No farming background? No worries. That's the attitude one young couple from NSW is taking in their unique business. After purchasing a mountainous, overgrazed and neglected 100-acre property in Putty, just a couple of hours outside Sydney, they are on a steep learning curve. And they're pulling it off beautifully, producing cattle, pigs and chickens with regenerative agriculture at the heart of what they do. Sam Rayment and Liz Ferrone say that's just the start, hoping their farm eventually lives up to its name, becoming a true food forest.
The couple moved to the farm in 2021 and initially held on to their corporate jobs whilst they built their business. Sam works in engineering and Liz is a dietician. His interest in animals and her interest in food ignited a passion for farming, but there were challenges.
We didn't even know a farmer at the time."
"We didn't have anyone in our family with a farming background. We're not intergenerational farmers. We didn't even know a farmer at the time," recalls Sam.
But the couple investigated permaculture, regenerative agriculture, and direct-to-consumer models that allowed them to believe it was possible after all.
Sam and Liz were living on Sydney's Northern Beaches at the time and got into gardening, aquaponics and keeping chickens in their urban life. "We also found we were just not happy in our careers," he says.
With the help of Youtube and expansive reading, they decided to take a leap. They bought a property within driving distance of Sydney, so they could keep their jobs, whilst they learnt how to farm. Finally, in August 2023, Liz was able to make farming her full-time job, and Sam hopes to join her soon.
"There have been a lot of ups and downs. The house is still in need of more work, but we're giving everything a go," says Liz.
You put all those things together and we decided to take this big gamble and try something really new.
The couple started all this with just three pigs.
"We picked them up from Tamworth, put them in the back of the car and brought them to Sydney," Liz laughs. "At that point, we just had a station wagon," Sam adds. "We didn't think too much about how we were going to get them back!"
We ended up with three large pigs in quite a large box, in the back of our station wagon. We never got the pig dust out of it.
They still have those three original pigs, but now there are 80 heads at current count. "What we're doing is rooted in ethical, chemical-free, regenerative farming," explains Sam.
Liz also believes focussing on quality food production is crucial, "We've got this food first approach in dietetics that I really champion. But we don't think about what our food eats or how it lives."
Selling direct to consumer has been a game-changer for the pair. They have a successful spot at Carriageworks Markets in Sydney but also now deliver nationwide.
We've been very cautious in our approach. We've only produced very small amounts of anything along the way.
Their next goal is to incorporate agri-tourism into the business. They are proud of the real connections they've made with their customers and wish to grow that even further. And expect to see more than cattle, pigs and chickens in the future.
"Our farm name is Hillside Food Forest, and we won't have a forest yet. That's something we're working on," says Sam. Stay tuned as they build their forest from the ground up.
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