Couples walk away from city life in Brisbane and Melbourne to farm in rural Tasmania - ABC News

A weekend getaway to the mountains sparked a major life change for Brisbane couple Kim and Daniel Croker.

"I came home and said, 'Why are we waiting to win the lotto to live our dream? Let's just do it,'" Ms Croker said.

At the time, she was commuting three hours a day to the Gold Coast for work, while her husband Daniel was spending long hours in the lab as a dementia research academic.

The long-time foodies decided to give up their careers and buy a farm in northern Tasmania to produce free-range pork.

For Daniel Croker, it's a dramatic change from city life.(ABC Landline: Margot Kelly)

Three years later, the enterprise has proven a success, with demand outstripping supply and the couple now living entirely on income generated from the farm.

But it hasn't been without its challenges.

The Crokers have had to buy their own refrigerated truck because there aren't enough carcase transporters in Tasmania.

There is also uncertainty around the future of the only abattoir in the state that does service-kills for pigs.

The Crokers run free-range Berkshire pigs.(ABC Landline: Margot Kelly)

"Without that, our business stops because if we can't get the animals slaughtered, we don't have any meat," Ms Croker said.

But it hasn't dampened the couple's plans.

Mr Croker is busy in the on-farm butchery, making products that use the whole carcase, nose to tail.

His work area is much like the research laboratories from his former career — with one exception.

Mr Croker insisted his butchery must one essential feature.(ABC Landline: Margot Kelly)

"When we made the decision to build the meat shed, it was on the proviso that I had a window in it so that I could at least see the farm, even if I'm stuck indoors again," he said.

He said he would encourage others to make the switch.

"If you're ready for a lot of hard work and a lot of blood, sweat and tears in the process then yes, for sure," he said.

The Crokers don't regret their radical lifestyle change.(ABC Landline: Margot Kelly)

From chef's pantry to personal paddock

Just 10 minutes down the road is another tree-changing couple.

Michael Layfield and Lauren Byrne swapped the kitchen for the market garden.

They've worked in high-end restaurants in London, Melbourne and Hobart.

Now they happily grow fresh food instead of cooking it commercially, focusing on flavour and nutrition rather than producing perfect vegetables.

Mr Layfield and Ms Byrne haven't shied away from hard work on the farm.(ABC Landline: Margot Kelly)

Ironically, when Michael was a chef it was his job to call farmers and let them know their produce was substandard.

"Now I am the farmer, thankfully not dealing with chefs like me," he said.

The couple's small leased plot produces up 300 kilograms of fruit and vegetables a week during summer.

They use regenerative agriculture principles and bio-intensive farming to get increased yields from their limited land.

Running a market garden is hard work, but they say their experience in hospitality prepared them well.

"Chefing involves very long hours and very physical work, so that wasn't really daunting for us," Ms Byrne said.

Ms Byrne puts in long hours in the fields and packing shed.(ABC Landline: Margot Kelly)

As first-generation farmers, she and Mr Layfield can't afford to buy land.

"One of the biggest issues with leasing land in a farming context is that you're potentially putting a lot of effort and time that you can't just take away with you in the truck to the next place you go," she said.

They had to change locations a year ago.

"The hard thing was the soil," Mr Layfield said.

"For three years, we'd built up the soil and turned heavy clay into this beautiful, organic matter — rich, productive soil with very few weeds.

"That was hard to walk away from."

A challenge of leasing land is having to pack up and move, leaving hard work behind.(ABC Landline: Margot Kelly)

But their new farm now financially supports them, and they say they wouldn't do anything else.

"I think if we can do it, anyone can do it," Ms Byrne said.

"There's going to be lots of hard days where your poultry gets attacked by a quoll, or you lose a bed of lettuce to the weeds that are taking over, but it's very rewarding," Mr Layfield said.

Looking dinner in the eye

One of the most high-profile tree changers to Tasmania is Matthew Evans, who left behind a life penning reviews of top restaurants for producing his own food with partner Sadie Chrestman at Fat Pig Farm.

He came to it with no background in agriculture.

Mr Evans runs Fat Pig Farm in Cygnet, Tasmania.(ABC Landline: Mitchell Woolnough)

"Looking your dinner in the eye is really confronting, but what is also really confronting is that we actually kill more animals in the garden trying to grow vegetables than we do for meat," Mr Evans said.

"We have to kill those animals because they eat every single pea seed that we plant, and we can't grow certain things with rats and mice around so we have to kill them and that's not pleasant."

Mr Evans' farm runs free-range Wessex saddleback pigs.(ABC Landline: Mitchell Woolnough)

While the practicalities of life on the land could be a challenge, Mr Evans said the hardest thing was making the business model work.

"We've been running for close to four years now and until the coronavirus hit, it had probably taken two and a half years to work out a model that would allow us to run the farm and make some money."

Watch this story on ABC TV's Landline at 12:30pm or on iview.

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2020-06-13 23:02:00Z
CBMiZGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIwLTA2LTE0L3RyZWUtY2hhbmdlcnMtc3dhcC1jaXR5LWxpZmUtZm9yLWZhcm1pbmctaW4tdGFzbWFuaWEvMTIzMzI4OTbSASdodHRwczovL2FtcC5hYmMubmV0LmF1L2FydGljbGUvMTIzMzI4OTY

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