Brightside Produce in Captains Flat, New South Wales | Farm

Brightside Produce

Locality: Captains Flat, New South Wales

Phone: 62308185

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24.01.2022 One of the big old trees near the garden. Felix informs me that this one is ‘nearly as old as grandpa’, which would make grandpa very, very, very old.

23.01.2022 First outdoor beds of our experimental season planted out. I know the changes we are making seem very subtle to look at, but they are actually pretty huge. We’re trying to figure out how principles of soil regeneration -specifically keep the soil covered, living roots for as long as possible and maximum biodiversity, could apply in our context. These beds had radicchio last season and after we cut the heads we left the bases in the ground to resprout over winter (usually we w...ould have mowed and tarped this spot mid-winter but we’re trying to have those living roots to feed soil biology via photosynthesis for as long as possible.) Bed prep was simple, cut the radicchio stumps below the ground leaving most of the roots in. Soil tests reveal we have been good chemists and average biologists so we are skipping mineral amendments in favour of getting the biology functioning well. Soil drench with home made bio-stimulant (Humic, molasses, fish hydrolosate and winter extract from our own worm farms). Then the beds were transplanted by hand as soon as possible to replace those photosynthesising tops, each bed with a diversity of plants (leeks, spinach, radishes and mustard). Planting was more difficult than in previous years because we didn’t broad fork or tilth so the beds were tight with nets of roots (with lots of worms associated with them) and there was lots of residue left over from the previous crop. Other beds in the system have been mulched, depending what was in before and what will follow. We’re trying to be responsive rather than dogmatic about it. We’ll see how it works out! So far slugs have been more of an issue than usual and I’m waiting for the weed bomb to go off. My risk averse self is having heart palpitations at the moment. See more

21.01.2022 We’ve been interplanting all of our beds as part of our quest to develop a truly regenerative method of growing vegetables in our context. A diversity of plants feeds a diversity of soil life. In these beds we have Celtuce, spring onions, cos lettuce, coriander, dill, Alyssum and rainbow chard. We’re taking our best guesses as to what will work together in terms of timings, above and below ground space, root exudates and microbial relationships. We’re always trying to include... a mycorrhizal host and flowers where possible. The faster growing crops mature and are harvested as the canopies of the taller crops close. Some cut and come again crops like head lettuce and herbs we cut on alternate weeks. One week we’ll cut the lettuce which allows the spindly nearly smothered herb to take over, we’ll then harvest the herb the following week allowing the lettuce to regrow. It’s a fun process to watch the beds constantly changing through this subtle process, and it’s far gentler on the soil life than the bed flips we used to do which would return the bed to a blank slate between each crop. The process is messy and complex and it’s all very experimental but little wins are so exciting! See more

20.01.2022 Sometimes you just gotta stop and smell the petrichor.

18.01.2022 For every instagrammable angle on the farm right now there are 10 very un-instagrammable ones. Three months into our regenerative shake up and we are now starting to be able to draw some conclusions about some of the different techniques we have been trialling. You could call some of them ‘failures’ and perhaps an old version of me might have called them that (ok ok, so probably also the current version of me on a BAD day -I’m not claiming to be the patron saint of wokeness).... All these ‘failures’ are actually learning opportunities that are bringing us closer to our goal of knowing our ecosystem and context better so we can build something truly resilient for the future Which makes them very exciting indeed! Pic 1 is an instagrammable angle (had to get you to read this somehow!) Pic 2 is our interplanted, ‘let the weeds do their thing’ onion crop. Yesterday I spent ALL DAY weeding them whilst in a food coma from all the humble pie I had for breakfast. I looked at rhizosheaths, insects, earthworms, fungal activity and thought about how I will do it next year. Pic 3 is our tomato tunnel planted directly into a flail mowed green manure crop with no tillage, tarping, mulching, etc. I promise the tomatoes are looking really healthy.... just gotta find them in there. Pic 4 is our packing shed, which was supposed to be my Lean Farm dream by now and instead is barely functional chaos. See more

14.01.2022 Every farm has its climate challenges. Some people feel like they’re farming on mars (I see you @villagegreensofwillungacreek) or a in desert (hello @radgrowers). Others get blown to bits by wind (that’s you @the_greenacre & @living.earth.farm) or feel like the sun has deserted them in spring (amiright @kinsfolk_farm?) even those coastal folks whose overnight temps I envy deal with humidity that I don’t (here’s looking at you @borrowed.ground.growers @oldmill_road @chertseygi...rl). For us the challenge is COLD. We could have a heatwave one week and frosts the next. We’ve had frosts at New Years and frosts on Valentine’s Day. We have more frosty days that not frosty days and sometimes it feels plain unfair. For the next week we will dip down to 2 degrees overnight and the prospect of all the work that goes into just surviving through a cold week has put me in a stinking mood. Today we buried our potato crops in straw (they needed hilling anyway) and sprayed our ‘antifreeze’ on the garden (it’s made of kelp for temperature stress and vermi-extract to coat the leaves in ice munching microbes). I’m counting on wind and a little cloud cover to get me through tonight but I’ll sleep with the window open and the thermometer beside my bed. If I wake up and I can see the stars out the window and can’t hear any wind I’ll put my head torch on, drag myself down to the patch and roll out the frost cloth. I’d love to hear from other growers what your climate challenges are and how you’ve learned to work with them! See more

12.01.2022 SLUGS. So.Many.Slugs. Another planting obliterated over night and all that is left is to get philosophical.... from an article I read whilst frantically googling for the 9000th time: ‘we need to let our mind stop seething long enough to see the analogue of each pest or weed within ourselves. This recognition and a determination to make the changes within ourselves we certainly have the right and responsibility to take control is the meditation. This means we respect the ‘pest...’ as a stimulus for our personal growth and then we can be thankful and help them to come back into alignment with their comfort too. One has to love ones inner slug!’ Got it?! Hope it brings you all some comfort

10.01.2022 I have always thought of myself as a ‘good white person’, but these past few weeks I have realised how woefully inadequate it is to simply be ‘not racist’ (or assume you’re ‘not racist’ without even examining yourself). It is with great shame that I admit to knowing little about the people who made their home and birthed their babies on the land I farm, and little to nothing about the experiences of other people of colour (the fact that I can choose to know or not to know is ...white privilege plain and simple). In addition to not educating myself I have not used my voice. When seeing others speak up I have comforted myself with the thought that ‘I’m just not that kind of person’ but the truth is that BIPOC people don’t have the luxury of choosing to be activists or not. To exist is to resist. This past week I have started to fling open the doors on all the uncomfortable little places within myself. I have read, watched, signed, donated. This is work for always, not just right now and I will continue to fling those doors open and chase the ugly things out. I will show up for people. This is Ngarigo country and my children will KNOW. See more

10.01.2022 Cropping out the last bits and pieces with this gremlin, still full of steam after a day at preschool. As I pull the tops off carrots and parsnips he spreads them out over the bare soil at his own initiative, talking unendingly and at full volume ‘YOU’VE GOTTA PROTECT THE SOIL MUM! THE MICROBES!!!’ My heart is full

09.01.2022 Prepping beds by mowing the green manure crop, applying a fungally dominant compost tea and mulching over the top with a finely shredded woody green waste product. We’re not looking for the beds to be perfectly free of regrowth of the previous crop, just for the previous crop to be sufficiently knocked that the crop being transplanted into the bed will dominate. We’re learning as we go, listening for feedback from the system and tweaking and replanning as necessary.

05.01.2022 Sometimes the stories we tell ourselves are so strong that we can’t see what’s in front of our eyes. This can be easier to see in others than ourselves (Trump politics being the example that most readily springs to my mind), but we all do it. I get it, stories are convenient. They can allow us to make decisions quickly without putting the effort in to really look at the situation and they reinforce our personal and collective identities. Sometimes they’re so well constructed ...that we needn’t make decisions at all -the answer is just ‘I can’t do that’, ‘that won’t work’... Without realising it, ‘that won’t work’ is a script I’d been running for a while on the farm. At some point in dawned on me that it felt a bit icky and familiar, and in a flash of clarity I saw ‘the conventional farmer’ with his arms crossed frowning out from underneath his hat at my small-scale, permaculturey thing that I dared to call a ‘farm’. The problem was, I was running another script which said ‘I am not a conventional farmer’ so it was impossible for me to see myself. Part of our regenerative journey is learning to see what’s in front of our eyes. So simple right? RIGHT?! As an aside, children, who are blissfully unencumbered by too many stories, can be incredibly adept at drawing attention to our cognitive dissonance. I’m always discouraging destructive digging in the garden for the sake of the soil life. Whilst watching the excavator outside our bedroom window level a pad for our new rainwater tanks Felix turned to me and said ‘but it’s smashing the microbes’ homes!’ (despite his misgivings, the excavator out the bedroom window has been an excellent babysitter these past few days.)

05.01.2022 Using April’s long(er) arms to put the greens to bed after a long day of planting in the RAIN (yahoo!). Wood chipped beds on the left are one of our earlier regenerative experiments this season. Learnings so far have been: wood chips can be very slow and annoying to transplant into depending on the size of the chip and the size of the transplant. Wood chipped beds are hard to water with drip and do better with overhead irrigation. Wood chips provide a lovely habitat for earwigs (not great), but also spiders and centipedes (good thing!) lovely weed suppression, lots of nice, obvious fungal and earthworm activity just below the surface and great water retention.

05.01.2022 I’m going to take a break from insta and Facebook for a while (just in case you message me through insta or wonder where we’re at). I’m feeling more exhausted and run down at the moment than I ever have before. A lot has happened in the past year -droughts, fires, hail, pandemics and the long overdue collective examination of white privilege, to put a name to a bit of it. All of this stuff is demanding that humankind evolve or die. I’d love to put it more delicately but I la...ck the emotional resources to soften my choice of words at the moment. Personally I’m choosing to evolve. Getting up every day and pushing my comfort zone, examining my attachment to knowledge, my privilege and the way that I relate to the earth and people. It’s a personal journey, but it will change the way we farm too. A huge part of the run down feeling is being unsure of what that looks like just yet. My daily battle is learning to embrace the chaos and lack of timeline for it all. This new chapter won’t be about doom and gloom, it will be about regeneration and solutions and I’m excited about that. If you’re someone who usually chats to me through social media or one of my salt of the earth farming buds you know where to find me. Pics are current winter happenings, all of which wouldn’t be possible without the incredible people we have in our lives 1. Pruning berries with @1_wild_woman 2. Cleaning up a massive load of compost accidentally dumped by a truck driver in our creek with my dad, @1_wild_woman our mate Milo and the @tobelliehill legends 3. Our new solar array (we finally have power!) thanks in no small part at all to our mates @carlyonthefarm @primrosevalleyfarm and the help of my dad and Michael’s bro and SIL Joe and Sarah.

05.01.2022 Another crew of tussock chippers. I was so stressed out when the weed inspector came and gave us a crazy deadline to deal with the weeds. Weeds appear in the landscape for a reason. They’re always there to do a job, maybe to deal with compaction, cycle nutrients from deep down, mop up excess nutrients, cover the soil, or fix nitrogen from the atmosphere. Managing landscapes away from weeds and towards balance and high succession species is a complex and subtle process. The un...derlying problem that weeds are there to deal with can be compounded by the use of herbicides through killing soil biology and other species, hence my anxiety about the weed inspector’s timeline -it seemed it could only be met with the use of herbicide. It was a mad and desperate thought to have a ‘chipping party’ and invite friends and strangers to come, bring a mattock and chip weeds, but it has been the most heartening and wonderful experience. Connections have been made, deep, important conversations had, and home grown food shared. Chipping the weeds really has just felt like an aside to a whole heap of community building. See more

04.01.2022 A little glimpse of what our new world looks like. I feel like I spent the last 5 years single mindedly trying to nail the weed free straight line look (I saw it as a measure of success and professionalism), only to have the realisation that in our brittle, fragile environment such an approach was not conducive to LIFE. Things grew, but the whole system was moving towards entropy and I think I knew this on an unconscious level. Those straight lines did wonders for my sense of... order and control, but deep down they also made me feel uneasy. With a little bump from 2020, this season we’re throwing caution to the wind and embracing ‘mess’ in a very conscious way. Lots of interplanting to create edge effect and symbiosis, leaving weeds and old crops in amongst new crops and allowing things to go to seed. Harvesting days are less like picking to order and more like getting in and pruning the system, cutting things right back wherever needed to make space for others to grow up. What has surprised me the most is how much the approach has required me to a work on myself as a person. Learning to let go of control, learning to be present and deeply observant, cultivate curiosity and ask good questions. It’s a bit of a roller coaster most days, but I’m grateful to be on it. #regenerativeag #regenerativefarming #notill #fortheloveofsoil #nodig #carbonsequestration #spiritualawakening See more

03.01.2022 A balmy 4 degrees out as we continue putting shaky hands in the soil (@gunghoegrowers ) and trusting in the process of our earnest exploration of what regenerative growing looks like in our context. Today we were transplanting the beds on the right. Over winter the beds had a multi species cover crop which was flail mowed once just as it started flowering and once on the new moon. Whilst some oat stubs remain, the crop appears to have been mostly terminated by these timely m...owings (on other blocks the mowing has been less timely and it shows). A fungally dominant compost tea was then applied to these beds and the beds were broad forked (all of our decisions around bed prep are on a bed by bed basis, and whilst we may not have used the fork elsewhere due to the fungal organisms, here it was deemed necessary because the beds were underwater for several weeks and became anaerobic). Seedlings were then transplanted straight into these rough beds with no other weeding, pulling or amending. We’re hoping that the new seedlings will coexist with the remaining oat stubs which have been greatly weakened by being mowed at the end of their reproductive cycle. See more

01.01.2022 Finally getting in and pruning and stringing our tomatoes today. The bottom half of this tunnel was under water for 6 weeks and even though the plants looked like absolute hell they mostly bounced back which blows my mind. Thanks to John and Christina from @prana_produce for generously gifting us some of their ridiculously beautiful grafted Brandywines to replace the casualties. This tunnel has been mulched with woodchip and is interplanted with parsley, radicchio, marigolds, Johnny Jump Ups and Alyssum. It’s pretty feral in here TBH.... lots of weeds, some super weird mushrooms popping up lots of frogs and slugs and the odd blue tongue sliding around scaring the crap out of us. It’s been a freezing week on top of a slow, wet spring and all of our summer crops are looking a bit sad. Is it just me or is this season haaaaaaaaaard?!