When Holy Goat announced its closure in January of this year, chefs and cheese lovers everywhere knew that the Australian food scene was saying goodbye to something truly special.

It was the end of an incredible era, and one in which the Produce Awards had played a key part. “We won right at the start,” Monda says.

“Then we basically won every year from there. People must have been thinking, ‘Oh gee, not them again’. And we kept thinking someone would knock us off our perch. But they never did.“

Despite this long-running (and entirely well-deserved) acclaim, the pair never lost their appreciation of the awards, nor of the people who were involved.

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“We were rapt to be a part of it,” Monda says. “That whole world is just not what you are when you’re farming. But then to be invited into it by the Produce Awards – it was an incredible privilege, and a humbling experience.

“It was wonderful to see other producers, and these nervous little chefs sitting by themselves, and realising that we’re all people who are trying to make a go of it.”

Now that Monda and Meurs are stepping back to focus on their beloved herd of goats, it’s a time for gratitude and reflection.

“In every small business, someone has to put their back down for someone else to step up,” Monda says.

“It was Carla and me for all those years. Now it’s about letting go and acknowledging and honouring the challenge that every small producer faces and every chef faces every day, just to make it happen.”

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