Transition Streets Romsey & Veg Action team up for a Farm Crawl

The first day of May was crisp but sunny, a beautiful day for a farm crawl. Never been on a farm crawl before? Meg Sheehan from Transition Streets Romsey and Veg Action hosted this event as an opportunity to get to know your grower.

Meg guided us between farms; first we travelled to Lancefield Edible Garden - a backyard market garden, then Mushrooms Anonymous - a mushroom and heirloom veg farm on 5 acres in the Romsey region, and last stop was Wildwood Organics - a market and veg box farm in Bolinda.

All producers grew their delicious veg using organic and regenerative principles.

We were hosted at each farm to hear about how these farmers dealt with weeds, how they managed pests, what crops were hard to grow, what crops were easiest and what kind of micro climates they dealt with.

MUSHROOMS ANONYMOUS: Matt showed us around the 5 acres he and his partner grow heirloom veg and mushrooms to supply the best restaurants. They had all types of garlic, many tomatoes, and we all tasted a sweet orange chilli on our tour.

WILDWOOD ORGANICS: Ben showed us his impressive set up, and how he gets his produce picked and washed and delivered to the restaurants in mint condition. During the preparation stage, he uses a washing machine on spin cycle to dry his gourmet lettuce leaves.

LANCEFIELD EDIBLE GARDEN: Ted and Silk showed us around their closed loop farm, deceptively hidden in suburban Lancefield.  Their enormous backyard was an oasis of veg garden, flower garden and polytunnel with microgreens. 

All of the farms had some level of trade with local or Melbourne-based restaurants and we heard about how they get their produce to destination as fresh as possible and using little to no plastic waste. It was such an interesting and inspiring morning, we hope to run more in the future.

For more information contact Lucy Campbell veg@mrsg.org.au