Meet The Locals: Indea Weisfelt, The Farm Shop
Starting her career as a veterinary radiographer, Indea Weisfelt turned her small hobby garden into a thriving business, all through an online system that makes it easy for locals to vote with their dollars.
Indea Weisfelt Photography by Morgan Smith
Published 30 June 2022
Interviewed by Phoebe Tully
TELL US ABOUT HOW THE FARM SHOP STARTED...
My partner and I had a stall at the Gold Coast markets each weekend – we were growing baby leaf salads and also sourcing from other local farmers. After our first son was born I went back to work as a radiographer but found I was away sick more than not as my son went through that dreaded first year of daycare bugs.
I thought that it’d be a great idea to offer our freshly picked local produce to our very own community. We are surrounded by such incredible growers but we don’t get to try a lot of it as most is sent straight to the markets or exported. I put a post on Facebook to gauge a response and I was blown away with the positive feedback and enthusiasm at the concept. So, it all began!
We opened our shop where people could come and pick their produce knowing that it was local and fresh. And that’s where it stayed until COVID began, causing a massive shift. I’ve got to say, this has been one of the most intense periods of my life to date. Basically overnight we went from a shop to an online business offering free contactless delivery. There were definitely some growing pains but we managed to straighten them all out pretty quickly and evolved with the times. We now have our shop reopened for in-store visitors but our online ordering system is still our main business. We source directly from local farmers when they are in season and further afield when our season ends. We also offer some non-perishable goods from local artisans.
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WHEN DID YOU MOVE HERE?
I’ve lived here for almost six years now, having moved back to Australia after living and working in the UK. I moved here to work as a veterinary radiographer. I instantly fell in love with the area; the beautiful buildings bursting with character and the gardens you could spend hours wandering.
I met my partner, Damon, here and we’ve had three spirited children in three years and I couldn’t be more happy with where I am in the world.
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YOUR TAGLINE IS TO ‘KEEP YOUR FARMERS CLOSE’ – WHY DO YOU THINK THAT IS IMPORTANT?
We are living in a time where everything is so accessible. You go to the supermarket and just grab whatever you need off the shelves with no real thought of where it came from or how it was grown. We love the idea of providing a direct connection between our customers and our farmers. To put a face to the produce. To portray the family behind your apples, the story behind your broccoli. By sharing these stories and introducing our amazing farmers to our customers, a real connection and appreciation for the hard work that goes into growing becomes apparent. By establishing a connection, gratitude flourishes.
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WHICH FARMERS SHOULD WE KNOW ABOUT?
Oh gosh, we have so many! All of our farmers really are worthy of attention. They have supported our vision from the very start when our orders were only a box or two of this and that. A big shout out though must go to our amazing neighbours, Paul Finlayson and his parents Doug and Merle. Other than being superior lettuce and broccoli growers, they are just downright wonderful people. During the beginning of the pandemic when we quickly converted to an online delivery service, they were quick to offer up their cold room space and forklifts to assist us. Times like that really show the wonderful selflessness of people and we couldn’t have done what we did without their support.
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HOW DO YOU CHOOSE THE FARMERS YOU SOURCE FROM?
We support and source from growers who are front runners in practicing a clean and sustainable way of farming. Most of our growers use the integrated pest management technique, which introduces good bugs to fight bad bugs and eliminates the need for most pesticides. All of our growers implement systems that produce a clean and high quality product.
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WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE FARM SHOP?
We’re continually expanding our range and would love to be a one-stop-shop for good quality ingredients. We are also looking at growing more variety here on our farm. At the moment we are growing watermelons, pumpkins and popcorn. Our dream would be to create a real market garden feel to our farm where people can come and see how produce is grown, pick their own and have a fun farm experience – tractors and all!
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Find The Farm Shop Toowoomba here.
This interview was originally published in our Summer ‘21-22 street newspaper. We loved it so much, we’ve republished it here.
