I’ve long believed that a green salad goes with most meals and nearly every night that’s
what I’ll have. Now Greens On The Farm have a stall at the market I couldn’t be happier
because green salad mixes are one of their specialties. And oh what mixes! Lemony French
sorrel, endive, upland cress, mizuna, red chicory, edible flowers: there’s a riot of
chlorophyll-filled goodness before me as I chat to owners Josh and Lynette Dooley.
They might be new to the market, but Josh is a 6 th generation Byron local. He and Lynette, a
long-time chef, began farming up at Federal some ten years ago. Lynette was personal chef
to the Lanes, the founders and original owners of The Farm at Ewingsdale, and had begun
cooking Paddock-to-Plate, a concept the Lanes took with them to The Farm. ‘I started
helping her’, Josh tells me, ‘and just fell in love with the whole farming thing.’ Nine years
and two babies later have not diminished his love, and for a long time now he’s rented plots
of land at The Farm and grown things. ‘We started with a football field of lettuce’, he recalls.
‘We were green back then, but we learnt! From then on we learned how to balance
growth.’
They’ve been supplying the on-site restaurant there along with shops around Bangalow and
their local community, but the markets is a whole new thing for them both. ‘It’s a new
start’, Lynette says. ‘After all these years we’re getting to see the people we’re selling to.’
Aside from that glorious salad mix they’re selling jumbo Russian garlic (a tip from Josh:
easier for home growers than other types as it handles more water); Asian greens ‘ ready to
hit the wok’; herbs and fennel – with more to come!
Greens On The Farm are at Mullumbimby Farmers Market every Friday from 7 – 11 am
Victoria Cosford
