John Stapleton
THE Currajong Valley north west of Sydney has
changed forever. Once a picturesque nook full of derelict orchards and
run down market gardens on the city's urban fringes, barely surviving as
developers circled, it is now booming as the ``slow food'' and ``eat
local'' movements take hold and consumers become aware of new terms such
as ``food miles''.
The Richmond/Windsor area, declared one of
Sydney's food bowls by Governor Lachlan Macquarie, suffered through much
of last century from ever rising costs of farming and intense
competition from supermarkets. A traditional way of life was dying.
Not anymore.
It is a story repeated around the country, farms
which were poverty stricken only a few years ago are now booming as
bursting tourist buses and four wheel drives pull up in front, all
willing to pay for fruit picked directly from the trees behind.
Farmer John Maguire has been a leader in the
transformation to direct selling to the public. Twenty years ago his
orchard was facing bankruptcy. Every year, going through the
``soulless'' experience of selling into the major fruit and vegetable
markets at Flemington, his financial situation went progressively
backwards. Now his cafe and shop at the front of his property are rarely
empty.
His family's love of the property Enniskillen
Orchard, with its views across the rich flood plains of the Hawkesbury,
meant he was prepared to fight for its survival, although he was not
always convinced he could survive.
Suburbia was only a few minutes drive away and it
seemed to John Maguire, 71, that, typical of other orchardists and
market gardeners in the area, his clinging to what seemed like an
ancient way of life was doomed to failure.
Forlornly, believing there was no financial or
practical way he could stay on at his beloved farm, Maguire used to
drive down to Windsor on the flood plains for monthly meetings with a
small group of councillors, landholders, town planners and bureaucrats,
all concerned about the future of the area.
Academics spoke poetically about the need to
maintain the rural character of our urban fringe. Town planners spoke
of the need to maintain the district's character against the ever
sprawling tide of suburbia. Councillors spoke of the need to attract
tourists to one of the state's most beautiful but unexplored regions,
right on the footsteps of the state's capital.
And the landholders themselves spoke despairingly
of their love for their crumbling properties, their desperate desire to
cling to the farms that had been home to their families for generations
and the impossibility of making a living out of orchards and market
farms.
How times have changed.
The meetings he used to attend were the
forerunner of the now immensely successful Hawkesbury Harvest, a group
of restaurants, farmers, tour operators and bed and breakfasts which run
amongst other things the ``Harvest Trail'', a recommended route which
encourages both Sydneysiders and international tourists to discover an
idyllic rural enclave on the edge of the country's largest city. As a
concept, the farmgate trail has taken off. Farmers markets, including a
new one at Rouse Hill in Sydney's west this month, are also part of the
phenomenon.
``We get overseas tourists virtually every day on
busses; and they are stunned at the beauty of this place,'' Maguire
said. ``We have fashioned this place to the changing tide. We have a
dozen different varieties of apples growing here; we have very early
peaches and nectarines; some of which are old fashioned and still retain
the old fashioned taste. ``We can have some daggy looking varieties, of
peaches in particular, but you give the customer a taste and they're
sold.
``Barely a day goes by without people commenting
that the normal fruit they buy looks far better than it tastes. Here the
fruit is literaly taken from the tree to the shop; some of the
varieties don't travel well but people love buying them. Rasberries
don't travel well, figs don't have a long shelf life, but both are the
big fashion fruits of the moment. There is a great demand.''
Maguire said the ``eat local'' trend was the
result of urbanisation. ``People are starting to wake up to the fact
that humankind does not live by cemented land alone and that food
doesn't just come off a supermarket shelf.
``Part of this is that it is an experience,''
Maguire said. ``A lot of young children haven't had anything like it
before. They walk into our place and it is pretty well foreign to them.
There's no concept of where the fruit comes from and what is entailed in
growing it.''
The ``eat local'' phenomenon, backed up by the
American ``100 mile diet'' craze and increasing concern about ``food
miles'', has become not just an anti-globalisation political statement
about supporting individual farmers over corporate chainstores, or even a
diletante's preference for fruit that has not spent months in cold
storage.
The ``eating local'' and ``food miles'' campaigns
have become controversial fashion statement; with debate raging over
whether the carbon footprint of locally produced food is higher or lower
than imported produce. Some British supermarkets have taken to
labelling the food miles on theirp products.
The book which started it all, The One Hundred
Mile Diet, by the movements founders Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon,
explores the Canadian couples often humorous exploits and the lengths
the authors went to in order to source all their food within a defined
range and their cravings for items, such as chocolate and coffee, that
prove difficult to source in the 100 mile radius from their Vancouver
home. A food item in North America typically travels more than 1500
miles from farm to plate and the diet has been argued as a way
individuals can decrease their carbon footprint and do their bit to save
the planet from global warming. The idea has spread to many communities
across North America, and is now taking hold in Australia.
An ABC journalist, ABC rural reporter Kim Honan
became a ``locavore'' for a month, sourcing everything she ate and drank
to the 100 mile - 160 kilomere - radius. You can follow her exploits,
from initial starvation to a journey of discovery at local delights, on
the ABC's website. As observers have noticed, living in Coffs harbour
was particularly fortuitous; she could drink coffee and wine sourced
locally, not to mention oysters, lobsters, corn-fed chicen - and of
course there was no shortage of bananas. But there was no chocolate and
no fresh crusty bread.
Ian Knowd, from the School of Social Sciences at
the University of Western Sydney, one of the founding members of the
Hawkesbury Harvest, said he was originally interested in the possibility
of tourism saving dying farms on the urban fringe. It has dovetailed
neatly with a public's growing concerns about lifestyle diseases and the
impacts of their own consumerism; with an almost spiritual movement to
connect with the land.
``From the farmer's point of view it was about
more direct market channels and therefore keeping more of the profits,''
he said. ``From the consumers' end it was about picking something
fresh. And being able to lay your eyes on the producer and ask him
questions about how they produce it, all of the stories that go with
food production, the ``agri-culture'' stuff.
``Hawkesbury Harvest is about rebuilding the local
food economy and networks. People were saying that with urbanisation
these farms couldn't produce viably anymore. It is very difficult for
small farms to survive in the current market.
``Fortunately there is a growing awareness amongst
consumers about health and nutrition issues of food; and their concerns
about what the central food system does to food.
``Harvest is exploiting this food consciouness trend, which is why the new farmer's markets are emerging.''
Hawkesbury Harvest is also tying into the slow food movement, having just started a Convivium.
``The slow food movement is similar to the eat
local movement, it is about appreciating how food is produced, handled,
prepared, cooked and consumed; it is a more holistic, almost spiritual
experience.
``It is about appreciation of food, not just consumption. It has some quite profound elements to it.
``What is the regional food culture; and what is
the connection between that and other cultural aspects of the community.
It is about undersanding human communities through their food.
``It is not about saving money, it is about
spending enough money to ensure the producer gets a fair return for
their effort and the quality of what they produce. It's about being
connected to the landscape that produces your food. There is an ehtical
dimension.
``It is not the lunatic fringe in the farming
community. These people were and are mainstream, they are making the
tourism thing work for them.''
Ian Ryall, Canberra's Convivium Leader for the
Slow Food Movement, said involvement with local producers and
understanding the orgins of food was integral to the increasingly
popular movement. It began in Italy in the 1980s as a reaction to the
fast food culture. ``Slow food helps people rediscover the joy of eating
and the importance of caring where their food comes from,'' he said.
``We encourage the use of local and regional products that are `good,
clean and fair'. We believe in making connections with the growers and
producers, understanding the enthusiasm and passion they bring to
growing their product and how that translates into the quality of the
product.''
Food and Wine Coordinator with the Hawkesbury
Harvest Carol Leyton they were advocating for local growers and creating
a connection between the community and growers through events like
Farmers Markets, conviviums and the farmgate trail.
``It helps the growers to stay solvent,'' she
said. ``They are up against the central markets; the big super markets
which fix the prices. If they can go to the farmers market or deal
directly with the public at the farmgate it gives them a chance to
educate the public and to make a decent living. I think people, even the
most unaware people are aware of food miles today. They want to know
where their food is made and how it is made.''
Ms Leyton said the trend towards local and regional produce was exemplified by the success of farmers markets around the world.
Ms Leyton said people were increasingly fed up with supermarkets and the soulless tasteless fruit and often old that they sold.
``You can go to a farmer's market and and know the
fruit's been picked the day before,'' she said. ``We have farmers
growing peaches or plum varieties which don't have a long shelf life;
and they were dying out because supermarkets can't take them.
``As life gets more frantic there is a need to
reconnect with the real world; where fruits are grown and you talk to a
farmer, where you eat food that has been picked the day before. where
you are in touch with the more natural rhythms of life.''
