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Hillside Food Forest

@hillsidefoodforest

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👨‍🌾 Regenerative farm
📍Putty NSW
🐔🐷🐮Ethically produced meat
💊 Chemical Free
🛒 Order Online
🛒 Carriageworks Farmers Market (Saturdays 8am-1pm)

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Talking chicken processing and chlorine use.

It’s hardly a black or white answer. Tap water is chlorinated. So understanding the factors that actually drive exposure is essential if you want to make better choices and ask better questions.

Here’s what I’ve learned about processing chickens, chlorine use and exposure as someone who started a farm because they couldn’t find food they could trust.

Watch until the end if you want to know exactly how our chickens are processed.

And for those of you feeling anxious about this topic - I feel you. I’ve been there. Don’t let perfection get in the way of good.
We live in a time where it’s basically impossible to completely eliminate exposure to toxic chemicals in our lives - from microplastics to PFAS, from endocrine disrupting chemicals in our clothes to chemical residues in our food and water. Perfection doesn’t exist - but you can easily make better choices.

And remember: how a chicken was raised is at least as important as how it is processed. Good processing won’t undo a life in a shed. by @hillsidefoodforest

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2 months ago

Everyone panics when they see this. But it’s actually the safest way to unload day-old chicks.

Unloading one-by-one by hand or tipping the crate feels gentler - but that’s how they get hurt.

A short toss into soft bedding keeps them safe.

They’ll spend their first few weeks of life in our warm outdoor brooder with deep bedding beneath their feet before moving out to pressure when their feathers come through taken in Carriageworks Farmers Market by @hillsidefoodforest

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4 months ago

We bought a truck! 🚛

Truth is, we should’ve done it ages ago. But we’ve kept our little mobile freezer room alive far longer than we should have - and it’s never let us down. It’s had a hard life doing high kms on terrible roads. We’ve broken axles (yes multiple) and countless bearings but it got us through the first few years as we worked this farming thing out.

In its retirement, it has become our main stationary storage and we made sure to get a truck that can be plugged in to mains power - for those times we bring home a little more meat than the trailer can handle.

Major purchases like this are always scary for a tiny bootstrapped business like ours; But this one’s a huge milestone for us on our path of building a successful working farm from scratch.

#knowyourfarmer #carriageworksfarmersmarket #newcastlecityfarmersmarket #sydneyeats #newcastlefoodies taken in Carriageworks Farmers Market by @hillsidefoodforest

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4 months ago

We’re in the middle door of the Cattle Pavillion @newcastlefarmersmarket in Broadmeadow.

Find Farmer Liz here every Sunday from 7am to 1pm.

Pop down, have a chat, find some goodies. It’s always a great day for local, fresh produce from the amazing producers and farmers of NSW.

See you there!

#Newcastle #farmersmarket #newcastlefood #newcastlefoodies #supportlocalfarmers taken in Newcastle City Farmers Market by @hillsidefoodforest

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5 months ago

Just 5 days old 💚🐥 taken in Sydney, Australia by @hillsidefoodforest

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5 months ago

Destined for a factory farm, they came with us instead. taken in Carriageworks Farmers Market by @hillsidefoodforest

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5 months ago

We converted one of our chicken tractors into a brooder! 💡🐣
And it’s so big we’ve added a temporary partition that’ll stay in place for about a week - just long enough for the chicks to settle into their new home 🏡 taken in Carriageworks Farmers Market by @hillsidefoodforest

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5 months ago

The chicken did not want my attention 🤣 by @hillsidefoodforest

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5 months ago

There’s a lot of chicken out there pretending to be something it’s not. Free Range, Organic, Pasture Fed, Pasture Access - these all mean the same thing, birds raised in a shed that rarely, if ever go outside.
Don’t let greenwashed labels and a photo op mislead you. If they don’t show you how the birds actually live, you can be sure it’s just another shed bird. taken in Sydney, Australia by @hillsidefoodforest

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5 months ago

Today we dropped off our sample chickens for the judging round of the 2026 delicious. Harvey Norman Produce Awards.

It’s such an honour to be back again this year, and we’re so proud - and excited - to have our chooks prepared and tasted by such an incredible panel of chefs and judges.

These awards attract some of the best producers in the country, many of whom we look up to enormously. So to have our birds judged alongside theirs is incredibly humbling.

A very special moment for us 💚 by @hillsidefoodforest

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6 months ago

Amazing bacon from Liz and Sam at @hillsidefoodforest
We are so lucky to have producers like them in Australia.
🐷
You can buy it online here 👉 @hillsidefoodforest and at @carriageworksfarmersmarket on Saturday & @newcastlefarmersmarket on Sunday. by @hillsidefoodforest

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This is the safest, stress free way to unload chicks 🐣 🐣

Unloading one by one is slow - which causes the chicks to stress - and is highly likely to injure their little wings and legs. The more chicks there are to be unloaded, the more likely unloading by hand is to cause injuries. 🤕

The toss method is stress free for the chicks, and their lightness 🪶 means it’s far less likely to cause injury to the birds.

Their lightness is exactly what makes tossing them safe, and unloading by hand dangerous.

But to the untrained eye 👁️ the dangerous method looks safe and the safe method looks dangerous! taken in Sydney, Australia by @hillsidefoodforest

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