Hello!  We are a family living in the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia.  We have a passion for local food culture that supports a healthy community and environment.  We grow sprouts, make sauerkraut, kimchi and other lacto-fermented vegetables, slow cooked bone broths and brew sparkling kombucha and water kefir.

In an effort to minimise waste our packaging is returnable and re-useable.  Our chickens love the scraps from our commercial kitchen, we compost all the bones from the broth and our garden thrives on the sprout rinsing water diverted its way.

It is important for us to feel connected to a community that values local ethically produced food and we only distribute to our local area.  You can find us at the farmer's markets and shops that share these values.

Our story

Lenni started the business in 2010 as a sprout stall 'The Happy Sprout' at the Noosa Farmer's Market.  Shaw came along a few years later, bringing a passion for fermentation and slow food.  Together we created Nourishing Wholefoods, adding lacto-fermented sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha, water kefir and bone broth to the product range. We use all returnable and reusable packaging for our products to help minimise waste.

Among the chaos of business evolution, three little people were born into the tribe and an amazing crew of friends and family have stepped up to keep it all flowing. 

Rob is our master brewer & production manager who joined our crew in early 2020.  He brings a wealth of knowledge, skills and organisation that has enabled us to step everything up to the next level.

Isaac and Yuki smash serious amounts of cabbage and help keep all the goods keep flowing.  Cassius, Spenser and Bruce have a mammoth task of washing all the returned packaging for re-use, as well as labelling all our products and backing everyone up in all areas.

If you've been to the markets lately then you will have met Barry and Jenny.  They're a couple of cool cats great for a chat and a laugh, and love our products as much as we do.

Ian is our skilled builder who has created an amazing space to work in that keeps getting better and more efficient all the time, bringing his unique touch to everything.

We couldn't have gotten to where we are without those who have helped us on this journey.  Jeremy was our master of production for many years and Macgyver of the business, fixing our trucks and second hand equipment,  designing and implementing systems and building custom machines.  Lenni's father Maarten and step-mother Jackie generously offered a lot of their time skills and wisdom while we were growing, from building the commercial kitchen in our shed to labelling thousands of bottles and jars.

We're also grateful to be surrounded by our wonderful and supportive friends Ian, Erin and Marcel who live on our property and allow us to maintain a balance of work, family and community life by helping out and hanging out when needed.

Finally, a big thank you to all our wwoofers, helpers, travelling friends and family who have been such a significant part of our journey and enriched our lives with skills, wisdom and hard yakka!

Our vision and philosophy is to limit our business to a scale that allows us to stay connected to our local community and balance our time with family and friends. 

​We feel so lucky to be part of this wonderful community and to have the privilege to do what we love and feel appreciated for doing it!