Growing with Tom & Bridie of Kinsfolk Farm
INTERVIEW BY IMO
Q&A
WITH Tom & Bridie of Kinsfolk Farm
SURFCOAST . VIC
If you open your eyes you’ll find that we’re surrounded by some pretty amazing people doing really cool things! This week we’re stoked to bring you an interview with our Surfcoast neighbours Tom and Bridie of Kinsfolk Farm who we connected with last year at our local Farmer’s Market in Torquay. These guys have just come into their fourth year of farming and the farm is at full capacity. Last winter they built two big greenhouses which are jam packed with tomatoes, cucumbers, basil and shishitos (a super sweet Japanese frying pepper).
YUM. Do I have your attention?
Like many others (I suspect) over the summer break i’ve been reading more about climate change and the things we can do to lower the temperature of the earth. Industrial agriculture is one of the worst carbon emission contributors, by spraying nasty chemical fertilisers and insecticides they pollute our water, land and sky. The “big farms” can produce a lot of food quickly, however in doing so they are destroying the topsoil meaning the next year they’ll have to use even MORE nasty chemicals, MORE insecticides and MORE water (which is a resource we do not have). An enormous quantity of food is produced, wrapped in plastic, shipped around the world at a brutal cost to the environment.
It’s estimated that 30% of food produced is lost or wasted. That’s 1.3 billion tonnes of food a year. Those stats are huge - my head starts spinning as I think back to all of the times i’ve cleaned the fridge out, piling wasted food into the bin. It’s something we’ve become more conscious of over the past year and we are trying to reduce our waste. We plan our meals for the week, shop according to what we need and as you would know if you watch our Breaky Show we use up all of the leftover veggies on Friday before heading back to the market again on Saturday morning.
I’m really excited to highlight Kinsfolk Farm, not just because their produce is delicious and they’re really nice people but because they are contributing to a solution. Regenerative farming is a really successful way of reducing carbon emissions and by supporting local farmers like them you can contribute too.
If you want to taste for yourself, you can find Tom and Bridie every Saturday morning at the Torquay Farmer's Market. They also offer seasonal veg boxes which you can pickup from their farm in Moriac on Thursdays. They also sell a little to Surfcoast Wholefoods in Torquay and Valerie’s Pantry in Belmont.
Happy feasting!
x IMO
Bridie & Tom - Kinsfolk Farm
What got you interested in farming?
WE LOVE FOOD! Interesting and delicious vegetables really is what got us into farming. When we were living in Melbourne we were getting organic veg from a friend who'd collect it from Daylesford on the weekend. A box of random seasonal goodness to cook all weekend. We also started growing lots of veg in our back and front yard, then we ran out of room so we decided to jump ship and move down to the Surf Coast to start growing lots of veg for ourselves and the lovely community down here.
How would you describe your style of farming & where do you find inspiration?
Well in terms of how we farm and what we farm. We are a small scale bio-intestive and bio-diverse vegetable market garden. So fairly different approach to conventional broad scale agriculture. We farm small, farm smart! Growing lots of different and interesting vegetables directly to our consumers. Seed catalogues is where we geek out and get all excited about what to grow next. We love coming across farms from the northern hemisphere and seeing what they are growing in the opposite season to us. Before we started our first season we drove up the east coast of Australia and visited other market gardens to chat to some very inspiring young farmers, who we now share all our ideas and solve farming problems with. It’s an amazing community!
“We farm small, farm smart! Growing lots of different and interesting vegetables directly to our consumers.” - TOM & BRIDIE
What does a typical day look like for you?
Rising with the sun, the best part of the day. A big cuppa coffee with a big breaky to fuel us up for the day. We usually go though all our jobs at the start of the week and slowly chip away at them throughout the week. Monday's and Tuesday's is all odd jobs like seeding, transplanting, preparing beds for planting, weeding, etc. Then our first harvest is Wednesday's for our restaurant customers and veg boxes. Thursday we head out on deliveries and start some of the weekends harvest. Friday is an all day harvest and prep for the farmer's market. Then Saturday it's market time! Our favourite day where we meet all the lovely people who buy our veg. So the weeks full of lots of jobs which keeps it interesting.
Was there a defining point where you moved full time into your business - can you describe that decision / move?
We had both been farming part time and working other jobs as most of our farm income was going back into the business. Tom jumped on full time at the start of our second spring and Bridie not long after that as we had tested our market and couldn't supply enough in our first year, so at the end of our second summer we were both full time farmers and haven't turned back since!
“at the end of our second summer we were both full time farmers and haven't turned back since!” Tom & Bridie
Torquay Farmers Market - held every Saturday morning
CAN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT THE SUSTAINABILITY OF KINSFOLK FARM?
Sustainability is key to our farm. Even now we are aiming to go beyond this by farming regeneratively. We are planning to scale up our farm which will allow us to rotate our vegetables through multiple areas which will have rest periods to grow cover crops (green manure) to eventually build up the top soil and leave the land in a better condition to when we began farming it.
Your top 5 practical tips for running a small business?
Build it slowly to start.
ALWAYS take at least one day off a week.
Seek out those in your business community to gain inspiration and brainstorm ideas.
Get a really good accountant!
If you need staff to help out then hire them, you can’t always do everything yourself.
“Seek out those in your business community to gain inspiration and brainstorm ideas.” - tom & bridie
Advice for others wanting to pursue their passion?
Go for it! We both didn't want to work for anyone else and love working as a team. If it doesn't work out then it's no biggy. You'll be kicking yourself in twenty years if you didn't try.
“If it doesn't work out then it's no biggy. You'll be kicking yourself in twenty years if you didn't try.” - Bridie & Tom
Advice for someone like me who wants to start growing some of my own produce from home, where is a good place to start?
Great question!
I would have to say zucchini’s and basil in summer as they are both super abundant and pretty easy to care for. Radishes are easy peasy too and can be grown all year round and of course kale planted in autumn will give you a nice long harvest all through till spring.
A mixed herb garden is always great to have just outside the kitchen as you’ll have something to harvest most of the year and will add heaps of flavour to any meal.
Torquay Farmers Market - held every Saturday morning
Exciting new projects on the horizon?
Moving the farm for bigger (not too big though) and more beautiful things!
Lastly, How do you slow down?
Sleep ins, lazy Sunday beach days, reading by the fire in winter.
KINSFOLK FARM
Kinsfolk Farm is a 1/2 acre market garden located in Moriac, Victoria, run by Bridie Cotter and Tom Gaunt. They employ organic principles to grow delicious and nutrient dense vegetables to sell direct to their local community around the Greater Geelong and Surf Coast region. They are two young farmers with backgrounds in design and music who packed up out of the big smoke and landed back in some familiar childhood territory. With little supply of fresh organic veg in the area, they set out to find a patch of land to grow their own and share it with others who have a similar love for food and cooking. They now lease a pocket of fertile soil from Ravens Creek Farm, a regenerative pastured pork and laying hen farm in Moriac.
They grow over forty varieties of seasonal vegetables and herbs which you can find every Saturday at the Torquay Farmer's Market, as well as a select variety at Valerie's Pantry in Geelong and Surfcoast Wholefoods in Torquay. They also supply to a number of restaurants and cafes in the region.
We’ve started this journal in hope that through us sharing stories like Tom & Bridie’s it encourages others to -
Be creative.
To follow your passion project.
Support local artists, makers society shakers.
Our hope is that through us showcasing small, local and ethical artists/ makers/ businesses it encourages others to support locally, handmade.