Eaterprises is excited!
……that its only one more sleep to Eco City Melbourne Food Forum! Kirsten will be giving a taster of all things Eaterprises and Open Food Web Foundation at tonight’s lightening talks session. And then we’re ready to roll up our sleeves and talk and listen and generally have fun…in equal measure on Friday! Here’s 10 things we’re particularly excited […]
Bromley Organics, Dunolly
Bromley Organics in Dunolly has been certified organic for 14 years now. They grow a large variety of herbs, vegetables and garlic. They grow an Italian soft neck variety of garlic which has a great strong flavour and keeps for a long-time . . .
Murrnong, Violet Town
Murrnong is at Violet Town, 180km north of Melbourne. The 8 hectare property has been developed for tree crop agriculture over the last 15 years by permaculturist David Arnold. The farm includes a mixed species fruit and nut orchard, an olive grove, other low irrigation tree crops, and tree and shrub plantings for forestry, shelter and habitat. The abundant rainfall […]
McGuinness Run Olives, Wooragee
“McGuinness Run Olives” is a 30ha property in Wooragee which backs onto the Chiltern- Mt Pilot National park. We have 800 olives trees and also run cattle and sheep as well as poultry. Tony and Mary run the farm with the aim of being self-sufficient for their food supplies whilst having the least impact on the environment as possible. We […]
Successful small farmers – where to from here?
The successful small farmers session left me with lots of new ideas. It also raised some big questions that I think are important for coming up with ‘better ways’ Got to be a better way: distributors that aren’t focused on ‘the cut’ – based on transparency, integrity, trust. Seems like a big waste of energy for farmers having to be […]
Successful small farmers – insights and experience
In the Successful Small Farmers session, there were three farmers talking about their experiences and what they’ve learnt (leading to their advice to those getting started). This was a really interesting and useful session – a wealth of knowledge and passion punctuated by dry humour and a good dose of dungarees 🙂
Training new farmers
Continuing the theme of interesting supports and services, here are a couple aimed at developing and strengthening new farmers
Helping you do whatever you want . .
Wandering around display tables and talking to people at the CSFC, I got a bit of a sense of the breadth of services available to farms and farmers in the USA – particularly small ones or those interested in becoming organic. Some really impressive institutions, organisations, programs and resources and lots of ideas for anyone who feels like setting up […]
CSFC Farm Tour – Garden Variety Cheeses
Our third and final farm visit was to Garden Variety Cheeses, run by Rebecca King . . and YUM! Great way to finish the day Garden Variety Cheese is a small farmstead cheese business, based on 40 acres in Northern Monterey County. Rebecca began commercial milking and cheese production in March 2009, and started selling three varieties of raw sheep […]
CSFC Farm Tour – Paicines Ranch
Paicines Ranch was brought primarily for conservation purposes – the real passion here is to restore the grasslands through use of holistic management, rotational grazing etc. Purchased with IT money – Silicon Valley seems to be inadvertently funding some interesting activity! The property is about 7,500 acres with low rainfall – long-term avg around 12-14 in (by my calculations this […]