YAMBA FARMERS & PRODUCERS MARKET

Yamba Farmers & Producers Market Charter

The aim of the Yamba Farmers & Producers Market (YF&PM) is to develop a friendly environment where consumers and producers are regularly brought together to buy and sell Clarence Valley and Northern Rivers food produce on a weekly basis. 

To achieve this, the market facilitates a regular and reliable avenue for producers to sell a variety of local and regional quality fresh produce, of an affordable nature, to residents and visitors of the Clarence Valley. This contributes to a sense of identity that benefits the market participants and our local community. 

The Yamba Farmers & Producers Market is a paid member of the NSW Farmers Market Alliance.

The YF&PM specifically: 

1.   provides a regular professional platform for producers of our region to sell their produce, resulting in growth, development and promotion of local and regional produce.

2.   provides a welcoming environment for small scale or new producers to sell seasonal produce when available through attendance as a stall holder. 

3.    provides growers and manufacturers with the opportunity to network and develop their skills and, through direct contact with their customers, gain greater knowledge of customer requirements.

4.    provides an atmosphere that builds a sense of community.

5.    provides an opportunity for the consumer to purchase farm to gate produce directly from the grower, maker and baker.

6.    provides a place where people can shop and meet the grower and maker of the produce they buy in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere. 

We encourage Not For Profit community stalls to attend our market if what they do has a relationship to farming, food or fibre.

We give back and support your volunteer efforts and the showcasing of what you do by waiving your stall fees however you must have your own insurance cover.

IF YOU ARE KEEN TO VOLUNTEER we are keen to have you however remember it is an early start.

Sometimes we put a call out for volunteers if we are seeking to collect data from a special event or looking for assistance for a special event.

We like to look after you while you are with us so keep an eye out on social media when we do a call out for our volunteers.

We encourage kids to have a stall under the supervision of their parents.

Same rules apply for goods and packaging.

Site fees are waived to encourage an entrepreneur spirit.

BUSKERS ARE WELCOME at our market.

Make sure you contact us before you turn up so there are no double bookings.

We are unable to offer power due to constraints with our electricity supply.

We are able to collect produce from our stall holders as a payment.

WE DON’T MIND the odd party or two so at our market we like to celebrate our national days with tastings.

We will let you know when that happens through all our media channels so you can come and join us.

To date we have celebrated National AG Day, International Tartan Day, International Women’s Day.

The Clarence Valley has a strong food culture with 195 eateries.

These range from award winning, fine dining, bistros, taverns, restaurants, pubs, takeaways, pop ups and cafes.

The great news is some of these eateries go out of their way to provide a local food experience like no other.

The Clarence Valley food journey incorporates innovative thinking around their menu choice, chefs who are seeking to explore and showcase local produce while at the same time respecting the fact food has its seasons.

Here we feature eateries who incorporate their local food growers and producers into their must have ingredients list.

We have no hesitation in recommending these cafes because they choose a business practice that supports and directly impacts the local food economy and the families who put the food on our tables.

HONOUR ROLL

The French Pantree Yamba

Angourie Cafe

Karrikin Cafe Yamba

The Kiosk Yamba

Barbaresco Angourie

Paradisio Yamba

Latitude 29 Yamba

The Italian On The Hill Yamba

Sandbar Yamba

Sassafras Yamba

Beachwood Cafe Yamba

Caperberry Cafe

Drift Cafe Yamba

Tartan Pizza Maclean

Iluka Boatshed Cafe

Laneway Cafe Iluka

Ulmarra Hotel

Brushgrove Hotel

Toast Grafton

Heart & Soul Grafton

Heart & Soul South Grafton

The Naked Bean South Grafton

Vines Grafton

We host workshops that include brand makeovers, joining the digital economy, how to upscale, how to become a stall holder, how to start a business, producer speed dating sessions, how to become a grower.

Other workshops include accounting, how to crash tackle legal issues, how to diversify.

If you have any other ideas don’t hold back, don’t be shy, we are all ears and would love to hear from you.

Would you like to start a small business so that you can hang out with us at the farmers market?

I’m sure our brains trust could help in some way and give you some advice.

Like you we too have an entrepreneurial spirit and are keen for anyone to give it a go what ever their idea may be.

Please contact us so we can support and nuture your small business idea and dream.

There are 3876 registered businesses in the Clarence Valley. Of those 2500 are sole traders and the next 1000 employ between 1-5 people.

So as you can see you are important to us and our future.

Local Native Food chef Kim Healy (Bundjalung and Gumbainggirr woman) is now running cooking workshops.

She specialises in a range of native food dishes and utilises many local native food products.

She is also available for private catering.

The Clarence Valley hosts a number of notable food events where local food, chefs, producers and growers are front and centre stage.

The Clarence Valley has a number of food events which includes Yamba’s annual ‘Eat Street’ hosted by Yamba Rotary.

The biannual fundraiser for the Grafton Gallery Foundation - Gate To Plate.

The annual gourmet soup event hosted by the Friends of the Grafton Gallery.

The Organic Matters Foundation autumn music and food celebration ‘Feast In The Field’.

The Clarence Valley has a proud tradition in native food, agriculture, aquaculture and horticulture spanning more than 175 years.

Prior to Clarence Valley’s colonisation the three First Nations, Yaegl, Bundjalung and Gumbainggirr people have hunted and gathered on these same lands and shorelines for thousands of years.

Some of these lands have now been returned to their traditional owners through Native Title.

Many of the Clarence Valley food industries which are operating today began their life in the 150 years ago which says everything about the resilience and adaptability of this sector.

Sugar cane, beef, fishing and dairy were the pillar industries of the region then and now.

Australia’s oldest employee records are those from the sugar mill at Harwood.

With these industries came the itinerant workforce which saw the Clarence Valley region embrace world cultures on their Big River.

While many colonial farmers were away fossicking for gold the First Nation people and the multicultural workforce were the back bone of the farming economy until mechanisation.

Preferred camp cooks of the day were the Chinese, Italians and Sikhs.

Ramornie Station west of Grafton built Australia’s second meat cannery and also has stud books that pre date the official Australian stud books.

The Clarence Valley was a major breeder of Australian war horses, the Waler before the turn of the century and up until WW2.

The Clarence Valley had two Agricultural Research Centres and were often on the receiving end of species from the Sydney Botanical Gardens to test drive in a warmer climate.

North Coast pioneer coffee growers the Wombah Coffee Plantation use stock brought to the valley in the 1850’s.

And finally Yulgilbar Station Santa Gertrudis Stud No 13 is today one of the few pioneering studs still operating in Australia.

While the Clarence Valley may be better known for its raw products there are a number of noted fine food manufacturers.

These include Wombah Coffee, Pure Life Bread, Amongst Gum Trees, Carrs Peninsula Organic Olives, Laughing Cooka’s Organic Tofu, Irons & Craig Jams, Pickles and Relishes, Nicholson’s Fine Foods, Botero Coffee, Jilly’s Teas, Pauly & Co Hand Blended Tea, Sweet Little Tea House, Cicely & Co Granola and Dukkah.

The Clarence Valley hosts numerous annual agricultural events throughout the year.

These include two agricultural shows and a rodeo at Grafton and Maclean.

Copmanhurst, Baryulgil, Ulmarra, Coutts Crossing, Maclean and South Grafton all host annual camp drafts and cutting events.

Maclean and Grafton also host pony club as well as dog trials while South Grafton hosts Polocrosse and equestrian events.

Every single one of these events are run by the generosity of dedicated volunteers.

Looking for a holiday to experience farm and rural life?

The Clarence Valley has a number of wonderful farm stay opportunities on working farms. All offer a unique experience and insights in to life on a farm.

These include Wave Hill Farm Stay (Fineflower), The Clarence Gorge (Copmanhurst), The Cosy Cow (Mororo), The Ranch (Yamba) and Woodlands (Southgate).

Do you love to get your hands dirty?

The Clarence Valley has two community gardens one is in Yamba and the other is currently under developed in Iluka.

The Yamba Community Garden was established in 2013 and is an absolute showcase of community strength and spirit.

The members have a wide variety of produce including a custom built outdoor pizza oven.

There are a number of self drive farm tours around the Clarence Valley.

All are working farms with biosecurity measures in place.

Farms to visit include Lanbruk Gunyah at Carrs Peninsular. While visiting their museum I have to say look out for the award winning sponge cake when you order your tea and coffee.

There is horse riding at Wave Hill Farm Stay and you can pick organic blueberries while patting the goats at Orara Valley Organic Blueberry Farm.

Clarence Gorge Camping has river tours through the canyon.

Clarence Valley Food Inc are an emerging group driving the conversation around the agri-food economy.

Led by farmers their goal is to build and spread the word and awareness about growing the local food economy.

They host pop up food events, and information nights.

www.clarencevalleyfood.com

Breeders, producers and growers from the Clarence Valley are often represented in major national prizes and aren’t shy about setting records.

Clarenza brahman stud Jomanda stunned the cattle breeding world with a record $150,000 sale for one of its bulls at the annual Rockhampton Brahman Bull Sale in 2016.

Yulgilbar Station was awarded the National Santa Gertrudis Steer Trophy recently which they have won 10 times since 2006.

Big River Milk and Nicolson’s Fine Foods have both been on the winners podium at the Royal Agricultural shows.

And local seaweed forager Cody Possum has taken out the NSW Delicious Magazine ‘From The Sea Produce Awards’ with his Clarence Coast kelp products.

The Grafton Primary Industries Institute is located at Trenayr, north of Grafton. The Institute is unique in NSW as it provides operational and research functions for agriculture, fisheries and forestry from the one location.

Cattle grazing, cropping, timber and fisheries are presently the mainstay activities of the Clarence Valley.

These diverse coastal industries are reflected in the wide range of programs at the Institute.

The Institute has been involved in the evaluation of many enterprises over the years. Many types of crops, from fruit trees (mangoes, lychees, citrus) to crops such as tobacco and pineapples, have been evaluated on the property.

Recently the focus for crop development has included maize, sugar cane, soybean triticale, barley and forage oats. With the North Coast of NSW being the single largest soybean production area in Australia, the soybean research program at Grafton is of particular regional and national importance.

The Station was established by the NSW Government in 1902 to investigate and evaluate suitable crop and livestock varieties for the north coast region and provide superior stud stock to encourage the improvement of local herds.

One of the Station’s earlier functions was as a training institute for young men seeking careers in farming.

This activity commenced prior to World War 1 and continued through to about 1935 and included boys trained under the Dreadnought Scheme, a scheme which brought young English boys to Australia to be trained in farm work and when considered proficient to be “distributed to the farmers of the state.”

In 1986 the Grafton Aquaculture Centre opened to conduct studies into the conservation of the endangered Eastern Freshwater Cod.

Since opening in 1902, the Station has made a major contribution to the knowledge of coastal agricultural production and has played a significant role in developing technologies associated with aquaculture, horticulture, cereal crops, summer legumes, pastures and livestock husbandry.

Recently the station has made significant advances in beef cattle production, silver perch aquaculture, crop improvement for coastal farming systems (soybean, barley and triticale) and aquatic and terrestrial weed control.

The Clarence Valley has many opportunities to increase your knowledge around the agri-food industry.

There are a number of groups who consistently run field days like the DPI (Department of Primary Industries) or the LLS (Local Land Services).

Industry bodies also host many workshops including organic and biodynamic field days.

The Clarence Valley Country University, Tafe, high schools and community colleges all feature a number of agri-food courses.

The 1000 registered primary producers here in the Clarence Valley deserve a pat on the back as they are the unsung business heroes of the Clarence Valley.

The more I research the more I am absolutely blown away at the extraordinary strength and resilience of our Clarence Valley farming communities.

Not only have they survived the GFC, they have also managed to thrive and grow. 

In the context of the NSW North Coast the Clarence Valley sit at number 1 across 7 of the financial economic indicators.

BUSINESSES - 1000, EMPLOYMENT - 1182, OUTPUT - $438,306 million, WAGES - $60 million, EXPORTS - $296,619 million, IMPORTS - $126,990 million, VALUE ADD - $205,006 million, GRP - $2.748 billion.

The Clarence Valley are the agri-food economic powerhouse of the Northern Rivers region in NSW.

(This information doesn't include turnover of cafes, retail or food manufacturers). 

The Clarence Valley is surrounded by 5 national parks and has the longest undeveloped strip (60 klms) of coastal foreshore in NSW.

We have local trawler man who specialise in wild caught catches and wild foragers who are licensed to harvest local seaweeds.

A small amount of native food is also picked from the local national parks and is on sold to businesses who specialise in native food wholesale and retail products.

Yamba Farmers and Producers Market in conjunction with Clarence Valley Food Inc join forces to collaborate and host a number of events to mark NATIONAL AG DAY in November.

The usual market swells to 50 stalls and goes till 1pm and features a broader range of producers, growers and services.

There is usually a free breakfast between 7am and 8am.

All the workshops are FREE.