Come together

This afternoon I was talking to Carolyn Suggate the amazing woman behind the Organic Farmer Bushfire Appeal that you may have seen linked to our website.

Carolyn has been organising the first of six truck loads of donated fodder to be delivered to organic & biodynamic farms on Tuesday, just in time for Christmas.

A couple weeks ago when Carolyn launched the Appeal, her target was to raise $14,000 to purchase and truck 50 tonnes of certified organic hay and silage up to fire-affected farms in NSW.

The response quickly exceeded her target and so far 120 tonnes of certified organic fodder worth over $60,000 has been donated by organic producers in Victoria – plus another $40,000 worth of transport subsidies from the NSW Rural Assistance Authority.

For Victorian farmers like Graham and Melissa Clay, who their donated 20 tonnes of precious organic hay and silage, they feel what is happening to farmers in NSW could easily be happening them. 

Carolyn says the Appeal is an opportunity for farmers to come together and care for each other, but she also points out that the Appeal is actually about all of us. 

She explains because of the fires and the drought there will be food shortages next year and that by supporting farmers to stay on the land and get farming quickly once it rains is helping ensure food security for all of us.

David and Heidi from Marrook Farm (you might have had their kefir) have been touched by the generosity.  Bio-dynamic farmers for 30 years they’ve always had a solid drought and fire plans but in this unprecedented year nothing seems to work.

Donated organic hay and silage will help keep David and Heidi’s cows fed and get Marrook Farm through the next few months with its organic certification in tact – a huge plus.

Though the Appeal has initially focused on dairy farms like Marook Farm, Benmore Farm and Oxhill Farm whose herds are in immediate need, it is now broadening to support fruit and veg growers who have also been affected by fires.

If you’d like to help fire-affected farmers rebuild and keep growing food click on this link here.

Thanks …

Our mission at CERES is to help people fall in love with the earth.

At Fair Food we try to do that by connecting people with where their food and also these days their wood has come from.

We love to share the stories about our produce and groceries and the people who grow it and make it.

And we love to share the myriad ways to cook and share it with each other.

And we also love to give thanks….

So in this last week of the year, I’d like to say thanks to our customer service team who so patiently help hundreds of us get Fair Food each week.

And thanks to our packing crew – who with a 99.5% accuracy rate – carefully gather our orders each week and also set the bar in caring for each other so high that it continually inspires me.

Thanks to the Fair Food drivers – who deliver our groceries in the freezing cold and the 44C degree blazing heat!  And who, with a smile, will bring our heavy boxes of fruit and veg inside when we can’t manage it.

And thanks to our buyers, our managers and our marketers – for sourcing our food, keeping the show on the road, for telling the stories and generally making things better and better every week.

Thanks to the farmers and the makers for growing, for milling, for cooking, for baking, for drying and fermenting our food no matter what the weather.

And of course thanks to our Mother the Earth, who provides everything that sustains us – may we take better care of her next year.

And finally thanks to all of you; for your support, your feedback, your stories and for another wonderful year – we would not be here without you.

Have a safe and relaxing holiday

See you in 2020

Chris