Some garlic from this year's crop

New crop of garlic available early December 2008

The garlic will be ready for sale in early December. If you are tired of the white, bleached, dry, imported Chinese garlic found in supermarkets you can now purchase beautiful, sweet, lovely-smelling garlic. You'll taste the difference - ours is home-grown, dense and fresh. If kept in ideal conditions it should keep until next Autumn.

As garlic is naturally a slow growing annual crop, it is only genuinely fresh once a year. The cloves are planted out in Autumn - they finally multiply to a new bulb for harvest in November. The garlic is then dried in the air to remove excess moisture and form its dry outer protective skin.

If the garlic is kept dry and reasonably well ventilated, this once a year crop, available from December, will keep for many months. It is however at its very best just after harvest.

Retail price: 1/2 kg $20.00; 1 kg $35.00 plus $5.50 p/h. This is our best-ever crop.

For wholesale enquiries please contact us directly.

DEVON CATTLE

One of the young Devon bulls, April 2008.

OLIVE HARVEST APRIL 2008

In early April we picked Frontaio, Leccino, WA Mission and Pendolino olive varieties. The Leccino olives were ripe and black and will be beautiful pickled.

The new beds were prepared for the garlic in mid April. The garlic will be planted out a week after the full moon after the Anzac Day long weekend.

CERTIFIED ORGANIC BFA GARLIC FROM 2007 CROP NOW FOR SALE

This year's crop is now available. Wholesale price still $20.00 a kilo. Wholesalers phone 1800 225500 to order.

CERTIFIED ORGANIC BFA OLIVE LEAVES FOR SALE

MAKE YOUR OWN OLIVE LEAF EXTRACT. 250 gm. Wholesale $15.00, RRP $25.00 (GST free).

Please contact us for wholesale pricing on bulk orders. Also ideal for use in cosmetics.

Introduction

On 250 acres beside the Barrington River, our Certified Organic, Biodynamic farm, “Barridge”, carries approximately 45 head of Devon cattle, 1100 olive trees, a garlic crop, 100 Black Walnut trees and a small orchard.

The Barrington River flows down from the Barrington Tops - an unspoilt wilderness covering more than 1,200 sq km of land. The farm is located 19 km from the townships of Gloucester and Barrington and is an approximate three hour drive north of Sydney.

We fell in love with the property because of the beautiful Barrington River, the views over the Barrington Valley to the Bucketts and the fact that it had not seen any pesticides or herbicides. We also liked the fact that there was no home on it, as we wanted to build one using our design ideas and we wanted to be self-sufficient.

The farm was purchased in 1999. It had been used as a dry block for cattle. All that was on it was an old set of cattle yards and a bit of a track. The paddocks had been cleared to a certain extent, but they were unimproved and strewn with old logs, stumps, and rocks and they were covered in fireweed.

Since early 2000, each Spring and Autumn, Biodynamic Prep 500 has been sprayed over the paddocks. Thousands of hours have been spent manually picking fireweed over the past 7 years.

New fencing, new cattle yards, a cattle grid, and two kilometers of road have been added. A lot of work has been done to clear the paddocks and improve the soil.

We were fortunate to be able to purchase a small herd of Devon cattle from an organic property and we have leased a couple of bulls and now have a lovely herd which is growing year by year. This year we should be in a position to sell a number of steers.

In December 2000, the olives were planted in 45 degree heat. We have mainly Italian varieties - Frontoio, Leeccino, Pendolino and West Australian Mission and a small number of Giant Kalamatas.

We are Australian Certified Biodynamic, Producer No. 10089BD. We were fortunate to be granted our Biodynamic status in 2006, after 2 years in conversion.

We are members of the Hunter Biodynamic Group and the Exotic Farm Produce Group, Gloucester.

Our Vision

Our vision is that Barridge be a place of beauty, and a healthy environment for both animals and plants, where like-minded people can share all that the farm has to offer.

For more information or to purchase our Certified Organic products - olives, olive leaves, garlic or Devon cattle visit:

www.ntphealthproducts.com/brof

or phone within Australia 1800 225500