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Deep Winter Agrarian Event 2026

Northern Rivers NSW

A Day of Gathering, Sharing, and Strengthening Our Local Food Movement

Join farmers, growers, seed savers, cooks, land carers, and food activists from across the Northern Rivers for the heart of the Deep Winter Agrarian Gathering — a full day dedicated to connection, shared knowledge, and collective action for food sovereignty and agroecology in our region.

This isn't a conference of speakers and slides. It's a slow, seasonal, thoughtful space where small and medium-scale farmers and allies come together as equals — to talk honestly about the challenges we face, celebrate what's working, and build the relationships and ideas that strengthen our local food system.

On the day:

  • Welcome to Country, opening ceremony, and circle — we begin together, setting intentions for the day ahead

  • Breakout groups — two rounds of facilitated small-group discussion exploring the barriers and opportunities facing local food and farming, followed by whole-group sharing of what emerged based on the AFSA format.

  • Potluck lunch — bring a dish to share as we eat together and keep the conversation going

  • Closing circle — a chance to reflect on the day in a single word, followed by a group game to close things out on a light note

Themes we'll be exploring together:
Food sovereignty, agroecology and regenerative agriculture, seed saving, Indigenous land stewardship, local food economies, cooperative models and food hubs, climate resilience, and community care.

We'll be asking each other big questions throughout the day — what gives you hope right now? What connects you to your food? What would a thriving local food system here look like in 5, 10, or 20 years? — not to find quick answers, but to think and plan together.

Details:

  • Murwillumbah Showgrounds, NSW

  • Saturday 12th September , 9am – 5pm

  • Tickets $35 for farmers

  • Tickets $45 for friends of farmers

  • Camping available on-site ($35/night) - book through the website

  • Bring a dish for the potluck lunch — tea and coffee provided

  • Friday + Sunday farm tours available as an add-on (extra ticket required)

Come ready to listen, share, and be part of building a stronger, more sovereign food future for the Northern Rivers.

Farm Tours

Friday Afternoon 11th Sept

Marlivale Farm

goolmangar, nsw

Marlivale Farm is a working pecan and dryland rice operation based in Goolmangar, in the Northern Rivers region of NSW. Run as a family farm, it takes an unconventional approach to growing both crops — integrating them with livestock rather than farming them as separate monocultures.

A small herd of cattle is rotated through the pecan orchard, a system the farm uses to improve soil biodiversity, nutrient cycling, and paddock resilience, while also giving the cattle a varied grazing life. Alongside the pecans, Marlivale grows dryland rice — Kyema, a long-grain jasmine variety, and Tachiminori, a medium-grain variety — relying entirely on rainfall rather than irrigation. It's a hardier, more water-conscious way to grow rice, though yields rise and fall with the season's rainfall.

The farm hasn't used synthetic fertilisers, insecticides, or fungicides since it was fully purchased by the family in 2000, instead relying on home-made compost teas and other biological soil treatments. It isn't certified organic, and pesticides are still used selectively in the rice during establishment to manage weed pressure — something the farm is actively working to phase out using cover crops. Tree planting and wildlife corridors run from the creek through to the surrounding bush, providing habitat for native wildlife and doubling as windbreaks for the pecan trees.

All pecans are harvested, roasted, and packed on site, keeping the supply chain short and the family closely connected to the product. Marlivale doesn't sell from the farm gate — instead, you'll find their pecans, pecan spread, brown rice, and rice cakes at local farmers markets in the area.

Sunday Morning 13th Sept

Summit Organics

tyalgum creek, nsw

Summit Organics is a certified organic market garden based at Tyalgum, in the Northern Rivers region of NSW, on a 128-hectare family property bordering the World Heritage-listed Border Ranges National Park. Run by Rod and Tania Bruin, with their sons Ryan and Owen also working the farm, it began decades ago as a coffee plantation (originally even goats, started by Rod's Dutch father) before the family pivoted to vegetables after a chance sweet potato crop revealed how good the soil was.

The vegetable production covers around 2.5 hectares of intensive market garden, where the farm grows more than fifty different vegetable and herb crops across the year, leaning into seasonality rather than forcing year-round supply. Irrigation comes from two spring-fed dams, gravity-fed to the crops with no pumping needed, and delivered through reusable drip lines to minimise water use and plastic waste. Soil fertility is built up through heavy, regular applications of certified organic compost, sourced by the truckload from council green waste, with the farm composting to a significant depth across the growing beds.

The farm is certified by Australian Certified Organic and audited annually against the Australian Organic Standards. It has weathered real setbacks — flooding in recent years that nearly wiped out the property, which led the family to put a third of the land under cover — and continues to adapt to rising costs and climate pressures while keeping its supply chain short, selling exclusively through local farmers markets like New Brighton and Mullumbimby rather than long-distance distribution.

Summit Organics also runs occasional Farm Walks, open days where the Bruins take visitors from seedling to harvest and explain how a certified organic operation runs day to day. These are popular with TAFE and permaculture students as well as regular market customers, and tickets are limited — worth watching for announcements at the markets.

Sunday Afternoon 13th Sept

Cheeses Loves You — Deb Allard

upper burringbar, nsw

Cheeses Loves You is a single-source dairy and cheesemaking operation run by Debra Allard and her husband Jim on their family's 200-acre property at Burringbar, in the Northern Rivers region of NSW. The land has been in the Allard family since 1895, when Jim's great-grandfather bought it from the government for £1 an acre on condition it was cleared for pasture. The farm operated as a dairy for generations until illness forced Jim's father out of the business in 1986, leaving it dormant for nearly 30 years.

In 2016, Deb and Jim restarted the dairy — not to sell milk, but to supply a single, traceable source of high-quality milk for Deb's cheese. They restocked the farm with 95 Jersey cows rather than the higher-volume Friesians most dairies favour, prioritising the higher fat and protein content (and naturally low cell count) that makes for better cheese. They built a custom 10-a-side dairy on site, alongside a dedicated cheesemaking facility and cheese-ageing room.

Deb has been cheesemaking for around fifteen years, training with cheesemakers in the UK, France, and Italy before bringing those skills home. She now produces roughly 25 different products full-time — including ricotta, haloumi, feta, brie, camembert, blue, kefir, buttermilk, cultured butter, and yoghurt — all made in small batches with no preservatives or additives. By-products like whey and kefir aren't wasted: they go to feeding the farm's calves and to a neighbouring pig farm. The operation has picked up several awards along the way, including medals at the Royal Queensland Cheese and Dairy Competition.

Cheeses Loves You doesn't sell from the farm — Deb sells direct at Byron, Mullumbimby, and Kingscliff TAFE farmers markets, where she's also known for running cheesemaking classes for the local community.