One of Southern Harvest’s key goals is to connect people with where their food comes from. And farm tours are a fantastic way for us to do that. We aim to run several farm tours a year, showcasing different food growing regions and the wide range of businesses in our network.
On Sunday 28 August we ran a multi-farm day tour around the Tarago area: around 25 minutes north-east of Bungendore, and half an hour south of Goulburn. The Gundungurra people are the traditional custodians of this area.
Participants in the tour came from Canberra, Bungendore, Braidwood, Yass, Goulburn and even as far as Milton (near the South Coast).
We started at An Alternative Life Learning Farm where Debbie and Kieran walked us around their farm which they hope to set up as a teaching facility (permission from the local council pending). Debbie has a wealth of knowledge about climate change resilience and self sufficient farming, and Kieran has lots of horticultural experience from his previous job working in native plant nurseries. They grow fruit trees, vegetables, herbs, flowers, and keep chickens and ducks who contribute eggs to their table and do the lions share of the composting work. Debbie had some brilliant insights into how cost-effective and easy it can be to build garden beds and shade houses using recycled materials and some handy skills with tools. She shared her plans for climate change contingencies: like planting a variety of plants that can tolerate extreme cold or extreme heat in order to ensure crops from one or the other no matter the conditions. They are also experimenting with Australian fresh-water mussels in a water filtration system, and are working to capture and save water for dry years.
Alternative Life Farm will soon be selling herbal teas called “Calm Your Farm!” We were lucky enough to try some delicious lemon verbena tea with a delicious cake for our morning tea before we headed off to Bent Shed.
At Bent Shed Produce we were immediately distracted by a very cute Maremma puppy which had recently joined the family. Fiona keeps chickens and goats on the farm and the maremma dogs help to keep them safe from predators like foxes or eagles. Once we’d all had some pats and cuddles we went for a walk around the property and Fiona pointed out lots of edible native plants along the way, Fiona has a wealth of knowledge about edible plants (but confesses that non-edibles are mostly just “pretty leafy things” to her!) Bent Shed Produce sells native flavours in the form of dried herbs and spices. We had a lovely tasting of several products, using popcorn dipped in olive oil and then into the spices. A few of us also had a delicious hot drink made from coffee and wattleseed.
Fiona speaks passionately about the need for more people to be growing and eating Australian native foods as these plants are naturally resilient in the Australian landscape, and the cultural significance of them should be preserved. She also acknowledged that these plants and the traditional knowledge surrounding them are the ‘intellectual property’ of Indigenous peoples and they should be at the forefront of and benefitting from this growing industry. Along the way we experienced the fresh berry scents of the forestberry or strawberry gum leaves, and witness the prolific growth of warrigal greens. We discussed the exciting possibilities of native grains and the work being done by Bruce Pascoe, black duck foods and others in that area.
After a delicious lunch of potimarron soup sprinkled with some of Fiona’s pepperberry salt, we departed for the last stop on our tour.
Corang Estate Vineyard is a small scale plot that produces award winning cool climate wines. Michael and Jill have been making Corang wines since 2016/17 and have focussed on making small batches of high quality wines. On a walk around the vineyard Michael explained how they’ve changed their pruning techniques to avoid diseases and to ensure that all the grapes will ripen in anticipation of another wet la niña summer. During winter they run a small herd of sheep in the vineyard to control grass and weed growth, and to fertilise along the way. This means that they can avoid using any inputs as their soil health is extremely good.
As the sun started to set we enjoyed a wine tasting during the golden hour looking at the magical view. The Corang Estate wines are absolutely delicious: their sparkling white and the rosé were both favourites of mine, and their reserve Shiraz has won so many accolades and awards that they have very little stock left! They’re looking forward to a good year (without smoke taint, hail damage, or disease) and are optimistic about the health of their vineyard. Michael reminded us of the saying “good wine is made in the vineyard” meaning: your wine is only as good as your grapes! So working sustainably and growing with the goal of quality, not quantity, is key to making a top notch drop.
It was a lovely way to finish the day as we sat together chatting and tasting. It felt like everyone on the tour had got to know each other a little and there were chats about collaborations, keeping up, visiting each others businesses and seeing each other again.
If you’d like to come on a Southern Harvest Association farm tour make sure you’re following us on social media or have signed up to one of our newsletters.
