Hahndorf Venison Supply, Company

As pioneers in the deer industry, Hahndorf Venison began back in 1978 when John DeLaine’s father, Des, noticed a lack of venison in the South Australian marketplace. The business begun by Des DeLaine 33 years ago is now a model of local and sustainable farming practice. Des was an engineering pattern maker who came from a farming background and deer hunting was one of his hobbies when he was younger. Some of Hahndorf Venison’s deer were originally imported live from NZ and others captured from the wild mainly from the south east of South Australia. Today Hahndorf Venison has up to 400 livestock which are locally grown on their properties at Hahndorf and Wistow. Hahndorf Venison’s elite breeding herd are kept at Hahndorf where the administration office and processing facility are located. The majority of the stock marked for processing, which includes Red Deer, Fallow Deer and Elk, is kept at the Wistow property. John explained a little about the quality of their special venison sausages. Hahndorf Venison has been at the Adelaide Showground Farmers Market since it began in October 2006. John DeLaine told us why they choose to sell their product at the Market instead of using a retail outlet of their own. “We thought was that this offered us an opportunity to interact with the people that are possibly eating our products in restaurants, so that we can get our story across. What I find here is a lot of the clients are pretty switched on. One of the questions already this morning from one of the customers was “what casings are you using?” If I had said collagen he probably would’ve kept walking.” Hahndorf Venison also produce a liquor called Velvet Nera, made from the locally harvested extract of deer velvet antler. Deer grow and cast their antler each year and the newly growing antler is covered in soft skin known as velvet. The velvet is removed because it is a valuable commodity which also prevents hard antler in deer farms. This is critical to avoid deer injuring each other as they hunt for female companions. The core of the deer velvet is rich in nutrients and very popular as a “male tonic” especially in Asia. Many of South Australia’s renown restaurants stock Hahndorf Venison, including Auge, Vincenzo’s Cucina Vera and Bridgewater Mill. The product is also popular interstate, with famous Melbourne restaurant Il Bacaro stocking the product and Steven at the Shan Gri La Hotel in Sydney using their Velvet Nera in a dessert.