16/08/2025
Celebrating 10 years of growing for the Clarence Valley. Yay 🙌🏼 we’re cheering and patting ourselves on the back for not only making it through all the challenges that come with running a regular business but also working with food and throw in the insane risk of working with Mother Nature to actually grow that food and bam 💥 we really have something to celebrate! Not having a farming background certainly helped because I had no idea what I was in for. Had I really known I would’ve stuck to my very secure teaching job, but ……sometimes life’s about change and seeing out a season of something then making way for a different type of nurturing, new and exciting things.
I’m often asked how and why it began and how I manage to fit so much in this tiny suburban block.
It begins with Love. Yes plain old heart stopping love. Love of growing super healthy microgreens and flowers for our community. I have always been in awe of Mother Nature, the daily discoveries. “What are you?” “Omg where did you come from” “yay finally you’re flowering?” “Oh wow look at you” I’m a 3rd generation gardener, my Mum, her Mum and Dad, my great grandfather were all hard core garden lover’s or farmers. By growing organically, regeneratively, elevating diversity, unfocused intuition and caring for the soil, we’ve helped to create a thriving ecosystem which rewards us with inspiring moments to dive deeply into. It’s the foundation to overcome sometimes enormous challenges.
Total commitment. Unfortunately, Love doesn’t pay the mortgage but committed systems help. Farming intensively (micro farming) isn’t for the faint hearted and some of these systems are very tight. More so in the greenhouses but producing in a small space means I often have to be ruthless. But if a plant out performs in some way I will definitely save seed.
Apart from growing seasonal flowers we have bi weekly microgreen crops to harvest which, although covered, are still weather affected. It’s still farming, it’s about growing seasonally, planning ahead and trying to predict weather. (Ha!) Over the last 10 years we’ve seen drought, fire, floods x2 , a pandemic, a cost of living crisis and a recent very badly timed weather event that lingered long into the season. We juggle and have to be flexible to bend to MND. (Mother Nature Demands). I’m not always great at this micro-farming thing but when the sun’s out (mid August) everything is just fine 😉
To thank! Superman Gaz. Without this incredible man, none of this juggle can happen. We have our own 25year love story which has overcome more than a couple of those natural disasters. Our beautiful boys, who have always been involved and grown with this business somehow and have become such great workers and assets to the planet actually (just saying). There have been some lovely seasonal workers chip in over the years and I appreciate you all. This year we thank newcomers Sasha and Mel to join Kobi and Eli, and the real hero’s are our customers who buy our products each week. Thank you 🙏🏼 to the many restaurants and cafes between Yamba and Sawtell on the coast and across to Bellingen. Thanks to our wholesale crews for their decade long dedicated support in making this happen each week. Also, The Yamba farmers market is a fantastic mainstay for me in so many ways. Being a newby here 11 years ago with a rather novel business idea and not knowing a soul, that market was/is a lifesaver. I love the connection it has brought into my life personally and my weekly and occasional shoppers are the best, I have watched your kids grow up, lost some dearly loved elderly shoppers and formed many friendships over the past 10 years there. SPAR Maclean is our local wholesale ally! As are Farmer Lou’s who loved my products from day 1 and continue to support. Our Coffs Coast connection Tutti Frutti are so fantastic and have also been on this decade long journey. The Deli Yamba not far behind! Thank you for continuing to contribute to this little family business with a big reach and loving what we do because without you none of this celebration of local food and its security would be possible.
XxAvyssa and the micro team
