The Wimmera is a broad area of vast plains in Victoria’s west, north of the Great Dividing Range and south of the Mallee. Here, millions of tonnes of grain and pulses are grown every year, much of which is exported overseas. But one farming family has captured a small portion of this bounty and packaged it up so we can all enjoy nutritious meals made from Wimmera-grown pulses.
The Matthews family has been farming at Rupanyup, 290km northwest of Melbourne, since 1927. Originally growers of wheat and barley, they expanded into chickpeas, faba beans and lentils in the early 1990s.
In 2011, Jenny Moore, nee Matthews, started experimenting with the pulses, grinding chickpeas into flour and giving some to a friend. The friend made them into brownies, called them Rupanyup Living Brownies, and has been selling them ever since. But Jenny still had a battle ahead in introducing her novel products to the city market. At one stage, feeling dejected after an unsuccessful trip to Melbourne to find buyers for her faba bean flour, she fed the protein-rich meal to her sheep.
Thirteen years later, her business Wimmera Grain Store sources pulses from across the Wimmera and packages them into home kitchen-friendly pouches. Jenny has spent years developing pulse-based savoury snacks and plant-based mixes ready to be cooked into falafel, lentil bolognese and lentil tacos. Wimmera Grain Store also offers grains and lentils packed into larger formats suitable for restaurants, catering and food manufacturing.
Products: Pulse snacks, pulse-based soups and meals, pulse-based flours and a range of Victorian-grown pulses.
wimmeragrainstore.com.au, @wimmeragrainstore