Hilltop vision to rise and shine

PASSIONATE about using organic principles in all their growing, Rise and Shine Farm is a testament to the passion of Nick and Coral who run a successful farm in Copping, just 45 minutes outside of Hobart.

With no prior background in agriculture, the couple both worked office jobs but always had a dream to start a farm. 

After extensive research, in 2019 they decided to make their dream a reality and purchased a 12ha plot on top of a hill in Copping with stunning views and farming potential.

Originally from Tasmania, the couple spent time on the Mornington Peninsula exposed to small-scale farms which gave them confidence there was a market for organic vegetables and helped them realise what was possible.

“We’re both motivated to learn explore new options and to not keep put things off,” Coral said. 

Rise and Shine started with a few alpacas intended as pets. 

However, their herd quickly evolved into an alpaca stud, now with between 20 and 30 animals at any given time. 

Soon they expanded to include chickens, an organic market garden, and even pigs at one point.

They now have a small egg production and provide local chefs and community members with fresh organic vegetables as well as run their alpaca stud. “The alpacas are a really good accompaniment to everything else we do. 

We compost their manure and that goes into the market garden. Everything ties in well together,” Nick said. 

After a couple of years of farming, and learning, the Warrens gained valuable experience by participating in the Sprout Small Producer Program in 2022. 

“It was super tailored to what we needed, with really great experts who helped and guided us,” Nick said.

“The network we built through the program was invaluable,” Coral added. “We went from knowing almost no one in farming to being able to reach out for support whenever needed.” The couple’s market garden, now a core element of Rise and Shine, features a variety of organically grown vegetables such as the classics like tomatoes and lettuces to the more exotic like kohlrabi and red dandelion chicory.

They started out selling their produce at local farmers markets like the Bream Creek Market, as well as alpaca yarn and alpaca yarn beanies from their animals. They expanded into offering vegetable boxes last October, delivered directly to customers’ homes by the couple themselves. “We decided we needed a way of selling our produce direct to customers at their home super convenient for them,” they said.

This gave them the assurity that their selection of vegetables was sold before they had harvested it.

“For a farmer, the risk of going to a farmers market is if its cruddy weather is that no one turns up, you don’t sell anything and then you’re left with all this produce you need to sell. 

“So we just decided we needed to do something else and the veggie boxes were the answer for us and we’ve just been blown away by people’s enthusiasm for it and people’s willingness to support us.”

Coral says they are just starting to ramp up again now with the latest veggie box offering selling out in under an hour.

 The Warren’s found there was a real market for people who wanted organic vegetables that were fresh, local and accessible. 

This season they are focusing more on the veggie boxes than ever by introducing subscriptions and prioritising supporting local chefs.

“We really value being able to support local businesses like the chefs that we support, so it’s really important to us that we step up and do that a bit better this season.” 

The farm’s infrastructure includes two large polytunnels, which protect their crops from the region’s windy conditions. 

Although they lost one of these tunnels in a storm last year – a significant setback – the Warrens have adapted by focusing on both their indoor and outdoor garden beds. 

This season, they are growing seedlings for a diverse array of crops, including tomatoes, chillies, capsicums, cucumbers and eggplants. 

As well as harvesting and preparing veggie boxes, Coral works hard on their online store, uploading the week’s boxes, doing admin and delivering boxes to customers within a 20km radius. 

“I think that’s part of what people really enjoy, getting to know us as their farmer, and we’ve really enjoyed getting to know our customers as well which is quite special.” Coral said.

The face-to-face interactions mean they can share with the customers the vegetables they are seeing and how they might use a vegetable they haven’t seen before.

Depending on the time of season they will do fortnightly or weekly boxes as well as special boxes when they have enough to offer during winter. 

They deliver locally partly due to their size but also because they want to keep a genuine local offering and keep their food miles low. 

Organic farming principles are very important to their operation. “We don’t want to handle chemicals ourselves, and if we don’t want to handle them, we sure don’t want to eat them,” Coral said. 

Instead, they have embraced the challenge of farming and finding natural solutions to agricultural problems, such as managing pests without synthetic chemicals. 

“There is always a solution other than reaching for a bottle of XYZ, you just have to do a bit more research,” Coral said, adding that that was not to discredit the use of chemicals. 

“I don’t think the food system could exist today without them, but I do think there are different ways of doing things and for us this is what we do.”

Other challenges they have had include a prolonged, 12-month dry spell affecting their water supply.

“Last year at the end of May we genuinely didn’t know if we’d be growing again this summer because we just didn’t have the water for it,” Coral said.

“Purchasing water is the cost of doing business but it can really hit hard when you’re small,” Nick said.

“Once it does rain and the dam fills, we will be fine going forward,” Coral said. Overall, farming has proven to be the perfect fit for Coral and Nick, aligning with their love for continuous learning and outdoor work.

“We’re both at our happiest when we’re learning new things,” Coral says.