Grow Lightly South Gippsland

Grow Lightly grew from a concern about global environmental trends, particularly global warming, peak oil and the depletion of our soils, and the prospect of ongoing water shortages.
People must eat, and we believe it’s important to make truly fresh food available; to reduce food miles to an absolute minimum; and to recognize the environmental cost of food production.
What happens?

• You pay a set amount per week four weeks in advance.
• For that you receive a weekly box of fruit, vegetables, nuts, herbs and eggs produced here in South Gippsland.
• There is no system of ordering – you are given what is available and have to plan your meals accordingly.
• The contents of the box is either certified organic, or grown according to the principles of organic agriculture.
• The box is available for pick-up from one of several local depots in the Korumburra (Coal Creek front office)/ Kardella/Loch/Warragul area.
• The principal growers meet weekly to bring in their produce and pack the boxes. Growers are paid for the produce they have contributed at the end of the four-week period.

Yes, we have no bananas

We are aiming to grow our fruit and vegetables more efficiently within the limits of organic, small-scale agriculture.

However it is local, seasonal produce: no tomatoes, eggplant  or capsicums in the winter; probably not much broccoli and no broad beans or citrus in the summer.

You’ll have to manage without bananas and mangoes altogether; and might meet the odd challenge – Jerusalem artichokes, or yacon, or white sapotes for instance.

But we grow beautiful plums, pears, apples and berries here; can grow salad greens all year round; and have excellent winter citrus, such as lemons, limes, mandarins and lemonades.

What’s in the box?

We try to include a range from the following groups:

• Potatoes
• Onions, garlic, leeks, shallots
• Greens for cooking
• Salad greens
• Fruiting vegetables (peas, tomatoes, pumpkin etc)
• Fruit
• Herbs
• Nuts
• Eggs

We’ve become very aware of the importance of eating a range of different colours every day – red to ward off cancer, orange/yellow for heart health, green to preserve eyesight, blue/purple to protect the brain. So we try to include a range of colours each week.

How is this different from buying organic at the supermarket?
1. Supermarket produce, even if it’s grown locally, will probably have travelled long distances to get from the grower to you, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions in the process.
2. Even if supermarket produce is certified organic it may not be fresh, and may have less nutritional value.
3. While food prices in general, we believe, are too low, the gap between non-organic and organic is too large. As petrol prices increase the cost of food is likely to increase also. We hope this scheme will enable us to keep prices of organic produce at a reasonable level while guaranteeing a reasonable return to the grower.

 Interested?
On the supply side, we’re looking for local growers, including backyarders with surplus produce. Even very small quantities are useful. If this sounds like you, or if you are interested in receiving a box, please email, or ring Meredith on 5659 8238.