CopperTree Farms’ Nick Venter has invested “a small fortune” to show Australia what unadulterated food tastes like.
with his meat and butter, is settled in a window seat with Gus De Muelenaere, one of his two new business partners.
Each farm will raise and process its livestock and poultry, grow its produce without using insecticides, and have its own high-tech dairy making a range of products. Sources of Venter’s inspiration include“It is a big dream, and it won’t be easy,” he shrugs. “A lot of people are very set in their ways when it comes to food or food production. But with advances in technology, I believe that in the next 15 years, robotics is going to make this possible.
Such experiences were the genesis for CopperTree Farms. In 2018, he bought a hobby farm with stud Angus at Budderoo in the NSW Southern Highlands, but later switched to retired Holstein Friesian dairy cattle. The mature meat and his dry-ageing treatment gave a superior flavour, and top chefs, includingHastie had cooked with the Spanish dairy breed Rubia Gallega during his tenure at Etxebarri in the Basque Country.
In a short time, CopperTree Farms is supplying nearly all of Sydney’s best restaurants; there’s also an online retail shop. But the main game is the farms, the first of which Venter is in talks to buy.Over the course of our very long, multi-course lunch, during which chef Perry regularly drops by for a laugh , the conversation takes many turns. It’s clear that Venter is serious about life, while not taking it too seriously.