HARRIET Bell and Jo Lynch hail from farming stock, yet their path to becoming organic growers was hardly certain.
A farmer's daughter, raised in Paterson, 28-year-old Bell has a Bachelor of Arts in Media Production and has worked in many industries.
Lynch was raised on a beef cattle farm near Nabiac, but "got out of there as soon as I could" after high school. Five years ago, however, his decision to return to the farm during a "quarter life crisis" planted a creative seed.
"I just didn't feel like the city life was sustaining me," he says. "I'm not sure if [love for the land] is something you inherit, but after working in different jobs and realising none was what I wanted to do, it was a process of elimination and I saw a sustainable future on the land."
Bell left Newcastle to join Lynch and after having "zero interest" in farming, promptly fell in love with it: "I just thought, 'Finally, something that feels meaningful."
Via podcasts, books, YouTube and other informal study, they learned about holistic management, regenerative farming and animal management and did a NEIS course. In late 2019 they began looking for some land. By chance, they went to a pruning day at Lorn Rose Farm and struck up a care-taker arrangement.
Last February they broke ground on a quarter of an acre, launching The Good Growers: "We had grown zero vegetables before but we had confidence in our general understanding of natural systems," Bell says.
The couple sell a weekly organic vegetable box via their online store and Maitland Growers Market. Their point of difference is being "no dig" producers: they don't plough, turn or disturb the soil, ensuring that fungal networks and microbes are preserved.
"Farming is hard on the land. Part of what we want to do is learn how to build soil and grow with it rather than just extracting yield and dollars," adds Lynch.
They plan to double trade in 2021 and collaborate more with other farmers.
"It's a fallacy to say farms must be small to be good, they need to be large and good to actually be a force to be reckoned with," Bell says.
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