Hunters Garden CSA

Gemma and Todd @ Hunters Garden
huntersgarden@hotmail.com
Eumundi, 4562, QLD
www.huntersgarden.com.au
www.facebook.com/huntersgarden  & www.instagram.com/huntersgarden

What do you offer in your CSA?
We offer seasonal 'farmers choice' veggie boxes each week, to people who have paid upfront for the season (which runs for 13 weeks). Our CSA is 100% homegrown by us on our little farm and we go 'beyond organic'. By that, we mean that we don't use any chemicals, we use 'no-dig' or 'no-till' methods to preserve the delicate soil microbiology beneath our feet and we don't rely on environmentally unsustainable external inputs such as mined minerals and feedlot manures. We are also a plastic-free business, so we only use reusable or compostable plant-based options when necessary and avoid packaging altogether wherever we can.

How long have you had a CSA?
We started growing beautiful microgreens in June 2017, which we supply to the public, to produce stores and to cafes and restaurants from Brisbane to the Sunshine Coast, alongside our CSA. We started developing our CSA in October 2017 and taking expressions of interest and preorders to support us in turning a cow paddock into thriving edible gardens. We started filling those orders in April 2018 and are slowly expanding. We grow veggies, herbs, edible flowers, microgreens and some faster growing fruits. Our focus us on preserving traditional and heirloom varieties and growing everything we like to eat, which is a lot!

If you had advice for a farmer thinking about offering a CSA, what would it be?
Do it! We are big advocates for more and more small scale farmers feeding their local communities through community supported agriculture. We can only produce so much food to the ethical, environmental, personal and quality standards that we hold dear. We need more young farmers for the future to bring food production back to their local communities. We want to see more and more people having access to quality, fresh, nutrient dense, unpackaged and chemical free food. Our main piece of advice though would be to start small. You will come up against all sorts of challenges and starting small (even taking on one CSA customer at a time) will allow you to really work through your systems and processes before you scale up. ​

What's your favourite aspect of the CSA community?

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Knowing the names of people we feed in our local communities and knowing our food is nourishing them and their loved ones every week. Because of the direct relationship we have with our eaters, we are able to provide complete transparency in our methods and journey. Together we are taking the power back.