Our farm tour this season took us to Eden Hope Dairy, the dedicated suppliers of our weekly milk and the Clark’s, growers of tomatoes, herbs, cucumbers and lettuce. Temperatures in single digits and early starts don’t necessarily go hand-in-hand with Sunday mornings but when there is a lure of milk fresh from the cow we couldn’t resist. Seeing, hearing and smelling the 60 strong herd of predominantly Jersey cows (and a few of their calves) make their way to the milking shed is an experience to behold. As was glimpsing the huge vat of creamy milk they produced. We learnt about the twice daily routine of the dairy farming family while children played on hay bales in the sun.

With a delicious Hale Foods (caterer and resident chef of the FC community kitchen) rhubarb and ginger muffin and a hot cuppa (with fresh milk) in hand we listened to the avuncular figure of Glenn Bunter talk us through his family history in farming and their change to using organic biodynamic principles.

Touring the pastures Glenn and Therese helped us understand why Eden Hope dairy farm is a truly dynamic place. Glenn explained how their biodynamic farming practices have resulted in healthier cows and a cleaner, kinder way of working with the land. WIN News Sunshine Coast even paid a visit fascinated at the concept of city folk getting their feet dirty and producer being able to talk directly to their customer.

All too soon we were off to see Janice and Russell Clarke up the road where we relaxed in a sunny spot on the front lawn to have a spot of lunch and introduce ourselves. Janice told us how they began planting and selling tomatoes as a way of funding a ski trip. They did so well that it wasn’t long before Robert Peakin, founder of Food Connect, had got wind of their tasty produce and they were asked if they’d like to supply us.

With dogs and children running about in equal measure we strolled off our lunch walking through the Clarke’s paddocks of leafy greens. Some of us even got a chance to do a little gentle weeding  between the lettuces.

Farm tours make for long but rewarding days. A huge thank you to our farmers for their generosity in allowing us to visit, ask questions and generally have a poke around. Also a huge thank you goes to you, subscribers, for making the trip and joining in on the day.

Here at Food Connect we are always looking for novel ways to get our message out to the audience of potential subscribers. When a lecture was given to Queensland College of Art design and marketing students explaining the ideas behind our eye catching  ‘Dirty/Rough/Imperfect/Unruly’ campaign, the students responded by asking if they could create a ‘guerrilla’ campaign of their own on at the Southbank campus. Never one to shy away from something grabbing people’s attention, we said ‘YES!’.

The two groups of third-year students produced two very different campaigns designed to engage the population of the Southbank campus.

One group chose to run a pop-up ‘farm’ encouraging passers by to ‘pick’ their own and sign-up  to know more about Food Connect’s place within the fair food movement. They set out the colourful mandarins, lemonade fruits, pink lady apples, avocados and sweet potatoes on hay and engaged with the passing traffic. By the end of the day they had successfully found a home for all the ‘freshly picked’ produce and we had a list of potential interested parties.

The second group took an edgier approach choosing to shock their audience into engaging with the message. They developed banners for our facebook page and took to instagram (@foodconnectbrisbane) and twitter (@food_connect) to get people talking on social media.

Both these campaigns were short and sharp, with the aim of motivating a student audience.  It was great fun to negotiate with the students and we hope that it helped them in their learning process.