A letter from the farm – March 2025.

Hey there,

How are you and the family? We are all well, Grandma say’s “Health is wealth” and she is right. It is one of those gifts that we don’t notice we have until we lose it, even just temporarily. In case you are wondering, Grandma is well too. 100 years old and as happy and witty as ever, especially when the children are around.

March on the farm has continued to be hot and dry. The evenings are cooler, but not enough to swap over the light weight cotton coverlets for warm doonas. We have missed a lot of the rainfall that neighbours and surrounding towns have received and what has fallen has done little more than settle the dust. It’s crazy how the storms seem so localised now, 5-10mls for us and an inch on the other side of town!

March is normally hot and dry for us, so our current reality is not unexpected. The change will come in April along with the season break and it will be beautiful! I wish you could enjoy it with us, you know there is always space here for you too, right?

This month we have done something really exciting. We have recommissioned an old combine seeder (well Joel has with help from Mal) to sow our own winter grazing crops. Until now we have had neighbours help us but this year its us! We have sown oats that we are hoping to let the new lambs eat when they are weaned from their mothers in late winter.

The cool part is that the oats are ours from last season. Seeds that were grown on the farm and performed well in our soil. Now they are growing as the next generation that will continue to adapt to our environment.

We are also planting a mixed species winter annual pasture, aligning with our regenerative ag philosophy. Slowly we will improve one or two paddocks at a time. We have 15 species that will be sown together, offering diversity and individual benefits to the farm ecosystem. Think grass, turnips, broadbeans and everything in between. I was dreaming of sunflowers growing in the paddock until a friend reminded me that they are a summer crop… maybe one day!

We are also using worm castings as our fertiliser, I think this is pretty unconventional for most farmers but we are having a go. To us it just makes sense, it feels like the right choice. I know that you are more than aware that I am no expert on this subject, but my simple understanding is that the better we look after the soil microbiology, the better grass we can grow.

All that is left now is for the rain to fall and get our little seeds growing aka ‘the autumn break’. The autumn break is the first significant rainfall of the winter growing season. Some farmers wait for rain to be coming within days or plenty of soil moisture before they sow but we did what is called ‘dry sowing’. We chose to plant the seeds into a dry seedbed, without the required soil moisture to germinate. The positive of this is that we can have the crop sown on time and ready to go, even when there is a delay in the autumn break.

March is seeing us get to the end of selling all our lambs that were born April-May last year. We are making sure there is room for the new lambs that we are expecting soon - towards the end of April. We have had paddocks locked off for a few months to ensure there is plenty of feed and protection for the ewes and lambs.

This is the time in our production cycle where the ewes have their maximum nutritional requirements. I remember so clearly those early days of breastfeeding and being so hungry. Especially in the middle of the night when I was up a few times too many with a hungry baby trying to bring in more milk! I suppose the sheep are the same!

Our wool that was harvested last month has now sold and we had a pleasant surprise with the price we got after going to auction. We received 20% above the guide price and we believe it is because of our RWS stamp. We are certified to meet the Responsible Wool Standards criteria and what that means is that we are approved to sell our wool as ethically and responsibly raised.

The RWS stamp is internationally recognised and highly sought after by companies that follow strong environmental and social principles. I think the big win is that we would be farming this way with or without RWS and we were rewarded for it.

The farmstay was quiet over March but just as expected, our visitor numbers were pretty consistent with the same time of year over the last couple of years. It did give us opportunities to get ahead on little maintenance jobs, time for a good deep clean and to restock in preparation for a really busy April. Was it you that booked? If so, we are looking forward to seeing you soon and showing you the farm!

At home the summer vege garden is done. The tomatoes are chopped and frozen in 400g-ish bags and I think I have over 60. My plan was to use them in place of a tin of tomatoes, I have no idea how long 60 odd bags will last but I will let you know when we run out! The pumpkins were harvested last weekend and they are a nice little collection. Definitely not as many as I would have liked but I’m still proud of what I achieved. There is enough to enjoy and share and save seeds for next year, that’s pretty good.

To finish off, this is a friendly reminder that it’s time to plant your sweet pea seeds, if you haven’t already. Grandma taught me that we plant sweet pea seeds on St Patrick’s day and to soak them overnight in a jar of water before they go into the ground. I’m looking forward to sending you some pictures of mine when they flower in spring, you’ll have to show me yours too?

I’m wishing you an April as beautiful as they come in The Rock, more than enough chocolate from the Easter Bunny and the pleasure of time spent with those important to you.

Until my next letter, sending my love from the farm,

Em.