Finding love on the farm

Tim Flannery once wrote, “Our world is a web of interdependencies woven so tightly it sometimes becomes love.”

I can think of no work that requires such intimate co-operation with natural systems than organic farming.

Market gardeners I’ve known, Joe Garita, Joe Sgro, Noleen Glavish feel like part of the land they work.

Their lives are a symphony of variables some controllable, most not – fertility, soil temp, day length, rainfall, heat, frost, humidity, pests, disease, weeds.

They farm with the knowledge that their crops may fail, yet each spring and  autumn they plant again with hope for the next harvest.

If love equals always turning up, surrendering control, having faith in the world around you and being resilient then farming is love.

Below is the list of produce Rachel and her team at Joe’s Market Garden delivered by the black crate load to the Fair Food warehouse last week;

Basil
Beans 
Coriander  
Lebanese Cucumber 
Green Kale
Baby Cos
Asian Greens  
Continental Parsley 
Rainbow Chard  
Rhubarb  
Spring Onions  
Thyme  
Zucchini 

At Joe’s the challenge is not just to produce a good harvest each season, but to produce a good harvest every week.

Timing is everything. Seasons are extended inside poly tunnels, plantings are staggered, varieties juggled, repeat harvests timed.

There is a neverending race to keep ahead of the oxalis, leaf amaranth and the stinging nettles.

As a profession, market gardening is as mentally and physically demanding a job as you’ll find anywhere.

Which leads me to the market gardener’s job going at Joe’s Garden that was posted on the CERES website this week. 

The work may be hard, as described above, but the rewards are many – working at one of Melbourne’s oldest market gardens on the Merri Creek with the amazing CERES farm staff, a community of volunteers and passionate customers who come to the Farmgate for their freshly picked produce and flowers each week.

Then there’s the birds – the white faced heron, the magpie family, the tawny frogmouths, the kookaburras and currawongs.  

And of course, through all this, you may also find love.

Interested? Find out more here.

Have a great week

Chris 

Btw – Fair Food is closed Easter Monday, we’ll be back delivering on Tuesday.