Agricultural activity in Australia is increasing. Currently, $67 billion is contributed to our economy, 55% of land is under agricultural or horticultural production, and 25% of our water is used to support these activities. Approximately 8.3% of our local economy in the Adelaide Hills is from agriculture, forestry and horticulture activities. This is ranked 3rd behind construction and home dwelling and ownership. This means the Hills has a significant amount of food production for human consumption. Whilst there are many conventional farming activities, there is an increasing trend for agricultural activities to adopt regenerative farming practices. This includes land management practices that attempt to improve top soil health, increase biodiversity systems, reduced chemical inputs such as herbicides and pesticides, as well as increase profit margins for growers and improving the quality of products produced.

The Adelaide Hills will be facing increasing pressure on our food producing lands as we face urbanization as never before. Our population in Mt Barker alone will grow from 38,523 to 56,710 by 2036. The questions are: where will the food come from to feed our growing population? Do we have a resilient food system? Are our current food producing lands protected? Do we have a local food plan as we move into these changes?

Interestingly, our health picture also needs some reviewing as we face an increasing amount of lifestyle diseases such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and obesity. These lifestyle diseases are heavily linked to the western diet, demanding we examine what we are eating and the habits we engage in. Australia is one of the highest producers of fruit and vegetables in the world, yet one of their the lowest consumers. Fibre from fruit, vegetables and whole grains is key in improving these lifestyle diseases. The wholefood diet is thus a necessary medicine.

Farmers’ Markets are a great connection between our food production systems and improving our health. A study of farmers’ markets shows how markets can provide consumers direct access to fresh, local and seasonal food sourced directly from the food producer, exposure to a variety of foods and the opportunity to learn about how the food was produced and how to use it. It is the place where we can access a wholefood diet easily.

Farmers’ markets support the environment by attempting to minimize waste and pollution. They support growing activities such as regenerative agriculture and reduce eco miles as local producers are sourced for the markets. Farmers’ markets are key in local economies, as money is spent locally and small businesses have direct access to consumers.

Who would have thought that coming to our local farmers market each Saturday had such a wide and beneficial effect from farm to plate to health!!!!

Words: Kara-Jane Bennet

Need more reasons to shop at AHFM? Want to convince that special person in your life to give the market a chance? Here’s a handy list of 10 reasons to shop at the Adelaide Hills Farmers’ Market!

1. Direct from the farmer or producer to you – All farm produce is direct from the grower to the market on the day
2. Fresh from the farm – The produce is picked and packed for optimum freshness and flavour
3. Seasonality – Produce at the market is only available when it’s in season, this helps alleviate the environmental cost of food transport and maximizes nutritional value
4. Lasts longer – Food has a longer shelf life when it is direct from the grower (if you can last that long)
5. Environmental – Less food miles and less carbon footprint
6. Local economy – buying local keeps the dollars in our community
7. Know where your food comes from – The value-adders are the people that actually make your product
8. Information – Lean about the product, find out how to cook it, eat it, grow it, drink it and store it, direct from the producer!
9. Community – The AHFM is a local event that brings us all together

Don’t forget, the AHFM is on every Saturday morning at 23 Mann Street Mt Barker!

JOIN US UNDER THE ELMS AND LIVE MORE LOCAL

ADELAIDE HILLS FARMERS MARKETS CHAIRS REPORT -2020-21

The Adelaide Hills Farmers Market is held on the lands of the Peramangk People, and we acknowledge that they continue to be custodians of the region and pay our respects to their elders past and present

Thank you for your attendance at this AGM. We value your support and membership of the market. The market has performed well. We have had new customers and new stallholders. The market shows signs of refreshing itself and is gradually capturing new arrivals in the district to the market. 

Covid- 19 has been good for the market in many ways though we would have been better without it. Covid- 19 has provided many challenges in keeping the market open and complying with changing regulations that at times do not make sense. This is mainly because the regulations are written for others, and we have some exemption lines for food markets. Nikala & then Kara-Jane has done a good job in managing the market to comply with the regulations and our customers have been well behaved in trying to be covid safe. Covid -19 did help in that there has been a sentiment again to do things locally which has encouraged more people to attend our market and become members. The inability for other markets to operate did help keep our winter stall numbers up as we could continue to operate. This has helped our finances with stall holders up, membership up and also the government contribution to small business and not for profit organizations.

The committee has been united in rebuilding governance and operational processes. Over the years with manager changes, cloud storage systems and us struggling to find secretaries with strong admin overview skills we had lost and misplaced many policies and  operational documents. We have now reproduced many of these and reviewed the remainder. Updated rules and policies will be distributed soon. Our financial position is strong, and we thank Janine for her efforts in getting our financial recording and reporting more professional. We have also stopped being registered for gst following the recommendations made at last year’s AGM.

We do have one of the best markets for atmosphere during late spring and autumn with members and shoppers able to relax at the market on the lawn with great entertainment. We thank management for coordinating our buskers. As we come out of covid restrictions we can continue to develop and expand our demonstration and education program including cooking, gardening and environmental management. 

Kara-Jane has taken over as market manager and through her leadership our processes and reporting have become more professional, allowing the committee the time to get back to focusing on our strategic plan. The strategic planning objectives included, Growing the Market, Nurturing the Friendly atmosphere and broader Community Connections, Value and promote our ‘Brand’& Ensuring we have ongoing sound administrative infrastructure. A continuing challenge is to reach out and include new residents in the district into our community

The committee has had many changes in the last twelve months which has had some significant effect on us to be making progress. I do thank the committee for their support of me in continuingly managing change.

I would like to thank those committee whose term has expired or who have resigned. Finally, I would like to thank you the members for supporting us through your membership and regularly shopping at the market. I would like to thank this last year’s committee for their efforts in volunteering their time in governing the market and making significant contributions to the running of the market.

Dr Geoff Page 

Chair

ADELAIDE HILLS FARMERS MARKET -MARKET MANAGER REPORT

INTRODUCTION

This year has brought change in the management of the market From Nikala Sim to Kara-Jane Bennett. I would like to thank Nikala for all the organisational input and changes she made to improve the running order of the market. It has put the market in a good position to implement new strategies and growth upon. I have currently been employed with the market for 6 months and have been  learning and appraising the various aspects of the market for change. There are 5 Key performance areas that are guiding my activities to date. These include; 

• Market Day Operations: to increase the average monthly market attendance and annual market memberships and maintain and increase stallholders (Artisan & Farmers) 

• Administration and development: Review and update operations manual, budgeting 2021-2022, Filling from Dropbox to Gsuite 

• Stallholder management: complete a seasonal market calendar, recruit summer fruit stallholders, identify product gaps

• Marketing and promotions; complete the marketing plan and calendar of events and conduct activities, Review and update website

• Volunteer coordination: training and celebration event

The last 6 months have brought a lot of learning, reviewing and collaborations. I have approached all areas of the job with the intention of improving the communication and partnerships with committee, stallholders, sponsors, initiatives, volunteers and market goers. I am thankful for all the support and feedback from the various sectors of the market community. A special thanks to Geoff for his knowledge and accessibility, Janine for her generous and collaborative nature and Rosie for all her skills, diplomacy and professionalism. 

My intention for the market is to grow its capacity in serving the Adelaide Hills Community with fresh, local and seasonal food and to remind them of the importance of supporting and servicing our farmers, producers and artisans. Also to maintain the rich community feel that occurs each week at the market. Business activity includes collaboration with Gawler street businesses, Mt Barker Council,

Manager Activities and KPI  2021-2022

1. Market Day Operations

2020 (12months)

-No stallholders approve to trade= 71

-Active membership= 445

-Avg no of sign in member sign 100

2021 (April-Oct)

– No of stallholders approved to trade=77 (Farmers:45) Artisan (32) approve to trade. 

– We have had 65 expression of interest inquiries since April due to the  online inquiry process that was set up on the website.

– Active memberships= 380

– – Avg no of market goers at market=285

– Avg no of member sign ins=88

-2 set up contractors

2. Administration and development

• Updated operations manual

• Updated the gsuite filing system and archival documents

• Budget for 2021-2021

• Finalised and created working databases

• Rules and regulations and other policy distribution

• Industry networking and vendor scouting

• Cleaned and organised shed. 3. Stallholder management

• Establish seasonal market calendar

• Gap assessment: seasonal produce, beef, more speciality produce

• Average stallholder attendance/month=27

• –Stallholder incentive activities

• Introduce new stallholder invoicing

• Community tent initiative 

4. Marketing and promotions

• Newsletter content changes

• AHFM survey 165 responses

• Completing marketing plan and event calendar- 15/10/2021 

• Grant for World Food day celebration March 2022

• Gawler st sponsorship and collaboration activities

• Community market membership recruitment days.

• Video, photo and blog material- getting completed.

• Website upgrade with individual vendor portals

• 4 demonstrations at the market

• Return of the kids tent

5. Volunteer coordination

• Volunteer celebration event

• 3 new volunteers

FUTURE ACTIVITIES

The focus for the next 6months is marketing and membership recruitment. The market needs to outreach to more local areas within the Mt Barker district. This includes:

• attending community events for promotions

• create video material for Facebook, Instagram and promotions with new development areas and real estate agents.

• Promotions events -summer program, seasonal artisan installations and world food day event

• Facebook lucky door prize: for market goers at 11.30am at Market

• Mt Barker Council food plan initiative and blogging content

• Stronger presence on Facebook and Instagram

• Stallholder collaborations with marketing and incentives.

Kara-Jane Bennett

Market Manager for AHFM