Wake up and hear the clucking

As a food writer, I’ve always loved getting out into rural areas and talking to primary producers about what they do. Dedicated, down-to-earth, hard-working, modest and resilient in the face of drought and the worst kind of money woes, farmers are amongst the best kind of people. I’ve also always felt that there was a real need to remind urban dwellers of exactly where their food was coming from and the hard work that goes into getting it onto supermarket shelves, neatly wrapped in plastic. Most Aussies are sadly divorced from the realities of food production, especially children, who might have only seen a chicken or veggie patch on TV, and think that milk “comes from” bottles.

The good news here in Sydney is that plans are afoot to turn one of the inner city’s parks into a fully functioning farm, complete with fruit and nut orchards, vegetable gardens, farm animals and communal composting facilities. The idea, being floated by Sydney City Council, is that this new city-farm will be a place where people can see and learn about food production first hand. Harold Park, The Crescent Lands in Glebe and Sydney Park in St Peters are all under discussion as potential sites for the new farm. If it's sucessful, a second farm may be considered.

Let's hope it is.