About Us
Our story
It all began with a passion, an idea, and a willingness to learn.
Owner and founder Luke McPherson started roasting coffee beans as a hobby in 2003. Armed with a repurposed bread maker, a heat gun and instructions from an online forum, Luke trialled, tested, blended, and roasted until he had discovered the perfect flavour for his own morning cup of coffee.
Happy to share his coffee creation, Luke began handing out bags of his home roasted blend to family and friends, and steadily, demand for the product grew.
In 2016, Luke took the leap and established Karon Farm Coffee. Naturally, the bread maker and heat gun were replaced with a proper roaster and within three years, this self-taught coffee enthusiast had turned his part time hobby into a full-time, award-winning business.
Today, Karon Farm Coffee is an online retail store that is open 24/7, allowing customers to buy their favourite blend rain, hail or shine, anytime of the week. We have created five custom blends, each with their own distinct characteristics:
The Karon Farm Coffee roastery is based in Wendouree, Ballarat in regional Victoria, about an hour and a half west of Melbourne. All beans are roasted fresh to order, delivered directly to your door. You can also pick up the Karon Farm range from stockists throughout Ballarat and surrounds.
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Our ethos
Sustainably sourced coffee is at the core of everything we do.
When we ventured into the world of roasting, we soon learned that sadly, no matter what we or anyone else does, a coffee bean farmer receives a pittance of what the end user pays for their freshly roasted beans. The coffee beans are handled three or four times before they reach the final consumer, and every step of the way, someone is taking a cut.
The easiest way to avoid all this add-on is to buy directly from the grower. Unfortunately, we are not a big enough operation for that. Instead, we make sure we only collaborate with suppliers that share our philosophy on purchasing beans.
Langdon
Langdon Coffee Merchants only source ethically farmed products, ensuring the farmer, their farm, and their community benefits from the coffee trade.
A prime example of this is Langdon’s work with a group called the Cedro Alto Collective – an organisation comprising small-scale coffee farmers that have banded together to sell their beans.
Independently, these farms are too small to access roasters willing to pay fair prices. However, as a collective, they have challenged the traditional supply chain, and farmers can receive more than double the standard payment.
Furthermore, the Cedro Alto Collective invests in a variety of projects that ensure the long-term sustainability of the farms.
O’Coffee
One of our biggest producers in Brazil is O'Coffee, and we think their practices are top notch. They are committed to systems that enhance environmental, social, and farming sustainability, caring for all aspects that surround coffee growing.
Cofinet
Our Columbian coffee is sourced through Cofinet, and they too focus on the farmer. One of the products, Volcano, is a social enterprise, with all the coffee purchased from tiny farms of two hectares or less. Normally farms that small would have no chance of selling to the speciality market.
Social responsibility
We are doing our best to have a positive impact on the coffee world.
We started Karon Farm because we love quality coffee, and we wanted to share our passion, but living where we do, surrounded by farmers, we know firsthand the challenging work that goes into any produce. That’s why we go that extra step to ensure we’re doing our part to contribute to a fair and sustainable coffee industry.
We lend money to small coffee farmers through Kiva loans and donate money to FairCrack, which we think is an amazing little charity, as well as supporting as many community endeavours in the area.
Feel free to contact us to ask about our beans, where we source them and how you can learn more about coffee bean suppliers to Australia.