Grace Springs Farm in Kulnura | Agriculture

Grace Springs Farm

Locality: Kulnura

Phone: +61 425 258 699

Address: 1128 George Downes Drive 2250 Kulnura, NSW, Australia

Website: http://www.gracespringsfarm.net/

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25.01.2022 What does this farmer do on a day off the farm? Visit another farm of course!!! I had such a great day yesterday visiting Brett & Nici at Limestone Permaculture. They have an amazing property at Stroud, growing an incredible amount of food on just 1 acre. It is so inspiring & they are both just so generous in sharing their knowledge - and Nici's ginger bread cake was just like nothing else I have ever eaten. Brett is as passionate about implementing multi functional systems... as I am about finding a new pasture species! Their infrastructure & systems are just so clever. It was such a lovely drive out there too at just under 2 hours from the Central Coast. The drive along the Bucketts Way was superb - driving through all the different farms. I just loved it. If you get a chance book into one of their tours. You will have such a great day out. We are in a planning phase right now, working out what we need to do with the farm to make it run more efficiently & productively (whilst increasing biodiversity & improving soils). We are doing lots of research & getting lots of ideas. Limestone Permaculture gave me SOOOO many ideas for our vegetable gardens moving forward. We are wanting a garden that the students from The Lakes College can be involved in on their weekly visits, is chemical free & low on maintenance. Really looking forward to putting plans into action! Lots more work to come for our working bees!

25.01.2022 For the last 2 weeks We have had students from The Lakes College (Youth Off the Streets) visiting the farm, and we have had so much fun with them! They are with us to learn about bees and eco-systems and they have been helping us out with some of our daily farm chores. This week they got to cuddle ducklings & then yesterday we found newly hatched ducklings, which was super cool. For me the highlight has been having the students work with my little Guernsey calves. Lita is ...nearly 6 months & Lyric is only 4 weeks old. The students have been working with them little by little each visit, getting them used to different people & teaching them to lead. The students really have done an outstanding job working with the girls & my little ones have just been amazing. It has been wonderful seeing the students (& teachers - Fiona! ) try new things, get up close with our animals & learn more about farming on the Coast. And we have all laughed so much! It has been brilliant. We are all about reconnecting people with animals & farming - but this week has been special at a whole different level. Photo credits: Amy & Fiona - The Lakes College See more

23.01.2022 We are getting organised!! All of our Private Afternoon Chores Tour dates are now up for March & April. If you are looking for a fun, interactive & informative outing with friends or family then you will love our Afternoon Chores Tours. It really is such a wonderful time of year to be on the farm. The price allows for up to 8 people. (If you have a larger group you would like to bring along - just message us & we will get you sorted). We also have some date up for our Sch...ool Holiday Morning Chores Tours (3rd & 5th April) - BUT - we need to add in more dates.... What day/date would you like to see us add in? See more

23.01.2022 Remember how we were crossing our fingers & toes that we would have ducklings for our School Holiday tours? Well we have had 7 little ducklings hatch this week!! They are so cute! . The timing couldn't be more perfect. Our Morning Chores Tours have sold out for this holidays, but our Private Afternoon Tours are still available. (link in comments). It looks like the weather is going to be great for these holidays . Get out & support local businesses where ever you can!

23.01.2022 Earlier in the year I was interviewed as a part of The Big Shift for Small Farms Podcast. In this episode I am talking about the instigator for our big move from Sydney suburbia to regenerative farming on the Central Coast. I also chat about the Holistic Management course I did with Inside Outside Management and how Holistic Decision Making helps us on the farm & in life. In this podcast I am joined by Brian Wehlburg & Colin Seis (IKR!!!). Listen carefully & you will hear Co...lin talk about why we need more #femalefarmers !! This is just one in a series of podcasts & the whole series is wonderful & so imformative. This podcast chats with real deal small farmers & is so worth listening to. Thanks to Grow Love Project for putting this all together, Greater Sydney Local Land Services & National Landcare Program. We are running our very own Small Farms Workshop again in Nov. If you are looking to be self sufficient, start up a small farm business or if you are thinking about buying acreage we'd love to chat. Send us a message & we can send you some more info. The link to the podcast series is in the comments below. #smallscalefarming #holisticmanagement See more

23.01.2022 Our School Holiday tours are open for bookings! Isn't it great COIVD restrictions have eased in time for the school holidays? Each of our tours will be limited to 20 people per group. We will be running Morning Chores Tours across the holidays - this is a great way for the kids to experience a little bit of farm life & connect with our beautiful animals. The Morning Chores Tour dates listed will be the only ones we are offering over the holidays - so don't leave it too late to book! One tour is already half full! Event link is in comments below.

22.01.2022 As happy as a pig in mud........ I love being able to see where these old sayings came from. To watch the pigs creating mini wallows, enjoying themselves, doing what pigs naturally do & covering themselves in mud is so good to see. Their contentment is palpable. We have only recently added pigs to our farm dynamics & we are finding them to be lots of fun - as well as being on quite the learning curve. These pigs are living the life as they are rotated through our pastures ea...ting grass, digging up the ground, creating wallows, and dropping their urine & dung. Once they are moved to the next paddock, the area where they were is allowed to recover - that means no other animals on it for a few months. They add fertility to our soil & their digging stirs up the seed bank in the soil so hopefully new species of grasses will start to grow. Biodiversity is what we are aiming for here on our farm. A robust ecosystem with as many different farm animals (& their poo!), grasses, trees, plants, birds and insects as possible. It really is a wonderfully rewarding way to farm. See more

22.01.2022 We often have three generations in a family join us on a farm tour, but yesterday we had a first.......FOUR generations in the one family on one of our farm tours! How cool is that? We love having extended family groups doing our farm tours together. The tours bring back so many reminders for so many people of their childhood chores. The stories that the grandparents share about their childhoods on the tours are incredible. They are stories that need to be told, heard & unde...rstood. I think a lot of the older ways of growing your own food and working together are ways that we need to return to. Our farm tours help to give the grandchildren a context, to be able to comprehend their grandparent's stories. We have had a wonderful run of School Holiday tours. We are so sorry to everyone that missed out. We are a working farm and can only fit in so many tours and still get our farm work done. We run our farm tours all year round. We have spots in a tour at the end of August where you can come along & see our little calf Lyric. More spots for September tours will be going up soon. Connecting people with animals and getting folks thinking about where their food comes from, and how it is farmed, is something we are very passionate about! We'd love to see you soon. :) See more

20.01.2022 The Easter School Holidays are nearly here! We have just put up all of our School Holiday Farm tour dates. We have Morning Chores Tours where you join a group and come along with us as we feed the animals & see the cow being milked. And we have Private Afternoon Tours where you organise your own group and come along as we do our Afternoon Chores feeding run. On the Afternoon tour you have the farm, the farmer & the animals all to yourselves. You can see the pigs being fe...d, feed the chooks and ducks, collect the eggs, pat a calf & cuddle chicks. As an added bonus our gorgeous Melody is due to calve during the school holidays. Autumn is such a wonderful time to be out on the farm connecting with the animals & nature. Head over to our Events page to make a booking (link in comments). If you have any questions just drop us a message. We'd love to show you around. See more

19.01.2022 Our School Holiday Tour dates are now available for bookings! In the October school holidays you can meet our little calves, Lita, Lyric & Havana, watch the pigs being fed, feed the chooks, cuddle a chick, see Lola being milked &......hopefully, crossing fingers and toes, we will have more ducklings! This school holidays you can join us on our Morning Chores Tours, or you can have us all to yourselves and do a Private Afternoon Chores Tour. We are a small, working farm. Ou...r farm is something like the farms your grandparents grew up with - a little bit of everything, all in small numbers, with wonderfully cared for animals, in a farming system where everything plays a part in contributing to the overall health of the farm & ecosystem. We love having an opportunity to show people around our farm & connect the younger ones with our animals. It really is very special. There is also lots to see and do in the area. Join us for a tour, grab morning tea at Kulnura One-Stop Jerry's Cafe or Angel Sussurri in Yarramalong Do your veggie shopping at Kulnura Fruit Shop. Pop into Bumble Hill Shed Shop. Visit Mangrove Dam or Somersby Falls and grab lunch at Mangrove Mountain Memorial Club and Golf Course. If you are visiting us on a weekend then make sure you stop in at the Mountain Growers Market in Peats Ridge. Bookings are essential and can be made through our Events page (link in comments). Looking forward to seeing you!!

18.01.2022 We put together a few tips for you on keeping your Chooks cool in a heat wave. So many people have been lucky enough to add laying hens to their backyard through Covid. This weekend's heatwave is something you may not have experienced with your chickens before. There are a few things you can do to make your ladies as comfortable as possible. Shade Change their water regularly and make sure that the water is cool. Poultry don’t like to drink warm water. Ice cubes in... the water Frozen peas and corn to eat A light sprinkler, or a little mist with a hose every now and then if they need it. The girls will pant, their beaks may be open and their wings will be up when they are hot. Their egg production may drop for a few days after a severe weather change as well. Keep an eye on your girls, and do what you can to keep them cool and comfortable. And make sure you keep cool too. Let us know if you have any questions.

18.01.2022 From our son's Leukaemia diagnosis to buying our farm took us seven years. Seven years of reading, learning, planning, saving & growing food in our suburban backyard in Sydney. We had always talked about moving to a property one day, but our son's illness made everything seem so much more urgent. I so wish we had of moved to the farm sooner, but it was a big move and a big decision for our family. We had no idea if it would all work out, it was a big financial commitment a...nd we were moving to an area where we knew no one. Fast forward another 7 years and we have achieved so much as a family. We have given our children wonderful experiences with animals, space around them and opportunities to explore their interests & talents they wouldn't have had in the city. Tony has gone from IT Corporate guy to Beekeeper & is now teaching others how to keep bees, and can turn his hand to nearly anything that needs doing on the farm. We are keeping animals we knew nothing about not too long ago - the constant learning in farming is just amazing. We have just registered our first two Guernsey heifers under our own stud prefix & are collecting our own A2 milk on farm. We have opened up our farm to schools & families so others can enjoy this place & our animals & learn more about local farming. We produce food for our local community - a community of amazing conscious consumers (we so love you guys!). And we are in awe of the diverse & robust ecosystem around us. Watching new plant species growing, seeing birds nesting & growing grass to sequester carbon is an amazing feeling to know you are playing your part in a positive environmental future for the next generation. This is definitely not an easy lifestyle choice - but it is a very rewarding one. If you would like to learn more about buying & running a small farm (we only have 26 acres!!), keeping animals, & juggling farming with family we would love to share our experiences with you in our Small Farms Workshop on 8th Nov. We only run this workshop once or twice a year. Do you have a dream of moving to a farm? What is the biggest concern that is holding you back? Comment below or shoot us a PM. We'd love to chat. Workshop link in comments below. See more

17.01.2022 We’ve identified a new breed of small bird on the farm! The Golden Headed Cisticola. Very exciting stuff. These guys are a species of warbler & usually inhabit areas of long, dense grass. I love that our farming methods create an environment for this kind of biodiversity. The previous owners of our farm were avid bird watchers & left us a list of around 60 different species of birds sighted on the farm & this little guy wasn’t one of them. ... Here he is out singing his heart out to attract the ladies! Thanks to Sean from @alembry_guernseys & @feather_as_a_light for the help in Identifying him. See more

17.01.2022 We are a small farm - but we are a working farm! We are working hard to prove that small scale farming can make a big impact. We run Farm Tours, Small Farm Workshops & raise Pasture Raised Produce. With so many things on the go we thought we had better help you find your way around... :) FARM TOURS... For our latest Farm Tour dates visit our Eventbrite page. If you would like to to organise a private tour or book a birthday party tour send us a message or give us a call. https://www.eventbrite.com.au/o/grace-springs-farm-13468319 BEEKEEPING NATURALLY WORKSHOPS What kind of beehive is right for you? We demonstrate Langstroth, warre & Kenyan Topbar Hives. For more information & upcoming workshop dates visit our Eventbrite page or our website: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/o/grace-springs-farm-13468319 https://www.gracespringsfarm.net/workshops/ SMALL FARM WORKSHOPS For information on our upcoming Small Farm Workshops visit our Eventbrite page (above) or our website https://www.gracespringsfarm.net/workshops/ PASTURE RAISED PRODUCE We produce chemical free grass fed beef, pasture raised produce (Eggs, chicken, duck, duck eggs) honey & garlic. People on our email newsletter get notified first about anything we have for sale. To sign up for our email newsletter head over to our website & scroll to the bottom of our Home Page & enter your details: https://www.gracespringsfarm.net/ GIFT CERTIFICATES Gift Certificates for our Farm Tours can be purchased by visiting our website. Gift Certificates for produce & workshops are also available. Just send us a message https://www.gracespringsfarm.net/giftcertificates/ Thanks so much for your support of our farm & produce!! We can't do it without our incredible customers & visitors.

17.01.2022 It's been another busy fortnight here on the farm, and I have to say I just couldn't do it all without my Ethan right now. He has been incredible helping me on the farm since Tony passed. He has gone from working for us one day a week, to working for us nearly every day he isn't working at Full Circle Farm. He has been welding chicken shelters, has taken over moving animals (pigs, meat birds & laying hens get moved here at least once each week), has been tending his hives fr...om hive beetle attack (which has been really bad this year) & has even been doing last minute trailer wiring repairs when the pigs destroyed our horse float wiring! He is becoming a young man of many hats and skills. I used to do 80% of the farm work when Tony was with us, but with grief comes a physical tiredness, hard days, muddled thinking at times & a lot of extra appointments, phone calls & paperwork. Having Ethan helping me has been wonderful. He has gone from doing 'jobs' for me to taking ownership of tasks & problems (a differentiation I'm sure that any parent of a teenage boy will understand!). He is starting off his adult life by getting experience in so many different areas & learning problem solving skills (which seems to be 90% of what we do each day on the farm). Farm life can be hard, but I also feel like it is setting him up well for life. He has sooooo many ideas for how we can improve & what we can do moving forward. I don't know if this will be his chosen career (he is only 19), & he still has the option to go to uni, but for now he is relishing the hard work & diversity of tasks each day & is absolutely smashing it. I am so incredibly grateful & so, so proud of him. PS A huge thanks to all of the good men that have offered to help Ethan - either here on the farm or with advice. We are very, very appreciative.

17.01.2022 The little ones inside our Blue Wren nest in the paddock are growing so quickly! This morning I could see four little beaks and they’re only just fitting inside the nest now. They are starting to feather up and we are looking forward to seeing them heading out for flying lessons with Mum and Dad. Every day we see both mum and dad tending to these little ones, and every day I’ve been checking on them. They have brought me so much joy. It is such an incredible privilege this farming with nature.

16.01.2022 Most would see this pic and just see the messy fence line. Initially I did too. But regenerative farming is about bio diversity, working with nature & improving our eco system functions....... We are given gentle reminders every day. As I looked into my 'messy fence line' thinking to myself I needed to 'get on top of it' I saw this. ... A gorgeous nest for a family of little birds. A beautiful reminder that nature is not in the neat & tidy - it is in the mess & we just need to make room for it. Small birds are an integral part of our farming systems here. This is more than just managing a farm - it is working within an ecosystem. See more

16.01.2022 Adrian Iodice from @beekeeping_naturally beekeeping will be running a natural beekeeping workshop here at Grace Springs Farm, Kulnura, on Saturday the 6th and Sunday, 7th March. If you want to take your natural beekeeping skills to the next level, then this is a workshop not to be missed. Message me for workshop details. Photo courtesy of @beekeeping_naturally website.

16.01.2022 Our little Lyric is 9 days old and super cute, and I could not be more proud of her mum, Lotta. Lotta has always been my rambunctious teenager - the one to push boundaries, minimal manners, selective listening - you know the type. I had expected to have my hands quite full training her to milking. But to all of our surprise she has been an amazing mum to Lyric and she is responding so well to her training. I am often asked why some of my cows and calves are wearing halters. T...hese are my dairy cows and I am working with them every single day. I don't have a standard dairy set up or infrastructure & I am a middle aged woman - so I need to work smarter, not harder! I put time and effort into training my girls and I work with them calmly & gently. All of my dairy cows are 'halter trained' which means they can be led around and are used to being handled. The halters are normally on my younger milkers that are still training. It gives me extra options when I need to direct them. The halters are on the calves because - well - have you ever tried to catch a calf? My goodness they are the speediest, quick maneuvering little things & I need all the help I can get to catch them when needed. At present we do not sell our milk but we are working hard to get to that point.. Stay posted folks! In the meantime it is one of life's greatest privileges to work with these beautiful animals so closely everyday. See more

15.01.2022 Our new water tanks arrived this week and we are SO EXCITED!! We have been carting water across our farm for 6 years now. We have had great low cost systems for portable water (see the trailer & IBC tank set up at the left of the photo), but it has been a lot of work. So we are thrilled to be getting new water line infrastructure across the property. Our new water line project has been made possible thanks to the Central Coast Landscape Incentives Program through Greater Sy...dney Local Land Services. So grateful for them partnering with us. We already have our 26 acre property divided into 26 paddocks (that can then be subdivided again) and the water lines we are having installed will improve our grazing systems further. We will no longer need the cattle to use laneways to access water. Their water trough will be right where they are grazing! It is about increasing our landscape function, managing our farm holistically & sustainably and growing as much pasture as we possibly can on our small farm. We will keep you posted on how the project unfolds in the coming weeks. See more

14.01.2022 We had a small Open Day here on Sunday for our regular customers. It was such a lovely morning & my heart felt so full afterwards. We had a quick tour of the farm & a lovely morning tea - duck egg sponge, Mahalia's famous caramel slice & the beautiful Celia cooked up a storm for us too. Lots of chatting, excited little people, connections made & chicks & ducklings cuddled. The main reason we had the Open Day was to thank our regular customers. These are the people that hav...e been supporting our business through drought, fires, storms & Covid. We appreciate their commitment to what we are doing so much. We are going to change a few things moving forward so that we can ensure that our regular customers will always get the produce they are after & won't have to hear the words 'we've sold out' anymore. We will be giving them first dibs on our produce. They support us through thick & thin - we want to reward them with food security. This is farming that builds not just soil - but also community. It is regenerative agriculture on multiple levels. More info will be coming out in our next newsletter. (Link to email sign up on FB page) See more

11.01.2022 Yesterday afternoon I had the privilege of watching this gorgeous little girl enter the world, just as I had watched her Mama being born 2 years and 5 months ago. Lotta did an amazing job with calving and didn't skip a beat caring for her new little one. This mothering instinct amazes me every. single. time. The calf was on her feet in record time - I seriously haven't seen a calf up and looking for a feed so quickly and she was trying to run and jump within 90 mins of being... born! And yes, we have another little girl (heifer)! We are building quite the collection! We think we are going to call her Lyric (Ricci as her paddock name). Super special moments here on the farm & I just had to share it with you. Be warned there will be calf spam on it's way......and we have another calf due in a few weeks! So blessed to work with these beautiful girls each day. See more

11.01.2022 Reko Ring Central Coast is now open for orders!! We are so thrilled to be involved, selling our produce alongside other awesome, chemical free, Central Coast farmers. So now you have 4 ways of getting hold of some our our produce!! Home Deliveries fortnightly on a Thursday Avoca Beach Farmers markets every 2nd Wed (Full Circle Farm are there every alternate week to us)... Farm Pick ups each Saturday Reko Ring each Thursday (Erina location) I have popped the Reko Ring - Central Coast Facebook group link in the comments below. Join up & see what all the excitement is about! :) Farms invovled: Full Circle Farm Ecotone Acres - Real Farm Food The Food Farm: Central Coast Produce Belly Full Farm Alan Foods Horseshoe Valley Farm & Apiary Little Feet Gourmet Dooralong Farm The Giving Farm - Central Coast Veggie Patch (Hope I haven't missed anyone!!! :P) See more

11.01.2022 We have running water right across the farm now! For six years now I have carted water to our animals every day to enable Holistic Management (rotational) grazing on our property. But no more! Thanks to a Greater Sydney Local Land Services grant we have been able to install water lines across the 26 acres to give us taps & water outlet points that will work in with our grazing plans. We wanted a gravity fed watering system but we weren't sure we had enough fall on our prop...erty. So our first task was to organise a 2 metre contour map from Southern Blue Regenerative. According to the experts we had just enough fall to give it a go. Ben & the team at ABC Pumps & Irrigation implemented the whole project for us. The project management was outstanding - we were so impressed! We thought it would take weeks to install & it was all up & running so quickly. Ben took us through from quote to turning on the taps. More importantly we have been set up to be able to add to the system if our needs change as we grow. We now have a gravity fed watering system across the property, but are also able to pressurize the lines if we need to. Thanks to JC Landscaping for the excavator work & Impact Electrical Contractors for getting everything powered up (especially on such short notice). Also a huge thank you to our farming friends at Full Circle Farm for sharing their experience in implementing a similar system. The pressure we have in our gravity fed lines is so much more than we had anticipated. My daily workload had dropped significantly & I can now move animals across the whole property with so much more ease. I'm not sure what I am going to do with all of the extra time I will have each day......I think first up I might have a little rest....it's been a very big few weeks!!! When all of the COVID chaos is over we will be hosting a workshop here on the farm through Greater Sydney Local Land Services to show our water lines off - so stay tuned :) See more

11.01.2022 Hubby has been doing some cooking lately (yay!) and he has been experimenting with our duck breast. This recipe was such a winner that we are going to share it with you. So tasty & so versatile! Are you a fan of duck meat? We are appreciating the flavours of our duck more & more, and are learning how to get more meals from one duck. We'll have more on that for you a bit later. TONY"S DUCK BREAST RECIPE... Combine the following ingredients & marinate the duck breast for a few hours: 4 Tbspn of Soy Sauce 1 Tbspn of Chinese cooking wine 1 Tbspn of Apple cider vinegar Heat 4 tablespoons of oil in a pan. When the oil is very hot, sear the duck breast skin side first until the skin becomes slightly scrip [about 4 or 5 mins], Sear the other side for 3 or 4 mins or until caramelised. You can finish cooking it in the oven like a very small roast (i.e. in a hot oven, 180 checking every few minutes to see if it’s done. Duck breast should be semi-firm when pressed). Once it’s done let it rest for a few mins and slice it across the grain. Serve with Hoisin sauce and roasted veg. Alternatively, after the breast has been seared, rest it for a few mins and slice it thinly across the grain. Stir fry in a very hot wok, adding Tony's famous stir fry duck sauce [equal parts of oyster and Hoisin sauce, a splash of soy, chilli flakes, salt and pepper to taste] . Serve with rice and stir fried veg. Our duck is available to purchase: 1. On Farm Pick Up Saturdays between 2 & 4pm (purchase through our online store - link in comments) 2. Through our Home Delivery Service - Thursdays fortnightly (purchase through our online store - link in comments) 3. From Avoca Beach Farmers Market - Wednesdays fornightly 4. From Reko Ring Erina ( link to group in comments) What is your favourite recipe to make using duck? Have a great weekend everyone & an awesome school holidays :)

09.01.2022 Our little Havana has arrived! Bit of a scary delivery with the calf coming out backwards though. Havana is trying to stand right now & will get a drink very soon. I'm just standing here watching them - so incredible. Harmony did an amazing job to deliver the calf - I just helped her at the very end. HUGE thanks to Sean from @alembry_guernseys, @cass_first_love_guernseys & Dad for phone & online support. As a beginner breeder their knowledge & advice is so appreciated. I just can't thank them all enough.

06.01.2022 We have been so privileged to have the students from The Lakes College (a Youth Off the Streets school) visiting the farm in Term 3 & 4. Everything about the time with these classes excites me. Their learning is project based - so the farm is their classroom & it is so wonderful to see the students learning about the eco system, connecting with the animals, trying new things & really enjoying themselves. I heard one of the students rattling off a whole lot of information ab...out cattle on Friday to a new staff member. Information that most students wouldn't learn in a classroom setting. I had a smile from ear to ear! And the teachers and support staff are just the most beautiful of people. The hearts they have for the students are incredible. They were only supposed to be with us for 5 weeks - but the students enjoyed the time here so much the program has been extended. As I said at the start - to be a part of this program has been the most wonderful privilege. https://youthoffthestreets.com.au///learning-on-the-land/ See more

06.01.2022 I spotted our first dung beetle of the season this week & I couldn't get my camera out quick enough!! Even more exciting is that this is a new species for our farm. Once you see one dung beetle, you start to see lots of dung beetles everywhere!! Dung beetles are part of an 'effective nutrient cycle'. These guys will take the dung from the cattle to feed the life below the ground, which will result in healthier soils & better pastures. Right now we only have Summer active d...ung beetles in our area which is why we get so excited when we first see them - normally some time in October. The farm is just 'humming' right now & it is such a joy to see all the natural activity - dragonflies, hoverflies, native bees, European bees, small birds nesting, new pasture species popping up. Every day there is something new to spot & get excited about. What have you been noticing where you are? See more

05.01.2022 Fast Ed & his crew from Better Homes & Gardens visited us recently as part of an episode showcasing the Central Coast. We were really thrilled to be a part of the show & to see Ed cooking up our chicken drumsticks. A huge thanks to Claire from Scout PR, Destination NSW & Love Central Coast, NSW Australia for bringing this all together. It was wonderful to see the Central Coast hinterland area included in the segment. It has been fantastic to see Better Homes & Gardens vis...iting small, chemical free farms on their regional road trips. Keep an eye on next week's show to see our friends at Purple Pear Farm. To see our segment, click on the link below & we will appear at the 6min 40sec mark. https://www.bhg.com.au/johanna-griggs-and-fast-ed-go-on-a-c

05.01.2022 We have had another busy week on the farm. As a very small farm we have two arms to our business to keep us going - Food production & Education. Whilst we are always working hard in caring for our animals & pastures, this past week we have had so many visiting the farm from an educational perspective. This week we have hosted a wonderful group of people here on our Small Farming Workshop, we ran our first mainstream School excursion since COVID & we continue to have The Lake...s College (Youth off the Streets) students visiting us each week. We also heard that the Year 12 Food & Technology students at Central Coast Grammar were able to use so many examples from our farm in their HSC exam this week. We were their Farming/Food production case study for this year & are thrilled that they are using a local, small, regenerative farm in their studies. Tony trained Helen from @old.fig.farm to be able to manage her new Kenyan Top Bar Hive & spent Saturday helping new beekeepers get up & going with their first bee installations. The grass is growing, the pigs are living the life and we will have more duck available just before Christmas. We hope you enjoy some of our favourite pics from this week. Have a great Sunday beautiful people. See more

04.01.2022 The Central Coast is about to have a new way to connect with, and purchase from, their local chemical free farmers! We are very excited to be involved in the start up of the Coast's first Reko Ring. What is a Reko Ring? It is a Facebook group where farmers list what they have for sale for the week & you can buy direct from the farmers. You can buy from just one farmer, or you can buy a little bit from a lot of farmers. All orders are prepaid and are collected from a design...ated pick-up point. You can order each week or you can order once a month. It's totally up to you. Reko Rings are huge in Europe right now. The Coasts first Reko ring will be in Erina. Location details to be advised shortly. To be involved, head over to Facebook and join the 'Reko Ring - Central Coast' page. A huge thanks to Matt Allen from Ecotone Acres - Real Farm Food for getting this initiative off the ground. I've tagged farmers involved below. Exciting stuff folks! See more

04.01.2022 Our new little Havana is settling in very nicely and Harmony is doing a wonderful job. She is a very calm mum. Can you see the traingle/heart shaped marking on their foreheads? It is one of the first things we look for in this family of cows. Right back to Havana's great grandmother - they all have it. Some are just more 'full' than others. It's been another very big week here on the farm . A new arrival is always a lot of extra work, but is also so much fun to watch her ex...ploring her space & interacting with the other calves. We have had the gang from The Lakes College (Youth off the Streets) here again learning how to plant container gardens & how to reuse veggie scraps to grow food. This week our son hung out with the students as well, which was so good to see. We had our Home Delivery run, went to Avoca Beach Farmers Market & today will have folks picking up their orders from the farm gate. A huge thanks to all of our wonderful customers. We love partnering with you all in this farming adventure! <3 Our piglets are growing so quickly & just LOVE their milk each day. We are going to be putting up our School Holiday tour dates this weekend - so keep an eye out for them so you don't miss out. We always sell out of School Holiday tours so quickly. We will also have more pasture raised Muscovy Duck available by the end of next week. Life is full, busy & so, so good. We hope you have a great weekend! Enjoy this gorgeous day & do something special for Dad tomorrow! :) See more

03.01.2022 I've had some interesting conversations with customers and other female farmers in the last few weeks and I have been thinking about this post a lot....... I'm not sure if this is going to come off as a rant or an explanation. But it's been something I've been mulling over for quite a while now so I'm just going to put it out there. For us, this farm life and business is very busy. As a female farmer I am juggling a lot of balls. ...Continue reading

03.01.2022 Today was a busy one. Farm work, school pick ups and home deliveries across the Central Coast, and I am very pleased to say we still had a beautiful home cooked meal for dinner. I popped some chicken breast, lime juice, chillis, garlic, fresh coriander, cumin powder, smoked paprika, chilli powder and stock in my slow cooker and 5 hours later it was done. Two forks to shred the chicken & the family had mexican shredded chicken ready to go for fajitas for dinner. This is one ...of those recipes that just saves the day, saves my sanity and saves us time & money on takeaway. It is so simple, so versatile and so full of flavour! (Recipe adapted from the Mexican Chilli Chicken Tacos recipe in the I Quit Sugar Slow Cooker Cook Book? Check out our stories (&/or Highlights - 'Recipes') to see the step by step process. What are your dinners that the family love and are super easy? See more

02.01.2022 Did you know that Worker Bees have barbed stingers? While the Queen Bee has a smooth stinger, which she mostly uses to kill other Queens (harsh!). Just one of the bits of incredible information that Tony shares in his upcoming Beekeeping 101 Workshop. Bees, and the role they play in our ecosystem, is a fascinating subject. If you are keen to learn more we would love to have you join us. Our Beekeeping 101 Workshops are running on Sunday 16th August & Sunday 6th Septem...ber. To find out more just comment below. See more

02.01.2022 A bit of an update on farm happenings for you. We have been a bit quiet on our socials lately as farm life has been a tad hectic during & post the 'big wet'. We have had 5 new little piglets arrive on the farm & they are very quickly learning that every time they see Ethan or I with a white bucket they are going to get a nice milk feed. It is very funny to watch them & they are settling in nicely. We had a LOT of rain here on the farm but things are starting to dry out now.... Our dam is full again & the sun came out. So wonderful to see blue skies & green grass!!! Our Melody is due to calve in the next 2 weeks & we are starting to get her prepared for calving. I can't wait to be milking her again. She is one in a million that girl. We had another working bee here again last weekend. Our wonderful customers came up & give us a hand. Always a great morning - good food, great company, lots of connections made & lots ticked off the to-do list. We had two younger helpers this time round & it was gorgeous to see them getting in & helping with jobs & making friendships with everyone. This is all about good old fashioned food, farming & community. My heart is so full after a working bee - you guys are amazing! We had my nephew here with an excavator last weekend cleaning up dead trees on the farm & putting a better slope on our laneways so that water moves around the farm better in the big deluges. He & Ethan put in a huge weekend of work. It was incredible to see what the 2 of them were capable of. We started our school holiday tours yesterday with a lovely private afternoon tour for an extended family bringing 3 generations along. Lots of teenagers & lots of fun. We still have some spots in some of our School Holiday tours - book in & come along & see our animals & learn more about our farm & your food. We hope you have a lovely Easter weekend - it looks like it is going to be another gorgeous day out there! Take care folks. V xx See more