The Farmers
Eska Farm is owned by Kate and Sam Plaschke, who fell in love with the property and built their family home there in 2016. Slowly learning, establishing and building towards a strong future of production under the watchful eye of the Sleeping Beauty Mountain and bordered by the Mountain River, this property has definitely become a much loved home. They both have particular interests in soil health, keyline design, cover cropping, and have both successfully completed Permaculture Design Certificates. They continue to develop their property using all these principles.
The Farm
Eska Farm is 35 acres of beautiful land resting below Sleeping Beauty Mountain Range south of Hobart. Part pasture, part natural bush land, part river; basking in all day sunlight and with views in every direction. Their hearts belong here now, and their days are filled amending, building, planting, moving, growing, nurturing and restoring each element of what brings a property into life as a farm.
Eska Farm produces high quality, free range heritage rare breed pork using a pastured free range approach that is gentle on the animals, the land and themselves.
They raise English Large Black pigs, a heritage rare breed, meaning that there are very few blood lines for this breed still alive within the world and even less within Australia.
They chose this breed for their nature, temperament and treatment of the ground (being grazers more than diggers); but also importantly they are doing their bit to keep this breed alive for farms into the future. Heritage breed pigs are low on numbers nowadays because they are slower growing and lay down more fat. They are suited to foraging and outdoor life making them perfect for their farm and not so perfect for commercial piggeries, hence their numbers have dwindled as commercial pig farming has taken dominance of the pork industry.
Eska Farm has quickly become an integrated, productive farm that provides fresh and great quality food for themselves and supportive customers. They believe in the importance of respecting the ground, treading lightly and consciously by returning to the soil as much as it provides for them.