Husk and Harvest Walnuts

Husk & Harvest is a primary producer of walnuts and walnut products. We are situated in Redesdale – in the heart of Victoria on the volcanic uplands between the Campaspe and Coliban rivers as they join to become Lake Eppalock. It’s a lovely place to farm and to live.

We (Hilary and Mark Jankelson) acquired Boonderoo (our farm) at the beginning of 2000. At the time, the decision to plant walnuts here was compelling – Australia was importing the majority of its walnuts from overseas and we could see the opportunity to change that. We set about converting the land – originally a sheep farm – into walnut orchard in 2001.

We now have approximately 10,000 trees on the land in Victoria and in an additional orchard in the Murray Valley (acquired in 2006). From these two properties we supply the wholesale markets, independent retailers and many farmers’ markets in Central Victoria.

When we started our venture in 2000 we had busy jobs and activities in Melbourne. We spent about 2 days a week on the orchard in the early years. Now that the enterprise has grown, it occupies us almost full time.

We get a great deal of satisfaction from growing food on the land and find it enormously rewarding to be involved in every aspect of walnut production. We care for the walnuts trees all year round, harvesting the fruit in Autumn, hulling and drying the nuts; and storing them until they are ready to be cracked – so they stay fresh. Our processing, cold-pressed oil extraction, commercial kitchen and packing facilities are all onsite, so our walnuts come straight from our orchard to you.