LIVING EARTH FARM, YOUNG

an updated family photo just as they start season one in young.
L to R: olivier, fionn, falani + naia

“We came to farming through our passions and connections with cooking, having both worked as chefs. At a certain point we were lured out of the kitchen into the fields. Being a chef is a great pre-requisite for being a farmer. You know about hard work, grit, sweat and perseverance. Cooking is all about understanding your ingredients and developing techniques. You must be exposed to good produce to learn what "fresh" is, what flavour is, along with beauty and ripeness. All the expressions are ubiquitous for quality: vibrancy, colour, turgidity, aroma. Our lessons from the kitchen initiated our ways as farmers.

If you’re hunting for flavour, then the only way to grow is in the soil. This is us, 100%. When growing food from seed, we experience the incredible genetic and environmental expressions of plants. Their ode to the sun and moon, respiring, transpiring, reaching, transforming, pollinating and fruiting.

We are obsessively procuring and trialing as our interest is in the beautiful, flavoursome, field ripened plants with embodied energy and a story to tell.

It is said that you farm for two reasons: for good food and to have stories to tell.

We are biological farmers, and participants in a food system. For us, growing food in this way is not about what is permitted or prohibited, it is about how we see the whole system. We acknowledge the turning of the earth, the moons influence on water and plant hydrology. The birds that fly through our fields and the insects that linger and hover all around us as we reflect on our connection to this system. Diversity is our mantra, with cover crops and harvest crops. Diversity of root systems, of living organisms in our soil, in our plants and in ourselves. Everything in differing stages of growth and death, watching it all and intersecting at the right time to feel like our work has semblance of order and structure. Straight rows, well spaced plants to allow proper plant expression. Sun sun sun and well timed, tailored watering. It is our footsteps that are the most fertile, and our daily observations that teach and inform us. Observation and listening are among the greatest qualities of a farmer.

falani, naia + olivier at *living earth farm*, high range
photograph by luisa brimble

Falani Sofo

Falani grew up in Toronto, Canada. Her parents worked in Theatre and Film and so her childhood was very much a deep involvement in those creative spaces having also danced from the age of 3.

Falani's passion for food lead her to study cooking and then she apprenticed under well-known Canadian/German chef Michael Stadtlander at Eigensinn Farm in Singhampton, Ontario. Eigensinn was a unique opportunity for Falani to discover her connection with the natural environment in a different way and marry her interest in food with the grounding work of farming. It was farming that garnered her attention which over the last 12 years has matured into a deeper commitment to the integration of medicinal plants into her life and work. Falani returned to study Medicinal Herbalism and has plans and aspirations to diversify LEF production into medicinals in the future.

Olivier Sofo

Olivier worked for 15 years as a chef, including time in regarded restaurants here in Australia, PIER and ISIS, as well as in France and London working for Alain Ducasse at Plaza Athenée, Coeur Jardin and SPOON. Olivier was born in Melbourne to migrant Italian parents, and very much grew up with a strong culture around food. His grandfather was an orchardist which Olivier shares a deep passion for.

Olivier decided to take a sabbatical from the kitchen and returned to Europe, during which time he began his journey into agriculture. It was after working with the late and great Biodynamic farmer Stefano Belotti at Cascina Degli Ulivi, in Italy, that Olivier realised farming was his future. Olivier has worked and consulted on many projects during his time as a chef and farmer and is passionate about teaching.

Food has been Olivier's life’s interest and farming suits his obsession for plants and physical work.

falani + olivier’s daughter, naia, at *living earth farm*, high range
photograph by luisa brimble

falani + olivier’s son, fionn, at *living earth farm*, high range

Olivier and Falani worked together for a number of years for Michael Ablemen at Foxglove Farm in Canada. Michael Ableman is acknowledged as one of the great influencers and participants of the Organic agricultural movement in North America. He is the founder of Sole Food Farm and Fairview Gardens.

Living Earth Farm's first incarnation was on leased land in High Range, NSW. After massive challenges on that site, a 2 year sabbatical took us back to Canada where we continued to develop our skills as farmers.

Living Earth Farm 2.0 was realised on Wiradjuri country, known as Young NSW in the winter of 2023. Young is known as the cherry capital of Australia, with a unique micro climate tucked away in the hills, before the landscape flattens out west into the Riverina. We are working with land that was once a cherry and plum orchard, and then a market garden for a few years before the owners retired. We are in the process of re-invigorating the land here with our personal energy, as well as our biological approach to farming. Our fields have been seeded in cover crops, native and fruiting trees have been planted, and fields have been opened up in preparation for the seasons ahead. We are blessed to have granite soils that are unique, and offer us a beautiful foundation from which to create.We have greater potential here, with access to more land and reliable water.

Time on this land will teach us more about what is possible and our offering will be refined to suit our context.

We are grateful each and every moment to be working in a profession that we love, and one which reminds us daily that we are a part of a much greater system than ourselves.”