No bullshit! ~ Sunday 6th July 2025
How important is it to be honest about the content you post and what you put out into the world?
For a while now, I’ve followed a lot of different farmers and producers, restaurants and restauranteurs, journalists and dare I say it, influencers… One thing that stands out for me is what I’m going to call the “gap”. That space between what the person or organisation posts or sells and the actual product or experience that you get in the end. Let me tell you bluntly, this has pissed me off for a long time. Writing about it and posting this now means I will be held accountable for what I post and what I sell. As scary as that seems it’s sort of refreshing really. Many years working in fine dining prepares you for being held accountable and having high standards. I can’t change that now, I will use it to my advantage.
Can we exist in this commercial, capitalist economy and still be authentic? Can we push ourselves to achieve more, to refine our offering? Without the fear that we’ll get bad reviews or bad word of mouth. Things are bound to go wrong when you’re trying to improve or innovate. Is there no room for error when there’s the promise of something better?
Sometimes we put something out into the world that is not to the standard that we’d like, but the alternative is a big financial loss. I’ve done this. I’ve done it with food in my previous business. I’ve served cauliflower soup that was scalded in the pan, rice pilaf that was fragrant with a burnt crust… How much damage did those poor choices inflict on that business? In reality those instances were so few and far between I know overall they barely contributed to a negative outcome. The realistic result, was that those customers didn’t come back. That they probably told a few people about the horrible soup they paid a high price for. At a cafe people were raving about and they couldn’t understand what was so good about that place… etc etc. In the scheme of things, we lost a customer and a few potential ones.
How I thought I had to handle myself back then and how I want to be now are so different. Back then I was a lot younger, I was 27 when we signed the lease to our first business. With the pandemic on the horizon and many deaths in the family on the cards, no one could have predicted what was to come. Hospitality and agriculture are linked in so many ways, the pandemic really exposed this for so many people who never had to think about it before.
Fast forward a decade and what have I learnt? I’m pretty sure people are happiest when they are able to be themselves. When they are free to express themselves in an authentic way. Free from shame and free from judgement. I decided after we moved to regional Victoria, to make my days up of tasks and chores that only feel good in my body. Not all jobs are fun, but all jobs must contribute to our health. We all have to do things we don’t want to but that doesn’t mean they are bad for us. Someone once said to me you can’t have the adrenaline that comes from a beautiful restaurant service without having to clean the deep fryer… This is true. You can’t have the warmth and energy of an open fire without the slog of chopping the wood. Chopping the wood is good for health. So we are fitter and warmer for it. What makes me feel good in my body extends to people. We have a no dickheads policy now. This essentially means only good vibes here. Plenty of physical chores to be done outside, plenty of cooking to be done inside. Only cooking with whole foods and meat from a farmer who I have actually met.
During the transition from city to country I met a lot of new people. From people on instagram that I have admired for a while, to people in our new community who don’t even have a smart phone. The people who I am drawn to are what I call “no bullshit” people. You can sense it, you can feel it straight away. What they say they do and what they do they are honest about. I love them. I want to be like them, I’m trying to be the best version of this.
So my promise to myself, with this farm “business” is no bullshit. If it’s dry on the farm I won’t shy away from posting photos of this. I’m not going to post 20 photos a day of bare degraded soil in the worst paddocks! But I won’t post photos that I didn’t take or that are not of my farm! If animals die, I will talk about it. If we make a mistake, I will tell you. If I’m not happy with a product we’ve produced, I might still sell it but I’ll talk about it and communicate appropriately about what’s happened with it.
One of the big goals here is no waste. Although I do strive for perfection, it does mean we can’t be perfect all the time. There will be times where the standard of the thing isn’t amazing but the alternative is to waste the perfectly usable thing. I will build trust with you by being transparent so you can be confident in what you’re buying. Honestly, it’s really hard to straddle this transactional world and the world of deeper connections that we all desire. With this farm, I hope to make this “gap” so small. So you will only feel good in your body when you hand over your money.