A GROWING PASSION
HARVEST TABLE COMPETITION
Three-year-old Grace Edwards is the apple of her parents’ eye as she potters around their orchard.
THE SIGHT OF THREE-AND-HALF-YEAR-OLD Grace Edwards in the vegetable patch, with her little gardening gloves on and holding her spade and basket, fills her parents, Asia Upward, 38, and Sam Edwards, 42, with pride. They own Logan Brae Apple Orchard, a 101-year-old orchard comprising 6000 apple trees, in Blackheath, NSW, so you could say that growing things is in Grace’s blood. Along with the orchard, they have nine raised garden beds planted out in beans, broccoli, chard, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, lettuce, beetroot, spring onions, bok choy, pak choy and cauliflower.
“Grace loves digging holes, planting and picking everything,” explains Asia. “She discovered radishes for the first time the other day and loved pulling them out to see the big red bulbs hidden under the soil. I couldn’t stop her. She was having so much fun.”
Asia says giving a child a garden achieves two things: it teaches them where their food comes from and it keeps the mess out of the house. “It’s ingrained in kids to want to make a mess, so why not do it outside, where you don’t have to clean up after them. They love getting their hands dirty, playing with mud and it’s just an easy way of entertaining them.”
She has also found it encourages children to eat more vegetables. “Grace is becoming quite fussy with her food, but, if she picks it from the garden, she will want to eat it at dinner. She also eats things straight from the garden, like beans and carrots. She is in charge of what she eats, and it’s all healthy and good. It’s tastier and so much more enjoyable for a little one to pick a vegetable and eat it directly from the plant. The excitement and novelty doesn’t get old.”
That goes for older children too, which is why she believes all children should give gardening a go, regardless of the size of their plot — and enter the Country Style Harvest Table competition (see page 84).
The extensive vegetable garden is beside the chook pen, where the family keeps 20 hens. They also have Lottie, a Maremma sheepdog, who watches out for Daphne and Delores, babydoll sheep. The orchard is also home to two alpacas, Jeanie and Patch. All the animals feature in two children’s books Asia has written, Lovable Lottie and the Shy Sheep and Lovable Lottie and the Lost Toy (both published by New Holland, $19.99 each). The books were inspired by their antics and the family’s life on the orchard.
For Asia, who welcomed second daughter Isla five months ago, that means working the vegetable garden as much as possible. “It’s one of my favourite places to spend time, so it’s important that Grace enjoys it down there as well,” she explains. And soon, no doubt, little Isla will be pulling on her own tiny pair of gardening gloves and joining them. Logan Brae Orchards, 139 Shipley Road, Blackheath, NSW, loganbrae.com.au
“It’s tastier and so much more enjoyable for a little one to pick a vegetable and eat it directly from the plant.”