Deep winter - the organiserS: PAST & PRESENT
Deep Winter started in early 2015 with a facebook message from Fraser of Old Mill Road farm to a bunch of friends saying: 'hey can we get together in the middle of winter to swap notes and drink wine at a time of year where we can actually take a weekend off?' - and so we did.
Tammi of Jonai Farms and the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance offered to host the gathering on Dja Dja Wurrung Country in the central highlands of Victoria, the farmers hired the local hall, over 150 people brought food to share and called the whole thing Deep Winter, and a beautiful thing was born.
In 2016 the South coast crew put up their hands to host and the lovely Fiona of Buena Vista Farm joined forces with Kirsten of Milkwood alongside a bunch of other resourceful folks to create Deep Winter 2016 in Gerringong.
In 2017, Deep Winter went noth to the subtropical Northern Rivers. The Northern Rivers Young Farmers Alliance (a fledgling group of new and beginning farmers in the Northern Rivers region) hosted a bumper year - leaving everyone hungry for more...
In 2018, Deep Winter was hosted in Cygnet, Tasmania. With the theme of "longevity" we explored how we can all do this farming/working on the land thing forever (if desired) without the burn out factor kicking in! Key organisers were James Da Costa from Hobart City Farm, Jilly Middleton from Twelve Trees Farm, Paulette Whitney form Provenance Growers, Hannah Moloney from Good Life Permaculture, Celia Leverton from Whistlers Ridge Permaculture and Christina Giudici from Fimby.
In 2019, Deep Winter was held in Willunga in South Australia. Future Farmers SA was formed by the hosting group to run the show and there are plans in progress to work out what we do next. The theme in 2019 was ‘scale and viability’. Key organisers were Ella McHenry from Little Bunyip and Nat Wiseman from Village Greens with crucial support from Andy Taylor, Eliza Reiger, Kat Snoswell, Tom Bradman and Verity Slee.
Brisbane threw their hat in the ring for the honour of hosting Deep Winter 2020 but unfortunately a global pandemic got in the way. Local Deep Winter gatherings held space for a return of the national event in 2023, hosted by Kaycee of Mandarin Bend at Bellingen, with support from the local community, returning to the original unconference organising methodology.
Those on facebook hang out at the Deep Winter group. You can ask to join, if this is your kind of thing too.