Jampot Creek Farm, Australia
We contact Damien through Thomas’ friend who works in Entertainment. His farm looks great and the cultivated surface is small, typically what we look for. A small accessible, not-huge-machinery-cultivated land able to produce abundantly.
Not far from the Mary Valley, in the Tuchekoi national park, we turn into the trees on a dirt road and arrive to a small hilly holding. The farm itself is about 10 ha where he cultivâtes 820 sqm with the aim to increase the surface with an additional 1000 sqm but not more.
Damien and Jess are on this farm since two years. They work in the entertainment sector. Currently, one is making scenery for ballets and another makes costumes and muppets for a Disney show. It is a quite nomadic life with some longer times in one spot and others on the road according to the job and the type of shows. They have always rented and have always dreamed of settling down in their own house.
Damien has had several lives before. He is trained in forestry management, works in various sectors, starts a landscaping company then sells it, works in entertainment as responsible for the scenery in various companies.
They always had a garden where they rented so they would like to buy a house with a garden to cultivate it. They start searching everywhere, even in Europe. They see beautiful houses with land, afordable and start dreaming about a bigger garden. However expatriation means to be far from family and friends and thinking about the kind lifestyle they would like to have as a big picture, they finally decide to search around Brisbane. The desire for a bigger land area stays and the urban life is not so much their focus anymore. They experience it enough with their own jobs. They decide to buy a homestead with some land.
When they discover Jampot Creek Farm, it is an old dark wooden house covered in 70s wallpaper with about 10ha, nestled in a national park. They go back twice before deciding and finally go for it. What they make of it is incredible ! They transform the house in a big luminous space where it feels cosy and nice to live in. They start the garden. Damien gets inspiration from Fortier, Curtis Stone and Neversink Farm from Northern America, who all practice organic and intensive agriculture. A rationalized organic culture system, valid notably for small surfaces, most often than not practicing living soil (no-till) techniques and paying a particular attention to the life of the soil.
A first season and some sales and they realise that it could also be possible to make a living selling their veggies. Jampot Creek Farm is born. It is time to professionalize the production area. When we pass by Damien’s farm, the ground is covered with green manure in order to prepare the soil for the next season. The greenhouse is also entirely set up. It is a juggling game to prepare the season while working for the ballet as it is not possible to start sowing or planting without being present several days in a row. This makes the season planning a little complex because the climate needs also to be taken into account and the weather is stormy at the moment.
For the moment, Damien juggles between his job and the farm. Jess works still full time at his other job. The dream for a new start, for a different life and in connection with nature is building up progressively for this courageous and luminous couple. One day the aim is to have a full time farm and they are on a good way !
Contact:
Facebook page: @jampotcreekfarm
Venue:
Jampot Creek Farm
Videos made on-site:
Green Manure
Sunflower
Comments