FROM THE GROUND UP

A property in Victoria’s north-east is the realisation of a couple’s 20-year-old dream to grow their own food, plant an orchard and spread the word about sustainable farming.

WHILE JADE MILES and her partner Charlie Showers have only lived at Black Barn Farm for three years, it’s been a dream in the making for almost two decades. What began as an idea when they were idealistic 23-year-old university graduates, is now almost fully realised. Located nine kilometres from Beechworth in the gentle hills of Stanley in north-east Victoria, Black Barn Farm was originally eight hectares of orchards, which were pulled out in the early 1980s. But since Jade and Charlie moved their young family (twins Harry and Bertie, 12, and eight-year-old Clementine — also known as Minnie) into the property’s weatherboard homestead in 2016, the land has been transformed into organic permaculture produce gardens, a small-scale orchard, a nursery and an education centre. Jade, 41, and Charlie, 42, both grew up in the country; Jade on her parents’ permaculture farm in Gippsland, and Charlie in the Ovens Valley of north-east Victoria. “Charlie and I met at uni in Melbourne and Charlie desperately did not want to stay in the city and I wanted get back to the country,” says Jade. “So, we bought a tiny cottage in Stanley surrounded by an apple orchard that got bulldozed during our time there. That made us ask why these beautiful food-producing regions were no longer viable. We did lots of research on why smallscale agriculture no longer had a place in rural Australia.” After university, the pair travelled extensively. Charlie has worked with the Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, and as a consultant, while Jade’s résumé ranges from setting up a restaurant in Cambodia to teaching drama at a US boys’ summer camp in Vermont, which they returned to as a family in 2014 to research local food systems, small-scale farming and orcharding models. “We both worked as consultants so we went wherever the work was,” Jade explains. “Even when we had the twins we moved 12 times in their first 12 months. When Minnie came along our families encouraged us to stop ‘flitting around’. “We’d always known we wanted to farm but we’re firstgeneration farmers so we couldn’t rely on inheriting property, we had to do it ourselves,” says Jade. “We had four acres in Beechworth planted out to be as self-sufficient as possible, but it wasn’t enough; Charlie wanted to scale it right up and I wanted to see what education around that would look like.” Despite being on the lookout for more land, Jade says they had always bypassed the property they now own at Stanley. But when they received an offer that was too good to refuse for their Beechworth house, the builder who had just finished their renovations encouraged them to take a closer look. “This property had been on the market for five years but it didn’t meet any of our criteria,” she says. “Neither of us >

HOME STANLEY VICTORIA Twelve-year-old twins Harry and Bertie Showers run the Dough Bros business on their own, with some help from three friends. Their sister Clementine is a regular customer. FACING PAGE Preserves, chutneys, jams and sauces made from produce grown at Black Barn Farm.

CLOCKWISE, FROM ABOVE Charlie picking apples; the vegetable garden near the house allows the family to be self-sufficient; the dining table was a dairy farm clearing sale find; Jade has “more artwork than wall space.” The vintage Rayburn wood stove helps heat the house; mutsu apples; a collection of teapots; Jade selecting produce. FACING PAGE Clementine, Harry, Jade, Charlie and Bertie. For stockist details, see page 136.