11/05/2025
Dear friends, followers and valued community members,
It is with the heaviest of hearts and profound gratitude that Ruby and I announce we will soon depart from Eden Farm. This is one of the saddest and most traumatic time of our life, yet we believe it is the best path forward as we honour our mission of health, healing, compassion and service.
For five years, from March 2020 to May 2025 Eden Farm has been much more than a place of work for us - it has been our home, a gathering point for kindred souls, and a testament to what community and resilience can build in the face of hardship.
Throughout challenges including personal loss, natural disaster, isolation, illness, financial and business instability, and the tremendous impacts of COVID-19, we tried to breathe new life into the farm, guided by a deep commitment to the human spirit.
In the wake of the profound loss of Suzanne - a sorrow deeply felt by her family, friends, and our entire community, Ruby and I extended our sincere and unwavering support during a time of overwhelming grief. We shared our strengths, compassion, skills and practical assistance to help ease a huge burden left behind.
Our journey was marked by a relentless effort to bring people together. We devoted ourselves and honed our diverse skills in event management, creative arts, business development, animal husbandry, building, cooking, serving, gardening, nutrition, promotions and in developing and implementing unique wellness programs for people with disability. Every new project—whether a festival, a farm tour, a fire pit sing-along, or a tailored one-on-one IP session with a participant with disability - was an endeavour to rebuild, reconnect, and reaffirm our faith in community in the midst of cascading challenges.
The path we traveled was hard slog and a constant struggle - an arduous process of navigating work, being resourceful during a pandemic and floods in diversifying farm to compensate for losses, endurance of hardship, caring for the needy and unwell, encompassing the effort involved in the labour, very long hours and the difficulties encountered during that labour, including physical labour, mental effort and the challenges faced in trying to achieve goals and overcome adversity in the face of so much grief and hurt. God knows the extent we went to try to make a difference in the lives of so many.
Our efforts were met at times with a spirit of opposition and interference and not without personal sacrifice. I have faced significant health challenges, all new health challenges since arriving on the farm - including two total knee replacements in the last nine months, a very painful untreated triple abdominal prolapse, untreated sleep apnoea, a rotten tooth and root for 18 months that created its own sinus to drain pus because we couldn't afford the treatment, lengthy recoveries and complications, complex compounded trauma, and other ongoing medical concerns - the latest a potential auto immune issue still being investigated.
This has all tested my resilience and reminded me of the delicate balance between our physical limitations and our unyielding drive to care for others. At the same time, Ruby has faced her own challenges with admirable strength, even as she continued her studies at Goulburn Valley Grammar School, adhering to advice that led us to the new chapter in Victoria.
Outside financial support through a time of crisis was an invaluable lifeline – it reduced the impact of school fees substantially and the offer of safety, security and stability during the most frightening time of our lives gave Ruby the opportunity to finalise year 12 last year at GVGS which opened up opportunities and multiple offers for university. We are beyond grateful for the wisdom of some very special people who invested in and ensured our well-being, safety, Ruby's education and our health was supported. Thank you.
In our efforts to keep Eden Farm thriving during extremely difficult times, I introduced a range of initiatives designed to unite and inspire. From sourcing a tiny house for dedicated stays under NDIS which was unfortunately not quite finished, to designing a camping ground that welcomed countless guests who loved my Austrian pancakes, our customer service, activities and vision.
All of what we were doing on Eden Farm was implemented to offset losses and to add value in areas where we were 'allowed' to work, from hosting interactive farm tours to applying for a grant that led to the inaugural Eden Farm Multicultural Festival—which was cancelled three times but finally went ahead against all odds including just beating the floods that started in November 2022, and went on to win the "Moira Shire Community Star Achiever Award 2023" without even a planning committee except for a bunch of keen and hard working volunteers who flocked in from every corner of the nation, we pulled it off. What an achievement! Thank you to everyone involved.
From elaborate accessible all-inclusive farm tours to the 1,200 attendance at the sensory and maze festival, the sunflower festivals to welcoming awesome school groups who didn’t mind getting their hands dirty to help us (THANK YOU), to creating custom wellness sessions for people with disability with a focus on client- and interest-centered programs; every endeavour was a tribute to my passion for connecting people and creating spaces where everyone felt supported and inspired to create, explore, connect, thrive, find purpose and grow to become the best version of themselves.
The Eden Farm Wellness Mission:
“Eden Farm Wellness is committed to offering expertise and our working farm to impact lives for good. We provide engagement opportunities and events that support marginalised groups (Cultural and Linguistically Diverse Peoples, First Nations Peoples and People with Disabilities). We seek to inspire and benefit the community long term by taking a forward thinking, relationship building approach in celebrating ability, cultural diversity, collaboration and social inclusion. We will use our vibrant space to help the community gain new skills, increase confidence, find purpose, look after their health and generate business in order to reach goals and live life to the full. “
I am profoundly grateful to every volunteer, vendor, musician, artist, cook, contributor, partner, hip-camper, stall holder, usher, coach, advisor, counselor, supporter, stakeholder, collaborator, participant, visitor and kind soul who embraced the Eden Farm Wellness vision. Your warmth and generosity - expressed through shared meals, a helping hand, donated time, comforting conversations, hugs when our world was falling apart, and heartfelt gestures around the campfire - have been our strength. You have enriched our lives beyond measure forever. Thank you.
Some highlights for Ruby and I were:
- Sitting around the campfire with people originating from all over the globe singing their favourite tunes in their own language, with their guitars keeping tune like the brothers and sisters we are, keeping warm together, snuggled under the beautiful stars so bright in the pitch black velvet sky as it is in the country.
- Dear Aunty Faye presenting the ‘Welcome to Country’ at our Multicultural Festival. What a treat to have her attend and agree to present such an important acknowledgment and demonstration of respect for our traditional custodians of our beautiful land, fostering understanding and connection between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities, serving as a form of cultural exchange and a simple way of demonstrating an understanding of the complex relationship between living on the land and acknowledging the oldest continuous living culture in the world. Rest in eternal peace Aunty Faye. Thank you.
- The way Sparky would come over to say hi to the campers, follow us on the farm tours, pretending to be a bunny so he would get bunny cuddles too, and stick by our side as we fed the chooks, and bunnies, gardened, built, walked the farm. We have cried no end for Sparky and Lucy we loved as our own.
- We really enjoyed wrapping up sunflowers and selling bunches of happiness to folk from far and wide.
- Creating hay art - flowers, bees, lady bugs, cows, cats and making beautiful art and craft with school groups, holiday programs, participants with disability. We can’t wait to exhibit some of that work for the community when I have capacity.
- Attempting to delight almost every visitor who walked onto the farm or in the door with a batch of my Austrian pancakes. The record was News Years eve morning 2024 when Ruby and I completed an order for 74 pancakes! With two extremely sore knees desperately needing replacing, four fry pans and sheer will and determination, we made it happen.
- One wild stormy night a severe weather event happened as our campers were setting up their tents. Green sky loomed overhead and just as one family's tent was about to be stolen to the heavens by a huge gust of wind, I offered up the house to that family. Dear Katherine was heavily pregnant so it was the least we could do. By 8pm we had 23 people, and 2 dogs huddled in our side room eating pizza and playing scattergories. It was by far one of the best nights of our lives. A bunch of total strangers all laughing, caring about one another over food and drink. I hope heaven is that perfect.
- I loved running every interactive farm tour and wellness program for people with disability carefully custom-made to the ability and interests of each participant. I look forward to being able to work in that arena again soon.
- Offering mini lop bunny cuddles to tiny outstretched arms, giving out hay to hungry persistent cows and the challenge of getting the round bales to land on their side after dropping them over the fence so I could unroll them before the cows would munch the netting and trample each other. Milking Maisy.
- Putting up and oiling lining boards and trusses in the new shed, drilling on the cladding, organising free timber from locals for the floor and designing and building the herringbone pine floor in the tiny house, finalising the gazebo and we both enjoyed building the new shed and many other projects.
- Making some beautiful friends we will cherish for life. We hope to see you one day soon. Thank you for your kindness.
As we now turn toward new chapters in our lives, Ruby has embarked on a degree in architecture, and I am pursuing a bachelor of nutritional science - with hopes of exploring further studies in psychology or law as there is such a need in rural Australia with so much mental health struggles and violence.
Despite ongoing challenges and the complexities of our personal journeys, our passion and pursuit for healing, truth and creativity compels us to continue learning and sharing our insights. I recently prepared a video presentation on the profound connection between polluted soil and cardiovascular disease, and I am excited to share more of our journey, our art, and future programs for people with disability on a friend’s farm in the years ahead. Once I am better, I look forward to organising the exhibition to showcase the incredible art my participants created during the wellness programs on Eden Farm.
We recognise that some experiences lead some down unique paths marked by pain, suffering, confusion, and misidentification. In the spirit of mutual understanding and healing, Ruby and I invite anyone who came to be our friend or supported our vision to join us in a supportive, open dialogue with a trained grievance counselor or therapist. Let’s come together to share our insights and experiences with maturity, to listen with empathy, and collaboratively nurture a future defined by love, compassion, education, collective wisdom and above all respect.
To the Grandchildren, who we adore, and who we wish we'd seen more of. Ruby and I want you to know that you were cherished by us, you were always on our minds, we asked after you and when you were coming again, you were always welcome in our home, always welcome at the farm, we love you and we missed you a lot. Ruby and I pray that your gifts are celebrated, that you feel supported, valued, loved and heard; that you know how much you are loved for who you are. May God be with you, protect you and be your guiding light throughout your life. We wish you much love, peace, joy, safety, good health, wisdom. Please always seek truth, to be the best version of you and always help those in need.
Dear Lucy cat, Sparky cat, Janet, Sarah, Po and Lenny bunnies, the butterflies, our cows especially Maisie and your many babies, and Tas the bull (rest in peace beautiful gentle soul), and our cherished feathered friends - our various hybrid chickens, the grey shrikethrush, the blue wren, the currawong, the magpies, the restless flycatcher, black-faced cuckooshrike, white-plumed honeyeater, azure kingfisher, the curlew, blue-faced honeyeater; whose heavenly songs brought solace to our days. We thank you for filling our souls with your love. You are a gift.
With all our love and heartfelt thanks,
Katherina and Ruby
