127. Changing the Face of Farming & Milling in Australia
With Courtney Young & Ian Congdon
You might remember Ian Congdon and Courtney Young from one of the great stories we heard about last year, on how this young family is changing the face of farming - and milling - in Australia. That’s through their incredibly delicious enterprise Woodstock Flour, and Courtney’s spectacular art.
As it happens, our conversation last year took place on the day they finished building the first Australian mill in who knows how long. And coincidentally, it was also settlement day for the purchase of their own farm. So after we visited Serenity and Kirsten for the last episode, we dropped in to meet Ian and Courtney in person at that farm. And again, while just intending to say hi, another riveting chat over dinner compelled us to sit down and put something on record for you all.
Sunset at the Woodstock Flour farm near Rutherglen, Victoria (pic: Anthony James).
“I think that’s really exciting. That was always part of our dream of having a place, is to then be able to say ‘look at this opportunity, who wants a piece of it?’ Whether that’s with neighbours or things like that, I feel like there’s so many opportunities. But even beyond this place, we’d totally embrace more people to be working in this area. There’s so much room for growth and collaboration, cooperation.”
What we found was another uplifting sighter of a brilliant couple continuing to manifest transformative visions. We start here with the first item of huge news – their major grant success from the Sustainable Table Fund. That’s the ground-breaking Fund we heard about in the last episode, and from Tanya Massy earlier this year. This represents a big step towards creating a local regenerative grains economy in their region.
Then we delve into their attempt at an innovative renewable energy set up, their artistic and practical explorations of what it means to be land-owners now in the context of Aboriginal dispossession, and the many opportunities for others to join in these regenerative efforts.
We also talk briefly about the changes in farming they’re observing with rapidly escalating input costs, some profound and entertaining experiments milling native grains from Black Duck Foods, and let’s just say a unique music selection on Ian’s part.
This conversation was recorded on their farm near Rutherglen, Victoria, on 31 March 2022.
Click on the photos below for full view, and hover over them for descriptions (all pics by Anthony James).
Get more:
You can hear more of Courtney, Ian and I in conversation in episode 89: ‘A Native Grains and Native Mills Resurgence (Part 2): On making mills and the art of regeneration’.
Convergence, the RCS international conference in Brisbane on 16-17 July 2022.
Music:
Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now.