Josh and Lynette Dooley: there’s something very satisfying about seeing a truckload of greens from the farm, because that’s how they come to the market – fresh from the farm.
Victoria Cosford
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 sixth-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 7–11am.
