The backyard garden project that became a full-time Pialligo farm

Posted on 7 March, 2023

 It all started with a handful of happy worms.

For Matt, his wife Erin and two sons Riley, 8 and Hamish, 5, a humble worm farm sparked a passion for regenerative farming which has led to a lifestyle and job change and great plans for the future.

The family experimented with a worm farm in their backyard in 2021 to help enrich their veggie patch soil. The worms thrived and quickly outgrew their space and Matt went in search of greener pastures. He arrived at the Pialligo Garden Plots with the helpful advice of local farmer Roy Priest who also mentioned how well chillies grew out there and how in-demand they were in the community.

They took Roy’s advice and grew a small crop of 200 chilli plants.

“With the worm tea as fertiliser, we grew the best crop of chillies that year, selling every last chilli!” said Matt.

When a family dreams big of a veggie patch

Both he and Erin tried to juggle this along with their day jobs, but it proved too difficult and Erin has decided this year to devote herself full-time to their burgeoning garden which they have named Pialligo Harvest. But it is so much more than chillies.

They now sell direct from the farm and currently have beans, snow peas, cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplant, chard/silverbeet, spinach, saag, carrots, corn, beetroot and radish. Their Autumn veggies will go into the ground over the next couple of weeks and include a range of brassicas, spinach and root crops.

You can access these fresh crops by going out and picking your own, or buying boxes of produce through the Southern Harvest Association.

If you want the joy of picking a fresh veggie you haven’t had to grow yourself, you turn up to the farm, receive a safety brief, a map of that day’s pick zones, a bucket and away you go.

From little things big things grow.

Erin or Matt are on hand to help identify how to pick chillies to avoid plant damage and also how to know when the chillies are ripe. This ranges between green and red depending on the variety.

The family do all this on around three acres of fertile soil and enjoying the close-knit community of fellow growers at Pialligo including seedling purveyor Dimity of Reid Tiny Farm who has moved to Tasmania but passed the business ‘baton’ to her sister Holly (who has renamed it Tiny Farm Canberra).

“We had a great working relationship with Dimity, buying her seedlings and also helping each other out here and there. We bought her greenhouse tunnel when she left and have formed a business friendship with her sister Holly as she builds her seedling business. We love how the small community of growers in and around Canberra are so supportive of one another.”

Planning is also in its infancy for an education hub which they hope to kick off in 2024—to enrich the understanding of regenerative farming among young kids, having seen the enthusiasm Riley and Hamish now have for growing and eating vegetables.

“Our boys have learned the true origin of fresh food, the hard work that goes into growing it and have an ever-increasing palate for ‘green stuff’. They love watching things grow and their favourite job is harvesting veggies and chillies.”

Pialligo Harvest allows you to go pick your own veggies without the hassle of having to grow them first!

Matt and Erin are currently mapping farm-to-plate against the school curriculum to see what might align between what they were able to demonstrate and what was being taught in the classroom.

“If we don’t take care of the soil and teach the next generation how to care for the land, we leave our kids and their kids with less and less. We think there is greater consideration for the environment these days and want to be part of increasing this knowledge in future generations,” Matt said

“We might be biased but there is just no comparison between chemical-free produce and what is grown on-mass for the big supermarket chains. Bursting with flavour, crunch and freshness just like back when we were kids. Not to mention, you get to eat it the same day it’s picked.”

 

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He also said there was nothing better than “stopping to take a breath of fresh air, slowing down and doing your grocery shop outdoors. Not to mention the opportunity this way of shopping presents to families—some even bring a picnic rug out and make an outing of it.”