Spring 2019
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Pear Blossoms
Our Winter break is well and truly over - as we enter this long daylight time of our season. Over the next 22 weeks, we delight, revel and make best use of our 13+ hours of sunlight each day. Our plants are solar converters - transforming sunlight, carbon dioxide and water into liquid glucose and oxygen. The process also produces fixed carbon which is secreted through the roots into the soil. Plants fully utilizing their photosynthetic process are not only producing nutrient dense food for us humans, they are also taking carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and transforming it into soil based carbon stores. Pretty amazing - really! And how lucky are we humans to eat plants which have truly used soil, light, carbon dioxide and water to grow and thrive!
polytunnel recovered folowing a winter storm which reduced it to hoops
100ft Polytunnel in Front Paddock needing new covers, roll-up sides and doors after being blown away by July windstorm - August 2019
Polytunnel repaired with new skin, new roll up sides and new doors - Spring crops happy - September 2019
Heirloom and speciality Tomatoes inthe propogation house
The propagation house has been full since early August with seeds germinating - this year with many more seeds grown and harvested here on the farm - which has been exciting. The blanket of green manure crops that has covered our farm over Winter is rapidly turning into beds being planted out with these seedlings…. everything is bursting into life.
Peter mulching a winter green manure crop ahead of sowing a summer green manure. our autumn brassica crops are fed by two green manure plantings!
onions, carrots, beetroot, fennel, orach, spinach, radish, rocket with netting to protect brassica crops from the diamond back moth - green manure crops, flowering hedgerows and zucchinis under moveable tunnels - October 2019
Our CSA harvest will begin in November! We will be growing a smaller number of weekly/fortnightly boxes again this year and we have put those for sale on our website in the Farm Store. We have split our seasonal blocks up into the same shorter commitments - to try and work in with School Terms, Christmas Holidays etc - our first 6 week box season will start Friday 15th November and run through until Friday 20th December. If you would like to get a box for this 6 week season please purchase it via our online store - you have the option of a weekly or fortnightly box. All boxes are available by Farm Pick Up only - Friday 10am to 6pm.
Butter lettuces, cherry tomatoes and cucumbers
Heirloom tomatoes in the polytunnel
We have applied for Demeter biodynamic certification - which includes being certified to the Australian National Organic and Biodynamic Standard. The application involves us documenting all of our procedures and the continued traceback trail is laborious but provides complete transparency in how we implement the Australian Demeter BioDynamic method. Biodynamic growing practices are minimal input systems which promote and support the natural processes which allow plants to truly photosynthesize. One of the main differences between organic growing and biodynamic growing is the use of water soluble inputs. In a biodynamic system, food crops feed directly from sunlight, air, water and soil without the use of water soluble fertilizers - organic or synthetic.
We have entered into certification to deepen the trust our CSA members and the chefs for whom we grow have in our produce and to certify the seed we are producing, offering validity to a genetic history in building soil based relationships for plant health and resilience. We are thrilled about backing our soil management and growing practices with an international recognized symbol (Demeter).
Caterpillar tunnel with young green manure crop in foreground - September 2019
The way your food and fibre are grown can be a solution to climate change through carbon draw down. Transition Farm began on degraded soil. Through increasing diversity in native and perennial plantings, using green manure crops to build humus in the soil, conscious and minimal tillage practices ( incorporating green manures in a gentle manner which allows the growth and proliferation of soil life ), and crop rotation (moving different plant families throughout the farm in order to grow nutrient dense food while creating pest and disease balance), we continue to support a diverse biosphere which produces nutrient dense food with minimal inputs while offering native green corridors for birds, insects, possums, reptiles and other fauna and a lot of different trees, shrubs, grasses, legumes, vegetables - plant life to pull carbon from our atmosphere. There are other farms doing this as well. As a community, we can share these farms with each other - supporting them supports the great work they are doing for the health of our planet!!
Demeter Australia has a resource page which lists many of their growers Australia wide and I am sure there are many, many more farmers doing great things. I encourage all of you to start speaking about this climate solution and inspire everyone to join in through making choices about how their food and fibre is produced!!
If you would like to learn more, the Australian Demeter Bio-Dynamic website lists Introductory Field Days designed for farmers, small scale growers and home gardeners, offering an overview of the Australian Demeter Biodynamic Method and hands on practice in implementation. You can fill out a form to be receive more information. They also have great reading and video resources!
Green manure crops amidst a diverse border of fruit treees, perennial and Annual flowers and herbs and a multi species green manure crop - feeding soil life and drawing down carbon
Seed carrots taste tested and ready for planting!
We continue to try our best to produce great tasting food extending this criteria into our seed crops. We have strict criteria for seed crops depending on the crop! For these carrots, for example, we considered germination vigor, growth vigor, top size, root color, root taste, vigor through climate extremes (37C days), resilience against carrot maggot, root size and straightness, core size. Genetic history is a reflection of transmuted traits and ingrained resilience. We are selectively breeding for many traits which we as market growers deem important!
One of our 6 Warre european bee colonies
Our fields feel dynamic - full of life and ever evolving. Our native plantings, hedgerows and corridors are thriving. Our European bees are very healthy, expanding, foraging on the tea tree blooms, our bi-annual seed crops are growing well and our poly tunnel and field plantings are looking great. Here we grow as we commence another growing season.
Hope you are all experiencing Springs revival!
Robin and Peter.
