The Pines Farm Kiama will expand into agritourism as a way to keep it sustainable. Photos: Supplied.
After putting the cows out to pasture, switching off the dairy lights and taking a step back at The Pines Farm Kiama last Christmas, owners Kel and Mahlah Grey are now ready to “milk” fresh opportunities in agritourism to create long-term sustainability.
In the midst of spring calving, Mahlah said changes within the agritourism legislation in 2022 had paved the way to create new opportunities and be less reliant on dairy production.
“We were in a position where physically and emotionally we were a bit burnt-out after 10 years of on farm daily production,” she said.
“We’ve been processing milk, making cheese and doing all of that non-stop and got to the point where we really needed a hard reset.
“We needed to get off farm and use the time to think about how things work here and what we would like to be achieving moving forward.”
Mahlah said they looked at dairy systems and on farm agritourism opportunities in New Zealand while visiting family, resulting in them now rebranding from The Pines Kiama to The Pines Farm and inspiring the ideas of on-farm education workshops, a yoga studio, evening paddock walks for adults and school holiday farm mornings for kids to undertake farm chores like feeding chickens and checking cows.
She said eventually they also wanted to move The Pines Pantry in the Kiama township onto the farm, and have paddock to plate dining experiences with chefs tailoring a seasonal menu from produce from their farm.
“We wanted to see what aligned with us and what we could see ourselves doing,” she said.
“Realistically, primary production probably isn’t going to be enough for us, because we’re down to farming 100 acres.”
She said being so close to Sydney and in a beautiful location, they kept being drawn back to education and experiences.
“We love the way we farm, and we’ve spent a long time expanding our own knowledge set in regenerative farming and sustainable systems, and that’s quite exciting to be able to share that with more people,” she said.
Mahlah said that had led to their first workshop – an Introduction to Biodynamics with Hamish Mackay on 9-10 November.
“I have this theory that we should be able to provide something for everyone,” she said.
“Not everyone wants to do yoga and not everyone wants to delve into the interesting world of biodynamics, but they might want to come and have a farm morning and feed the chickens and have a gelato out in the garden space.
“We do all those beautiful things, and we would love to share all of that with everyone, which we hadn’t really been able to.”
She said that was in parts due to not having the right infrastructure or planning pathways to do more on farm development.
“That changed with the agritourism legislation that came in in 2022,” she said.
“That was huge for us, because it means we can do what we’re doing without having to lodge DAs with Kiama Council, which is fantastic.”
She said they had worked with the Minister for Agriculture previously, who questioned why they weren’t doing similar to Bruny Island Cheese in Tasmania with a cellar door.
“The fact the State Government stepped in and said, ‘Here’s an agritourism policy, and if your council doesn’t have one, they have to adopt ours’, that was huge for us,” she said.
“Those who weren’t able to do certain things now have exempt or compliant development pathways, which definitely helps because red tape is one of the biggest killers of small business.
“It is a lot easier for us to have confidence to invest in agritourism.”
She attended an agritourism summit in the Southern Highlands this month where Destination New South Wales and Tourism Australia showed their support for the changes.
“Because of the legislation change, they are really moving into that space, which is really encouraging,” she said.
Mahlah said already they had incorporated a turning circle and parking bay, The Passion Project had created a permaculture garden on the farm, and they had set up a yoga studio for Innerseed Co to operate from.
“I know how stunning it is up here, but because we see it every day we do take it for granted,” she said.
“With people seeing it for the first time and having that beautiful yin yoga experience at the same time, we’ve had people in tears.
“It just reaffirms that we’re moving in the right direction.”
Outside the farm, popular The Pines Pantry will be part of their agritourism plans, with it initially being transformed into a farm shop and, long term, being moved into an unused old grain milling shed on the farm that’s yet to be redeveloped.
“It’s what I always wanted but, because we weren’t allowed to do that a couple of years ago, we obviously invested off farm and have the little terrace house, which is great,” she said of the Collins Street location.
“It will give people a chance to come and purchase direct on farm and, as part of that, they get to see where the produce is coming from.”
She said once calving was complete, they would resume production of milk, gelato and cheese.
“We won’t go back into bottling milk ourselves on farm, but we will have a dispensing machine in store and hopefully at the markets as well, where people can just bring their own bottles and fill them up,” she said.
“We’re hoping to have fresh product for sale from October, and that will just be milk to start with.”
Learn more about The Pines Kiama.
Loading ...
