Farmer has a Wife – City girl, country world.

I’ve been a journalist for nearly 20 years and a farmer’s wife for eight years next week. One of my biggest concerns/reservations about marrying my farmer was how was it going to work in with my career. I don’t mean that in a wanky, power-tripping way … I had worked hard to build a career as a journalist and didn’t want to give it all up and spend my days baking cakes and doing the farm books. That just wasn’t (and still isn’t) me. Numbers and I rarely see eye to eye … unless there’s a sale on and shoes are involved.

Turns out thought I needn’t have worried, since moving to the country I’ve managed to build up a steady flow of writing work and as the years go by much of it is related to agriculture and rural living. What I’ve also noticed is that the mainstream media has a fairly narrow view – and understanding – of Australian agriculture and the people who produce food for the masses. It was with this in mind that I wrote an article for The Walkley Magazine, a magazine published by the journalist’s union, the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance.

In the past five years I’ve also noticed just how powerful social media is for rural communities, not only in connecting them with the wider world, but also as a vehicle to tell their stories in an authentic way. I guess ultimately that’s why I started this blog, which I’m slowly building an audience for.
Now, through my blog, through Facebook and Twitter I seek to spread the vegetable farming, country-living love with as many people as I can.
And that’s how my latest project came about. I approached the Courier Mail recently about running a weekly column, by me, profiling Queensland food producers. It’s called Ask a Farmer and the premise is that people at home who are trying to grow veggies can ask questions of professional Queensland farmers.  The first column runs in tomorrow’s paper (Saturday May 19, Life Section, page 27) and profiles Wallaville citrus grower Michael McMahon from Abbotsleigh Citrus.

I hope that by spreading the word about the men and women who grow and breed produce I can encourage urban dwellers to have a better understanding – and care a little bit more – about where their food comes from. Read on for my Walkley Magazine article.