ANGELICA ORGANIC FARM NEEDS YOUR HELP?

Hello There Everyone following our fundraising campaign!

We are now part way in to week 5 since we started this campaign in July.

The ongoing support and good will from so many and from different parts of our community by various ways has been very fortifying and genuinely inspiring. Not just for us but for small scale, organic and regenerative farming and its produce in general. Which is what we hoped would be an additional positive outcome of our own community appeal. Beth and Hayden of Burrawong Gaian pastured poultry farm near Coffs Harbour just yesterday launched their own campaign to give their farm and family a much needed 'hand up' after all the hardship and associated skyrocketing farm running costs after flooding then ongoing drought conditions just as they were recovering. The price of essentials like animal feed that has become an imperative to buy in, off the back of the successive weather calamities, has gone 'through the roof' due to shortages and such high demand. We wish the McMillans and their family the very best in getting what they need and so richly deserve and their prosperity beyond this harsh time.

We have 1 more week slated for this Go Get Funding campaign and as I write this, despite the incredible success and humbling generosity from so many backers to this point, we are still some way from our target (or close enough to it). This means we are still 'up in the air' in regards to the fate of our farm and livelihood. However, we would have been 'over and out' already by now without this cash injection of the past few weeks. It has so far enabled us to finish our 2017-18 season, honour our full CSA commitment (because we could keep paying our bills and our essential staff) and we've been able to clear some over hanging debt.

Some really great news is that a fundraising lunch that has been generated for us by a band of our Melbourne chef supporters and marvelous Vic producers (food and wine), which occurs this coming Sunday (19 Aug) at Jerry Mai's ANNAM restaurant in the Melbourne CBD is now officially fully booked - 90 tickets sold. This is utterly amazing and is set to be a brilliant afternoon of 'bread breaking' with community (including tears by us I suspect!?) - community who value knowing where their food comes from, how it is grown and by whom and that it all equates to clean, nutritious, humane and environmentally regenerative practices by passionate farmers that's making it happen. This will be a boost to our fundraising and will help see us through the next few weeks and HOPEFULLY provide a bridge to further providence enabling us to keep farming.

We have so many plans evolving towards a successful farming future if we can get through until December. The demonstrated appreciation for us and what we do has only served to lift our inspiration and creative thinking to another level, so we desperately hope we get the chance to put it all in to practice.

The true value of proper food and of the skill and commitment of the hard working souls who live and breath farming to feed and cloth the community is indeed priceless and a worthy investment for those enlightened eaters who want to eat the kind of food us small scale, organic, regenerative and agro-ecological farmers grow!

Thanks again.

Best wishes,

Deri-Anne and Tim

Hello there beautiful backers and campaign followers!

Over the past 2 weeks our GGF campaign has been ticking along nicely.The past week with not as much momentum as the 1st week, but that's not unexpected. We are genuinely humbled by the generosity offered us in all its forms. We continue to be amazed by people's loveliness in general and some very thoughtful, touching contributions to the comments section on this campaign page.

We have extended the campaign dates by a couple of weeks by request from a few folk and also to coincide with a fundraiser some of our hospitality mates are putting on for us at Annam restaurant on Sunday 19 August.

The hardest thing for us in the present is being in 'limbo land'...planning for the new season ahead BUT not knowing if we'll be able to continue in to it (or beyond) at this stage?

Here's some of what your generosity has helped our farm cover over the past week to keep us going through this challenging period:

🐝 Overdue irrigation equipment bills
🐝 Overdue seedling bills

🐝🐝 Tractor and equipment finance payments

🐝🐝 Farm land lease/rent
🐝 Staff wages

....it is not easy to make so public what we are facing let alone ask for and accept $$ (being the particular help we really need to get through to new season income with significant farm/biz remodelling in place) BUT here we are AND we are grateful for the various kinds of support this public campaign is bringing our way. Every little bit of $$ and moral support is a big help. THANK YOU

If you haven't read this article already https://sustainabletable.org.au/angelica-organic-f... by our long time farmers' market customer become friend, Cassie Duncan, of Melbourne's Sustainable Table, it is a worthwhile read. Inspired by our current plight and associated fundraising campaign, Cassie articulately and poignantly delves further in to the broader food system issues which are why our campaign and willingness to open ourselves up is NOT just about us. Several of our small scale, regenerative farmer friends (from various areas around the country) are struggling and it is not uncommon for any of us to be hit by circumstances out of our control or that push us too far (and I am not just referring to weather impacts) - small or larger farms. In our case we are "all in" farmers, meaning we have no off-farm employment, as many others do (mainly because mixed veg farming is very labour intensive and there's not that many hours in a week...we already do around 60 +/- hours/week 10 mths of the year up to this point in our farm's establishment) or family members &/or volunteers/WWOOFers to help run the 'show' as we can't accommodate that.

Another local (to us) friend and small scale regen farmer, Tammi Jonas put it like this the other day in a repost on FB regarding our campaign..." I'm pretty worried to see how many small-scale farmers are still struggling to make enough money to live on while working tirelessly to provide their communities with nutritious, delicious, clean food - nature, labour, input costs, and people's unwillingness to pay what food is worth all contribute to the problem. Look after the farmers you know while we work to resolve as many of these issues we can that are in our control!"

The thing is, if people (eaters) REALLY want the kind of food farms like ours produce, then it is our collectivism as a community that will ensure these farms survive and prosper. It has to be this way. ONLY TOGETHER do we have this - really!

One of the reasons that we have needed to seek help via a public/supporter fundraising campaign is because traditional forms of finance are not set up for us. Contrary to (often) popular belief, we get no support from financial institutions (even an overdraft is not a viably affordable option for us) and virtually nothing from our governments. We are too small to access what resources may be available, which are pretty limited and most often not attached to a suitable criteria for our needs anyway. The only thing we get is a small 'fuel rebate' on diesel at tax return time. We are registered Primary Producers but there are no 'low interest' or 'no interest' loans available and not much in the way of other capital investment opportunities going around. A few farmers we know of personally who have in the past been lucky enough to find financial 'backers/investors' have been left in the lurch at some point not too far down the track when basically the novelty has worn off for those investors and they've decided to pull out - no qualms, no discussion entered in to.

In any case, our community's food sovereignty is NEVER going to be looked after by government, other business, finance institutions or industrial agriculture with the due diligence and respect it deserves and needs to grow, prosper and become sustainable in perpetuity. If it is to be, it is up to US - the eaters who want food sovereignty and diversity, who want traditional produce and food processes supported and conserved and want it grown and made in the most healthy, clean and regenerative ways possible for the best stewardship of our natural resources as well as the highest well being of farmers and all eaters.

On that note, THANK YOU ALL AGAIN! Until the next GGF Angelica-style update.

Best wishes,

Deri-Anne and Tim

Hi Everyone,

Hope you are enjoying your Saturday afternoon?

Welcome to our 1st campaign update since launching our Angelica Organic Farm Needs Your Help GoGetFunding CampaignAngelica Organic Farm Needs Your Help GoGetFunding Campaign less than 24 hours ago...

First of all, a MASSIVE THANK YOU to all of you for your deeply appreciated generosity. We are really touched by your loving care and support and feel very fortunate to be a part of this amazing good food community.

Wow, wow and wow people! So far we are at around 12% of our goal target, which is a very encouraging start in such a short time. Of course we have quite some way to go to 'pull this off' but apart from the $$ contributions on this campaign site, we are also receiving a few other wonderful fundraising offers and other forms of support.

The past couple of weeks whilst assessing the actual 'wash up' of our current predicament have been very sobering, gut wrenching and stressful as you can probably imagine? Not a refreshing experience after a tough grind of a past 12-18 months, even if not totally unpredictable after all. However, having the incredible practical and emotional support and belief in us from some of our closest friends, many small scale farmers themselves, has helped keep us buoyant, on track and finding creative ways to resolve our farm-related problems.

At this point we really want to extend a standout THANK YOU to the inimitable, talented, brilliant, generous and loving TAMMI JONAS, without whom, we honestly don't know how 'dynamic, creative and effective' we would be at present? : )

Thankfully and largely as a result of all the good people and love around us, we are in good shape and feeling hopeful!

We will keep you posted at least once a week if not more from here and you can always 'check in' on the GoGetFunding site yourselves.

Viva la revolucion!

Best wishes and many thanks,

Deri-Anne and Tim xxx

Angelica Organic Farm