The Property

The property has a history of beef cattle production with rich soils and good water retention. We have a small herd of grass-fed Angus and Hereford cows and grow garlic, shallots, potatoes, pumpkins and Italian and Japanese vegetables. We use organic and biodynamic methods, no chemicals and tread lightly on the land.

Garlic, potatoes, shallots and pumpkins

Our Produce

We are not trying to grow ‘everything’ to please all people nor satisfy ‘food fads’. Rather we want to meet customer demand for locally grown, fresh produce. We apply a Crop Value Rating on what we grow that incorporates days to maturity, yield/sqm, price/kg, length of harvest period, popularity and storage period

We produce several garlic cultivars – Monaro Purple, California Late, Italian Red and Australian White. We benefit from Braidwood’s cold winters and hot summers.

We plant our garlic by hand in late March and harvest, again by hand, in November. Our garlic is air cured on drying racks and is available for sale in mid December. Our garlic can be stored for 3-6 months, depending on cultivar, in a well-ventilated, dry location.

Our potatoes are planted by hand in late October and are ready for harvest from the following January. We want our produce to taste like the food our grand parents would have eaten. Our potato cultivars are heirloom or heritage and include pink Burgundy Blush, purple Sapphire, Purple Congo, Pink Eye, Dutch Cream, King Edward, Nicola and Up to Date.

Our onions, shallots and pumpkins are high quality cultivars that you wont find in the high street and can be stored for longer periods. Cultivars grown include Red Kuri, Winter Luxury and Musque de Provence.

We are thrilled to say that we are a NSW winner in the 2019 delicious Produce Awards in the From the Earth category for our heirloom potatoes (pink Burgundy Blush, Purple Congo, rich Dutch Creams and King Edward).

Our Soil

Soil management is our primary focus. We do not use herbicides, pesticides, fungicides or industrial fertilisers. Our compost is either made on the farm using crop waste, cafe' coffee grounds, manure from our cows and biodynamic preparations or brought in organic compost from local suppliers.
Our soil additions are sourced from Biodynamic Australia, YLAD or Nutrisoil. We use humates, fulvates and seaweed/fish solutions to improve the soil’s microbiology and structure.

Our Practice

We start with a green manure crop to help improve the soil’s character. The crop is worked into the soil using a walk behind tractor and the soil additions are then incorporated. We practice a four-year bed rotation with one bed only growing green manure each year.

We crack our garlic bulbs into individual cloves and soak overnight before planting in a seaweed solution. We plant our potatoes and shallots by hand and use an Earthway seeder for our other row vegetables. We supply a local grower with our seed and then buy back the seedlings.

We apply a 10-15 cm layer of rice straw mulch on our garlic and potatoes to supress weeds and retain soil moisture. Less mulch is used on our other vegetable crops. We drip irrigate our crops in our polytunnel and raised beds but water by hand if required in the main paddock.

Weeding is done by hand throughout the growing season and we hand pull our produce to limit mechanical damage.
Our garlic, onions and shallots are trimmed and placed on drying racks to cure.

We are members of the Braidwood Garlic Growers Co-op, Slow Food, Southern Harvest, Sapphire Coast Producers and the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance.

Where To Buy Our Produce

Northside Produce Markets

BRAIDS SOLD OUT for 2023

North Sydney, 1st and 3rd Saturdays of month.
We will be back at Northside in mid November 2023 with garlic bulbs, December 2023 with garlic braids, March 2023 with shallots and potatoes and then April 2023 with pumpkins. Salad leaves from November 2023 and Radicchio (Bitter is Better) from April 20223

Carriageworks Farmers Markets

BRAIDS SOLD OUT for 2023

245 Wilson Street, Eveleigh, 2nd and 4th Saturdays of month.
We are thrilled to be a part of the Carriageworks Farmers Markets.
We'll be back, weather permitting, late November 2023, 8-1pm, and we'll have garlic bulbs and braids, garlic shallots and some 'bitter' salad leaves. See you there!

Farmers at Burrill Markets

On your way down to the South coast?
Drop in at the Lions Park, Burrill Lake, Dolphin Point Road, from 5-7pm every second Friday in November to February.

We no longer attend but there are some great local growers worthy of your support!

Tramsheds Growers Markets

Forest Lodge, 1st and 3rd Sundays of month.
Tramsheds Growers Market has reopened in Forest Lodge.
Unfortunately we are unable to attend at this time. If and when we can go back we'll post something here and on Instagram.

Direct from grower

david@owlfarmbraidwood or DM @owlfarmbraidwood.