This is no ordinary walnut farm

If you've ever tried a freshly cracked walnut, it's a bit of a revelation. Nothing like the rancid things you get at the supermarket, proper walnuts are sweet, milky, and of course, richly nutty.It's why we were delighted to hear about King Valley Walnuts. Often when you think of sustainable farms, you might picture fields of veggies (no? just us?), but these Victorian farmers have won a State Rural Pride Award for Landcare works on the creek. They've also won a plethora of awards for being particularly excellent for your tastebuds too. Plus, they clearly love their product - you can buy their walnuts direct from their online store, and you'll get walnuts to your door. If you've never tried walnut oil before either, do it. Especially awesome with raspberry vinaigrette. Anyway. Where were we?Carol and Mike's walnuts graced the table at our Urban Forage and Feast, an incredible crowd sourced dinner that highlighted local Melbourne producers. So we thought we'd have a quick catch up and share their passion with the rest of our community.What path led you to this industry or the start of your business?We like growing things, and walnuts grow very well in NE Victoria, so 20 years ago when we established our orchard, it was a combination of finding a crop that suited the conditions, and that had potential to grow as a commercial orchard into the future.What would you like our community of eaters to know?We aim to produce the best quality Victorian walnuts and walnut products. We love offering our healthy products direct to the consumer, and providing an opportunity for people to taste a fresh Australian walnut. Customers all over Australia can order online to receive fresh walnuts direct from the grower.What motivates you to invest time and effort into maintaining values such as local food, sustainability, provenance or social impact?As farmers, we take direct responsibility for our impact on the land and water that we use to grow our food. We want to see all imported walnuts replaced with Australian Product that we believe are superior in taste and freshness.Subscribe to hear from more of the producers and backyard farmers from this incredible volunteer-powered event!A big thank you to our Melbourne volunteers Jasmine Chan, Kyra Hewitt and Alan Bechaz for bringing us this series. Image from King Valley Walnuts.