OLLIFF FARM PREMIUM PASTURE EGGS ARE EASIER TO FIND
“We move our girls onto fresh pasture every few days – just like cows! This allows our girls to forage for grubs, bugs and worms 24/7 bringing so much flavour and taste to the eggs.”
Olliff Farm Premium Pasture Eggs modern spin on the age-old practice of pasture raising chickens for eggs is rewarding egg lovers with full-flavour, nutrient dense eggs – just like grandmas.
Deonne Olliff, husband Dean and children Beau, Archer and Darla farm their chooks in Auckland’s Silverdale. Since first coming to the attention of the Outstanding NZ Food Producer Awards in 2019 when they were Sustainability Award Runners-Up the Olliff family have grown their business and have increased retail sales around Auckland to make their eggs easier to find.
As well as being available at PAK’nSAVE Silverdale and Four Square Remuera, lovers of authentic, local food will be thrilled to know they can pick up Olliff Farms Eggs if they’re holidaying in the Matakana, Omaha, Sandspit, Snell’s Beach area. Big brunches and easy lunches are the order of the day for holidays and Olliff Farms Eggs are now for sale at; Warkworth Butchery, Matakana Butchery, Matakana Smokehouse, Sculptureum Retail and The Superette, Omaha Beach.
Deonne explains the flavour in their eggs is purely due to the way they farm. “We move our girls onto fresh pasture every few days – just like cows! This allows our girls to forage for grubs, bugs and worms 24/7 bringing so much flavour and taste to the eggs. We are one family, one farm, one way – so we farm to plate, bringing consumers the freshest and tastiest eggs on shelf.
“We produce backyard chicken eggs but on a more commercial scale with 4,200 hens – which is not huge compared to your standard free range farms. However, for our style of farming moving the girls continually is significant as we need a lot of land.”
It hasn’t all been smooth sailing for the couple. Initially Olliff Farms built its reputation for premium eggs in cafes and restaurants around Auckland. So, when that business was cut off overnight by the Covid lockdown in early 2020 times were tough. Chickens don’t stop laying for a pandemic and Deonne and Dean had to quickly diversify their sales.
These days you’ll find Olliff Farm Eggs in retail, as well as cafes and restaurants. Deonne explains; “we’re doing a good mix of both. We don’t want ‘all our eggs in one basket’ so to speak! We learnt that with Covid. To a degree it was a blessing in disguise…we love evolving and enjoy the challenge of coming up with better ways of doing things
Not ones to rest, and sticking with their evolution ethos, Deonne has promised more big changes in 2023.
“We have our new shop and packhouse opening on the farm in Wainui, Silverdale next year. Our aim is to bring an even better farm to plate experience for our customers. Customers love coming to the farm to see first-hand where their eggs come from. We have nothing to hide and can’t wait to give this opportunity to more of our customers.”
“We also have new packaging hitting stores in March 2023, which is very different to what we have now. It’s very exciting and we can’t wait to see it on the shelf – it’s beautiful!
