I had coffee with a good friend last night. This woman is a very special person, what she has endured inspires me relentlessly. She believes farming was the reason she was put on this earth. Her connection with her cows can only be compared to a mother's connection with her children. This one page newsletter is nowhere near enough to cover even the briefest history of trials and tribulations in her life. But what I want to share with you is just a small piece of her story, so that it may inspire you as it has inspired me. The end of the 2019 drought concluded with the most severe bushfires this country has ever experienced. Smoke trails so large and widespread, the plumes covering our vast dry country could be seen from outer space. Within this period lay the final moments that would have likely broken most of us regular folk...

Finally our new coolroom is up and running!! We had it commissioned last Monday and it’s running perfectly. This is a major milestone for Sohip and will not only allow us to grow more organic food for our community but save a lot of back breaking double handling. Our new coolroom is also large enough to pack your orders, which means no more 3am starts to beat the heat. We take so much pride in making sure your fruit and veg is as fresh as possible and for over 3 years now we have been rising out of bed well before the birds have woken up, to harvest your veg and pack your orders in the cool morning hours ensuring that freshness you're all use to.

I spent the morning with Hannam Vale Public School last week. What a pleasure it was to be in front of so many curious kids and their questions. One question in particular had me thinking for the rest of the day. One of the kids not older than 9 had raised her hand and held it there for quite some time. Finally when it was her turn to ask a question she said “how much land do you need to be a farmer?”. My answer was rushed as we were almost out of time, I told her that if you had access to a really popular farmers market and farmed 1 acre impeccably...

Let’s pretend we live in a world where priority is given to cheap food. Let’s take this notion very seriously, let’s take it all the way to its end goal. That is to say that ‘cheap food’ is valued more than the continuation of the family farm, our bustling regional towns, a decentralised food system and allowing any child to grow food for a livelihood should they choose too when they become adults. What does this future look like? Well apart from some regional areas that become tourist destinations due to their unique natural beauty and proximity to city centres. The rest of the country will be handed over to corporations to grow food and fiber the cheapest way possible. Because this is what they do best.

As I write this week's newsletter I’m sitting on a small hill which overlooks our largest dam. The sun has just ducked down behind the tallest tallowoods and a rather large camphor laurel tree. I’m sitting here waiting for the last crop of winter vegetables to be irrigated. We don’t yet have an automatic timer so it’s a good excuse to sit in the field and just admire all that is going on. Our calendar is still telling us it’s winter, but as I rest on a soft patch of clover, I am witnessing what seems to look and feel a lot more like Spring...

I would like to deepen our connection. This is not just about food, farming and our planet, these things have become so fixated in our collective minds that we have forgotten why we care about these issues in the first place. We don't care about living longer so we can be the only ones alive, we don't care about saving the planet so we can sit around the campfire by ourselves. What meaning does any of this stuff actually have without each other?

It’s a wet old week here on the farm and despite the rain I can feel the subtle changes in heat and humidity when working in the field. Whilst out in the fields I witnessed the first of the White Cabbage Moth appear after it’s winter hiatus, she fluttered from one plant to the next fastidiously placing a single tiny cream coloured egg on the underside of each leaf. In four days time each of her eggs will hatch out a single little hungry green caterpillar. These voracious eaters know it is their time to shine and unless we keep their numbers under control, they will devastate our crops before summer is bearing down upon us.

Aussie farmers are just barely surviving by the skin of their teeth. Since the year 2000 over 39,000 farms have disappeared. That’s roughly a third of all farms in Australia and that number continues to decline today. I fear with the climate becoming more unpredictable, the droughts lasting longer and the floods more intense and frequent, may spell the end for many farmers already struggling to survive...

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...