BRITT MacNamara is today an Out of the Box regular.
As a supplier, not a customer.
Since she acted on a whimsical moment – her father-in-law suggested she do something useful with the block she, husband Carl and their children Porta, 16, Remy, 14, and Zali, 13, share at Trentham Cliffs in NSW.
It was 2016 and once the decision was made, there was no going back.
And one of the first things she did going forward was strike up a partnership with OOTB.
“Once the decision was made, we got going pretty well straight away, and very early on we did a zucchini trial for Out of the Box in Mildura and six months later we were on board as a supplier,” Britt says.
“And we have been with them ever since.”
They were an important part of kickstarting her new market garden enterprise and she is today one of OOTB’s core suppliers.
Not bad for someone whose farming future would be founded on future holidays.
Britt and family did not go into farming as a business to be the primary cash cow for the family – Carl has a job off-farm that pays part of the family expenses and the market garden.
Customers such as OOTB provide the piggy bank paying the way for family holidays.
This accidental market gardener is using three of the five acres in her block to pump out a range of crops, such as zucchini, squash, capsicums, jalapenos, sweet bullhorns and tomatoes – lots of tomatoes, including rounds, cherry and romas.
And every year Britt sets the profit aside for the next family holiday.
Which might explain why her children are such willing helpers – and the mainstay of all her planting programs. If they want to party come holiday time they have to pay their way when it comes to planting the seeds of the next getaway.
While Carl works full-time off the farm, he is required to be on hand for his fair share of the tractor work.
“The market garden is all mine, the kids are great with the planting and do help with a few other things, but picking and packing is all on me, if we want holiday money I need to just get on with the job,” Britt says.
Because she is cut from a different farming cloth, you won’t be surprised to hear Britt tends to do everything slightly different with her block.
Yes, she has all the regular suspects on her block (although eggplants, for example, were an early casualty because Britt just couldn’t be bothered with the legions of bugs the glossy purple-black beauties attracted).
On top of OOTB, she is also a supplier to the Coomealla Club, the RSL and Trentham Estate, as well as local restaurants, which also value being able to share the local fresh food story with their customers.
And then there is Britt’s little blue ute, the landmark permanently parked at her front gate, and an eye-catching addition that lets passing traffic know there is a freshly picked honesty roadside stall there around the clock.
The blue ute is also featured on most of Ms MacNamara’s social media work and has become something of a signature for her on just about everything connected with her holiday enterprise.
