Family venture takes silver

A BURGEONING family business is tasting victory together after taking a silver win in the 2023 Melbourne Royal Australian Food Awards.

The runner-up accolade in the Awards’ Savoury Chutney, Relish and Jam category went to the owners at Buninyong’s Sweet Sage Farm for their beetroot chutney.

Fee Sanders, who started the business with her partner Joe Jansen, said she’s ecstatic for the recognition after entering in the Awards for the first time this year.

“I was over the moon about it,” she said. “I was saying to Joe it’d be cool if we got in the top 100, top 50 and then we got silver,” she said.

Running Sweet Sage Farm with the help of their three kids, the duo established the business in 2019.

Their beetroot chutney was one of their first products to be released and is now one of 11 condiments and four salts stocked at places like Sovereign Hill and Avalon Nursery’s In the Sticks cafe.

Sweet Sage Farm’s other signature product is their framed terrarium called hydro vessels which Mr Jansen constructs using upcycled timber.

Ms Sanders found the recipe in an old family cookbook, and said it has a distinctive quality that sets it apart from other chutneys.

“It’s got a little bit of coriander and we used brown vinegar and brown sugar which makes it more molasses and in-depth,” she said.

Currently active mainly in the market scene, Mr Jansen said the recognition from the award will help the business to grow.

“It’ll help build us up a little more,” he said. “Right now, we’re mainly markets. We’re looking at getting a setup vehicle to make the markets a lot easier.

“Fee won’t have to go by herself. We can bring the kids along with us so it makes it even more of a family thing because they love going to the markets.”