Sarah and Ben Anderson have created a peaceful, productive space on a 4000-square-metre block just up the hill from the Woonona shops.
Building on Ben’s background in sustainability and education, the couple had discussed living sustainably on a residential block. Then, in 2011, they did a year of international exchange and WWOOFing (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, where volunteers help out and learn in exchange for room and board). Within three weeks of landing back in Australia, the family were spending their first night on their new property.
During their year overseas, Sarah, Ben and their two children, Zoe and Tom, then seven and four, travelled in seven countries, wwoofing and learning about small-scale sustainable food production. Sarah told me, “At the tail end of the trip, I remember sitting around a table in Japan and talking about what we were going to do next.
“The main thing was to give the kids the type of experience that we got from international travel, seeing how other people live their life – open them up to experiencing different ways of life.”
Sarah reminisces about spending Tom’s fourth birthday in high desert alpine country in New Mexico with snow on the ground, making popcorn over a fire in a cast-iron skillet.
Prior to Anderson's ownership, the property in Popes Road had been owned by one family for a century. Sarah talks of the area being agricultural, with a farrier nearby, a neighbour with a milking Jersey cow and someone making wine for the neighbourhood.
The Andersons could see that the property had great potential to be productive. Their vision was to provide for their family and run a business that would stand the test of time and also meet a need in the community. The block is north-south oriented, with the northern end covered in remnant native vegetation and the rest given over to garden beds. Sarah talks of having no business plan, no training or background in farming, yet the business called Popes Produce has been running for eight years now.
Sarah did a permaculture course when the kids were young but tells me that the process of turning an overgrown block into productive land was immense. "The learning curve was like climbing a mountain with crampons, and then needing an oxygen tank,” she says.
Right now though, growth is ramping up, with crops like rainbow chard, Italian spinach, parsley, sage, beetroot, leeks, shallots and basil coming on. A delivery of 725 seedlings is expected any day with cucumbers, zucchinis and tomatoes on their way. Sarah doesn’t use greenhouses and relies on exclusion netting to protect the developing chemical-free produce. She uses lots of compost and fish fertiliser, supplemented with seaweed washed up on the local beach (which is acceptable on a small scale).
Popes Produce operates on a subscription service. Subscribers sign up to a 10-week season prior to planting and share the risks of the season. A newsletter goes out on Mondays, telling readers what will be harvested on Thursday. This allows locals to share in the spoils of the market garden, knowing they are getting the freshest local produce.
With two and a half metres of rain since December 2021, it’s fair to say that 2022 has been a bad year for production. During winter, as a result of the remnant vegetation, a good proportion of the property is in shade, so growth is slow anyway, but with wet, cloudy conditions for much of the year, Sarah has had some difficult conversations with her subscribers. During this time, Sarah has offered customers a refund of the balance of their subscription or the option of paying forward their balance to flood relief.
In the spirit of learning and teaching, Sarah welcomes volunteers to work alongside her. She plans to have a regular weekly volunteer time slot and will post opportunities on the Popes Produce Facebook page.
In addition to running a market garden and teaching visitors, Sarah is also the garden co-ordinator at Kemblawarra Public School. She works with the children on innovative age-specific programs, such as worm farms for preschoolers and growing food in the Gold Rush era for older children.
The other half of the partnership, Ben, has also been busy. Ben went to night school and qualified as a builder so he could owner-build a self-contained eco-friendly cottage, which is available for short stays. Mud brick and earth rendered, the cottage has a turf roof with soil 300mm deep, and in this grows more produce. The retaining wall behind the cottage is made of rectangular concrete water tanks, so rain falls onto the roof, then is filtered and captured in the tanks to be used on the market garden. The whole property has seven water tanks with a capacity of 30,000 litres.
Through trial and error, blood, sweat and tears, and a lot of love, the Anderson family have created a serene, productive space in which to live and work.
Find out more about Popes Produce, the subscription system and Cuttlefish Cottage on the website.
WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) is a network that links people with volunteer opportunities on organic farms with the purpose of promoting cultural and educational opportunities. For international opportunities, find out more here. For opportunities in Australia, find out more here.