About us

Greetings! We, the undersigned, can vouch for our humans, Cathryn and David. They are good for a pat, a scratch and a biscuit or blueberry. They don’t eat meat and aren’t too keen on spraying their berry bushes.

They seem to spend as much time talking to people who come to the farm as they do patting us. If you’re after a chat and some berries or eggs, you might as well come along to our farm.

Miss Polly & Mr Leroy Brown

 

How we farm

We are using regenerative agriculture practices on our farm. This fits for us because we are trying to put back into the ground what’s been taken away from it and grow a more nutritious and tasty berry.

Regenerative agriculture is about soil health, microbiology (the little critters in the ground, the jungle below our feet), biodiversity (lots of different plants, insects and animals) and ‘messiness’.

Things we do include:

• keeping our soil covered. We put woodchips on our rows to increase the carbon and living organisms in the soil, and act as a blanket to keep moisture in and the grass down,
• sowing cover crops in autumn and spring, which are then mulched back onto the rows,
• planting a variety of plants in the orchard and around the farm to encourage different insects, birds and others,
• minimising the compaction of soil by machinery,
• not using pesticides — with the introduction of other plants, we encourage beneficial insects onto our farm to act as our pest busters,
• no herbicides, organic or otherwise. We have a different relationship with weeds now. Weed control involves monitoring and a lot of steps, crouching and pulling.

We are learning as we go. Our aim is to promote the interconnectedness in the microbiology and macrobiology in the soil, bushes, and across the entire farm.

We are trying to walk gently on the land. Every plant and insect has its place (apart from wasps).

We’re not experts but are happy to have a chat if you’re interested.

We would like to acknowledge the following organisations in our farming experience: Jennifer, Ollie, Chez and Tony Scherer from Sprout Tasmania, Seedlab Tasmania, Optimum Standard, Regionality, Regenerative Agriculture Network Tasmania (RANT), Farm Gate Market, Tasmanian Produce Collective (TPC), Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture (TIA). Thank you!