growers collective
market garden
Our Farmers are currently busy managing our productive market garden which provides the restaurant and community with a variety of seasonal produce each week.
We believe healthy plants begin with healthy soil. Healthy plants mean less pests and disease. We use the following techniques to keep our soil in the best of health: cover cropping with green manures, crop rotation, mulching, composting, interplanting, animal rotations, and less intensive tilling to maintain soil structure.
our farmers
Greens from the farm
Josh and Lynette Dooley from ‘Greens from The Farm’ have been with us since the beginning. Their produce business now occupies a 1.5-acre plot in the Market Garden.
Making a livelihood growing organic produce wasn’t always on the radar for Josh and Lynette. Josh worked at the Retravision store in Byron Bay for 10 years, while Lynette was a chef from Sydney with time in the kitchen at Icebergs and Bills. She made the move to Byron Bay, where she met Josh and the rest is history! One week after their wedding, Josh and Lynette took their first delivery of seedlings and began planting out at The Farm. They now have two daughters, Lillian and Amelia, who are regular helpers in the Market Garden.
During peak times, Josh and Lynette plant between 3000 and 5000 seedlings a fortnight. They grow salad leaves, herbs, edible flowers, garlic, kale, spinach, rainbow chard, endive Warrigal greens and more.
Roots and All
Esther and Amy met each other in high school in Sydney over 20 years ago. Esther has a background as a chef and Amy worked in Strata Management in a busy Sydney office. Esther moved up to Byron Bay over 10 years, with Amy joining her 2 and half years ago.
Esther started coming to The Farm to help out Josh and Lynette at Greens on The Farm and fell in love. She was given the opportunity to have her own plot and Amy jumped on board. The two friends are excited to explore different methods of growing vegetables. Both mums, with 2 kids each, Amy and Esther are grateful to be sharing this experience with their children, teaching them the process of growing organic vegetables and helping them connect with the earth.
Roots and All will be growing beets, carrots, radishes, parsnips, turnips, fennel and a variety of asian greens.
hungry earth ecology
Evan Anderson from Hungry Earth Ecology has plenty of hands-on experience in local small-scale farming, having established three other market gardens in the Byron Shire. These experiences highlighted for him the difficulties with setting up a sustainable market garden from scratch, particularly for young people. Apart from the land, there are many other costs involved, including weed gunnel, compost, organic fertilisers, tools and machinery. The Farm provides Evan and the other growers with access to farm equipment and machinery free of charge and their first 12 months of rent has been waived to help get their business off the ground.
Evan is currently growing a wide range of vegetables including sunflower sprouts, Japanese turnips, collard greens and kangkong and many trellis varieties such as sugar-snap peas (his childhood favourite) and cherry tomatoes. Evan has created biodiversity in the Market Garden, attracting small birds and other beneficial insects to his plot.
Suria Foods
Suria Foods is a unique range of seasonal fermented foods and drinks. Katerina, the owner and creator has a plot at The Farm where she grows most of the organic produce used in her fermented products.
Fermented food is an amazing source of "good bacteria' which is essential for gut health. It is also a natural probiotic and a great source of enzymes.
Katerina holds frequent fermentation workshops here at The Farm and you can follow her on instagram to learn more about Suria Foods.
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