Farm & Produce

Burnside Bungalows is set on 15 hectares of farmland next to Bramley National Park. Remnant vegetation on the property includes marri, jarrah, blackbutt, banksia and peppermint trees. Walk the track around our property or one of many tracks in the Bramley National Park, adjoining our property.

We love good food and this is the reason why we grow so many different crops and raise a variety of animals. Depending on the season we may be making jam from apricots, pickling olives or smoking proscuitto made from our pigs. Excess produce is sold locally. Olive oil, avocados, wine and macadamias are produced commercially.
We hope we can educate and inspire all guests. Growing your own food has been estimated to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25%. You also end up with better tasting and healthier food.

Organics The farm has been certified organic and biodynamic, for nine years, with Australian Certified Organic. We are now part of their small growers association; Organic Growers Association (OGA BD6111a). This means there are no pesticides, herbicides or artificial chemicals used in producing food on the farm. The most common question visitors ask us is “Is it harder being Organic?”. We don’t think so. We had never used herbicides or pesticides so the natural balance was good to start. Guinea fowl eat wingless grasshoppers, chickens love snails and bugs, spiders thrive in the vineyard catching bugs and frogs live in the mulch near the avocado sprinklers. Everything seems to keep in balance. Our biggest problem is kikuyu grass around the vines and avocados.

Vegetable Garden
Our large vegetable garden feeds our whole family and guests too.
We love working in it and are there most afternoons weeding, mulching, planting out and picking our dinner.  The blue wrens join us and help with pest control.  The chickens are just over the  fence and look forward to the weeds and slugs we throw them.

Guests are welcome to pick fresh produce from the vegetable garden and whip up a tasty feast.  Combined with our farm fresh eggs (olive oil and wine) and you have a complete meal.
Herbs, silverbeet, beetroot and lettuce are always growing.  We ask guests to please ask before picking other vegetables.

Many other vegetables are grown in the warmer seasons.  Black Russian tomatoes, collards, purple cauliflower, kale, celeriac, salsify, snow peas, beans, artichokes, broccoli are just a few.
All our vegetables are grown from seed.  This way we can grow certified organic heritage/non-commercial varieties and also protect our farm from pests like snails, which we don’t have.

Orchard
Near to the main house is a permaculture vegetable garden and netted orchard. Currently we have over sixty trees including mulberries, apricots, nectarines, peacharines, plums, pears, apples, pecans, lemons, oranges, tamarillos and mandarins.The fruit is for our own consumption. We freeze, preserve and make jam from excess fruit so we can eat our own fruit all year. Sorry no fruit is available for picking.

Chickens The chickens are rotated through different areas on our farm, eating green pasture and certified biodynamic grain. This allows them to produce eggs naturally. As well as providing beautiful yellow yolk eggs the chickens are an integrated part of the farm, weeding and fertilizing the orchard, avocados and vineyard. Guests are welcome to feed the chickens and collect the eggs. The eggs are packaged and sold exclusively to a local greengrocer. Olive Grove The olive grove is made up of Italian oil varieties, Frantoio, Pendolino and Lecciono. Unirrigated, the eight year old trees thrive in a patch of gravely loam soil. Sheep eat the grass down before the harvest in May. The olives are picked by hand with small rakes and taken to a nearby press for pressing into oil. The bottled oil is available from May but we usually run out by Christmas.

Avocados
The eight year old Hass avocado trees are our main agricultural crop. A few different varieties; Reed, Fuete and Bacon are also grown. Avocados need lots of water and thrive with heavy mulching and composted manure. The harvest is November and December. All the avocados are sold locally to small supermarkets and greengrocers.

Zinfandel Wine
The vineyard is an Italian red variety, known as Zinfandel in Australia and the US, but called Primitovo in Italy. It has lovely spicy berry fruit flavours. Unirrigated it is very low yielding, producing quality fruit. The fruit is hand picked in April and we make the wine ourselves onsite. The wine is sold under the label “3 boys”.