Burrum Biodynamics

It started in a little veggie patch… MARNOO • VICTORIA Stephen Walter of Marnoo in North West Victoria is a fifth generation farmer. He and his wife Tania are each passionate about clean, green food and have always been mindful of their crop farming practices for the benefit of their family, fellow consumers and the environment. Stephen started experimenting with organic farming is his mother’s vegetable garden when he was a young boy. In the mid 90s whilst working on the family farm, Stephen started learning about bio-dynamic farming and contacted Australia’s bio-dynamic pioneer Alex Podolinsky through the Bio-Dynamic Research Institute for more information. In 2000 the Walters started introducing some of the biodynamic measures at Burrum. The soil responded well to this farming technique, so he committed to converting from conventional farming to biodynamic farming. In 2005 the farm was certified ‘Demeter Biodynamic In-Conversion’, then gained full certification by 2008. In 2010 they produced their first bio-dynamic lentil crop. This was the same year farming communities in the region experienced some of the highest floods on record. The unseasonal rain deemed the lentil crop appropriate only for splitting. This was the final push the family business needed to invest in its own facility on-farm to clean, sort and split their own crops and launch Burrum Biodynamics.