It’s all in a weekend’s work
David Tatman grew up on an organic farm at Piercedale, on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula. His father pioneered organics in the early 1980s. Leaving school at 17, David took an apprenticeship in production horticulture. In 1993, aged 23, he and wife Lisa
It’s Thursday, barely sunrise, and David and Lisa Tatman of Spring Creek Organics are well into preparations for the coming weekend.
The Tatmans farm, 47.1 hectares (118 acres), is situated between the volcanic hills of Mount Buninyong and Mount Warrenheip, 11km south east of Ballarat in Victoria.
The cool climate is ideal for the winter vegetables they grow, but hand-harvesting brussels sprouts and brassicas in these conditions takes a certain kind of fortitude.
Days are short and cold on this side of the Great Dividing Range in early August.
By dusk on Friday, helped by their four full-time employees, Lisa and David’s small truck is loaded, ready for the 65 km trip to Bannockburn. The truck (fitted with infant passenger seat) is half full - 500 kilos of carrots, 80 cabbages, 60 bunches of leeks, then pumpkins, parsnips, swedes, celeriac, beetroot, turnips, kohlrabi, kale, rainbow chard, silverbeet, radishes, broccoli, herbs, fennel, daikon, lettuce and the now bagged-up brussels sprouts. All up, a tonne and a half of freshly harvested, certified organic produce.
One of the smaller monthly regional markets in Victoria, Bannockburn attracts 1,000 to 1,400 visitors. For the larger Melbourne and metropolitan markets, the Tatmans fill their truck to the hilt, load the 4WD ute (also with infant seat) and set off in both vehicles carrying four to five tonnes of produce. Their farm is within an hour and a half of Melbourne, closer still to the large regional centres of Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong.
Saturday 7am, David and five year old Charlie are on their way. This particular Saturday, three markets are scheduled. Lisa, nine year old Amber and Gus aged seven, take off in a second truck to the Ballarat Town Hall, another employee drives the laden ute to Daylesford’s local Primary School oval.
This has been their routine, weekend in and out, for the past 18 months.
Every weekend, David and Lisa travel to four farmers’ markets (five, on this particular weekend). Every month, 12 markets, month in and out.
Mostly they sell out, or close to. Unsold produce loaded up, they drive home and unload it again. Then it’s the same all over, the next weekend.
David and Lisa are part of the growing farmers’ market phenomenon; producers taking marketing and retailing back into their own domain, price makers, instead of price takers.
The Tatman’s are also benefiting from Victoria’s uniquely successful, voluntary farmers’ market accreditation, which ensures the produce customers buy has been grown by the person they hand over their money to, and that it has been grown within defined local, regional, or state boundaries.
Only a couple of years ago, Spring Creek Organics was at the point of bankruptcy. On the back of the farmers’ markets, Lisa and David are positive about their future. Even this season, with 30 acres (12 hectares) of farmland still under water from the 2010 floods.
“The returns were very poor with the wholesale side of it and we were at a crossroads - will we continue, or will we sell the farm. So we trialled a few farmers’ markets,” said David.
“As we got into the farmers’ markets, we decided to drop interstate wholesaling and stopped supplying Sydney and Brisbane.
“We are now getting the returns. We can dictate what we charge and we are fair about it. We have a look at what prices Woollies and Coles are selling (the conventional equivalent) for a guide. I’ll set a certain price for the whole year. We are getting double or three times the amount we would get from wholesaling.”
The Melbourne (Preston, Melbourne Showgrounds fortnightly, Gasworks) and regional (Ballarat central, Bannockburn, Daylesford, Gisborne, Bendigo, Talbot, Buninyong, Ballarat lakeside) markets require 30-35 tonnes of produce each month. Multiply that annually and it’s clear the financial rewards are there for those who work hard and enjoy the public role which comes with being a farmers’ marketer. It’s not for everyone.
“We work seven days a week, compared to six days for wholesaling. I do know farmers who aren’t public people, just want to sell to their wholesaler or agent. At the markets, you can’t just plonk the produce on the table, you have to mix up the colors and make sure it looks spectacular,” he says.
Financial rewards are only part of the Tatman’s story. Lisa has gained confidence as a farmer and they both value the customer feedback.
“I put on the farmer’s hat and I’m a different person,” Lisa says.
“You are at the coalface,” agrees David. “You get negative feedback too, you can fix that, but generally people tell us how great it is.”
David grew up on an organic farm at Piercedale, on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula. His father pioneered organics in the early 1980s, a time of high skepticism about organics.
Leaving school at 17, David took an apprenticeship in production horticulture. In 1993, aged 23, he and Lisa moved to the Ballarat area, grew veges on a small block then grew onto the current farm and into wholesaling.
Now they grow specifically for their farmers’ market customers. Heirloom carrots, in shades of purple, yellow and orange, never grown for the wholesalers, are extremely popular. Spinach, peas, kale and potatoes are other new additions.
An accredited farmers’ market stall holder, David says the policy of having no more than two types of the same producer at any accredited farmers’ market has been crucial to their success.
“Every market needs to have accreditation. It gets rid of the shonky growers, the resellers that just onsell.
“For me, the markets are great, but I don’t think there’s much room for many others. The simple fact is, if you get another grower coming into the same market, selling the same product, it effectively halves your returns.”
David says it’s up to the market organisers to ensure the market mix and size is right for each regional community.
Back at Bannockburn, 10.30am and the market is abuzz. David is busy, greeting his regular customers, cheerfully exchanging information and
produce, making correct change. In the background, first name greetings, friendly banter, kids, babies, the odd dog bark and the unmistakable smell of a Lions Club barbecue.
Bannockburn has a population of 3,000, the wider catchment home to 10,000. The highway between Ballarat (population 190,000) and Geelong/surf Coast (300,000) skirts it, bringing tourist traffic and the locals. Stalls are well sited, a concrete pathway winding through them. The layout creates a sense of activity, not overcrowding.
La Madre baker Tez Kemp has already run out of seeded sourdough loaves. His organic sourdough bakery is based in Geelong and he sells at one other market, in suburban Newtown. Tez says Bannockburn is a good little community market, well supported by the locals.
“We like to come, it gives us the opportunity to talk to our customers. For us, it’s all about slowing down the process of making and eating food. Sustainability is a big part of our bakery, in minimising energy and waste and in the way we treat our staff,” says Tez.
Over at Goldfields Farmhouse Cheese, microbiologist Nardia Baxter-keene has almost sold out.
Only two blocks of blue cheese and one brie round left, she’s still inviting tastings. Ballarat based, she and her food technologist spouse source milk from Jersey herds in Ascot (10 minutes away) and Irrewarra (45 minutes away) selling 80 per cent of their cheese through farmers’ markets at Bannockburn, Daylesford, Castlemaine, Ballarat, Kyneton, Lancefield and Talbot. On the weight of those markets, they have opened a tasting room and shop in Creswick, 10km north of Ballarat.
“We make 12 different types but I only bring seven to a farmers’ market because people get overwhelmed. If we have a new cheese, I’ll bring it along to try out,” she says.
“The market is effectively a big cellar door, with instant face-to-face feedback. When we began, market goers were really keen to eat the blue cheeses, so now we make a blue vein, which we didn’t expect at all.
“I love the atmosphere. It becomes quite a community amongst stallholders, we see each other most weekends, spend time chatting between customers and get to know each others families,” says Nardia.
Alongside the vegetables and bread and cheese, 32 other stalls sell wine, meat, plants, flowers, honey, juice, olive oil, preserves, and more.
Absent today, Berry Organic and a few summer producers. The flower seller has a very small late winter array, the tomato grower sold all he had in less than an hour.
The local SES and arts group have set up displays, the Landcare group have a weed identification booth and Mattski, the blues musician, strums away on the small stage.
This is a real country market, shades of nineteenth century town square market days, when even live animals were paraded out for sale. Perhaps that lost social history is part of the attraction here.
Jill Moody is a regular market goer from neighboring Teesedale and she’s buying the staples - veges, honey, bread. This market is not the only shopping Jill does for the month, but it is the most important.
“I have to buy in between, but the freshness of the veges, means they last. To be interacting and shopping with the people who are growing their own and making their own, just feels so much more real and right,” says Jill.
Bannockburn market is run by the Golden Plains Shire Council (some farmers’ markets are run by private businesses or individuals, others by community groups).
Market Managers Felicity Bolitho and David Spear have overseen the evolution, from an annual food and wine festival, to award-winning Victorian Farmers’ Market Association (VFMA) accredited market, averaging 1,000 visitors each month.
David Spear says a strong partnership with community and stallholders, VFMA accreditation and a clear vision of high food and wine values are all integral to the market’s success.
“What makes the council model work is that it is not just about how many stallholder fees you can collect, it is about the integrity of the overall vision. We do have the luxury of not being fixated by the commercial outcome so we can stay true to that vision.
“Even if the VFMA didn’t exist, we would self-accredit. That’s how important it is to us,” he says.
Accredited stallholders get precedence every time, but it’s not just one way traffic.
“Of the 90-odd farmers’ markets in Victoria, about 17 of them are VFMA accredited. Stallholders find the market accreditation of great benefit. In fact, individually accredited growers are seeking us out. I think all the stallholders see that collectively it is much stronger and doesn’t undermine any of them as individuals,” Felicity says.
Felicity and David’s focus is on diversifying the market stalls, rather than increasing numbers. Part of their market charter says that growers must be from within 50km of Bannockburn. Of the 35 stallholders, three come from further afield to provide a niche product.
Stall fees, $55 for an unpowered site and $70 for powered, are spent on operating costs, marketing and promotion. Aided by Regional Development Victoria funding, The Golden Plains Shire set up the site infrastructure and their casual employees, like local Ken Hose, work on market day to set up, pack up and assist stallholders.
Both managers say the market has created a powerful sense of community pride and identity, beyond expectations.
“We did an economic analysis recently, which showed the wider flowon effect of the market to be $900,000 per year, creating six or seven jobs.
“We also have strong anecdotal evidence that businesses put on extra staff when the market is on, even in the smaller towns,” David Spear says.
Bigger is not always better, but they hope to grow the market to 70 stalls and 2,000 visitors and look to replicate the model in Smythesdale, a small community closer to Ballarat.
“We are very conscious of the fact there are so many farmers’ markets around. Perhaps some markets aren’t as focused in their vision and integrity and perhaps if they were, they could be more sustainable,” says David Spear.
At 1.30pm, David Tatman begins to pack up the remnants of his Spring Creek Organics stall. He’s sold three quarters of the initial payload. On the best days he’ll sell 90 to 95 per cent.
A good day, almost 1,200 people through the gate and many of them have been to his stall. Some splurging $50 or more to stock the family refrigerator. Others handing over one $5 note, to pick out a bunch of colored carrots, or three sturdy white stalked leeks, or the generous bagful of brussels sprouts.
Customers here are happy to be paying for fresh organic produce and most importantly, they are happy to be paying David Tatman, directly, for it.