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The Dirt – june 2024

Welcome to the June 2024 edition of our monthly newsletter, The Dirt, where we dish the dirt on the latest comings and goings of Sprout Tasmania.

CEO UPDATE

Each quarter seems to come around so quickly, and it is time again that Ollie is asking me for an update for The Dirt!  Love your work Ollie! 

I wanted to give you a quick snapshot of the work we have been undertaking over the last few months, and I want to encourage all of you to get in touch if you have thoughts or ideas about any of this.

  • Animal welfare taskforce – we meet every fortnight for 2-3 hours, and the group is working collaboratively and progressing on the work expected under the leadership of Felicity Richards as our Chair. If you have any thoughts you would like me to take to the Taskforce, please as always, get in touch. 
  • Forum of Rural Stakeholders – this is a quarterly meeting that brings together many representatives from across the state in agriculture and supply chain, as well as Federal counterparts.  I represent you as small scale farmers, so if you ever have anything you would like me to take to this forum, again, please reach out.
  • Fundraising – Sprout is working hard to foster and reaffirm relationships with organisations that are values aligned, that are keen to support the work that we do. If you have any connections, please reach out.
  • Land Access Toolkit – we are continuing work on this project, which we hope to have finalised by the end of June. 
  • Meat processing statewide scan – this project is kicking off, with the project looking at service-kill processing around the state, what the current state of play is and how we can look to various models for the future of this side of the industry to enable fit for purpose services for our Tassie farmers. Along with this project comes conversations with Southern Tasmanian Association of Meat Producers (STAMP), other producers and State Government about the current situation at Cradoc Abattoir. 
  • Minister Howlett Liberal Primary Industries meeting – I had our first face to face, one on one meeting with Jane Howlett to discuss what we do at Sprout, what is important to us and our producers and how we feel we can work with the State Government on embedding long term change in our local food system here in Tassie. We will be meeting again in June, so get in touch again if you have things you think I should be aware of.
  • Meeting with Janie Finlay, Labor Party Shadow Primary Industries – I met again with Janie post Agfest, to talk about how we can move forward on our collaborative work in the food system for the benefit of small-scale agriculture. We asked for an audacious goal of sitting down with all the departments that have a touch point with food – Agriculture, Health, Education and Communities.  Janie has risen to the challenge and coordinated to bring together these Shadow Ministers from her Party and we are scheduled to meet in June! 
  • Grant applications – we are forever grant writing…..does it ever stop!?  Nope! We will just keep plugging on! 
  • Tas Hospitality Association collaboration – local food on local plates; this project will hopefully come to fruition with the team at THA. Watch this space!
  • I think that’s enough for now!!  No wonder the time is going quickly. 

Stay safe in this wind, and I sincerely hope that you have experienced some precipitation where you are on this amazing island of lutruwita. 
Until next time, Jen 

in our paddock

Cross Pollinate 2024

So, it’s not long to go before the first of our Cross Pollinate events.

As you will have seen from our email a few days ago, we are at a crossroads with planning for the Launceston event.

Sometimes our good intentions just don’t work out, but we aren’t giving up on it quite yet. We have some amazing speakers at Launceston and we know it will be an amazing gathering. So book your tickets and join us on June 16 for a day of connecting and learning, and hear from some incredible people including:

  • Elliott Gee from Golden Brown Composting
  • Bec Rumble from Lone Goose Farm
  • The wonderful educator Robyn Hewson
  • Dave Holman, a guru on waste management
  • Christina Giudici who is working on an interactive session on biochar
  • Lydia Hana, who has some fascinating research of the drivers and barriers for adopting value-adding technologies
  • And if all goes to plan, Joel Orchard from Young Farmers Connect will be joining us. Just hearing Joel speak alone is worth the ticket cost!
  • I (Ollie) have also been chatting to the legend that is JM Fortier, and you will be able to watch the recorded video.
  • Plus we have a panel facilitated by Felicity Richard and featuring Robin Tait and Liz Mahnken, where we will delve into the beauty of persistence.

And don’t forget our Hobart event on June 23! Here’s who we have locked in to speak there:

  • Felice Jacka, director of the Food and Mood centre at Deakin University, discussing her research into the links between regenerative ag and human health.
  • Mitch Thiessen, head gardener at the Agrarian Kitchen, discussing the need for data to prove out the claims of regen ag.
  • Peter Gilmore, chef, discussing the drivers for chefs to support small-scale and local farmers.
  • Sam Bartels, agribusiness strategist discussing the development of tech to measure nutrient density.
  • Keeley Bytheway and David Simmons, market gardeners, discussing the power of collaboration between farmers.
  • Ben Shaw from Farm My School in Victoria, discussing calls to action and the power of collaboration between health, industry, and service sectors.
  • Jo Poulton, UK farmer, discussing the model of Basic Income for Farmers.
  • Leah Galvin, on institutional procurement of local food and the opportunities for farmers
  • Plus a panel starring Alana Mann, Matthew Evans and Sam Perkins.

Membership auto-renewals

If you like membership structure news, then you’ve come to the right spot!
We have recently conducted a review of the process for joining as a member of Sprout, and at the start of July we will be introducing auto-renewals for all new members. I know, welcome to the 21st century Sprout! 
So what does this mean? Well, let me bullet point some of the highlights:
Memberships will still last for 12 months, but will no longer run on a financial year basis which means we are removing the pro-rata fees.
Instead, you can join as a member at any point in the year, for just $60.
After 12 months you will be notified that your membership will automatically roll over.
So, no pesky reminders saying your membership is running out and asking you to renew. It’s now set and forget!
If you do decide to opt out, the process is simple to do via our supporter portal. The link to this are on our website.
It is important to note that this will only happen for members joining from July 1 2024. Membership for current members will not automatically renew on June 30 this and you will have to sign up again as has been the standard procedure up to this point.
We are also working on some additional member benefits which we hope to announce soon. See, told you this was good 🙂

Agfest round up

Gosh, it already seems so long since we were packing down at Agfest as part of our collaboration we called Securing Tasmania’s Food and Farming Future.
We were joined our good friends Eat Well Tasmania, Leah Galvin Consulting, Regenerative Agriculture Network Tasmania, Tasmanian Produce Collective, School Food Matters and Loaves and Fishes, and had the opportunity to chat about our individual missions, as well as the collaboration.
Thank you to everyone for coming to see us, and to all the wonderful organisations we caught up with over the three days.

The Sprout Producer Program – latest field days

A couple of weekends ago we set out for the 4th and 5th field days of the year. They both took place in and around the Huon and Channel and allowed us to see 5 of the 12 producers that are on this year’s program.
We started off at the stunning Underwood Park, where we saw first hand the work that Ange and Josh are doing to regenerate their property. We heard all about their journey into farming in Tasmania, and the wins and the challenges of the last 12 months. They explained the process for acquiring cattle and how they set about selling beef boxes direct to consumer. Ange and Josh are such considered thinkers, they know their business inside out, they recognise their strengths and weaknesses, where to improve, and it’s clear their confidence as farmers and food producers has grown hugely in the last year.

From there we drove to Mountain River, to visit Thomas and Nanette at Appinoka Regenerative Farming. We all knew they had a lot going on, so to finally see all the different enterprises first hand was a great experience. I’m not sure we’ve ever seen a can do attitude quite like Thomas and Nanette’s, and it was clear they see the joy in everything they do. It’s clearly translating to the quality of the strawberries, eggs, and veg they produce! 

The last stop of the day was Marshall Roberts at Valleyfield Farm. It’s always a pleasure to visit Marshall, and once again he gave his fantastic presentation on Regenerative Farming 2.0 before taking us on a quick paddock walk. Huge thanks to Marshall and family for hosting us!
The next day saw us start at Gardners Bay Farm, with Phil and Jim (featured below). Fuelled by coffee, pretzels, and other amazing treats all made by Jim’s partner Marie, we heard how Gardeners Bay Farm was born, how they ended up working together, and how the business has evolved. Phil and Jim make such a great team – both different, yet sort of the same. Passion is an overused word, but in their case its perfectly appropriate. The love for soil, for food, for small-scale farming, and localised food systems is evident is everything they do. The tour of their market garden was inspiring, as was the dive into Korean Natural Farming and observation methods that they both treated us to.

From there we drove to Rising Farm, run by Emma Bowen. I’ve not been able to hide the fact that I was a big fan of Emma’s work at Pocket City Farms, the urban market garden she founded in Sydney with partner Zag. So it was a real treat to visit their property, and to hear Emma’s plans for the farm. Moving from a small urban market garden to an acreage in southern Tassie is a massive change. Hazelnut trees will soon be planted, they have a small mob of cattle grazing the slopes, all of which means Emma is learning all about farming again. We are looking forward to seeing what the future brings!

Last up, at the end of another huge weekend, was Keeley and the stunning market garden she runs at Fat Pig Farm. We walked and talked, meandered and mused, hearing from Keeley about the history of the garden, how she came to work there, and what it’s like now she leases it, growing veg for her own customers instead of the restaurant (she’s just ticked over 12 months running it as her own – happy anniversary Keeley!). Keeley then discussed the Sparrow Foot Collective, a collaboration between herself and Sparrow Foot Farm, where they have combined both their customer bases. This is enabling growth and support, and Keeley spoke wonderfully about all the benefits this partnership is bringing them. You will be able to hear Keeley and Sparrow Foot Farm’s Dave Simmons speak all about this at Cross Pollinate!

A massive thank you to all the farmers we visited, and to all the participants of the program this year, for their contributions over a fabulous weekend. 

SPP 2024 producer feature – Gardners Bay Farm

Jim Zerella and Phil O’Donnell are our featured SPP 2024 producers for this month. Gardners Bay Farm is a developing, multi-species, integrated farm that showcases how efficient and productive a well managed, small scale agricultural system can be. Their extensive market garden and orchard is situated on 2.4 acres and supplies to restaurants and businesses in the Huon Valley. They also run a small veggie box programme for locals.
The focus at Gardners Bay Farm is to encourage soil biology and build healthy soils to grow healthy plants that provide nutrient dense, high quality fruits, veg and livestock.
Phil loves the science behind biological farming methods and has integrated a number of methods to nurture the soil, nutrients and production of our fruit and vegetables – without the use of any harmful pesticides or fertilisers. 
In Jim’s words, “as someone who has transitioned from a chef to a farmer, I have grown to understand that the ultimate foundation for a flourishing farm lies within our soil. The art of cultivating sustainable, nutrient-dense crops, and a genuinely delightful harvest hinges on the attentive cultivation of the soil and the biodiversity with in it.”
Their farming decisions are widely influenced and tweaked to work in harmony with the natural ecology of Southern Tasmania. From Permaculture principles to Korean Natural Farming methods, the holistic management between the farm and the restaurant is a collaborative relationship that informs all of our farming choices and benefits from the expert knowledge of our farming team.
They aim to deliver an interesting and diverse mix of fresh seasonal food and their organic, biological farming methods help them to build a resilient, regenerative farm ecosystem that will only improve with time.
 



You can find details of all this year’s participants here.
And information on all the SPP alumni here.