Greenpatch Organic Seeds open day

Organic herb seedlings

Three carloads of us carpooled down to near Taree in time for the advertised start time of 10am. Only to be told that the day had been cancelled at the last minute due to the carpark ground being too soft. However, we were hardly the only ones who didn't get the memo in time, and within half an hour, approximately 50 people had gathered in expectation of the days offerings.

 

They decided to run the day after all.

We were all led around the property for a farm tour. 

 
Greenpatch have been growing organic seeds for edible plants for 25 years from this little 5? acre plot. 
 Plantings are dense, crops are rotated, they have their irrigation system and mulching figured out. To prevent unwanted cross pollination within plant families they use fruit fly netting. This covers the other crops in the family to exclude pollinators while the first one, the most ready to set seed, is left uncovered. They do this on a grand scale.

Their seed cleaning equipment is not much more sophisticated than ours. Their sieves are larger and they use a fan on a gentle setting for winnowing. For some seeds there is a sifting machine - a barrel shaped sieve run by a motor.

We were also given a seed sowing and propagation demonstration, and a talk on native stingless bees.

In between, we feasted on an impromptu morning tea and lunch that was magnificent.

Greenpatch have a huge variety of open pollinated heritage organic seeds for sale, as well as useful gardening bits and bobs including their fruit fly netting.
https://www.greenpatchseeds.com.au/

Thanks to Jeff for all our photos.