Sometimes you feel like farming is a battle with nature, but this mentality doesn't bode well in the long run. Treating it like a battle only leaves you exhausted and frustrated. Nature is never exhausted, she never gets frustrated, no matter what we throw at her, she just carries on about her business in the most peaceful of ways. Never have I seen nature in a rush, but like a recovering forest after a bushfire, suddenly she is everywhere. I prefer to think about farming as a dance with nature, it works better for my mental state. If I try to beat her through sheer force of will, I fear I will become bitter and resentful...

It's Tuesday afternoon at 3pm, I have sat down to write this newsletter with the beautiful warm afternoon sun soaking my back. It feels delightful after such a frosty finger numbing morning harvesting your veggies. Prior to sitting down, I was at the pack shed with Dad and Lochie getting things ready for our early start tomorrow at 3:30am. We have come up with a new system to pack your orders...

I'm going to have a rant this week! So here I am driving around the mid north coast delivering your fruit and veg boxes while listening to the ABC radio. The radio host announces a report by chief vet, Alex Brittan, allegeing Greyhound Racing NSW was underreporting dog deaths and overlooking animal welfare violations. It was another scathing report into greyhound racing in New South Wales which has prompted the peak body’s CEO to resign and forced the state government to open an inquiry and threaten to sack the board.

The cold wet winter ground takes so long to dry out and all you need is a brief shower to restart the drying process all over again. Often this means cultivating and planting in wet soil which is quite damaging to the soils ecosystem. As oxygen is introduced to the soil through cultivation, the abundant moisture combines to set the biological house on fire (microbes need oxygen, moisture and food to explode their population beyond our comprehension) which leads quickly to the devouring of organic matter in the soil...

A nomadic tribe seeing nature as their mother that provides all they need to live life, so long as they respect the balance of intricately linked and complex webs of life vs a farmer and eventually emperor who believes they have conquered nature and can bend her to suit their own demands. A nomad that believes nature's bounty cannot be owned because it cannot be stored so it must be shared, to the modern human belief that everything must be divided by ownership. How it is divided is still the cause of most wars and is a problem yet to be solved...

A few years ago now, we had a serious disease problem with our lettuce crops, they just kept dying all of a sudden, right before harvest. We ended up getting samples sent off to get tested but were told it was a virus in the soil. An old farmer then told me that whenever the soil becomes diseased, you should grow root crops to change the diversity of microbes and bring back the balance of the good guys. We did this and it worked immediately...

Growing food organically means to grow food truthfully, to grow food with love. Farming has shown me that if we can find love for our food and the soil that nurtured it, we will find love in ourselves and for each other. It is our character that will determine our future, not economists, scientists, billionaires, technology or politicians and our character is a reflection of our values, the things we love most...

Winter has officially arrived on the farm, temperatures are getting down towards 4 degrees in the early hours just before sunrise, although we are yet to see our first frost. The winter veg is looking great considering the amount of rainfall it has endured, but our successional crop of winter veg has come under attack by the growing number of Bower Birds that seem to find our farm one of the nicer places to live within the Lorne Valley...

Last week we harvested, packed and delivered more veg boxes across the Mid North Coast than we ever have before in our farm's 5 year history. We are blown away by the number of new customers joining our family of food lovers each and every week. It's hard to express in words how thankful we all are for your support....

Open days, like Hasting Farm Gate Tour changes the game! Being able to have the farm open to you all, creates an experience, and a space to not only meet in the real, but also get amongst the food you eat! It’s a great tour! See where your food is grown, hear about the farmers story, ask questions and learn about how they do what they do.

It's Saturday morning and as I write this I am close to the fire watching the rain fall slightly at an angle outside of our living room window. The southerly buster has arrived overnight and the temperature has plummeted. The morning has been spent chasing the neighbours cows out of our fields of vegetables where the soft muddy ground is allowing them to do quite a bit of damage. I also had to finish off planting the cauliflowers...

Thanks to all you legends who support us, little old Sohip has had to find a bigger coolroom to store your veggies in and allow us to feed this growing community. We built the last coolroom just over a year ago now, thinking it would be plenty big enough to keep things cool for the next few years. How wrong we were, 12 months later and we are once again out of room...