We are currently undertaking a full farm feasibility and planing study to assess the costs and benefits of setting up an organic farm on our proposed Bunjil land in the Goulburn Valley. This could be done under the model of Community Supported Agricultural (CSA) and would be in this regard owned by the Community.
We hope to soon be offering fresh organic fruit & vegies to Bunjil Members, probably starting around Apr/May 2010. We plan to do this by first sourcing food from Organic Farmers direct through a Cooperative type arrangement. So.....watch this space and we'll update you when we have something to report back and offer!
To give you an idea of how the Organic Farm within the Bunjil Project might work, here is a summary of ideas around the farm so far. Again this will change as more Members come on board and become part of the design team......
The aim is to firstly set up an Organic Food Cooperative amongst our Members and then when our own Farm starts producing food, to add these into the mix thus supplying all our Member families with fresh, locally grown wholesome organic food!
We plan to set up the farm as a Permaculture Organic Farm, and so we are now looking for a professional Farm Manager experienced in both these areas. Once we have built the farm infrastructure, and have our Manger in place, we hope to grow enough food to help supply about 50-100 families initially. In the Goulburn Valley, we would use about 150 acres for the farm and eventually we may expand this as needed to help supply the greater surrounding area, combining our produce with that sourced through the existing Cooperative.
We imagine that at certain times of the year we would all, with our families, be involved helping our Farm Team to harvest, prepare, pack and dry organic produce. This would also be part of our education process in the Community, teaching our kids and ourselves about permaculture, organic and bio-dynamic farming processes.
We envision a diverse range of produce and value adding possibilities on the farm. In this respect it could also serve as a Regional Organic Food Centre to support the viability of other local organic farms.
That's just a snippet of our farm vision, which again will be owned and moulded by those that want to be part of it all. We intend to design the farm so that it produces a whole range of food for our community as well as an income.
