About Us
Blue Sky Organics is a family business run in Bairnsdale on the Gippsland Lakes in Victoria. We currently grow a number of varieties of garlic including Red Rocambole, Tasmanian Purple, White Crookneck, Estonian, Elephant and Silverskin. Our garlic is genuinely grown without the use of any pesticides, chemicals, artificial fertilizers and is hand planted, hand weeded and hand harvested.
Our garlic is a result of a WOOFING holiday - (Willing Workers on Organic Farms), to King Island, Tasmania, where the hosts grew several varieties of garlic.
Our business supports, through donations of time and money the following not-for-profit organisations:
Sea Shepard Conservation Society
Bush Heritage Australia
WWF (World Wildlife Fund)
Rainforest Rescue
Earthwatch Institute
We aim to be a sustainable business. We use recycled paper bags to package garlic and we use a carbon neutral printer.
We grow our garlic on our property in Murrindal, East Gippsland. We are in the process of organic certification with OGA (Organic Growers of Australia), which is a small producer certification body that is a subsidiary of Australian Certified Organic (ACO). We aim to manage our property with the most up to date, sustainable production practices that are available.
We are now in the In Conversion stage of organic certification. To gain 'Certified Organic' status every property must go through a three year process. The first year is called the pre-certification year, followed by in-conversion for two years. Throughout the entire certification process, including pre-certification and in-conversion, inputs and production methods must conform to the Australian Organic Standards , and as such no chemicals (including herbicides, pesticides, etc) or artificial fertilizers are to be used.
Our garlic is guaranteed to be grown without the use of chemicals, artificial fertilizers, sprout inhibitors, etc.
Our garlic is currently grown on a five year rotation program, with a garlic crop being followed by a variety of different crops and a pasture phase. Green manure crops are then turned into the soil to increase soil organic matter and nutrient levels, thus reducing the risk of disease and pest problems.
Our soil has been enhanced by incorporating organic mulch and compost, certified organic fertilizers with natural ingredients, and biological preparations. Our garlic is planted in raised beds to prevent water logging, which potentially affects the size of developing bulbs.
We strive for biodiversity in both our soils, crops and farm environment, and as such plan to grow other crops between garlic crops such as sunflowers and grain crops.
We aim to produce crops that are nutritionally superior, yet affordable, because we believe everyone deserves to eat healthy, nutritional, fresh food.
We also have small areas of hops planted.
We welcome feedback on any of our produce, so feel free to contact us.
We hope you enjoy our produce!