take overseas guests to give them a true taste of the Peninsula and where I buy some of my favourite cheeses: Capony, a semi-hard, slightly nutty, caramel-tinged cheese perfect for a cheeseboard or grating over pasta; and Cashmere, a delicate, light, tangy fresh goat’s curd ideal as a dip or dolloped onto a ripe tomato salad.

Address 289–295 Main Creek Road, Main Ridge

One of the great joys of eating fresh on the Peninsula is our seafood. We grow plenty of mussels in our bays, and Peninsula Fresh Seafood is home to Dromana Bay Mussels. Buy direct from their factory in Dromana (2/10 Thompson Avenue), alongside locally caught snapper and gummy when in season, plus seafood from other Victorian and national fisheries. Their seafood truck pops up at Flinders, Hawkes Farm, Hastings, Safety Beach and Somerville — check Instagram @peninsula_fresh_seafood for weekly locations.
Down on Marine Parade in Safety Beach, the Peninsula Fresh Seafood food truck serves moules frites (hot mussels with fries), local mussel chowder, fish tacos, fish and chips and fish burgers — all with a sea view.

This small selection is just a taste of the 20-plus fresh and fabulous Mornington Peninsula farm gates. So grab an esky, set the GPS, and feed the family with authentic, local food — grown right here on the Peninsula.