Farm & Co

Michele Stephens and Ian Kettle bought a 30-year-old avocado farm at Cudgen — 52 acres in the Tweed Valley, fifteen minutes from Byron Bay — in 2002, and turned it into a working organic farm with a café, restaurant and farm walk. Michele trained as a paediatric nurse before studying Biological and Organic Farming concurrently with raising four children, and the farming philosophy on the property reflects it: no synthetic pesticides, crop rotation, biological inputs, free-range chickens, rescue pigs Hank and Pepe wandering the grounds. Pick-your-own sunflowers $4 a stem. Macadamia trees on the farm walk. Café open Thursday to Sunday for breakfast and lunch; the restaurant a separate seasonal a la carte offering overlooking the farm.