A veritable one-stop-shop, Torello Farm on the Mornington Peninsula is creating a community of producers, educators, farmers and consumers. Founded by the Brancatisano family in 2016, three brothers and their partners made it their mission to transform a neglected piece of land in Dromana – complete with burnt-out car shells and a serious blueberry infestation – into a functional, sustainable and communal space. 

Vinnie, Mark and Dom Brancatisano’s family had worked in the fruit and vegetable industry for generations. And so, with the help of their partners, the brothers set to work to bring the property back to life, and to bring the community of neighbouring farms together. 

On any given day, visitors can head to the Torello Farm Gate. Reminiscent of a farmers’ market, it’s where you might find neighbours dropping off punnets of strawberries picked only metres away, alongside a Flinders farmer unloading boxes of avocados, or perhaps a delivery of freshly milled flour and sourdough bread from Tuerong Farm. 

The Farm Gate is just part of the vision that Torello Farm co-owners Mark Brancatisano and his partner SophieO’Neill hold for the enterprise. The enterprise is also nurturing smaller businesses – such as Five Tales, which grows fruit, vegetables and native flowers on the Torello property. There’s also a Farmhouse Kitchen which, each week, turns out take-home meals like beef lasagne, massaman curry, vegan dumplings and sausage rolls; as well as pickles and preserves like beetroot relish and carrot-top pesto.

But the family isn’t stopping there. Educational workshops held at the farm are a fun way to take a little bit of the farm and apply it to your own life. Here, you can learn how to ferment seasonal produce, or perhaps build self-watering planter boxes, if that’s more your speed.

Mark and Sophie also happen to live just up the road from Torello Farm, raising free-range Belted Galloway cows and Dorset Down sheep. These slow-growing, heritage-breed livestock are 100 percent grass fed, and are given the time and space to mature in a healthy, natural way. Slow growth means more muscle and fat, and inevitably, more delicious produce. So delicious, in fact, that the couple have taken out the top spot in the 2023 delicious. Harvey Norman Produce Awards From the Paddock category.

By investing in their land, their animals and their community and encouraging closed-circle farming practices, the Torello Farm group is illustrating a sustainable, wholesome and enlightening way to give back to the environment… and producing some darn tasty food while they’re at it.

Related news: The 2023 delicious. Harvey Norman Produce Award winners have been revealed!