#3 Two Landscapes, one philosophy: Lessons from the Pilbara and a regenerative mango farm with Robyn Todd

In this episode, Laura sits down with Robyn Todd of Araluen Mangoes to talk about the leap from community gardener to commercial regenerative mango farmer. Robyn spent 18 years growing food in Port Hedland, one of the harshest climates in the country, where she ran a much-loved community garden and learned to work with extreme heat and a growing calendar flipped completely on its head. She shares what that experience taught her about resilience, soil, and adaptability — lessons she's now carrying into her first year running a 340-tree mango orchard in the Moore River region.

They talk soil-first farming philosophy, cover crops, closed-loop composting with wood chips and chickens, working with sheep and pigs as part of the system, and Robyn's plans for dehydrated and freeze-dried mango, black garlic, aquaponic strawberries, and more. It's a conversation about building a small, sustainable farm business without chasing scale — and about what it really means to look after your soil so it can look after you.

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Email Robyn araluenmangoes@gmail.com

Information about the Johnson-su compost bioreactor, thanks to regenerationinternational.org Johnson-Su-Bioreactor.pdf

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Welcome to the Soul Garden Podcast. This is a place for anyone who wants to grow food, save seeds, gain a little more independence, and reconnect with what really matters. I'm Laura, a seed grower based in Western Australia. Each episode we explore growing foods, saving seeds, regenerative farming, and so much more. It's all about working with nature, not against it. So let's get into today's episode So today's guest is a very good friend Robyn Todd, who lives down the road from me in country terms. We're about 15 minutes away from each other. And Robyn has also just moved to the area here in the Moore River region as well. So Robyn, would you like to introduce yourself to everyone? Sure. Hi, Laura. Thank you so much for having me on. I feel very special- to be your first guest. Thank you. I, like you said, we have been on the property for just over a year, so the start of April 2025 was when we moved. We are now commercial mango farmers, lots of hobby farm stuff as well, but our main focus here is the commercial mangoes, which has been a big learning curve. My background is absolutely not mango farming. So we're learning a lot and having fun doing it. Yeah. You're a little bit like me. You're avid gardener turned farmer. Aren't you? You've come from that gardening background, and now you're upscaling. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, my, my background for the previous sort of six and a half years before that was in community gardening. Yeah. And then, yeah, I was raised with, backyard growing and stuff. I think listening to your first podcast was really interesting because I think we had very similar upbringings. Yeah. I, I was born here but my dad was English. Yep. So I think, yeah, we've probably had very similar upbringings where we did grow a lot of our own food and my dad was a hunter and a fisher, so we had all of our own meat that he used to provide, veggie garden in winter... Oh, sorry, summer. Y- blackberry ha- picking in summer, mushroom foraging in winter. Perfect. Yeah. But yeah, we had chickens for eggs and- And where was that? So that was in country Victoria. Yep, okay. It's about an hour and a half east of Melbourne. Yeah, okay. So s- obviously much cooler, more temperate climate than here in Perth. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. So you... So yeah, so growing up you were exposed to that, just like myself. I think that little bit of exposure, it plants a seed, doesn't it really? Absolutely. It was normal life. That was- Yeah the kids, we had to help out with the garden and- Yeah yeah, collecting eggs and- Yeah we would go fishing and yabbying and prawning and- Yeah all the things. Perfect. Sounds like fun. It was. Yep. So previous to being here in Wanneroo, Where are you where were you before that? You were up in the Pilbara, weren't you? Yeah. So we were in Port Hedland. I was there for 18 years with a bit of a break in Kalbarri in between, and my husband's been there for over 20 'cause he's still there now going, working FIFO. Yeah. But yeah very different climate to here- Yeah that's for sure. Can you paint a picture for anybody who's never been to the Pilbara and doesn't really know what it's like? You know, if there's listeners here, down here in Perth or elsewhere in the country that haven't experienced the Pilbara. Could you give, paint the picture of what the climate's like and what the conditions are like? It's hot. Bloody hot. Bloody hot. You sort of spend nine months of the year really hot for the three months of absolute glorious perfection. Yeah. It's, I think the coldest overnight that I ever felt in 18 years was about seven degrees. Yeah. And it's up to 20 by 9:00 AM. Yeah. So- Yeah yeah, it's really, yeah, winter's So we would grow everything in winter. Yes. So a normal summer season, spring, summer in Perth is what we would fit into a very short period of time in winter. Yeah, okay. So for us, we, was usually around ANZAC Day would be when it would be cool enough to get all our summer crops in. Wow, okay. So yeah, really flipping the coin there. Yeah. Yeah. So we would be, we would grow toma- we'd grow almost everything that you can grow in summer down here- Yep in winter up there. So we would be getting, come ANZAC Day, you're getting your tomatoes and your cucumbers- Yeah and your lettuces and things in. Yeah. It was, yeah, it was hard to learn. Yeah. But now it's been hard to unlearn- because I barely got any crops in for summer last year here. Yeah. Because in my head, garden, winter's, winter was done- And- gardening was over. And through those summer months, that's obviously, would that be like cyclone season through what is our Perth summer here, so sort of December, January, February time up in the Pilbara? Obviously, that's the hottest time of year, isn't it? Or would you say- The, no- or is it more humid? The heat kicks in usually around September- Yeah and doesn't die off until mid-April. Yeah, okay. And it just depends. Sometimes it's late September. By October, though, it's pretty hot. Yeah. So we have very limited crops that we could grow in summer- Yeah in Headland. Did you grow anything at all down there? Yeah, absolutely. A lot of your running things, so your ground covers. And and you and I are doing a lot of learning at the moment, you know, with, uh, a lot of to do with keeping your soil covered. Yeah. And that was exactly what we had to do in Headland. Yeah. So we would grow watermelon, sweet potato, and pumpkin- Yeah were the three main crops we would have in all summer. Yeah. And so they would just So what I would do is I would literally plant out the majority of the community garden with watermelon- Yeah and just let them run everywhere, and it would cover all the soil and help keep it that little bit cooler. And then obviously all those leaves that would break off, adding organic matter in, keeping that soil alive because, the sun up in, in the Pilbara is just brutal. Intense. And if you don't keep things covered, it just eats any sort of organic matter. It's gone. We used to have to add massive amounts of compost every single season before you could plant because last year's- goodness was gone. Yeah. So keeping it covered- That's a really good tip. Even for people here in Perth- maybe who do really struggle through those really hotty, hotter months is to grow those things that keep the ground covered. Because you, like you say, if you leave that bare and go, "Well, I'm not gonna grow anything through summer," but you leave it bare, it's, like you say, then that soil is being damaged- Yep by that hot sun. So at least it's doing- There's- two jobs. You're growing something- Yeah, absolutely and then you're keeping it covered. And- I think that's a really good tip for anyone it's food for your microbes. And even- Yeah a tip I use to say to people is let your weeds grow. Yeah. The microbes, the, the fungi, the earthworms, they can't distinguish between what is a weed and what is a, an, an edible human food. So let the garden bed get full of weeds. Yeah. It keeps it alive. It's better than, yeah, it's gonna be better than just keeping it that bare soil, isn't it? Yeah. Definitely. But yeah, so we And we used to be able to grow things like okra grew really well in summer. Yeah. Basil, your lemongrass, chilies. Were you able to grow any kind of leafy greens or any kind of salads or any ty- type of broccolis that, brassicas at all? Or was that really limited up there? In winter we could grow some. Yeah. I knew a couple of people who tried Brussels sprouts, but I don't- Oh, no. I think that would be a bit of a fail also. I never, ever heard of anybody successfully growing all the way to fruit. Cauliflower was incredibly hard. There was a few people that did it, but not me. Broccoli was good. Yeah. You had to get them in early enough. But yeah. Yeah. But broccoli was good. Were things like, like kai lan and more those sprouting broccolis and Asian-type broccolis a bit easier, harder to grow? Yeah, Asian greens grew- Yeah really, really well. Yeah. And then we were able to do things like your kangkong through summer- Oh, yeah because they loved that hot, humid weather. Yeah. So it didn't grow super well in winter- Yeah but in summer it was really r- it grew really well. And for anyone who doesn't know what that is, it's also called water spinach. Water spinach, yeah. So you can grow it in water or in the ground. What How did you grow it up there? Were you growing it in a garden bed or did you grow it- Both Yeah. So at the community garden, I just grew it in garden beds. At home I grew it in my aquaponics. Yeah. And we would cut off remember those red and white plastic Coles shopping bags you used to be able to get- Yeah for a little while there? Yeah. I used to be able to fill those up, and then a week later have to do it again. Yeah. So I had quite a few friends that would yeah, come and grab kangkong from me from home. Yeah. And these are all things that- all the things you're mentioning here, I think these are all things that even if you're down here in Perth, like the kangkong, the okra, you know, growing those watermelons, pumpkins, that's You can really apply that. If you know that you're gonna have a really hot, dry summer and you're struggling a bit, there's Those are things to maybe those varieties to consider through even our Perth summers. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Look, and I think as things get hotter and hotter- Yeah we do- You're gonna have to adapt a little bit- Need to adapt adapt our diets and our ideas of what we're gonna eat, and Yeah. Absolutely. And think my big thing when we moved down here, there was three main crops that we just- couldn't really grow in Hedland or grow at all. And it was onions, potato, and garlic. Yeah. Now, coming from an English background- that's like- Staples. The potatoes and the onions particularly- Yeah was a staple. Yeah. So that was my big goal last year- Yeah was to get those crops in the ground. Yeah. And yeah, I had grown potatoes in Hedland, and- Yeah, did you grow sweet potatoes up there? Sweet potato grew all year round. Yeah, 'cause I can imagine how they would grow. Yeah, so that would be another good ground cover- Yes all year round crop. Yeah, they were great- Yeah in summer. I did grow some potatoes in H- in Hedland once, and I spent, was it like $12 or something on a bag of seeded potatoes, and I got two kilos out of it. Uh, so I think, yeah, it was very expensive. Or I'd bought- Yeah three bags. No, so I think I bought... I spent $36 on seeded potatoes, so it must have been three bags. And yeah, I ended up with about two kilos of potatoes out of it. Yeah. So never again. You really do if you move up to somewhere like the Pilbara or even if you're new to Perth and, we're having these really hot summers, I think it's just have being able to adapt your ideas and adapt, y- your ideas of what you're gonna grow. You may have just come from like myself, come from an English background and want to have this- English country garden and all the things. But you've just got to accept that yeah, you have to adapt to your climate, don't you? Absolutely. Absolutely. So that community garden- Yeah did you have a lot of members there? Yeah, look, we did build up quite a big following. Yeah. We used to run kids clubs and workshops, and, people could drop in, they could volunteer. It was a, just a really beautiful sense of community. Yeah. I think most people who know me know I'm a bit of a- You- a community builder. You are. You are. And I really do pride myself in my ability and my, my passion to build community, even out here. You know- Yeah we've been here for just over a year, and I feel like we've, we're building something really special out here- Yeah with the, the group that we're building through NAHC. Yeah. And just, getting to know my neighbors- Yeah and things like that. I just, I love being out here and being s- alone on my own a lot, but I also like that knowledge that there are people around- Yeah that I can call on. Absolutely. And- We need it out here, don't we? We do. And this morning was a prime example. Yeah. S- sick kid, and- Yeah you know- your fri- our mutual friends were able to pick her up, and- Yeah. I- yeah. So being isolated is it's lovely, but you do need to have those- Community close connections. And that's how we've got to know each other, isn't it? A bit better through that group that's being run by NAHC. It's, we called it the, it's the Resilient Farming Group, I think it's called. Community of practice. Oh, community. Yeah. I don't even know what it's called now. Resilience and Farming- But we have meetups and, we've all got to know each other, and we're sharing our wins and our fails, and- Yes yeah, it's g- it's great. It's a real- it's a really good group. So you've come from the Pilbara, and you've managed to grow food in the Pilbara, which is one of the reasons I really wanted to talk to you, because I think if you can grow food there- You're a genius. You can grow it almost anywhere. Yeah. And so you've co- so you've come down and you've moved down to here. You wanted to be What, did you wanna be closer to Perth or, you know, just- Well, we'd sort of said because my husband was gonna be FIFO, that it needed to be within sort of an hour of the airport. Yeah. So we had sort of, we actually had our s- our, our sights set on moving out to York. Yeah. We- I'm glad you've moved here. This is- We Yeah, we really, we fell in love with it out there. Yeah. We made friends out there. And then we've got friends from Headland who have got a property up here. And so we went, we'd moved to Perth, and we came up to visit them for the day. Yeah. And they were like, "Well, have you looked here?" Yeah. And we're like, "No, we have not." But it was really beautiful on the way out here. Yeah. And as it turns out, we actually drove past it, our house now, to get to their house. And so, yeah, I changed the, the parameters on realestate.com, as you do, and within a couple of weeks this property came up for sale. And I messaged my husband and I was like, "Oh, there's a mango s- mango farm up for sale, up near where we went to our friend's house." And he laughed and said, "Oh, we don't wanna be mango farmers." And I'm like, "I know we don't." So it wasn't ever a plan to become- No a mango farmer. We had- Okay. So people had been questioning us for quite a few years saying, "Well, what do you want?" Yeah, what are you gonna do? "What, what sort of property are you looking for? What kind of farmers do you wanna be?" And I said we've decided we're not making a decision on that." The real estate market is just so tough right now that if I put down a list of, "It must have X, Y, and Z-" I'll never be happy. Yeah. I'll never get exactly what my vision is, so I'm going in with no vision. Yeah. We didn't even know to begin with if we wanted to buy vacant land or buy established. That's the level of not making a plan we had. And so when he said, "We don't wanna be mango farmers," I'm like, "I know we don't, but we're gonna start looking at properties, and we're gonna start finding out what we don't want." Yeah. So that when we find what we want, we'll know. We'll say we don't wanna be these things." We walked onto this property, took one look at it, and went, "Yeah, this is us." Yeah. This was the first property we looked at. It's a really beautiful property. I'll take some photos today to so I can pop them up on our Facebook and things so people can see. You've inherited a really beautiful garden here, haven't you? But very ornamental garden- It is which is quite labor-intensive, I should imagine. It is completely different. Anybody who knows me knows my, some of my older philosophies on if I can't eat it, it doesn't belong on my property. And I held that belief for a very long time. Thankfully before we left Hedland I'd started to ease that slightly- Yeah but only ever so slightly, and that was to pollinating flowers. Yeah. We're surrounded- by these beautiful aloes. I know, I'll have to take some pictures of this. Really stunning. But I know we used to have a lot of those in Chittering, and they're brilliant for bringing in little nectar-feeding birds as well, we- And I suppose at least they're low-water- and fairly low-maintenance, aren't they? And they're fire-proof. Yeah. So- Great to have round the house. Yeah. We're really lucky. The, the people we bought the property from had spent 20 years here, and have just absolutely poured everything into these incredible ornamental gardens. Yeah. So I'm having to learn probably more about ornamental gardening than I am on commercial mango farming. Yeah. I've at least grown, you know- Yeah personal-use mango trees before. I have never grown a rosebush before- Yeah or I don't even know the names of the majority of the plants in here. I'm learning them, and there's a very big eclectic mix of- Yeah native and introduced and... But what I think that the old owners did, was they've made it in a way that we've got something flowering every month of the year. Yeah. There is not a single minute in the garden that there isn't something flowering. Yeah. And so we've got plenty of pollinator food. Yeah, that's great. So- And that's good for your mangoes as well- i'm guessing. Yep, and good for the pest control. Yeah. So yeah, there's always... And I think winter, I think the flowers are probably more stunning here in winter- than they are in spring and summer because of the aloes. Yeah. And they're so stunning, and you can see from here that there's just so many bees, and, I guess for people who've lived in the majority of the world, the European honeybee is no big deal. It's just a bee. They're there. Yeah. But in Headland there are no European honeybees. Yeah. So we used to have to hand pollinate everything. Wow, okay. We used to spend hours a day- Yeah especially in watermelon season- Yeah having to- It would just be too hot and dry for them. Yeah they're everywhere else. Yeah. So they're in Karratha, they're in the inland. Oh, interesting. It was just Port Hedland we didn't have them. Yeah. And so we had native bees, but not a lot. Yeah. We had the beautiful, my favorite was the carpenter bee. Yeah. And we had But they're solitary bees. Yeah. They can't do a lot. Yeah. We had I was so fortunate at the community garden to have a little burrowing bee called Cerlectes pertotellus. Oh, wow. And he's absolutely tiny, and he burrows. And, but they can really only pollinate very small flowers. Yeah. They couldn't do the big things. Yeah. But it was cool to have them. They're a stingless bee- Yeah, okay so it was great for education. So even, a year and a half since we've left Hedland, I look at the European honeybees, I'm like, "Hi." Excited to see them. I'm so excited to see them because it's I've lived 18 years without them. Yeah. And we do have leafcutter bees here. Yeah, okay. I haven't seen them, but I've seen the evidence. Yes. We've seen a couple of blue-banded bees here. And yeah, and it's down to, the, the year-round food. Yeah, year-round flowering. With a lot of- And you've got some nice bushland out the back there, haven't you, as well- We do that has been left, so- We're also- Lots of habitat we're very privileged to have 10 acres of remnant native bushland. Yeah. And yeah, the natives, the wildflowers are all out at the moment. We've got some beautiful orchids, and- All sorts of beautiful little things up there. But yeah, lots and lots of food. And so I'm, my family don't really understand my newfound love of flowers- because I'm like, "I need more flowers. I need more food." Yeah. We do everything organically here. We're converting to regenerative agriculture, which is how we've really, Yeah, we've, that's how we've connected developed our friendship is through that. And so I just need food. Yeah. I need food for the, not just for humans, I need the food for the pollinators, for the predatory insects, for the b- the birds, so that they can come in- Yeah and then, and that's all part, of you converting. 'Cause this was a commercial mango farm before you took it over, and was being run in more of a conventional way, I'm assuming, using, chemicals and synthetic fertilizers. Am I right there? I believe so. Yeah. I don't know a great deal about the extent of what was being used. Yeah. But it, we've certainly, I think, probably changed everything. Yeah, 'cause what are your plans for the mangoes going forwards? So we've just, we've done one season, and our goal was to not send a single mango into the big food chain, I guess- Yeah for lack of a better word, and we didn't. So we- And is that, what would be the reason behind that? I don't particularly want to work really hard all year round and then let the middleman take the profit. Yeah, 'cause that's pretty much what happens in- Yeah, and- in a lot of instances, isn't it? Yeah. And we're small enough of a scale that we were able to do it ourselves. Yeah. So almost every piece of fruit was picked between myself, my husband, and our two kids. We had a couple of friends come and help and do bits and pieces and stuff, but 99% of it was all done us, and then we sold every single piece of fruit ourselves personally. And it was all done through farmers' markets and direct from the farm gate as well. Yeah. We didn't do pick your own. That was a discussion we had and decided against it. Yeah. But yeah, we managed to get all of it that we got sold through farmers' markets. Yeah. Brilliant, and we will make sure in the show notes- I'll put a link to Robyn's Araluen Mangoes social pages- because you'll put on there when your mangoes are ready. What sort of time of year do you think your mangoes will be ready this year? So every year's completely different, but it's roughly February. Yeah. Last year was really late, and we didn't pick our first mangoes until the 27th of February. Yeah. But other years some of the growers have said it's early February. Yeah. So it's- So it's a little bit dependent on the season, isn't it- On the weather really? What markets did you attend? So we found a home on a s- our Saturday home straight away, which was at Kyilla, which is in North Perth. Yeah. And Kyilla have been fantastic. They've been so supportive, being farmer grower, farmer sellers. They were wonderful. It took us a while to really settle into somewhere on a Sunday. Yeah. We moved around a bit. D- not sure that we really found a home on Sundays, but we did a couple of pop-ups in Lancelin- Yeah on, over the Easter weekend on the Friday- Hopefully you'll be able to do that again this year, do you think? The Friday and the Monday, and I think, talking to And then we also did a Sunday up in Jurien Bay. Yeah. And the feedback I'm getting is our coastal towns are just so desperate for fresh food. Yeah. I find that. I find it re- when, sometimes when you go to some of these smaller towns and you can actually see that all the food is being grown in these areas, but all the food then gets shipped down to Perth and the local people in these small coastal towns are left with- With nothing. Yeah, so- It's even the same with seafood. You go to Lancelin sometimes, and you're like in this coastal town, and there's the fishermen coming in and out, but it's really hard to get the fresh seafood- Yeah because it all gets shipped out. Shipped. So- So I think- that would be great if you can- Yeah, and I think Sundays may be just a, a pop-up in the park- Yeah At Lancelin. Yeah. And then I think we'll probably do Easter Saturday in Jurien Bay- Yeah, awesome I think, and may- probably Easter Sunday as well. Yeah. Because, yeah, they were just they're just so supportive- Yeah lancelin in particular. It was, yeah, it was Easter Friday, Easter Monday- Yeah and we sold out both days. Yeah, awesome. And it was a mixture of locals and tourists. Yeah. And yeah, the, it was great, and it wasn't even a market. It was literally just me and my daughter set up with our market stall stand in the park, just us. Yeah. And we sometimes had a dozen people waiting to be served. So I think Sundays is where it's at. We're gonna expand a bit into other produce as well. Yeah. And a lot of that will be, growing what we wanna eat, and then any excess. And I think- Yeah. You've got some really interesting garlic varieties- I do. I- which I've got my eye on. I'm so obsessed with garlic now. I think because I just, it wasn't something we grew growing up. Yeah. And then I couldn't grow it in Hedland. And it's really relatively easy here in Perth to grow garlic. It's- Yeah, and we- very simple and we have commercial growers here- Yeah so we know that it's a good conditions. If- Yeah commercial growers are set up in your area, then you know the conditions are good. I like it as well for anyone who is a little bit low on water growing, in Perth. It grows generally through the cooler months, the wetter months where the rain is doing your- watering anyway, and then you're pulling it out at the start of summer, so- Yeah it's a good crop for people, that are just to grow through the winter if, if you've got the space there. Absolutely. And a mutual friend of ours, Kevin, he had said to me that he, I was talking to him about my plans about doing, I wanna do a s- very small scale commercial garlic crop, hopefully from next year. And then I wanna do, in summer I wanna do the Native American tradition of the three sisters- Yeah so the corn, the beans, and the pumpkin. And he'd said that there was a project over in Canada that he was a part of, that they did garlic in winter and corn in summer. Yeah. And he said and it did something, the garlic, whatever the chemical or the- Yeah, re- releases- releases into the soil something into the soil it did something to the flavor of the corn. Yeah. And they said it was the best corn they'd ever eaten. Awesome. So- But you're not allowed to eat all that corn, because Robin's gonna be saving some seeds for me, aren't you? It might be difficult, but I will do my very, very best- Good if it tastes that good. So that's another, another string to your bow is you're gonna be seed s- doing a little bit of seed saving for Thrive Sustainability, hopefully. Yes- which is, yeah, and we're all about diversifying, yeah. Obviously the mangoes are fantastic, but it's income for six to eight weeks of the year- Yeah if we're lucky. Yeah. And this is my full-time job, so- Yeah to only get a paycheck for a few weeks of the year- Yeah, and I suppose if you also, if you have a bad year with the mangoes, having some other crops there- Yeah can help cushion that. Absolutely. Yeah. And we won't ever do anything large scale. Obviously even the mangoes, we've only got 340 trees, which sounds like a lot to a backyard grower- Yeah but I am probably the smallest of- Yeah all of the, the commercial growers out here, and probably by a lot- Yeah which is what also enables us to be able to do things at a very smaller scale- Yeah and sell the fruit ourselves. Yeah. If we were on a property that had a thousand trees, there's no way we'd be able to do that- Yeah through farmers markets. And of course it makes it a lit- a slightly easier and less daunting for you, to be running things organically and on that regen- and using regenerative me- methods. 'Cause I suppose the really big scale farmers that are reliant on chemical inputs- It's probably quite daunting and almost feels like a bit of a risk for them to completely change their ways of doing things. Oh, absolutely. So- I don't know any other way. Yeah. I was raised growing organically at the community garden. We only did things organically. Yeah. I don't know anything about chemical use. Yeah. And the... One of the first rules that all the regenerative agriculture experts will tell you is do not go cold turkey. You've gotta transition your system. But for me, I don't know anything about chemicals, so- Yeah, you don't need to go cold turkey, 'cause you're not using them anyway. So- So what does it look like? Think on a day-to-day and a season-to-season basis, what does running this commercial orchard in an organic way look like? What kind of things are you doing? That's a good question. I guess because I don't know what a conventional farmer would be doing, I don't know that I'm doing anything different- Yeah because I don't know any different. It's about, for me, I've always believed that I don't grow food, I grow soil, and I let- Yeah the soil grow the food. Yeah. So for me, it's about looking after the soil. We- yeah, I've, we've got mulch in on there. Trying to keep the c- the s- like we've already discussed, keeping that soil covered. Yeah. We got the pr- mechanical pruning in and done, and so instead of taking away all the, the wood, the- The prunings prunings and burning them, I've mulched them with the flail mower. Yeah. So all of that material is still on the ground. Yeah. And you've put in some cover crops, haven't you? I have attempted to put in some cover crops. I think- We haven't been very lucky with... For a bit of context, we've haven't been particularly lucky with rain here. We've had a very j- dry July, haven't we? We have. And you've put in these cover crops, we have. So our first winter that we did last year was the wettest winter on record. Yeah. And then we've come into one of the driest- Yeah Julys on record. We had above average rainfall in June, and I shoulda if I h- you know, coulda, shoulda, woulda, if I'd got the cover crop in early June like I was supposed to, I think I'd probably would've been okay. Yeah. But I didn't get it in until early July- Yeah and then we had, I think we had 50, no 40, 48 mil of rain for the entire month of July. Yeah. So it just wasn't enough. Yeah. So they've really struggled- But you have got a bit of germination out there. And for anyone who's wondering what we're talking about, the cover crop is like a seed mix that Robyn's planted between the mango rows. Yes. C- there's a few, there's a few different plant families within that mix, isn't there? Can you explain what the cover crop is? Yeah. So we went with a winter cover crop mix by a company called Irwin Hunter Seeds, and they're based in, think it's Belmont. Yes, I think it is. And it, I think it was like a 13 mix. So it probably covers, I would assume, probably all seven families. Yeah. Which don't ask me to sprout them because- I can't. There'll be legumes and, you know- Yeah there's brassicas in there, isn't there? And- Yeah, grasses. Yeah. And so yeah, there was quite a quite a diverse range. I think it was like 13 different s- different types- Yeah of seed. And then what we did is, because I also do no till, so I couldn't exactly go through and till the soil- Yeah plant and then cover it over. I have just broad- just- Broadcast it by hand broadcast it by hand. And then what I did was I let the sheep in. Yeah. So we let the sheep in winter for a couple of weeks to, eat down some of the weeds and the grasses, and they'll do a bit. They'll eat a few of the mango leaves and stuff. Yeah. And then obviously we get their by-product- Yeah which is fantastic fertilizer. And they were trampling that seed in- Yeah as they came in, so it helped with that. Yeah. But then we just didn't get... The, the rain- Yeah just didn't, didn't come, so a lot of it h- I- it looked like a lot of it hadn't germinated, but we have just had a decent amount of rain the last few days. Yeah. So you might start getting some popping up. Mm-hmm. And what's the reason for putting in that cover crop? So, yeah, one, to cover the soil. Yeah. Two, the more diversity we can have, the better your soil is. So obviously being an orchard, it is a monoculture. Yes. So we did sort of look at trying to add in different fruit trees and nitrogen-fixing trees into the orchard, but even talking to some of the regen and some of the syntropic farmers, they were like, "If you've got a monoculture, stick to the monoculture of trees. Do a cover crop to get your diversity in." Yeah. Then you get your d- diversity in- Yeah at a different level. Yeah, and just get those microbes really working and just, yeah, just... And then it it adds that organic matter in. It gives you your cover. It'll give the microbes food. Yeah. It'll also, because there is some of those nitrogen-fixing plants in there, that'll help put some nitrogen into the soil. Yeah. And this is all, all kind of principles that can be applied to home gardeners as well. Putting in a cover crop in between crops or- That's right if you're going away for a while- And it's just called green manure Look up green manure, cover crops the main purpose of that crop is to feed the soil not yourself. Yep. Yeah. Absolutely. So other than the cover crops you're doing a few other things. You're doing a few different composting methods aren't you out there and- Yeah. So I've got my normal compost- pile out there that's ready to go. But I'm also about to start experimenting with a Johnson-Su composter. Johnson-Su bioreactor is what it's called I'm not going to butcher the explanation of it. But I would recommend- I was gonna ask you looking it up. Yeah. I don't fully understand it. I've just seen- Yeah, we've been talking- what the results are a lot about it in our kind of resilient farming group that we're both in, haven't we? Yeah. So what I might try and do, I'll try and find some good resources that explain the Johnson-Su method and I'll put it in the show notes. So for anybody who's interested into looking into that. Yeah It doesn't speed the process up so much, but it gets a lot more oxygen into the- Yes, it's slow- compost heap, basically it's a very slow compost. Yeah. So it's a year. So once I build it, it'll be a year. Yeah. So yeah. And I will be using wood chips, so we've got a beautiful big wood chipper that goes on the back of the tractor. Yeah. I'm a huge fan of wood chip. I would wood chip everything here if I had- access to the wood chips. And by doing all of that, you're keeping more of a closed loop and reducing your inputs, because that's one of your aims, isn't it, to reduce the amount of inputs that you're having to bring in? 'Cause that's one of the biggest problems with modern-day farming. Everyone's so reliant on these very expensive inputs, it soon eats into your profit. So by doing these things, you're keeping more of a closed loop, I'm assuming. Absolutely. Yeah. Trying to, use the resources that we have here for free. What I like to do with the wood chip is put it through the chook pen. So the wood chip just absorbs the nitrogen out of the, the chicken manure. Yeah. It gets rid of that ammonia smell, and it keeps the chook pen so much cleaner and drier. Yeah. And so when I have wood chip, I do like to put it through there. And then they just scratch around and it, they compost those wood chips- They compost it for you so fast. And then we'll clean the w- the chicken pen out, add it to the compost pile to finish off. Yep. And then we add new wood chip in. And that's something anyone who's got chickens- even on a smaller scale, that's a really good tip. If if you're keeping your birds contained- Yeah putting those w- wood chips, get yourself a little chipper, put the, put it in there, through. Because like you say, that wood needs nitrogen to help it break down, and, the chook poo is so high in nitrogen, so- Yeah that's a great tip for anyone And it's obviously And to compost your chook manure, y- it- it takes a while because- Yeah it's because it is so high- So rich in nitrogen. So I do find that it breaks it down. 'Cause even, by the time we pull it out of the chook pen, you smell it and there's no ammonia smell. It just smells like soil. Yeah, so it's perfect. It's two, two of those ingredients, the wood chips and the chicken manure, that if they're added to a compost heap on their own, it's gonna take some time to break down. Putting the two together in the chook pen first is a great idea. Yeah. And then it helps with keeping the ch- the coop cleaner, which, you know- Yeah if you've got chickens- Yeah you know that it is almost a full-time job- Yeah trying to keep- Especially in the winter and- those darlings clean yeah. That's right. That's a great... And you've got a few other animals here that, that are in your system as well, aren't, haven't you? Yeah, so we've got the chickens, ducks, geese, guinea fowl. They generally free range in the mangoes. Yeah. We've had to have them locked up for quite a while now, on and off. They have quite a large run, so they're not exactly locked up. But with the cover crops, the chickens will just eat it all. Yeah. I'm even finding letting the geese out, they're going straight to those crops- Yeah and just nibbling the tops straight off. So I am having to leave them locked up. But we've also got sheep, so we use the sheep through the system for a couple of weeks of the year. We've got pigs. So the pigs get any and all waste. They- the pigs were fantastic at dealing with all of the, the spoiled mangoes. Yep. They do have a downfall. They're little escape artists, aren't they? Oh my goodness. I've been here on one of the, uh, the- Oh, it got- pig- so much worse than that pig rampage days. So what we figured out is our big girl, um, she's too big to get out, and she likes being in her paddock. That's her space. The boys have only recently gone in there, and they have figured out that if they escape, they get grain. So yesterday, I've walked out the back door and they have bolted towards me. They've seen that I've seen them. They went straight back to the pen, put themselves back in the paddock Waiting for their treat And then when I went down there, they were going mental waiting for their pellets. And I was like, and I, so I'd sort of had an inkling that this is what might be happening. So I was like, "No, no." "We're not going to reward this bad behavior. No more pellets for you." Okay. "You can go back and eat the carrots." So yes, they- Well, it's all fun and games, isn't it? This time. Always. And do you get, do you get scraps from some of the other local market gardeners for your animals? N- we've got a, a neighbor who collects the, the fruit and veg wastage from one of the organic fruit and veg shops in Perth. Yeah. Oh, awesome. And so they bring that up for us- Yeah and yeah, we feed the pigs that- Yeah, great as well as, yeah, carrots from... Yeah, sorry, you're right. So from one of the farms we go and get the- yeah the wastage carrots. Yeah. And so that's a great resource. Yeah. And it's keeping it all, keeping it all local as well. Keep- and keeping it out of landfill. Yeah. So do you have- any plans for the future? Obviously, you're gonna be run- trying to run the mangoes organically in a, this sort of regenerative way. Have you got any other plans for any- anything else in the future? I know, I remember you mentioning a k- a kitchen and a dehydrator once. Yeah yeah, we've got the commercial dehydrator. But we wanna put a commercial kitchen in on site. Yeah. I am not the kind of person that can keep my personal kitchen clean enough- 24 hours a day- to run a commercial kitchen out of it. So we will get an offsite like probably a donga or a shipping container, and we'll convert that into a, a proper commercial kitchen. Yeah. So that, yeah, if you haven't picked up, I really... already, I don't like wastage. I believe in trying to use as much of the products that we have. Yeah. And whilst it was great, the pigs really enjoyed getting, fe- and the sheep loved their mangoes, it w- it's human food. Yeah. So we wanna do a commercially, yeah, dehydrated mango- Yeah which will be a local West Australian product. And if you have any fruit that hasn't sold- or is a little bit overripe, can you use that fruit- Yes so it doesn't go to waste? Yep. Excellent. Yep. And then down the track we may look at doing frozen mango chunks. Oh, wow. There is no such thing as an Australian frozen mango chunk. No. You may be able to buy some direct from a farm or what- Yes or whatnot. But no, if you go to the supermarket and you look at that frozen fruit- it's always overseas. It's imported from overseas. Which is absolutely crazy considering- We make- we are growing it all here we grow so many. Yeah. So yeah, whether logistically with transport we can do that, they... That may be a you have to come and pick it up yourself- Yeah because I don't know what the requirements would be for us to have a freezer- Yeah in the car. Yeah. But that's, for down... We'll do the dehydrated to start with, and then we may eventually do something like the freeze-dried mango. Yeah. That's huge right now. Oh- And again, it's- and it's so tasty always imported. Yes. And then, but it also makes it shelf stable- Yeah so we wouldn't have to worry about the transportation issue. Yeah. If- And then you could attend markets year round, I'm assuming. Correct. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Yep. So yeah, and then the commercial kitchen, we'll look at doing... we've got mulberry trees here, and if you've got a mulberry tree, you know just how many mulberries you get, and we've got five mulberry trees. Yeah. So it may be that, November is mulberry jam making time, and- Yeah w- with the commercial... Because we'll have, hopefully have a nice decent crop of garlic, we may look at doing some black garlic. Oh, yes please. We've just- Yeah. That's amazing stuff we've just tasted our first lot of black garlic- Yeah that we bought, and- Yeah. For anyone who doesn't, hasn't ever experienced black garlic, it's fermented, isn't it? Yes. Yep. It's a fermented garlic, and it's black in color, and it's just... Oh, the flavor is It's mild. It's- It's beautiful smoky. It's lovely. Yeah, that would be amazing. Yeah. So that's another... We've always got lots of ideas. Yeah. It just depends on how much I can fit into a day. Yeah. And you have mentioned to me about strawberries as well in, in the past. Yes. That's our next- That- That's our next venture. Yeah. We're in this, in the process of setting that up at the moment, is to do a bit of a trial, like a, I guess a personal use trial for a year on if we can grow strawberries aquaponically- In theory, absolutely. Yeah, 'cause you've got lots of beautiful koi fish that your husband- Yes, yeah, that's- looks after, haven't you? That's his thing. Yeah. And so we'll use koi fish to run the aquaponics- Yeah and then we'll use the strawberries to clean the tanks. Yeah. And so yeah, I've said, "Give me a year. Let's see what kind of production I can get off, per plant." Yeah. And then if it looks like we could do And again, this will be boutique, small- Yeah level commercial. It'll be farmer's market. Yeah. So you'll never, ever see our products on a supermarket shelf- No which is a personal goal. But it would be worth seeking out because, I love berries. I love strawberries. I love raspberries, but at times of year, like we're recently we've moved, so we haven't got them really growing so much at the moment. And I just can't bear to buy them from the shops, because I just know how many chemicals are used on those berry- berries. Yeah. So to find an organically grown strawberry would be worth traveling to a market for, I think. Yeah, absolutely. It does. And I don't think So we, I don't know that we'll ever go down the route of organic certification. No. And I think from my very early research, the only way we would be able to technically say we're organically growing the strawberries is if we can find organic fish food. Yes. And I believe that's going to be a little difficult. Yeah. So it may just be that we can say- we- they're spray free spray-free. They're gonna be a lot cleaner than a lot of things that you buy- Yeah on the supermarket shelves. Hopefully. Yeah. But I've got a year- Yeah to find out if it can be done. So you have many projects to get on with, always, and then I just do weeding instead. Yeah. So before we wrap it up, have you got any real words of wisdom for anyone out there that is getting into gardening and growing food, or anyone who's crazy enough to be thinking about taking on a small scale farm and actually producing food on a bigger scale? Have you got any words of in- wisdom? Look after your soil. Yeah. It's the number one. If you look after your soil, your soil will look after you. And give yourself permission to fail, and take time. Yes. We all want everything yesterday. Growing food is not- easy and it's not quick. So yes, you have to wait months for your tomatoes. Yeah. But the reward is just, it's worth every minute of it. Yeah. So just start small and work your way up. Yeah. Perfect. Thank you so much, Robyn. Thank you. Thank you for being my first guest. Yay. Which I'm really excited about, 'cause I know, I've got heaps of wonderful people like you that I'd like to talk to, but I knew you'd be kind to me for my first, my, my first interview, so No, I loved it. I can't wait to hear it. So everybody, um, Robyn, can you just give everyone a reminder of where they can find you? I am gonna put everything in the show notes, but can you just give everybody a reminder of where, if they want to buy your produce when it's ready, where can they find you, and how can they follow you on social media and things? So social media is Araluen Mangoes. I do have Instagram. I don't do Instagram, though. I am of the Facebook generation. So I'm very active on Facebook, especially in the growing season. Yeah. And then, yeah, so follow along on Araluen Mangoes, and as we do add new products in you'll... That's the best and first place you'll find it. Yeah. Perfect. All right. Thank you so much, and I'm gonna go and have a little wander around and enjoy Robyn's garden now, and take my goose eggs home- Oh that you've kindly gifted to me. Yes. So we're gonna wrap it up, so thanks for listening, everybody. Bye. Thanks so much for spending the time with me today at the Soul Garden. If you've enjoyed this episode, please hit Subscribe so you never miss one. And if you're listening on Apple Podcasts, I'd love it if you left a review. It will really help people find the show. You can shop for our seeds and sign up for our newsletter and find all the links mentioned today in the show notes, or you can head straight to my website, www.thrivesustainability.com.au. And come and find me on Instagram and Facebook at thesoulgarden.au. love to see you there. So until next time, get out there, enjoy your garden, grow something. I'll see you next time. Bye.