Where it all began.

I call myself a farmer, because there really isn't a word that properly describes everything I do. My daughter took her friend for a tour around the property recently and showed her everything I grow and produce, and her friend was shocked. She said "your mum really does all this?" You bet your ass I do... that's why I'm so exhausted!

I'm sure that those on a 3000 acre sheep station or farmer with a 1000 acres or corn or wheat, might laugh at that term and say, "that's not farming". Just the same as many in the Beekeeping industry don't view me as a Commercial Beekeeper because I don't run a few hundred or a few thousand hives!

None the less, I'm growing stuff, I'm breeding cows, I'm farming chickens and selling eggs, and I'm producing honey for sale on a commercial basis and selling it at retail outlets. Then I also make cordials, dukkah, bath salts, salt rubs, wheat bags, jams, chutneys, the list goes on. So whilst, none of my ventures are huge in scale, they are all agricultural farming ventures non the less, so I think I have the right to call myself a farmer.

I never thought farming is where I would end up. In school, I wanted to be a lawyer, but I did not get the results needed. So I thought I'd try primary teaching. Big mistake. Then I thought, I'd join the Police - it was as close to a Lawyer as I could find (plus I could drive fast cars or more so drive cars fast...) 11yrs later, I found myself with severe PTSD and Major Depression (whole other book on that one).

So I had to find another way to live life outside of the Police. I bounced around in several jobs for a good 10yrs, battling PTSD at every corner, then when developers started to build around our 2 acre sanctuary, we made the call to move further a-field. A whole 4km mind you. In 2019, we found a 25 acre plot of degraded land with little infrastructure (apart from the house, a shed and a basic boundary fence) and decided it was far enough away from civilisation to call home. Never imaging that one day, I'd be working from 'home' and I'd call that farming.

My 'farming' journey started with a small garden and with a few chickens and got myself a beehive (one lonely Flow Hive). We used recycled materials to build the chicken coop for a total cost of $20 and then pretty quickly we found ourselves with too many eggs, way too much produce and bucket loads of honey. I started home preserving making jams and chutneys with all the produce however, Facebook and Gumtree didn't allow you post eggs for sale (pretty stupid) so I decided to start attending the Local Earth Market in Maitland and sell my excess produce, honey and eggs. My farming venture was born.

Fast forward 6 years, we (hubby and I - when he's not working off farm) have been approved through Maitland council as an agritourism business, we have a commercial kitchen onsite, we produce honey, eggs and produce, plus we have a Native Inspired product range of cordials, dukkah, bath salts, salt rubs, wheat bags, jams and whole lot more. We supply beeswax to a local candle maker, honey and other products to retail outlets, we co-ordinate the Slow Food Bee Pollination Project, train new beekeepers and help restock the Hunter after the devasting Varroa outbreak. Farm Tours are our next item to tick off...if only there were more hours in the day.. or I could clone myself!