I often stop for a moment when I’m out at work and mentally check in with who’s where and who’s doing what on the farm. Some days we can have up to 10 or more people working away quietly (or noisily)—some together, some alone—all industriously working towards the same goal—growing food.
The Smith Family (big fans of our organic fruit) volunteering to help us plant cherry trees
Farms have traditionally always been communities, usually based around a family, or a group of families. It’s only as modern agriculture has dominated more and more that we’ve seen a shift away from family farms, and towards a corporate model of larger farms, more intensive farming, more machinery and less employees. Well, that’s not how we do things!
Hugh and Daniel lumping compost
Don’t get me wrong—I’m all for running a farm as a business, and a profitable business at that. You can’t farm for passion alone (well you can, but not for long), and it’s important that farmers get paid a fair wage for their work.
A Gung Hoe working bee, lots of vollies pitching in
But the soul of a farm comes from the people that work, and gather, and eat, and talk, and live their lives on and around it, and if you sacrifice that for the sake of more productivity and profit, you completely change the nature of the place. We believe you can have it all—productivity, profit, AND community. In fact, we’re wondering more and more whether focusing on community actually creates more productivity and profit!
Hands-on (free workshop) mulching day, with Rhonda and friends
Since the Gung Hoe Growers started their business here on our farm, we’ve really appreciated the value of small farms and farmers working side by side, in the same space.
Mel, Sas and Ellen building the Gung Hoe shed
Apart from all the ways we can and do directly contribute to each other’s businesses (like marketing and selling together, sharing resources, borrowing stuff, supplying each other with yummy food), there’s also a really important and kind of unexpected loveliness that’s flowed from just being here together.
Fabulous working bee crew that helped us build the shop garden, having a well-earned rest
Today I looked around and noticed that Mel and Sas were working away in their patch harvesting garlic (with their dogs mucking around nearby with our dogs), Hugh was on the tractor mowing, I had a group of vollies in the apple orchard learning how to thin fruit at a “hands-on day” workshop, Daniel (my son) and Fidel (our work-placement student) were out checking the irrigation system, Dad was in the nursery looking after the trees, and Lucy (our fabulous part-time orchard worker) and our two German wwoofers—Anka and Annika—were out thinning plums.
Anka, Annika & Fidel thinning plums
How’s that for community? Three generations, two businesses, 13 people, skills being learned (and passed on), friends being made, great conversations being had, lots of work being done, money being earned, and a whole lot of organic food being produced!
Gotta love modern farming! Cheers, Katie