Kings Design

At Hillwood Fresh Food Co. the main product is gourmet mushrooms. Using farm and industrial byproducts Hillwood creates delicious, healthy, chemical free mushrooms. They are completely off the grid and therefore have to be innovative and grow mushrooms as efficiently as possible.

Josh and Patreena West are the team behind Westbae Pastoral. Having both had a background in farming, it was only fitting that they established a farm of their own to implement their ideas and desired farming practices.

Melissa and Luke are ex Queenslanders who had the dream of moving to Tasmania for 15 years. 4 years ago, this dream became a reality as they moved the family south. Melissa is a Registered Nurse working in primary health while Luke is a diesel fitter by trade who spends his time behind a desk managing vehicle fleets.

Rise and Shine Farm is owned and run by Coral and Nick Warren; keen learners who are passionate about regenerating their property and producing quality food and fibre for Tasmanians.

Old Orchard Farm is a small-scale sustainable market garden in the Huon Valley. On what was a paddock in 2019, stands a wallaby-proof fence protecting a 1300m2 market garden with a range of vegetables and herbs and a polytunnel.

Two vibrant young chefs turned farmers – becoming primary producers of vegetables, fruit, eggs and bread was a natural progression for their passion to offer delicious, local food to the community. Supplying neighbours, local farmers markets and restaurants with a diverse range of healthy and sustainably grown produce.

Early Bird Farm is setting down roots in Cygnet, Tasmania on Melukerdee Country, a 45minutes drive South of Hobart. On their leased land of 2 acres the founders and farmers Jenna and Zeb believe that how food is grown is a powerful force for change.

Autumn is drawing to a close and even the Tasmanian native Fagus has finished turning as we head towards the start of Winter. The first snow was seen dusting kunanyi a few days ago.

Summer is here, and we’ve put together a great newsletter this season with information about what we’ve been up to here at Sprout HQ, and also a heads up about other things happening in your local community.

Spring has definitely hit us, not just with amazing new growth, but with winds, rain, snow and more.  That’s Spring in Tassie for you! What could be more in keeping with Spring than finding asparagus at the farmers markets again!  These spears are from an SPP graduate – Phil and Lucy from @headlam farm asparagus. Looks so scrumptious! 

Winter is almost behind us, but as I sit here typing this message the mountain Kunanyi is blanketed in snow and we’ve had gale force winds across the state as the cold front has crossed our land. I sincerely hope all of you, your polytunnels, gardens, stock in the paddocks, lambs, chicken tractors and everything else has survived what Mother Nature has thrown at us.

Chris has worked as a Health Information System Expert and Monitoring and Evaluation specialist in post-disaster and conflict impacted countries for over 16-years. With limited farming experience, Chris feels she cannot call herself a farmer, however her disease management approach informed the farm’s weed eradication strategy and consequent deep respect, admiration and love for her small herd of weed munching full blood Boer goats.