Introducing, our Farm Guy!
Well, this is our most exciting announcement to date – we’ve got a guy! And a guy who knows a ‘hell of a lot’ about plants and food and ecosystems and farms! And not just farming, he also happens to be a Cordon Bleu trained chef, has a Cert III and Cert IV in Permaculture from the Byron Bay Community College, and sits on the committee for Permaculture South Australia (just a few small achievements).
Meet Kym Ormond, our ‘Farm Guy’, or more professionally known as Kitchen Farm’s Nursery and Market Garden Production Manager.
Some of you may know Kym from his former business, ‘Port Adelaide Food Gardening’, which he and his wife, Jenny, started back in 2019. With the ambition originally being to build and install custom wicking beds with a small pop-up plant nursery, the plants eventually outgrew the wicking beds and turned the business into a thriving nursery and a great meeting spot for community, in the heart of Port Adelaide.
First being introduced to the industry when travelling around Australia and landing a job on a small-scale farm in WA, Kym quickly learned about permaculture practice and his interest in the potential it had on farming.
When asked what he loves about his job, Kym answers “there’s many aspects, it’s hard to summarize all of it but I just absolutely love plants and the fascinating process of watching them grow from a seed into a plant. There’s nothing like eating a fresh Tokyo turnip, which is one of my favourites, when its plucked straight from the ground in the field where you grew it’.
Which makes him the perfect guy to join our operation at Kitchen Farm Adelaide Hills, as we bring the big visions and extensive plans for Kitchen Farm to life and start to introduce our Farm to you and the general public, over the next 12 months.
With a shared vision to create meaningful connection to food, through sustainable and innovative farming practices, Kitchen Farm will start to offer local produce to the residents of Newenham, as well as the broader Adelaide Hills region, working towards the goal of creating a circular economy and resilient community.
Whilst laughing at the amount of work to be done, Olivia Burke, Kitchen Farm’s visionary and super-passionate founder, exclaims “we’re so pumped and excited to announce the appointment of Kym Ormond, to Kitchen Farm. He feels like Superman to me! I don’t know much about plants or farms, but I am passionate about creating well communities, and I know that this farm is the ticket to building one of the most resilient and happy communities in Australia. It has been a really tough journey to try to bring this farm and extensive vision to life, and Kym has simplified this and somehow translated this in to an achievable action plan. He is the perfect fit for this project and with so many exciting activities already underway in our farm, I know that it will only further blossom with Kym’s experience and expertise. We can’t wait to get out there and (quite literally) grow this project to it’s full potential”.
To celebrate Kym’s appointment, Kitchen Farm is hosting a ‘Meet the Farmer’ event on Saturday, 15 April where the community can have the opportunity to meet Kym and the Kitchen Farm team, see the overall vision for our farm, and participate in activities such as a local Farmer Q&A discussion/presentation and purchasing plants from the nursery. This is going to be a really wholesome and fun-day out for the family, and most importantly gives people who are passionate about food, farming, permaculture and community the chance to join the team to collaborate and watch this vision literally grow from the ground up.
