The Farmer
Dimity May took a meandering path into farming through permaculture, market gardening and on-farm internships. After learning from mentor Joyce Wilkie and Mike Plane of Allsun Farm, and studying remotely with Quebecois grower Jean-Martin Fortier, an obsession with the magic of starting seeds led her to find her passion in propagation. In 2020, Dimity started her business, Reid Tiny Farm, supplying locally grown and organic seedlings in fully biodegradable pots to the Canberra community through a 120-person seedling CSA and in time, selling her plants to local supermarkets where they were popular with a community hungry to support local small business and seeking sustainable alternatives.
After an unexpected move to Tasmania in early 2023, Dimity has set up a similar business, Tiny Farm Tas, supplying seedlings to the Tassie community. Dimity has thrown herself into rejuvenating the land on a small block in Glaziers Bay, working to increase diversity and feed microbes whilst also diving deep into learning about grazing management and raising animals. Dimity keeps heritage pigs on her own property and Belted Galloway cattle on a friend’s nearby farm and along with expanding her seedling business here in Tasmania, hopes to diversify into small meat production and native flowers in coming years.
The Farm
Dimity and her family feel incredibly fortunate to have landed in a magical spot right on the edge of the Huon River in Glaziers Bay. Whilst the views from their 7 scrappy acres are gorgeous, the soil is anything but, with years of degradation leaving the cleared areas entirely bare of topsoil and heavy ‘Cygnet cement’ clay throughout.
Using cover crops, mulching, compost and re-mineralisation, plus a whole host of diversity that’s now growing in what was a barren wasteland, Dimity and her partner Mark are working to restore vitality to their land and feel a strong responsibility to one day leave this little patch of the planet better than they found it. They are in the process of creating a series of small paddocks for their heritage-breed pigs, allowing for a rotational system with a diversified forage mix of grasses and legumes. They hope that a resolution to the current challenges facing small meat producers in Tasmania might allow them to supply truly free range and ethically-raised pork to their local community in the near future.