Free and easy: Happy hens producing delicious eggs is all part of regenerative farming.

The Pringles of Balclutha (above), who feature on the latest episode of Country Calendar, pride themselves on having happy hens that produce delicious eggs. It is all part of their regenerative farming practices which aim to “put the flavour back in food”, as Melenie Parkes finds.

In Balclutha, there’s a family rearing some of the happiest hens you’re likely to find.

These merry cluckers are ‘pasture free range’, meaning they have the run of the land.

“There’s 1200 acres that we’re roaming around on here and there’s 6300 chooks, so there’s a lot of space,” says Michelle Pringle who, along with husband Tony, sells their eggs under the Agreeable Nature label.

The Pringles’ farm operation features on this week’s episode of Country Calendar.

Michelle Pringle says they started selling their eggs after positive feedback from friends and family.

“I was hearing people say, ‘Oh your eggs are so great’. We always eat eggs from here so I had no idea what other people were eating.

“Basically what I heard was, ‘We can’t get what you’ve got’.

“That’s how that all started really because I think it’s an injustice that people can’t eat what we eat. I think it’s terrible.”

While the Pringles’ eggs are enormously popular with cafes and the farmers market in Dunedin, supplying these protein-packed orbs is just a small part of what they do.

While chickens – along with dairy cattle and sheep – are an important part of the business, Pringle’s true passion lies in creating an environment in which plants and animals can flourish.

As a registered nurse, she knows what humans need to maintain good health and along with her family, she is committed to farming in a way that delivers nourishment to consumers.

“We’ve got lots of diverse systems happening within our whole farming system.

“We farm regeneratively so it’s about not just animal diversity,” she says. “It’s all about grass diversity,

microbial diversity, everything is about having a variety of things going on.”

The Pringles’ four children, who range in age from 15 to 22, have all been involved in the farm and continue to assist where they can.

“They all help me, endlessly,” laughs Michelle Pringle. “But we have great staff now. We couldn’t do all this by ourselves.”

Pringle says her children have “exceptionally good health” and she attributes that to the nutrient-rich food they’ve been raised on.

That’s something she wants to make accessible for other families too – providing wholesome food that is free of the additives and “numbers” we so commonly see on supermarket shelves.

“I just think people should be able to eat without eating numbers.

“What’s happening is we’ve bombarded ourselves with all these other numbers and our poor bodies are just having to filter constantly.”

The Pringles are working on bringing chicken stock, pies and other products to market under their Agreeable Nature label.

“We’re all about nutrient dense food production, so nutrients equal flavour. In a nutshell, what we’re aiming for is putting the flavour back in food.”

For Pringle, being able to utilise every part of everything they grow and nurture is about “closing the gap”.

“Back in the day Grandma would never have wasted her bird. Her end-of-lay bird would never, ever have just been wasted.”

The more Pringle has learned about regenerative farming practices and the detrimental effect of processed foods on the human body, the more determined she has become to ensure that everything works together in harmony on their family farm. She says adopting these practices became “an ethical responsibility”.

“You should be producing food that’s going to nourish your end result person that’s going to eat it, and to get to that point you have to work backwards right down to the soil. You have to nourish the microbes in your soil.”

The Pringles use a range of methods to ensure everything on their property is working at its optimum, including using natural fertilisers and vermicast from their worm farm.

Pringle is passionate about their processes and she is also keen to share their message of truly getting back to nature.

“Everything that we do is kind of about sharing a wee bit of information and setting a new standard.”

“Part of being on Country Calendar and part of what we do is about reintroducing the idea of what food really is to people,” she says. “I have to do it the right way because that’s what gets me up everyday.”

“I just think people should be able to eat without eating numbers.”

– Michelle Pringle