Why Did We Choose To Farm Organically?
G'Day Folks,
I was asked by a friend, why did you choose to farm organically. I had never asked myself that question, but upon thinking of my response, I realised that I would not have chosen organic farming in my mid to late twenties. I would have farmed with chemicals, because all I was focused on back then was pure production and efficiency.
Now after pondering that question, it was a subconscious choice, that only could have occurred after receiving 3 of my greatest gifts; finding the love of my life, bringing 3 wonderful girls into this world, and spending quite a few year of introspection finding out what really mattered to me.
True organic farming I don’t believe is undertaken by anyone who has not found love or meaning in their life. But once you find it, becoming an organic farmer isn’t a decision, it’s what you’re uncontrollably pulled towards.
I would love to take a moment to share with you our farming ethics and ethos. We are passionate about caring for the land that we have the privilege to grow your food on.
We farm regeneratively, which is a conservation and rehabilitation approach to food and farming systems.
We focus on:
- Topsoil regeneration,
- Increasing biodiversity,
- Improving the water cycle,
- Enhancing ecosystem services,
- Supporting biological carbon sequestration (also called biosequestration),
- Increasing resilience to climate change, &
- Strengthening the health and vitality of farm soil.
No. 1 - Use Tonnes of Compost - As the Compost King himself Scott/Dad saids "It's the engine of this farm!" and it truly is, we love having gazillions of little miracle workers feeding our plants 24/7!
No. 2 - Cover Crop and Disturb the soil as little as possible - We use cover crops with up to 14 species of plants to give our soil organisms as diverse a mix as possible - preventing disease and is the secret weapon to healthier soil.
No. 3 - Focus on feeding the soil, not the plant - We don’t use any chemical fertilisers or quick fixes which only result in weak plants and weaker soil down the track.
An increase of 1.5% in soil organic matter per year. Each 1% increase in organic matter helps the soil hold an extra 90,000 litres of water per acre (nice to have for the next drought isn’t it!). We have added over 10 tonne of carbon per acre to our soil (we desperately need more carbon stored in our soil to limit climate change). We now find worms almost every time we put our hand in the soil. We are creating almost all of our nutrients to feed our vegetables on farm with home made compost, the only exception being that of Nitrogen (we are still trying to find a way this can be achieved).Know this, every time you purchase a box of vegetables from a farmer who cares about the environment, you’re playing an important role in restoring the soil we have degraded for far too long!
