Our Farm
The Story of Caldera
For us, our business is more than just growing beautiful flowers.
We are a small family farm that grows beautiful cut-flowers in a big way right from the heart of the Tweed Caldera.
Make no mistake, we have turned our passion for flowers into a full-time business and this is how we support our family. We are flower farmers and floral designers! We grow, harvest, arrange and deliver our beautiful fresh-cut flowers to the Northern Rivers and Gold Coast year-round. This is not a part-time hobby for us, and we have the hands to prove it!
We take enormous pride in growing an amazing variety of tried & tested, unique, & heirloom cut-flowers, and making them available to our customers at affordable pricing.
We have carefully considered every aspect of our farming practices to align with our values and to attempt to minimise our impact on the Earth. That means reducing our environmental footprint wherever possible (no single use plastics, using compostable wrappings, and keeping things truly local resulting in an ultra-low carbon footprint, utilising carbon-capture and carbon-cycling practices, using no-dig and minimal till land management techniques, whilst also growing according to organic and regenerative principals. We pride ourselves on good old-fashioned communication and service and provide the fruits of all our labour at a fair market price direct to our customers and through our retail partners.
We are passionate about making our farm a beautiful and happy place where our flowers can thrive
The name Caldera Flower Farm, comes from the fact that we grow in the Tweed Caldera.
For those who are not geologists (or just like nerding out on bizarre facts) the Tweed Caldera is what is left over after a shield volcano erupted around 20 million years ago. It is big… in fact, it is about 100km in diameter, and National Geographic reckons that it is amongst the best-preserved erosion calderas in the world.
We are passionate about making our farm a beautiful and happy place where our flowers can thrive. Some people think we are crazy to farm like we do, because we choose to use sustainable & regenerative agricultural principals on our farm and do most things by hand. That flies against the grain for some farmers who continue to use heavy machinery and agrochemicals to produce their crops.
However, we are determined to leave our farm a better and more sustainable place than when we bought it and we like to think that the quality of our flowers will ultimately speak for themselves.
We purposefully don’t use nasty herbicides, pesticides, fungicides or synthetic fertilizers to force our flowers to grow. Instead, we recognize that our soils are alive, and full of living organisms that have complex, and symbiotic, interactions with plants. By working with Nature as opposed to against it, or trying to kill everything that could attack our flowers, we work hard to create the best environment for our flowers to be the best they can be.
Growing Principles
Minimize soil disruption. We aim for no-dig / minimal till gardens. In our high rainfall environment we rely on no-dig-raised beds and deliberately grow on slopes. We opt to keep roots in the ground after harvest and minimise any inversion of the soil. We strive to keep living plants in the ground year-round.
Keep the soil microbes happy. We utilize cover crops, organic inputs, and plant growth promoters to provide not only the macro and micro-nutrients plants need but also the foods and conditions that keep our soil microbes flourishing as well. We liberally apply mulches on our soils to help provide the best environment for microbes to thrive and multiply.
Minimise soil compaction. Yep, no tractors here, we do it old school. That means pretty much everything on our farm has been created by hand. “Mr. Caldera” likes to joke that the farm has made him pretty handy on a wheel-barrow and we have both had a lot of practice that is for sure.
Observe often and listen. We are out on the farm everyday paying attention to what the flowers, insects, and conditions are trying to tell us. This helps us make better management decisions, early and as required, to help keep our flowers blooming strongly.
We grow in open fields and do not have large greenhouses or tunnels to protect our crops and as such we are at the mercy of the weather. We are surrounded by Springbrook Mountain, The Cougals, and Mt Wollumbin and whilst we love the views it also makes for some pretty interesting weather patterns.
Throw in increasing variability as a result of climate change and here are just some of the things we have had to cope with over the last few years;
· scorching temperatures,
· floods,
· droughts,
· bush fires,
· frosts,
· hail-storms and more.
Yes, flower farming is not for the faint hearted. It can be bloody hard work. We are up early and we are often working till very late designing and arranging our beautiful blooms once the kids are in bed. We are not a big team. In fact, it is just Mr Caldera, myself and a bit of help from our kids if and when they feel like it!
We are not complaining though, and we both often say that despite all the hard work this is the most rewarding job we have ever done. We genuinely love growing beautiful flowers and spreading that joy with others.