Hello!
Grounded, Pew Pew Pew, Gardening and Simplicity.
A long overdue hello!
I’m just back in the door (actually it’s now nearly a month…) from a trip to Western Australia for the latest instalment of Grounded.
The festival of food, farming, soil, community, people and growth.
Left to my own devices for two days, I hired a car and zipped (in the tiniest hire car I’ve ever driven) from Busselton to D’Entrecasteaux National Park to wander and wonder and at the never ending stretch of stunning sparkling sand with waves from the Indian Ocean lapping in.
On my way home I called in to climb the majestic Mt Chudalup which rises extraordinarlily out of the flat marshlands with an incredible 360 view for miles.
Much of the walk was over steep granite outcrops. A walk I highly recommend you don’t take in leather soled riding boots as I did.
After a double dose of Bridgetown espresso, I headed to the Jewel Caves. Sights I have never seen in my life. 40 metres beneath the surface, a labyrinth of intricate formations that literally blew my mind.
Grounded WA
The actual purpose of my visit to Western Australia was to share my family’s story of how we started Magners Farm and how that journey took us from hobby farmers to full time, full blown farmers.
The Western Australian version of Grounded kicked off at Racquel and Murray Johnson’s Galloway Springs in Western Australia.
Events like this aren’t just about the hourly sessions. They create meaningful conversations that drift in and out of farming and lean more into what humanity is all about.
Creating beautiful spaces for the most wonderful learnings.
Regenerative farming or farming with nature or biological farming isn’t just about the food we create.
It’s all the symbiotic relationships tied in by the wispy roots that bring us together.
I love the response from the audience when I tell our story from Magners Farm.
It touches the heartstrings of those on the same journey, often eliciting emotional moments.
I hope it also inspires others to begin their own regenerative journey.
Thank you Tracey from Matters of Taste for hosting the tent I appeared in on Friday.
Thank you Matthew, Sadie, Ollie and Nadia for inviting me back into the fold.
Thank you to Murray and Racquel for allowing us onto your space.
Day two was my turn to host a tent. It was packed full of learning and incredible connections
The most honest and uplifting talk on farm succession planning from Will Bignell, Thorpe Farm and David Pollock, Wooleen Station.
Two men who have gone through their own journeys of farm succession. The part that rang through for me? Consider the idea of surrender. We are only here for such a short time on this planet.
Our mission has to be to try and leave the land we steward in a better place than when we arrived. When we hand over that baton to the next caretaker, our thoughts should be on their own capacity to make positive changes, just as ours were. That doesn’t necessarily need to be family.
Inspiring stories from Carolyn Hall on the beautiful work the Mulloon Institute is involved in. A legacy created by people with such vision and foresight to create legacies for others to follow.
The session from Matt Fox (Cherubino Wines) and Eloise Jarvis (Wine WA) was incredible - soil health is paramount no matter what industry you’re in. Great innovations in wine bottles and even the possibility of us all drinking from the Great Aussie cardboard wine cask (it’s so much better for the environment on so many levels…).
Matthew Evans… despite reading all his books, I still learn something new about the importance of our food systems.
Some brilliant inspo from Patrick O’Neill (Small Farmers WA) on small scale bottlenecks in farm systems. Using ingenious systems to build small abattoirs to process small farm grown meat.
The most touching story of resilience and sticking to your values from Jeff Pow and Michelle McManus from Southhampton Homestead Farm. Everyone had tears in their eyes listening to this brilliant story and the lessons learned from trying to do it all in a broken system.
A super panel with the most innovative practices on turning waste products into culinary treasures with Mitch East from Willara Gold and Will Grothum from Fallobst hosted by Laura Bailey from MR Organics.
Finishing with a bang with Michelle McManus and Terry McCosker on the benefits of carbon in our soils.
I love how each session overlapped and intertwined with others. I love how each presenter offered such valuable insights and hung around in the wings to keep answering questions.
Such stories of inspiration and admiration for the ways people choose to dedicate their lives to community and planetary health through care of the land.
Every meal we eat is a vote for our future.
Which way are you voting?
I can’t quite believe it, but the Grounded team are already planning the 2026 version. You can join the ticket waitlist here or if you have a great idea for a session you can submit here.
PEW PEW PEW at Hunter Innovation Festival
I followed up my speaking engagement with something far from the fields of the west. I was invited to speak at the Hunter Innovation Festival at Newcastle Town Hall. (Thank you Claire Quigley for getting me on board).
Under the banner of Pew Pew Pew, in three minutes I had to convince the audience how important our food choices are.
To our health, our community and that of our planet. It’s not just the responsibility of the farmers to take care of the soil (one of the greatest carbon sequestration methods in the world), but in the hands of everyone who eats and the choices we make three times every day.
How important it is for farmers who choose to consider their soil health above all else, to have a reliable outlet to sell their produce and tell their stories. (The lack of local abattoirs makes this increasingly difficult).
What happens to our food when it doesn’t make it’s way down the alimentary canal and instead ends up in landfill.
The alternative is composting and making new soil additives naturally adding to soil structure and nutrition.
Wouldn’t it be great to see sustainable hubs all across the country as opposed to our waste either being buried (and creating methane) or shipped thousands of miles across the state?
The Garden
I jumped the gun as I always do and got some seeds in the ground in August. Corn, pumpkins and tomatoes which I had saved from last summer’s crops.
Did they survive? Yes they did thank you very much and are now thriving due to a very warm spring, a good water supply and a lack of late frosts.
My mum calls my garden a Chaos Garden.
Lots of different plants growing in “no dig” rows together.
I love the idea of diversity in the garden. I love using the compost we make from any scraps from our kitchen. It really does make such a difference to the end product.
Food grown in healthy, diverse soils are different.
They don’t just taste better.
They are so much higher in nutrient density.
Take a look at Dan Kittredge from the Bio Nutrient Association to learn more.
Living Simply
I’ve been following the sub stack of Jodi Wilson from Practicing Simplicity and it makes me reflect on our own simple life.
A cottage in the country removed from the conveniences of town. Simply furnished mostly with pieces “free to good home” from Marketplace. A tiny collection of clothes and household appliances that have been trimmed down to the essentials of life.
It’s refreshing to cast off “stuff”. Daily choices of what to wear become easier. A cleaning routine simplified too. Food cooked from scratch. The embodiment of using locally grown meat sparingly. Making use of the overabundance of silverbeet from the garden, snuck into each meal.
What can you remove from your own life to make things simpler?
Thanks for reading, see you the next time I find twenty to sit down and write and haven’t been lured out in to the garden to plant more tomatoes…
Kylie x