{"id":2135,"date":"2022-04-15T07:16:05","date_gmt":"2022-04-14T21:16:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wellbeing.com.au\/curious\/?p=2135"},"modified":"2022-04-15T07:16:05","modified_gmt":"2022-04-14T21:16:05","slug":"borrowed-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wellbeing.com.au\/curious\/borrowed-ground","title":{"rendered":"Meet Alex and Eliza of Borrowed Ground"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in my home town of Moruya, on the south coast of NSW, there\u2019s a burgeoning growers scene with locals and visitors excitedly connecting over freshly plucked veggies and the rich soil from which they\u2019re grown. The local farmer\u2019s market is the town epicentre, where people and produce \u2014 as unique, wholesome and full of life as each other \u2014 make the weekly pilgrimage to relish in the joy of mother nature\u2019s bounty<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Eliza and Alex, farmers and founders of Borrowed Ground, are one of the much-loved and well-respected stall holders loading their harvests into the baskets of hungry-bellied market-goers each and every week. On a recent trip down south<\/a> to visit family, I drove past the Borrowed Ground market garden one morning and could see Eliza and Alex out working their field. Naturally, with a thirst for growing-centric conversation and a possible surf update, I swung in for a chat.<\/p>\n

The Borrowed Ground market garden \u2014 the home of Eliza and Alex\u2019s wholesome harvests \u2014 is situated on four acres of land just outside of Moruya. Their scrumptious veggies are enjoyed by local households through a veggie box delivery and pick-up service, as well as by farmers\u2019 market-goers, local restaurant eaters and greengrocer shoppers. They\u2019re passionate about employing organic and regenerative practices and their experiences and insights might leave you hungry for change.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a blue-sky morning and I\u2019m stoked to be in the fresh air connecting with locals who are just as enthusiastic about the land and growing as I am. Eliza and Alex describe their connection to the land with an almost sacramental reverence and deep respect for our First Peoples. \u201cWe grow on unceded Walbanga Country in the Yuin Nation and feel very privileged to be doing so in such a special place,\u201d Alex says. \u201cThe farm is located on the river flats on beautiful chocolate cake-like alluvial soil with a clay-loam texture. (I’d just like to say that for gardeners, this is the bee\u2019s knees!) The area itself has a rich Indigenous history, with Mount Gulaga (the Mother Mountain) towering over the Eurobodalla about 45 minutes south.\u201d It’s an impressive plot, with views to both the mountains and the Moruya River winding past; you could sit here and watch the world go by quite easily.<\/p>\n

Eliza and Alex spent some time in the area in 2016 at a local and well-renowned bio-farm, \u201cOld Mill Rd\u201d, during an internship, and fell in love with it. \u201cIt really is a unique part of the world, with the majority of beaches falling in national parks as well as rivers and mountains surrounding you all at once. The community here is especially lovely with some of the kindest folk we\u2019ve met. It\u2019s just really bloody great,\u201d says Eliza.<\/p>\n

We wander down a row (their Kelpie leading the way up front), admiring densely planted salad greens on our right and freshly planted leek seedlings on our left. A tractor, which looks as old as the hills but is no doubt as reliable and tough as a mallee bull, sits proudly on the land. With irrigation and propagation equipment never far from view, Eliza tells me how they learned what they know and the great mentors they\u2019ve met along the way. \u201cWe kicked off our learning at Old Mill Rd while Alex was studying horticulture and I was studying primary school teaching and was a complete city slicker.\u201d But the internship at Old Mill Rd was enough to plant a fairly robust seed and shortly thereafter they decided to give the farming thing a whirl for themselves.<\/p>\n

Eliza and Alex approached other mentors, Andrew and Freda of Eugalo Farm who ran a diverse flower production business in south-west Sydney, and asked if they could start a land-share vegetable enterprise. Thankfully, the couple loved the idea and had an established market in Sydney, so it was perfect to hone growing skills and not worry about anything else.<\/p>\n

The pair travelled to South America to gain more experience, working on bio-intensive market gardens in Patagonia, Chile. \u201cThe most inspiring of them all was Huerto Cuatro Estaciones, an educational farm that ran intensive apprentice programs,\u201d recalls Alex. \u201cThis was a hub of inspiring and trailblazing managers who taught us so much about the realities of building a sustainable farming business from the ground up. It was invaluable.\u201d To make frosty Moruya winters feel balmy they did a stint in Nova Scotia, a small province on the coast of Canada, which gave the duo great insight into growing in an incredibly short season, a cold climate, and how to manage greenhouse growing. \u201cWe\u2019ve found that by experientially working on farms here and yonder, we\u2019ve been able to pick and choose what we love and what we\u2019re not that into, and apply it here at Borrowed Ground,\u201d says Alex.<\/p>\n

Starting any small business has similar challenges and Eliza says this past year has been a steep learning curve in managing finances and establishing a consistent customer base. Even just the sheer and relentless responsibility of simply running your own business is tough; \u201cYou\u2019re \u2018on\u2019 all the time and if something doesn\u2019t get done, that\u2019s on you,\u201d says Eliza. But even after all the challenges and steep learning curves (including being flooded three times in the last eight months), the duo still bounce out of bed (via a headland surf check, of course).<\/p>\n

Standing around the veggie box packing table with a hot pot of freshly brewed (and greatly appreciated) coffee, we admire the lush stands of rocket and rainbow chard, but also the white board full of \u201cTo Do\u2019s\u201d. With caffeine in hand, we all agree that life’s good and anything is possible!<\/p>\n

I admire Eliza and Alex\u2019s ability to always return to their north star, despite the \u201cTo-Do\u2019s\u201d or weather forecasts that lie ahead of them; \u201cWe love the flavour of the food. The fact we pick our meals minutes before we cook them. We love the never-ending nature of learning and contextually problem solving. We love working outside in the elements and reading the landscape as each season passes. We love the community that growing food creates and that has been created years before us. We love the feeling of exhaustion after a long and physical day.\u201d<\/p>\n

I wonder why so many people still dread Mondays and the morning commute when we could be living in ecologically rich regional landscapes having a crack at \u201cthat idea\u201d we\u2019ve got. So I asked these guys what light they could shed on the subject of making a lifestyle change, as they\u2019ve done so well.<\/p>\n

How to make a big lifestyle change<\/h2>\n