Black Barn Farm

Charlie and Kirsten Showers run a permaculture-based heritage orchard at 750m above sea level in Stanley — an 1850s gold-rush town that turned to horticulture once the gold ran out. Apples, pears and berries, with a heritage fruit tree nursery selling bare-root stock from 1 April and at the farm gate through harvest (December to May). No synthetic inputs; the system runs on diversity, cover cropping and coppice mulch. Kirsten writes and podcasts as Futuresteading; the farm hosts workshops, school programs and long lunches in the same spirit. U-pick on weekends through the season.