Sharing and Caring–Mornington Peninsula’s Transition Farm
Banks of flowers and herbs grown between seasonal crops follow biodynamic principles on the farm.
Mornington Peninsula’s Transition Farm is devoted to producing seeds from crops tailored to the environment using biodynamic principles.
As the name suggests, Transition Farm on the Mornington Peninsula have recently decided to suspend their 10-year-old business of supplying chemical-free vegetable boxes to restaurants and their local community and transition to growing the best plants for the best seeds for us.
After becoming disillusioned about conventional farming practices on the first farm they bought together in Tolmie, Victoria, Robin Koster-Carlyon and Peter Carlyon thought that perhaps farming wasn’t for them. The couple sold that farm and bought this seven-acre one in Fingal in 2007. Robin and Peter set about reinvigorating the whole farm ecosystem using biodynamic practices. As their soil recovered and thrived, so did their crops and they were able to start selling their chemical-free bounty to restaurants and the local community. During this process of renewal, Robin and Peter noticed that some plants flourished more than others – they tasted better and were more disease resilient. Surprise, surprise: heirloom seeds from Norway weren’t suited to the south-east Australian climate.
Last season, they decided to concentrate on producing seeds that were better suited to their/our particular climate and location and offer them for sale to both market and home gardeners. “For right now, we really have focused on securing our own lines; the lines that we used to offer in our boxes and also trying to find these open pollinated crops best suited to our seasons, growers and eaters. The benefit of open pollinated crops is the ability to use selective breeding to strengthen the genetics,” Robin shares.
“Open pollination means we can regionalise our seeds – I can imbue them with biodynamic principles and I can move them forward on our farm. Certainly, in-built disease resistance is another thing that we are trying to find and foster in our seeds; those flavourful crops that just have an in-built resistance to powdery mildew or downy mildew or different pests and diseases,” says Robin.
What started out as basic farm practice of saving seeds for the next crop for Robin and Peter became something much bigger, as they realised they were incidentally creating a bank of seeds that were carrying genetic attributes which made them perfect for their specific environment. By choosing the strongest plants that had endured particular weather conditions through a season, or survived a certain pest, they were creating a valuable cache of very special seeds.They wanted to share their findings (and seeds) with their community of growers, both commercial and home gardens. “It’s really important to do this work, no matter if it’s us or someone else doing it. It’s important to keep seed genetics moving forward because it is food sovereignty. It’s our community seed. I think it is very important that these skills keep getting honed, passed on and worked with. I see us as just one small part of that.”