Lynden and Noel Jackson with their fish

On Saturday’s farm tour a group of around 80 new and old subscribers had a brief tour of the Homestead in Salisbury, before heading out to Laidley, the Lockyer Valley and Wivenhoe to see three very different farms. We all had a great day and learned a lot. A huge thanks to Phil and Robyn Dunlop, David and Tammy Litzow and Noel and Lynden Jackson for having us on their farms, and to all our subscribers for coming along. Hear about it in the words of our subscribers!

Thanks for a great day. We’ve only been with Food Connect for a few months and this was our first tour and we had such a fantastic day, we’ll be eagerly awaiting the next one.

The Jacksons' goats

Some of our many highlights were the muffins for morning tea (the yummiest I’ve ever had!) [thanks Gemma from Stove Cafe, West End- ed], all the lunch (wish my kids ate like that at home!!) and especially picking the potatoes at Black Crow Organics. My kids had a great time digging in the dirt and when I cooked them up that night for dinner, they ate every last bit. We had a friend over for dinner and we all couldn’t believe how tasty they were – we didn’t know potatoes could taste so darn good! The rain gods were kind to us, it was lovely to drive around the Lockyer Valley and see the beautiful countryside and even getting lost was fun!

Phil Dunlop explaining the honey extraction process

Seeing the honey processing farm was an eye opener (I never knew the hives were moved around to different locations for different flowers), Black Crow Organics was a wonderful farm and it was great to see how our vegetables are grown and packaged up, and the aquaponics was very interesting, (although we did find it a bit hard to hear too much there and we had to sneak off a little early as we had to get home, so we didn’t get to pass on our thanks to the farmers and you, sorry!). Our apple and mulberry pie (from mulberries picked on the farm) last night was delicious.

So thank you so much for a wonderful day. I think it is so great that now when I open our box each week, we can look at the cabbages or potatoes and know exactly who they came from, and it makes it much more personal for the kids too. And I think it is wonderful to know that it is all freshly picked and best of all, so very tasty.

Well done to everyone involved in the day, and to all at Food Connect for doing such a great job.
Cheers, Donna, Kedron subscriber.

“Roger and I and our 2 kids, Kennedy and Lily had a great day. It was our first farm tour and we didn’t know what to expect. We all learnt so much from the farmers. For example, I had no idea that seedless watermelon was problematic for the farmers to grow. We’ll resume eating ordinary watermelon; which tastes better anyway. (Yes, watermelon is one of the rare things that I will supplement the box with, only in high summer.) I think it was great to have a combination of small and big farms on the tour. I had no idea organic farms got as big as Black Crow.

It was really stress free to go in a convoy. I would be much more confident next time about not getting lost, except all of us lost together, ha ha! (No stress for me, though!) I wouldn’t hesitate to book in again. When we got lost, my son was worried that the police would book us all for stopping illegally but I told him it was a country policeman so he would just give us directions instead, and I was right.

I particularly loved seeing where the food was packed and where people answer the phone when I ring to change my order. Real people, answering real phones! And of course the food was lovely but I knew that in advance because we eat it every week. All in all, we had a great day!” From Linda Allen – Clayfield subscriber

“A big thanks to the Food Connect team for another fantastic farm tour. It was great to meet more Food Connectors and put a face to the people who grow the food we eat every week. Archie particularly enjoyed getting his hands dirty while picking the potatoes – an experience I am sure he’ll be talking about for a while. The only thing he was disappointed about it that we didn’t go to an avocado farm and that I wouldn’t put the dirt from around the spuds in his dinner!” Cheers, Leah, Joe, Archie and Sam – Fairfield subscribers.

Photos: picking potatoes, Archie climbs Mount Spud, aquaponic silverbeet, our honey farmer Phil’s dad and the police are helpful with directions.