Lauren's a farming inspiration

Growing up on her parents’ NSW rice and beef farm in Tullakool, the move to pork came from a passion for selling her own produce and owning her first Berkshire sow, Doris.She started Bundarra Berkshires in 2011 and it has grown into a free-range pork and charcuterie enterprise with farm visits and stays available.The Barham farm is 100 acres of roaming space for around 90 sows.Lauren launched the venture solo to begin with and was later joined by husband Lachlan, who also runs his own business.‘‘It was great fun and I loved the challenge of starting something new,’’ she said.They started small, but after two years of driving across the countryside with their daughter in the back seat to get their meat cut up at butchers, Lauren had enough.To pick up their smoked pork they would have to travel to Melbourne, while other cuts would be packed up boxed 50km drive away.‘‘I took a real interest in the butchery side of things, in saving the whole animal and finding all these amazing different cuts on the pig and thought — I should just do this myself,’’ Lauren said.While pregnant with her second child, Lauren and Lachlan cleaned out an old shed and transformed it into a butchery where Lauren began learning and playing around with recipes.‘‘It was tough,’’ Lauren said.‘‘We just did it out of cash from the business. We didn’t get any loans or anything, and by the time I had my second daughter we had it finished.’’But the joy of starting a family and having her second child on top of her workload came to a screeching halt when she hit an emotional wall and as she described, ‘‘fell off the wagon’’.‘‘I had a pretty massive nervous breakdown and post-natal depression, but I was totally in denial,’’ she said.Needing a break, she took her two daughters, Lucy and Frida, to live with her parents in northern NSW for a few months while Lachlan kept on top of things at the farm, one of the best things she could have done.‘‘It made me realise I can’t do everything and it’s not fair on the family if I try, so that was a good learning step for me,’’ she said.Falling pregnant in 2014 with her third child brought back fears she might experience more post-natal depression and what frame of mind she would be in, and in early 2015 it happened again.‘‘I got Bell’s Palsy at one stage and had another nervous breakdown,’’ she said.‘‘I really had to step back and assess what I was doing and really make my health a priority, it was pretty hard.‘‘I was a total mess.’’But having been aware of what could be coming, and planning for it, her fears evaporated when her son was born and the experience was a lot easier.Lauren delegated the everyday running of the farm and butchery to her staff but kept her hand on the helm of the business, while looking after her three children.And, just to keep her on her toes, she worked in the catering business Burbury and Mathers she started three years ago with her friend Cynthia Burbury.‘‘I’m constantly managing anxiety through my life every day,’’ Lauren said.‘‘I find I’m always aware of my behaviour and mood now and how it impacts other people.‘‘I think we all go through these journeys as women as we have children, discovering who we are, what we want out of life and what’s important to our family.‘‘When you have kids, priorities change.‘‘You need to adjust to make sure you’re putting the right things first, it’s not always about work. You work to live, not live to work.’’Lauren has passed down her passion for protecting the environment to her three children — Lucy, 9, Frida, 7, and George, 3.‘‘They’re aware of their impact on the Earth and where our food comes from,’’ Lauren said.‘‘I don’t want to give them climate anxiety but awareness for the planet and animals is a huge part of our family.’’It’s a family affair on the farm. Daughters Lucy and Frida look after the piglets, nursing back to health any that become sick.“It’s great to see the kids taking it on, asking questions about it and recycling, it’s really cute,” she said.Being ethical is really important to Lauren. She is working towards making the business carbon-neutral and recently transitioned to compostable bio-film packaging, as well as planting a tree for every order placed online.As a woman in the meat industry, Lauren said she struggled gaining respect and still harboured inhibitions.‘‘There’s things I let Lachie take care of, like if a pig goes missing at the abattoir,’’ she said.‘‘I always get him to call because I just feel like I’m not going to be taken seriously.‘‘There’s still a lot of work to be done in that space. There are things known typically as a man’s job and it just shouldn’t be like that.‘‘Being heard and taken seriously is a challenge especially in industries that are typically male dominated.‘‘In the meat industry it’s taken me a long time to earn respect.’’A proud, strong woman, Lauren is an advocate for female education and equality.‘‘Women are definitely being heard more now,’’ she said.‘‘A lot more women have been holding off having kids and getting educated and doing some awesome things.‘‘Women carry the weight of the world on their shoulders, there’s always women contributing to society, giving their children and husbands advice all the time.‘‘I think a lot of people take women for granted sometimes and I think if you took women away the world would fall apart — I think women secretly run the world.’’