Alexandra and Sam from Warriwillah Farm - Part 1: Food and Farming
Local farming legends Alexandra and Sam have been stewarding the land of Warriwillah farm since 2019. Using regenerative agriculture methods and a ‘long term impact’ mentality, they share with us their experience of diving into the deep end of the farming world. Alexandra and Sam are also one of our fantastic honey suppliers here at Common Ground Project, we were eager to sit down for a chat with the lovely farming duo. They shared with us a wealth of knowledge so we’ve split our chat into two parts; this week we discuss the ins and outs of farm life, future food systems and managing livestock. Enjoy!
When did your food and farming journey begin?
Alexandra: I grew up with both sets of grandparents farming. My maternal grandparents ran a huge farm in the Wimmera and my dad’s side had a hobby farm in Wensleydale not far from here. I just loved it. I’d spend weekends or school holidays on the farm, and I just always knew I liked open spaces, not the business of the city or suburbia. My parents really appreciate fresh and quality food. We always had fruit trees and veggies of some type growing at home and I was always interested in where food came from. Unlike some kids, I feel like it was normal for me to know that food was seasonal and whether a food grew on a tree, underground etc.
I really want to make sure that our kids grow up knowing that you can’t always get produce all year round and in all parts of the country. Both Sam and I enjoy cooking and love when we can have access to fresh home grown produce. There is something romantic about eating your own food that makes it taste so much better.
Sam: My farming journey started very young, having grown up on a farm. I feel like I’ve been spoiled for choice as a kid, growing up on homegrown beef and lamb. When we moved to Warriwillah Farm we wanted to take everything into our own hands and start our own journey of farming.
What else do you farm other than producing honey?
Sam: We have cattle for beef. We also have far too many feathered friends: chooks, ducks and guinea fowl, and a pet sheep.
Alexandra: Honey is a side hustle for us (well Sam). It's intensive when you’re trying to capture and harvest, but that only takes a day or two and then you just have to sit and wait for months when it all produces again. Our main operation is cattle. We sell cows to markets for their meat or for further breeding. Right now, the food safety laws don't allow you to do localised butchering. For our own consumption we have a butcher that cuts for us, but if we want to sell it, it has to be processed by an abattoir and an external independent butcher before it returns to us to sell. This process is not conducive to the whole idea of minimising food miles and optimising animal welfare.
We also sell eggs from our chooks at our farm gate. A couple of our neighbours contribute their eggs too so it’s a real community affair. Neither eggs or honey are lucrative businesses, we do it more to cover our costs – buying chook feed and the equipment to process the hone – and to provide a local product to our local community (and the tourists heading down the coast!).
We don’t have time nor the desire to sell our produce ourselves at markets. The model with Common Ground Project works perfectly for us! Originally, making honey was for our own consumption and curiosity, as it became a little more commercially viable, we were approached by Common Ground initially as part of a pop up market. Now our honey is a permanent fixture in the permanent marketplace.
How would you describe our current food system?
Alexandra: Our current food system is a bit broken, and as I said at the start, I find it frustrating to see that people don't understand where their food comes from. So much food product is overly packaged, highly processed and results in lower nutritional value and higher waste. It drives me crazy that food that fits that description is often cheaper and more convenient. I understand convenience but I think people just need to slow down a bit, actually enjoy their food, eat consciously and not just in the car or on the run.
I do think there's change on the horizon. I think that there has been a tipping point at some point in the last 10 years and you see documentaries now coming out about food systems. There is the impetus to change, it's just about making the right foods more accessible and more affordable and changing the attitudes of people to think that it's not all about convenience.
It's convenient for me that we grow our own lettuce, because lettuce doesn't always last that long in the fridge and it’s something we would buy regularly. On the other hand it's also not convenient when I might be making dinner and I need to go outside down to the veggie patch and pick off the slugs or bugs rather than reaching for a pre-washed packet from the fridge. I think the difference is worth the extra effort though and is ultimately quicker than a trip to the shop!
What do you imagine a healthy food system to look like?
Alexandra: The dream would be one where everyone has the ability to access local food from close by that is fresh and seasonal. I think that could be achieved by urban gardens and community gardens. I still think there's obviously a place for shops or supermarkets, they are so convenient, and I appreciate that even more with a child. Getting in and out of a car or trolleys makes things harder and I can't even imagine for families who have lots of kids at different ages. You just want to go to one place and come straight back with everything you possibly need. It’s good to see the supermarkets for having some produce that is local and acknowledging the farmers. The more independent supermarkets and grocery stores are better at this, but they can't compete on price with the economies of scale of the big supermarket chains. Therefore, local fresh produce is sometimes only accessible to a certain demographic who value food over other things. It’s such a balance between price, convenience, and quality.
What do you love most about the work you both do?
Sam: No day is the same on the farm!
Alexandra: I like that farming is so hands on, physical and rewarding. You put physical effort in and also a lot of planning and thought. Planting something one week rather than the next can mean the difference between good growth and harvest or not much at all. When you get it right it’s so rewarding, and luckily for us our livelihood doesn’t depend on it (as we both have other career jobs). 2
For example, when we moved to Warriwillah Farm, we were told that the previous owner had killed the apple trees because she used the bore water to try and water them, which has more minerals and salts than rainwater. I was annoyed because the trees were so established. We considered cutting them down and starting again but instead watered them and fertilised with juice from our worm farm and waited for two seasons. Then the next year we got a few apples and then the next two years we had huge apple harvests!
What unique and notable challenges and/or opportunities have you encountered running a farm in this region?
Sam: Like every farmer the biggest challenge is the weather. It’s not related to this region obviously and it’s something we were aware of going into farming but living through drought and flood hits so much harder when you’re on the land. It has such an impact on everything that we do. For example, on Sunday, the weather was horrendous, super windy and horizontal rain, but we had to get some stuff done with the cattle. It was muddy, wet and gross, but when you've got work to do, farming doesn't stop. We have to scheduled so much of our farming activity because we both work off the farm. We can't just say we’ll do it tomorrow, because we know we both have to go to work tomorrow.
Alexandra: Late last year we fenced off dam for regeneration and biodiversity. We just really want to plant straight away, but summer was forecast as El Nino summer (dry and hot). In hind sight we could have planted because we had a lot of late spring early, summer rain which would have allowed plants to establish, but then the hot dry period really hit summer where we lost some existing trees and would have lost more if we didn’t commit to some manual watering.
It’s also a challenge that we can grow fresh veggies or fresh honey and literally just put them at the end of the driveway to sell without any confirmation of food healthy and safety. However, for meat has such a hugely rigorous requirement making local sales unviable. I understand that meat comes with more risks but surely we can make the local food system more accessible to people to eat locally if we had the ability not to have to truck cattle somewhere. You can do it locally for one cow but the cost is extraordinary and we don’t want to be mass producing thirty, forty cows. A local micro abattoir would be just amazing where you could take one sheep or one cow a month – we are aware of this being an option in another part of Victoria and think it’s great!
I also think that Australia has some of the highest laws in terms of food safety. Some of it is for good reason. But then I think there’s so many farmers who use chemicals to farm and process food, which is arguably detrimental to health in other ways. We have a butcher that comes to us and does everything on site and processes our meat with us. He's amazing in terms of food safety law adherence, but the law is that he must leave every trace of meat on our property. So when he does that, nothing can be sold, nothing can be processed outside of the site.
*Note from Amy our Food Hub Coordinator - Alexandra and I have talked about the work Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance - and it’s President Tammi Jonas are doing collectivising micro and mobile abattoir operators in Victoria, NSW and Queensland. Solidarity sessions AFSA run provide updates about where the sector is at from the first-hand perspective of advocates and agro-ecological farmers.
Do you have a philosophy that you lean into when you're working with nature?
Alexandra: Part of my philosophy is that I'd love to restore our little patch of land that we have custodianship of. Warriwillah Farm has been heavily cleared and grazed in the past 50 years. Thankfully trees have been planted but it’s a long way from a balance ecosystem. I’d really like to create a space that balances grazing livestock with a thriving biodiversity for indigenous flora and fauna.
I’ve seen some pretty cool documentaries of people that have achieved that to some degree which is very aspirational. It’s definitely not something that we're aiming to do tomorrow because we’ve made a particular lifestyle choice. We don't put our whole life into farming, t's just something that we do on the side, so we know our limitations, but we can still dream! It gives us purpose. I feel like we go to other jobs and earn money and get career satisfaction but them come home to a whole other set of challenges and purpose. It’s hard work but driving down the driveway after a day in the office makes it all worth it.
Hello from Amy our Food Hub Coordinator. We’ve been in conversation about being able to support Alexandra and Sam to provide their beef to the local community. This is possible through a pre-order slow beef model and we’re excited to open this offer to the community.
Warriwillah Farm are interested in supplying community with their grass-fed, free-range and antibiotic free beef product with an aim to support the local food system. We’re looking for 4 people or families in the community who could be interested in purchasing a 1/4 steer which will be butchered into a range of cuts from sausages and burgers, diced, strip, roast, premium and slow cooked cuts to bones and cuts for pet food. You could expect to receive 75kg of meat (with bones) lasting your household up to 4 months subject to frequency of consumption.
If you’re interested in this, we would love to get your details and provide you with further information.
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Stay tuned for Part 2 of our chat with Alexandra and Sam in our next newsletter where we discuss all things Warriwillah honey!
