I don’t know about your garden, but ours has gone from neat and under control to ragged in less than a week. After days of temperatures in the high twenties followed by almost 40 mm of rain on the weekend, things are looking decidedly dishevelled around here. By ‘here’ I mean our home farm in The Patch. The small, permaculture-style farm you pick your veg boxes up from. Just when we thought the garden was looking schmick – mowed lawns, minimal weeds, spring blossoms and pruned fruit trees – along comes a combination of heat and rain to make everything explode with new growth. It’s not a bad thing, exactly. Everything grows here in The Patch, the plants you want as well as the weeds. It’s something I wrote about last week for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald in their ‘Life in the Burbs’ series.
The Patch is a place of low-slung mists and towering mountain ash; a real mix of the native and the introduced. It looks like a bunch of keen gardeners got together and decided to show off… It’s a small suburb, the population is just over 1000. We have one school, one hall for hire with a tennis court, a Saturday bakery and a café that doubles as a post office. That’s about it. Notable residents include echidnas, wombats, wallabies, wedge-tailed eagles and more feral bunnies than you can poke a stick at.
I had a lot of fun writing about our little suburb. If you’re a subscriber, you can read the full article here.
Fortunately, last week reinforcements arrived. Oliver’s parents visited from Canberra and helped us weed the red currants and blueberries and plant more flowers and herbs. It was so great to get that injection of extra hands to make the busy spring that little bit easier. I don’t want to speak too soon, but it’s shaping up to be a fantastic berry season. Berries are a crop we’ve been working on for the past fews years and so far we’ve only had enough to enjoy ourselves. But this year I reckon we’ll have enough to go in veg boxes which is super exciting! Our first crop ready in about 2 weeks will be raspberries. They taste divine. Nothing like the flavourless, hydroponic ones sold in supermarkets. Ours might not have as long a shelf life as some, but it won’t be a problem. They taste so good you probably won’t be able to resist devouring them all the day you pick up your veg box. After raspberries will come boysenberries and blueberries. Keep an eye on our Instagram stories to see when these rare delights will be in boxes. When we first moved here we didn’t really have a plan for all the fruiting crops we planted. We just had the dream of creating a food forest and thirteen years later we’re really starting to reap the benefits. On our other farms we’re harvesting broadbeans and fennel for the first time ever. We’re growing beetroot again and gearing up for another great potato season. The diversity of our crops is something we’re so proud of and I think it speaks to the maturity and experience of our dedicated team that we’re able to grow such variety successfully. On a side note, we’re currently hiring for the spring/summer season. These harvest roles suit locals with their own car, so if you know someone looking for seasonal work within a hardworking and caring team, then tell them to be in touch! More details on our website.
This week we were generously invited by Rockpool Bar & Grill to their 20th birthday celebration dinner and what a beautiful night it was. A rare balmy Melbourne evening on Southbank overlooking the Yarra and the city all lit up. Rockpool is one of our best customers and it was so nice to be recognised as contributing to their success. We’ve been supplying them for some years now and their enthusiasm and respect for what we do is heartwarming. We’ve never had the chance to dine there before and we were delighted by the whole experience. It was one of genuine hospitality. The team was warm and welcoming, the room refined and the food just beautifully cooked with intention and dedication to the source ingredients. Here’s to many more years of working together, Rockpool!
Until next time … eat well!
Lisa, Oliver and the Ramarro Farm team
Words by Lisa Davis
Ha I love where you wrote ‘They taste so good you probably won’t be able to resist devouring them all the day you pick up your veg box.’ I do that with the delicious radishes on my drive back home!!🤣