Meet Nigel and Zeke Burt – Holistic Harvest
As part of the QCWA Country Kitchens Meet a Farmer initiative, the Country Kitchens team recently met Nigel and Zeke Burt. Based in Gundiah in the Fraser Coast hinterland, the father and son duo run Holistic Harvest market garden. While the farm is not certified organic, it does have chemical free produce.
Nigel grew up with parents who always had a home garden. Zeke has grown up similarly. Believing home grown is best, the pair decided to try their hand at farming. They are passionate about working out how to take the farm further.
Zeke has been researching market gardens and had a plot nearby that he farmed, while Nigel has been researching via the internet and undertaking several online courses.
Although having a background in mining, both men love the farming lifestyle. They enjoy taking their produce to markets and being able to educate people, encouraging customers to try new and different varieties of vegetables. They also urge customers to only buy in quantities they will use.
Education is at the heart of the Country Kitchens program which provides QCWA members and the public with training and resources aimed at supporting Queenslanders to adopt healthier lifestyles.
The team of nutritionists and dietitians have developed hundreds of recipes showcasing vegetables, and encourage people to try increasing their vegetable consumption.
The program focuses on 5 key messages:
- Get more fruit and veg into your meals
- Cook at home
- Check your portion size
- Be aware of sugar in your drinks
- Sit less, move more.
Every Country Kitchens activity promotes one or more of these 5 key messages.
For Nigel and Zeke, their goal is to feed their families and feed the community but still make a living from the activity.
“Originally the property was all pastureland, which we have progressively converted to plots,” said Nigel.
Initially chickens were kept for eggs, but they soon realised the chickens could be utilised as a “chicken tractor” eating the grass down, providing manure and helping to reduce weeds.
This was followed by a deep ripper plough, a second plough to form plots of 75 centre meters wide and up to 20 meters long.
Nigel and Zeke save some seeds and purchase others to plant in their own soil blocks until roots appear and multiply. Seedlings are then moved outside to mature and sun harden before being planted in the plots which are prepared with manure and seaweed fertilizer.
“Using open pollinated vegetable varieties gave us an opportunity to keep bees for pollination with a byproduct of honey,” said Zeke.
Growing a variety of vegetables means different products are maturing and harvested at different rates. Produce includes silverbeet, kale, capsicum, zucchini, squash, cucumber, corn, tomatoes, turmeric, carrot, beetroot and rosemary.
In terms of labour, the duo like to farm mostly by hand. Generally, work is done by Nigel and Zeke, but sometimes family and friends chip in with the more intense processes such as planting.
Constantly looking for new and better ways to farm, information about small farming is garnered from the internet and books mostly from Europe or the Northern Hemisphere.
Using solar power where possible and promoting the business via social media is part of their practices. Recently they visited the local school to give each student a take home bag of the farm’s turmeric, with an accompanying recipe.
The farmers aim for zero waste, selling produce with any surplus going to the family, then to the compost, worm farms or chickens.
To learn more about Holistic Harvest, visit their Facebook page.
Empowering women through education and health is a priority for the Queensland Country Women’s Association (QCWA). The QCWA Country Kitchens program, funded by the Queensland Government through Health and Wellbeing Queensland, supports Queenslanders to adopt healthier lifestyles.
