Looking for a place to take your children that values organic food, sustainability and community? Located close to the city, at Northey Street City Farm you’ll find an organic farmers market, a nature-based playgroup, a community-based urban permaculture farm and a unique plant nursery.
Northey Street Organic Farmers Market
On Sunday mornings, from 6am to 11am, the carpark at Northey Street farm turns into a bustling organic farmers market. Here you’ll be able to meet the farmers and enjoy fresh produce direct from their farms. Find everything food related from fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs to eggs, meats and poultry. There are also offerings of fermented delights like kombucha, kefir, kimchi, and much more. A collection of gorgeous treasures, like woollen finger puppets or organic cotton baby wear, is also available from ethical producers.
The Permaculture Farm and Nursery
Here is a community garden with a strong interest in ethical practices and sustainability. As you wander through the nursery, taking note of the interesting food-producing plants and medicinal herbs, you’ll discover the community here is keen to help you grow fresh, natural food at home.
At the rambling beds of the Northey Street Community Garden veggies, herbs and flowers spill out of the allotments. It is here people who don’t have access to a garden, but want to grow their own organic food, can hire a plot. In this space, you can see the care and commitment to natural permaculture practices valued by the community.
Northey Street City Farm also holds various workshops and courses, including an Earth Kids school holiday program and an Earth Kids Homeschool program, to develop everyone’s understanding and love of growing edible plants. Learn skills from worm farming to permaculture and composting.
Northey Street Playgroup
A free outdoor playgroup runs three times a week. This casual gathering allows families to meet near the community garden and participate in a range of ‘nature smart’ activities using found clay and natural materials.
Children are gently guided to explore Earth Arts. There are opportunities for painting on foraged materials with clay-based paints in natural hues. Brave parents may even agree to have their faces decorated with the natural colours; it’s quite the makeover! If sculpture is more to your liking, use some clay to create a small bowl or figurine.
The playgroup has a collection of donated and well-loved toys including musical instruments, with several of them made from recycled materials. Children can discover sand pits with diggers, cubby houses, a tyre swing, rope swing and an open space for flying frisbees or rolling enormous hula hoops.
On most occasions, Bob, who’s been volunteering at the playgroup for many years, will ask the children to forage for sticks before cooking up some popcorn in a cast iron pot over a small fire.
Playgroup runs on Tuesday and Friday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm and on Sunday mornings from 7 am while the markets are taking place.
NB. Playgroup occurs in an unfenced area.
Accessibility
There are accessible toilets at this venue. Most of the ground is relatively flat but unpaved and contains various surfaces such as grass, dirt and gravel.
How to Get Here
Northey Street City Farm can be found at the corner of Northey and Victoria Streets, Windsor.
Northey Street City Farm Organic Market, 16 Victoria Street, Windsor
While onsite and street parking options exist, it can be challenging to find parking at this busy location. There is also a free council car park on Northey Street.
Northey Street City Farm is a 15-minute walk from Windsor Station and is also accessible by bus. Visit the Translink website to plan your journey.
The Northey Street Markets are free and run from 6:00am – 11am every Sunday. They are a small, delightful village of their own and with so much to see it’s a good idea to get there early to allow you the time to fully enjoy this wonderful, organic and carefree community.
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