Collaborators

Our Circular Local Food System

Everything we make at Rustica Viva begins in the earth — in the healthy Australian soils that nourish flavour, nutrition, and future harvests.

We believe food should be grown with care, prepared with respect, and shared in ways that give back.

That’s why our ingredients are never just ingredients — they are the fruits of real relationships, shaped by season, soil, and shared purpose.

Our circular food system is a living network of growers, processors, millers, and makers.

We rescue what others overlook, support local farms, and honour traditional methods.

Every batch of gnocchi and sauce is part of a closed loop — one that returns nutrients to the land, supports rural livelihoods, and brings more beauty to your table.

Partners in the Loop: From Harvest to Plate


Farmers Pick
Champions of imperfection, Farmers Pick partner with Aussie farms to rescue fresh, misshapen, or surplus produce that would otherwise go to waste. Their boxes are a weekly love letter to real farming — full of flavour, character, and zero judgement.

Zerella Fresh
One of Australia’s leading potato growers, Zerella supplies the creamy, earthy potatoes that form the base of our classic gnocchi. Their commitment to water efficiency and soil health ensures each spud is as sustainable as it is delicious.

Laucke & Bellata Gold
Our gnocchi flours come from two heritage Australian millers. Laucke has been milling grains with care for over 120 years, while Bellata Gold grows durum wheat on regenerative farms in northern NSW. Together, they give our dough its tender bite and regional identity.

Rod’s Fruit & Veg
Scott and his team in Melbourne’s inner west handle the careful preparation of our vegetables — peeling, dicing, and cutting each rescued carrot, beet, or pumpkin. Their work ensures our produce is kitchen-ready for slow roasting. Nothing is wasted: their veg scraps, along with our own kitchen offcuts, are sent to Bardee — keeping nutrients cycling and waste out of landfill.

Bardee
A marvel of modern circularity, Bardee harnesses the power of Black Soldier Fly larvae — rainforest foragers that can consume vast amounts of organic waste. These larvae transform food scraps into nutrient-dense fertiliser and protein-rich insect meal. That meal goes on to nourish the hens that lay our eggs, completing a nutrient loop that begins in the scraps and ends in your gnocchi.

Chooks on the Rooke & Josh's Eggs
These pasture-based egg farms raise hens on clean air, sunshine, and enriched feed that now includes Bardee’s protein meal. Their bright, nutrient-dense yolks lend richness and resilience to our pasta — a living proof of how small farms and big ideas can nourish each other.

Alba Cheese
Just across the road from our Tullamarine kitchen, Alba crafts our parmesan using traditional methods and milk from Gippsland’s lush dairies. We collaborate to use not just their cheese, but also help recover the whey byproduct from their ricotta-making — adding value and reducing waste in tandem.

Kagome
It's hard to imagine amazing pasta and sauces without tomatoes!

Based in Echuca, Kagome is an Australian pioneer in upcycled tomato and carrot processing — using innovation to reduce food waste at scale.

Their advanced processing lines recover and stabilise in-season Australian tomatoes, preserving their goodness much like the passata rituals of Italian nonnas.

We don’t use a ready-made sauce — just their crushed, pulpy tomatoes at peak ripeness. From there, we build our own Napoli from scratch in our Rustica Viva kitchen, layering flavour the slow way.

Helping Hand's Mission & Oz Harvest

Melbourne's Food Rescue Charities play a huge role in tackling food waste circularity and improving outcomes during the cost ofliving crisis for those going hungry. Along with Farmers Pick we are proud to supply our surplus production to these amazing not for profit organisations.