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ve, roving interview from the: 2024

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Over three days, tens of thousands of visitors are expected through the gates to explore more than 700 exhibitors.

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At times, you will hear the sounds of our surroundings, whether it's the chatter of visitors, machinery, or perhaps the odd pa announcement.

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I feel like these sounds make you feel like you're standing right there with us, having a quick catch up.

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So let me introduce you to some new friends of mine.

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The scent of freshly popped corn is undeniably enticing and draws a crown to Emma Kennedy's stall.

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arted Kennedy food produce in: 2018

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Seeking alternative income streams, the couple began experimenting with value adding to their existing crops, leading to the creation of their unique popcorn product.

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Emma speaks about the challenges her business has faced, as well as her passion for helping people understand where their food comes from.

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Hello, Emma, and welcome to the podcast.

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Oh, thanks, Kimberly, thanks for having me.

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You would have the best smelling stall here at the Elmore Field days.

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There is something about the smell of popcorn that takes me back to my childhood.

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I'm sure it's a draw card.

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Tell me a little bit about your business.

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rm produce, we established in: 2018

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So, yeah, the business was created from that point and just experimenting with how we might be able to create, creatively cook popcorn in the microwave with a brown paper bag.

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And that's it.

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You can cook popcorn, the kernels in a paper bag in a microwave.

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It's incredible.

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It's obviously a lot healthier too, I'm assuming.

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Absolutely.

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So what we do is hand pick the cob.

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So you're actually putting the full cob and not the kernels themselves.

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So the whole cob goes in the brown paper bag on high for two minutes in the microwave and it pops directly off the cob.

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No oil, no butter, no salt added.

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But at the end, if you wish to flavour, you can do that.

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Do you find that some people are surprised when they look at your product and realise just exactly what the corn cob looks like and that's where popcorn comes from?

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Absolutely.

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And I think that's what I really love about it is like, oh, so that's what popcorn looks like in the paddock.

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And that's what we really want to portray to people, that it's fresh, straight from the paddock, handpicked, and then it's in its natural form as well.

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So to see a bag of popcorn kernels versus the cob, it is that.

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Oh, moment of wow, that is amazing.

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But also, I think it's important to note that it's not sweet corn dried.

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So it's a specific popping variety of corn.

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I'm learning something.

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I didn't realize that it's not just you run of the mill cob.

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Yeah.

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So it's a specific variety for popping.

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Yeah.

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So.

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And I suppose then from there we decided, well, can people grow their own popcorn at home?

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So that's why we created things like our little growers packs and just our packet of popcorn seeds, so you can have a go grow it in your own backyard.

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That is incredible.

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There's such an education piece that you're building on.

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I think that's really important when we think about agriculture and teaching the younger generations where their food comes from.

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Absolutely.

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I think there's been a big importance and emphasis on knowing where your food comes from.

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Having that connection with the farmer.

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Yeah.

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And just thinking, oh, this was just literally down the road grown and now we're enjoying it with our family and having an experience with that food.

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Let's talk about Elmore field days.

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You've been here before.

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I've smelt the stall before.

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I've walked past before.

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What number are we up to and why?

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Do you love coming back?

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I think this is about number four that we've done.

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Yeah.

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There's something just really lovely about being in your own backyard, Nelli.

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A community event that you can come along and not only show your own products, but support other people in the business as well, because small business has been a hard slog, especially lately.

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So it's really nice to be able to go and spend some of your own money as well.

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Now, you have some little helpers here today.

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I mean, I've brought mine along today as well.

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Tell me, do you come along to more field days to other markets or is this sort of it?

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When I started, I had my two daughters, so we did a lot more markets and we had fresh produce at the time as well, vegetables and different things to offer at that time.

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Now we've got four children, I find it really challenging to.

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To be able to have that time to pack everything up and set up and also have someone looking after the children whilst you're at market.

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Yeah.

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So I do less and less markets, but events are a great way to get out there and meet people too.

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In terms of your business, have you seen it grow?

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And what do you think the key to that growth is?

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Can I answer that really honestly?

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That's the only way we want to hear the answer.

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It's been truly challenging.

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When we first started, the growth was probably beyond what I ever could have imagined.

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And then I think with challenges like Covid, floods and just the general economy, it's been really hard, mostly of late.

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So, yeah, there's been a real curve in the business and, yeah, just tricky to continue, really.

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So what pushes you forward?

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What's something that you remind yourself of to keep going every day?

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Yeah, it is a hard one because I think at times I wonder whether I've lost my spark for the business.

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But then coming to an event like this, like.

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No, actually there still is definitely that passion for farming, passion for educating people and offering the best produce that we can.

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I can relate to that.

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I think that loneliness of working by yourself solo, we need people around us.

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We need people to get excited about the product, to see people engage with the stall.

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One more question before I go.

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I want to know who else should I drop in and see while I'm here at the Elmore field days?

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Oh, there's so many beautiful options here, especially in the general interest pavilion.

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But my mates at Pepo Farms, they have some amazing products and I absolutely recommend going and seeing them.

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What's my favourite product is probably the chocolate coated pumpkin seeds.

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Amazing.

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Again, who would have thought?

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Chocolate coated pumpkin seeds.

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I'm gonna go fill up.

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There's no way you can stand around this store without taking some popcorn with you.

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Well done on a fabulous product and I hope we'll obviously have all the links in our show notes, but to head along, have a look.

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Someone could grow their own popcorn.

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If not, this is such the perfect thing to do for school holidays, especially if you're a grandparent or just in that terms of that educational piece, isn't it?

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Brilliant idea.

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Thank you so much for having me, Kim.

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Now the shearing industry is experiencing a notable increase in female participation, marking a significant shift in a field that has traditionally been male dominated.

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This change not only empowers the women currently involved, but also serves as an inspiration for future generations.

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In this interview, Alice McKay shares her.

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Journey into the shearing profession.

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The 24 year old grew up on a sheep and cropping farm in Dromarton, Victoria, where her love for sheep began.

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After leaving school, Alice started her career in wool handling before taking a leap into shearing, a decision that has allowed her to travel extensively and experience various shearing environments, including her recent work in England and New Zealand.

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Hello Alice, and welcome to the podcast.

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One of my favourite things to do at the Elmore Field days is to come past where they're doing the shearing demonstrations.

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And you know what?

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Over the years I've seen more and more females up on that stage and it's so empowering to see it.

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So inspiring.

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Tell me, how you, how did you get into shearing?

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So I grew up on a sheep on cropping farm out in dramatin and I've always had a big passion for sheep.

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And then once I left school, I went wool handling, so working in the sheds and I just fell in love with it.

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And then I went wool classing, which I done that for two years before I started shearing.

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So I started shearing about just over two years ago.

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I got into it, like I'd always shorn, like the odd few when I was working in the sheds.

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Like classing, like I got the hang of it and I fell in love with it.

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But I always thought, oh, it'd be too hard.

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But then one day I thought, I'll just give it a go.

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And yeah, I fell in love with it and here I am.

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Now, what other career aspirations have you had?

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Or is this sort of, is this all you have your eye on at the moment?

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Well, sheep's definitely all I've loved.

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I love the farm at the moment.

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I probably spend nine months of the year working the shearing and I spend three months on the farm.

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Like all the busier times I still spend on the farm.

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So like, the big grand plan is to one day be full time on the farm, but for now, I love shearing.

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I love that I can travel anywhere with it, which obviously I can't do that kind of things on the farm.

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So that's kind of, I suppose what got me into cheerleader and was all the travelling I love here.

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Now you mentioned travelling.

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I've just heard that you've come back from overseas.

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Yeah, yeah.

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So I just spent three months in England.

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I've done too much here in England and I've done a month travelling around Europe.

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I spent a year in New Zealand last year.

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And yeah, I've been all over Australia with it, all sorts of places.

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Yeah, it's awesome.

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You can just go anywhere with it.

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Yeah.

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What are the differences between here in Australia with our shearing industry versus say, New Zealand or even the UK.

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So New Zealand is pretty similar.

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Like, the sheep probably shear a bit better over there, but England's completely different.

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Like, we're shearing merinos today and they're just unheard of over there.

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Like, they don't have very nice wool, like, and they're all different types of cross spreads.

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And you're always shearing pretty much all the time outside on a trailer, so you're pretty much just out in the elements.

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Like a couple of times I was out there shearing in the rain and wind and.

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Yeah, just everything.

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It's completely different to heard.

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I know usually you're in really nice sheds, get fed, you're warm, you heat up quickly because it is such a physically demanding job.

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So tell me about that.

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I suppose that physical side being female, do you notice it?

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Have you been given any tips?

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What is it that is hard about those sheep?

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Because some of them are really damn big.

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Yeah, it definitely is hard physically.

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Like, at the start, while you're building up that strength, it's definitely, like that first year is a stretch struggle, but once you get through that, it definitely gets a lot easier.

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But, yeah, I've got, like, a lot of support from the crew and everyone's been like a really good help.

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But, yeah, definitely physically it has been harder for me, but I think a lot of women concentrate a lot more on their technique because it is more that physically hard.

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And, like, we work out better ways to shear the shape that you're not putting so much pressure on your body all the time.

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And a lot of blokes, they've got the, they're tall and they've got the strength.

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So I suppose they don't put as much effort into their style all the time.

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Definitely plenty do.

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But even though it is physically hard, I think that's why I love it so much.

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And being a woman, like it, it's a challenger.

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Are you seeing more and more women come into the industry?

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Yeah, definitely.

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Actually, when I was in England, it was only three of us sharing like three stand trailer.

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But yeah, all three of us were women and that was just unheard of over there.

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Like, they were so excited to have that.

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Yeah, we probably have, yeah, like four women that I work with quite often on our team.

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And most teams, you'll go in now and there'll be a lady shearing.

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Not all the time, but, yeah, like ten years ago even there wouldn't have been anywhere near that.

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Like, it was pretty unheard of.

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But we had a six stand shed of just women in Bendio, not far from Bendio last year.

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It's definitely not what it used to.

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Be in terms of.

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I mean, I'm looking at the audience sitting here waiting for, for the next demonstration to start, and there's some, you know, there's some young girls in that audience.

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What's your advice to them in terms of starting a career in sharing as a female?

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Yeah.

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So if sharing is something like you're looking to do, I'd definitely find a good team.

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Like, don't just go for any old team.

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Like, find a team that you've been recommended to and that, you know, have got, like, good people on it.

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Like, my team's amazing and that's what pushed me through.

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Like, I work with unreal people all the time and every day I go to work and I have, like, I love going to work.

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I have a good day.

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It's lots of fun.

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And that sort of pushes you along on the hard days.

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Definitely gets you through, is just a team and find what makes you love it.

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Like, everyone has something different that makes you love it.

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And then every hard day just keep telling yourself again and again what makes, like, this is why I'm doing it.

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This is why I love it.

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Yeah.

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If you weren't doing this, what do you think you'd be doing?

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I've definitely, when I was wool classing, I was very passionate about it.

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I would have probably got into something to do with wool, like wool brokering or just something and that side of things.

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Like, I just always love sheep.

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In terms of the rest of the year, what's on for you?

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Any big highlights?

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Any more trips overseas?

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No.

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So I've actually already had a massive year.

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Like, I spent the first month in Tassie and I went to WA to do rural inner station, which is like one of the biggest, most rural stations in Australia.

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So that was really cool.

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Yeah.

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And then the three months in England.

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So I'm actually pretty happy and excited to be back home for a bit.

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Yeah, I've only.

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I drive the header over harvest, so I'll just keep sharing for another month or so until harvest starts and then they'll be the rest of the year on the header.

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Yeah.

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Well, thank you for being a guest on the podcast, Alice.

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Amazing to see you up there and I know that you're inspiring other people.

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Like, it is such a different thing for us to see females in such a male dominated industry.

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So well done.

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Thank you so much.

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Now, before you take off with all.

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That inspiration and knowledge, we'd love for.

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You to leave a review on our podcast so that we can continue to.

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Amplify women's voices in the media.

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And if you have any questions, we'd like to celebrate a win.

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You can always connect with us on Facebook and Instagram.

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Oak magazineau I'm so glad we've met.

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And that now you know a friend of.