Australian Fair Food Forum

Aussie ecological orchard roundup ... where are you all?

Farming Orchards
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#21

Hi Joe, sorry to hear you won’t be at Deep Winter, Fraser Island would be the envy of many Tassie folk in June. Good to hear your orchard plans and that you’ve made some contacts.

Without a family farm in the will or being a financial outpatient from your parents, working whilst establishing an orchard is par for the course, me too, orders of magnitude more investment and long return periods than a market garden so the $$ have to come from somewhere in the mean time.

Keen to hear how you plan on selling all your fruit, are you planning to sell to markets or pick your own or combo? We plan on a combination of pick your own, fruit CSA, farm stand and retail through our local Food Co-op and other local greengrocers. We also propagate and sell fruit trees and do workshops/events to diversify due to damn hail and late frost risk in our climes, might be better in coastal Tassie for those risks.

Happy days!

#22

Hi Charlie, yeah, it is a bit of a shame. Still, there’s no way I’m missing out of Fraser Island, having my 40th up there, big party etc.

We’re lucky in that we’ve gone into this with minimal debt and an ok slush fund to get us up and running. I’ve never had to baulk at spending money on stuff, this is a bit of an adjustment, but even tonight I found 2 more machines that’d really help with time/labour savings which could pay off within 6 months, but coming up with the 20-30k, well, that takes a bit longer than I’d like, especially before generating revenue.

Fruit I’m planning on combination of wholesale markets, local fruit places, farmers markets and maybe pick your own, though I sometimes worry this is more trouble than it’s worth for our location. If I had have bought in Halls Gap like we’d been looking at a year ago, would have been 90% pick your own. I’m honestly not sure if we’ll be able to sell all our berries that way, while there’s good prices still these days the likes of Costa’s are really growing in the market and they have the scale/presence to set up some sweet contracts. I’ve been talking to some local companies about the cider aspect though, whatever remains I’ll likely make into cider or fortified wine.

Risk diversification is a good thing I think. If I get the garlic, berries and cider under way at different times of the year, it should work out ok. However, I’ve experienced before where I’ve had too many ideas/ways things could diversify and try to do it all. I do this and fail miserably, not even getting the basics of what I set out to do right. It’s a balancing act of priorities and what a person can do.

Still, the reaction I get from my colleagues at work in Melbourne when I tell them what I’m doing and why is priceless, wouldn’t have it any other way

#23

Just noticed this thread and wondered if you guys know @kfinlay or any of the people involved in their orchards?

#24

Thanks @kirsten, I hadn’t actually noticed this thread so thanks for drawing my attention to it. Yes, we’ve leased our existing cert. organic orchard (Mt Alexander Fruit Gardens) to @Ant Wilson, who takes over on 1 July and will be renaming the business Tellurian Fruit Gardens. We’re in central Vic and growing a big mix of deciduous tree fruit; cherries, apricots, peaches, nectarines, plums, apples and pears. At the moment we sell through a mix of wholesale, Farmers Markets, online (Facebook and email) pre-orders for pick-up at markets, and farm shop, and Ant intends to add CSA to the mix. We’re very happy to have found someone to take on the orchard as part of our succession plan and the organic co-op we’re in the middle of setting up on the farm.

#25

Thanks @kfinlay! Good to know theres an orchard specific online forum for us to share knowledge. Im a brand new orchardist and as Katie said above ill be renting what is currently MAFG and running it under TFG. Im really excited to be setting up my first CSA! Its an evolving beast but the current iteration of the online shop front/ordering system is here if it’s of interest to anyone :smiley:

#26

Hi @Ant, bravo taking on the MAFG orchard operation, if we were not a few years into our orcharding venture in Stanley we would have been super keen to explore the opportunity, hope it all falls into place for you and I am stoked that @kfinlay found a way to pass the trees, business etc on, the whole co-op experiment at MAFG is awesome and one that I hope really works and becomes a model for the future. Sadly all but 3 of the 30 odd apple orchards have disappeared our way over the last 30 years :cry:

Love to catch up sometime Ant and talk orchard talk, not heading to Deep Winter by chance?

#27

Cheers @Charlie_Showers! It’s an exciting opportunity to be a part of. I haven’t worked out yet if I’ll make it to DW this year but I’d love to go. If I don’t make it, I might catch you at the next ANOO event :smiley:

#28

Thanks Ant, when is the next ANOO event and how do you join the ANOO group,
do you know? Would be worth posting information about ANOO on this
conversation thread as I imagine there are many others interested too. Hope
to catch you there or at DW. Happy days!

#29

There is a facebook group called ANOO Australian Network of Organic Orchardists. I think the next event is at the end of August.

#30

Couldn’t find the facebook group but then I have zero patience for facebook, if you have details on the August event post on here. Thnx

#32

The fourth annual ANOO (Australian Network of Organic Orchardists) conference will be on Tuesday the 31st of July and Wednesday the 1st August starting in Penola. ANOO is a fairly casual group of certified organic commercial orchardists who gather once a year to nerd out on all things orchardy. Most of the group grow apples, but some growers also have cherries, stonefruit, citrus and nuts. To get on the mailing list contact Michelle McColl from Kalangadoo Organics on organicapples@bigpond.com.

#33

Thanks Katie that is great and perfect timing. Just got back from deep winter, spending a great few days in amongst some Tassie orchards, lots of apple growing chin wags and many ciders and home brews with Matt and Coreen from Out Mates Farm who were espousing all things ANOO. Thanks for sharing the details!

#34

We had another great ANOO conference this year @Charlie_Showers, sorry you didn’t make it. Next year in Tassie (Matt and another grower in the Huon Neil are hosting), so hopefully you’ll make it to that one. Proposed dates are 16 & 17 July 2019. Cheers, Katie

#35

Thanks @kfinlay for the heads up on the dates for 2019. Yes very sorry we couldn’t make it to the ANOO conference :cry:, I would have loved to have seen Kalangadoo, plus the other orchards and talk all things fruit growing with you all. ANOO is in the diary for next year, will all depend on this seasons harvest to some degree! I am now going to have the annual decision between deep winter and ANOO, hopefully I can make both each year!

We’ve taken over the management of a nearby orchard as well this summer so busy but exciting times in Stanley! So glad to see all the excitement about MAFG’s future, hope it is all progressing well for you and all your awesome co-farmers!