By LUKE VOOGT
Kyrstie Barcak is growing her family food bowl one plant at a time.
The mother-of-two moved from the Yarra Ranges to Highton five years ago, starting with a blank canvas in her new backyard.
“We were lucky enough that the house had nothing in the garden except a lemon and a feijoa tree,” she says.
She’s since brought her vegie garden to life, growing bok choy, sage, and almost everything in between.
Far from consuming her time, Kyrstie says her garden saves her constant trips to the shops.
“I haven’t bought fresh food at the supermarket for three years,” she says.
“I enjoy knowing that the food I give to my family is free of chemical residue.”
Kyrstie says her garden saves about $200 a month in produce. In summer, her garden produces 40.8kg of food, saving her roughly $260.
Even when she does go out for food, she’ll buy from local green grocers and purchase meat at local farmgates.
“I always prefer to shop in the backyard, or from local farmers,” she says.
Mostly, it’s just filling a few seasonal gaps in her garden.
“We don’t need much except for fruit for the kid’s lunch boxes,” she says.
Once her fruit trees mature, her sons will have home grown apples, oranges and nectarines for school too.
One day, she hopes, her family will won’t need to leave the home for produce at all.
“That’s the aim,” she says.
“Though there’s always a gap in the garden.”
Data from an Australia Institute study found that 52 per cent of Australians are growing their own vegetables and a further 13 per cent want to.
Kyrstie conducted a smaller survey of readers of her website Fresh Food Legacy, who are mostly busy mums with primary school children.
She says two thirds are growing vegetables, while the rest want to.
But many who want to grow, she says, think they lack the time, knowledge or growing space to begin.
Kyrstie is encouraging these mums to find one food their family uses regularly, and plant it.
“It really does take little time – in fact it’s a time saver,” she said.
“Notice the change it makes to flavour and just go from there.”
It’s this simple philosophy which inspired her new book Grow Just One Thing, which she released in March.
The book is a guide for growing food for “delicious, simple recipes the whole family will enjoy”.
“Adding growing your own fresh food to the never-ending list of activities that already consume your time and energy may seem a little crazy,” Kyrstie says.
“But the experience of growing just one thing with your family may be so wonderful that you decide to grow more.”
For Kyrstie gardening is not just about providing fresh, residue-free food for her family. It’s about educating her children and family time too.
When she’s out in the garden, it’s often with her husband Doug, and her sons Tom and Jai.
“In the afternoons they often go out looking for their own snacks,” she says.
