What is Kitchen Farm?
Kitchen Farm is set to become a thriving and productive farm for the whole community to share wholesome and naturally grown paddock-to-plate experiences including farming education, community tours, programs and workshops and paddock-to-plate dining at our Kitchen Farm Pantry.
Kitchen Farm is in a new and award-winning residential development called Newenham in the Adelaide Hills. Newenham is becoming revered as a place that nourishes the health, happiness and wellbeing of everyone who chooses to visit or call it home. Newenham has promised that it will deliver a community farm from the outset and Kitchen Farm will deliver this promise.
Kitchen Farm makes productive use of 8 hectares of former agricultural land located in an Electranet buffer easement which is not able to be used for housing development and is too expansive to be landscaped and maintained for passive recreation purposes. This farm will ultimately turn land that would otherwise be underutilised, into a quality agricultural productive asset which we hope will become a world leading example of the successful integration of food production and community sustainability in a greenfield residential development. Regenerative and Permaculture principles will guide the agricultural practices of Kitchen Farm.
A community farm, or “a farm for the community”, was originally proposed on the Newenham masterplan by the Burke Urban Group. Since 2016, Olivia Burke, the Group’s Marketing, Sales and Community Director has been working on models to bring this farm to life. Olivia’s passion for the vision inspired her to set up her own company called Regen Urban, based on the philosophy of regenerating urban places and it is this entity, that has started-up and founded Kitchen Farm. She has drawn inspiration from world leading examples such as The Farm in Byron Bay, Daylesford Farm in the United Kingdom and Babylonstoren in South Africa.
Kitchen Farm is unfolding in an organic fashion and being developed in stages as funding allows. The first stage of Kitchen Farm has seen the opening of Kitchen Farm Pantry, which is Kitchen Farm’s humble café and store offering. This was opened initially to service the Newenham residents and local community with coffee in a friendly and inviting space. Since opening in August 2021 as a small pop-up café out of a hole in the wall of the Newenham Cottage, Kitchen Farm Pantry has grown in to a vibrant rustic café, serving up local treats in a welcoming and family friendly environment. The ‘Pantry’ as we like to call it, will eventually stock Kitchen Farm produce and serve up clean and wholesome meals crafted from our fresh seasonal produce.
We have also been very busy working with the Newenham Green Team since September 2022. This is an initiative of Kitchen Farm and Community Living Australia, supported by Newenham and combines a group of Newnham residents and clients from Community Living Australia, who come together 3 days per week at our Pop-Up Nursery located on the tennis court of the original Newenham Homestead. Our amazing Green Team has already propagated thousands of plants, constructed multiple timber nursery benches, and most importantly helped to plant thousands of plants in the Newenham verges to help build biodiversity in the environment as well as help to create an abundant and natural Adelaide Hills aesthetic. The Green Team will actively participate in the operations of Kitchen Farm as the farm grows and develops.
Concurrently and most significantly we have also been working towards opening our ‘Kitchen Farm Nursery Garden’ which is the main feature of the first stage of the Farm. It includes a Council approved 3 acre productive garden and nursery and will be the the primary focus of the farm for the next 12 to 18 months. The garden and nursery is considered to be a very tangible, yet manageable component of the farm, propagating seedlings and native plants for sale to the public, and growing produce for sale at the Kitchen Farm Pantry and for wholesale to other retailers. Works will commence on rejuvenating the soil of the Garden in May 2023 and it is envisioned that the Garden and Nursery will be operational later this year.
The opportunities for the farm are endless in terms of diversification. It is proposed Kitchen Farm could incorporate a bakery, florist, health hub and even an education precinct. However, the true focus of Kitchen Farm will be empowering resilience and creating true wellbeing in the Newenham community, as well as embracing the broader community and helping everyday people become educated, passionate and confident about soil health, biodiversity and growing and eating nutrient dense food.
