Last year Byron Farmers Market launched a Young Farmer Sponsorship Program to support and encourage a new generation of farmers, and the inaugural recipients – Chelsea Fiteni and Callan Terry – recently started their first market stall.
Chelsea and Callan have a farm-share lease in Goonengerry with fellow Byron Farmers Market members, Nic and Monty Dayman of Rockwall Farm, where they have been growing a diverse mix of certified-organic vegetables, herbs and edible flowers, with plans to introduce perennial food crops and cut-flowers as the farm develops.
After breaking ground and growing madly for the past nine months, their Circadia Organics stall made its first appearance at Byron Farmers Market, slotting into the spot left by outgoing septuagenarian farmer Kenrick Riley who retired after 23 years at the market.
Chelsea and Callan said they shared a dream of running their own farm after meeting while working on a farm a few years ago. Thanks to the sponsorship program, that dream is now a reality.
‘Over the years we gained experience working on other farms, but taking the leap to establish something of our own felt like a much bigger step,’ Callan says. ‘The Young Farmer Sponsorship Program came along at a time when we were in a position to start farming our own piece of land.
‘What we lacked was the confidence that we could make a small farm financially viable, particularly whether we could consistently sell what we grew and turn that into a sustainable income. The sponsorship became the catalyst to our farming dream.’
As well as financial support, the sponsorship includes membership to Byron Farmers Market, which Chelsea says was a crucial part of the plan.
‘Finding a reliable market for your produce is one of the biggest challenges when starting a small farm,’ she says. ‘So having a direct avenue to sell our produce has removed a huge amount of that uncertainty.
‘The financial support has also allowed us to invest in many of the essential start-up and operating costs involved in establishing a farm. As a young family living on a single income when we applied, many of those investments simply wouldn’t have been possible for us at the time.’
And while it’s early days for the young couple, they say the experience so far has been incredibly rewarding.
‘There’s a real sense of integrity behind Byron Farmers Market and a strong focus on keeping local growers at the heart of it,’ Callan says. ‘That’s something we really value, and we’ve felt really welcomed by the stallholders and the locals who come each week.
‘We’ve learnt so much already from our short time at the market. Having that direct relationship with our customers is helping us understand what people are looking for, what grows well for us and where we can continue refining our crop planning. It feels like we’re learning and evolving with every market.’
You can find Circadia Organics at Byron Farmers Market every Thursday morning.
Byron Farmers Market is held every Thursday from 7am to 11am at Butler Street Reserve, and Bangalow Farmers Market is every Saturday morning from 7am to 11am in Piccabeen Park.
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