Ep 011 - Food2Soil, Waste Haters & Grand Champion

In this episode Averill and Bernadette chat with local entrepreneurs; Josie and Annabel, founders of Food2Soil. Food2Soil make fertilizer from food waste to improve soil and plant health and help combat climate change. Josie and Annabel believe healthy soil is part of the solution for a better future for our children and generations to come.  Join us as we chat about their journey to honour the earth.

Check out Food2Soil at: Organic Fertiliser - Bio Plant Food | Food2Soil

Transcript

Before we start today, Seedy Chats would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the Ngunnawal and Ngambri country. Recognising their continued connection to this land, traditional custodians of all our lands, from the water running through our creeks, the air we breathe in our mountains and the stars that shine brightly in the sky. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. Oh hello and welcome. Welcome! to Seedy Chats. Hello and welcome back. Welcome to Seedy Chats, the podcast where imperfect gardeners, Avril, that's me, and Bernadette. Hi, that's me. Chat about our favourite topics, gardening and life. So whether you're new to gardening, a seasoned pro or somewhere in between, join us on our journey to be mindful in gardening and life in general. Hello Seedy Chums and welcome to episode 11. We have a fantastic episode coming up. for you with a great interview with the lovely ladies at Food to Soil, but beforehand here's a little bit of crack from Avril and I. Enjoy! I've got so much to tell you. I did too as well, I've been keeping a few of my sleeve. I don't know if you can tell. I've had an operation. I've had a hypnosis. gastric lap band to help me lose weight. Right. In my new endeavor to do anything to lose weight except exercise. My poor husband said to me how much is this latest snake oil costing us. But look so far it's been a really positive experience. Yeah right okay. So can you tell us anything about it? Oh look basically It's short circuited my thought process. So instead of just going and getting something to eat, I've got this in-between thought that says, yeah, but are you really hungry? Do you really wanna do that? And I go, oh, actually, no, I don't. So I'm feeling very empowered with that. But yeah, that's, yeah, we'll see, watch this space. So just visually, like you went into hypnotherapist. sat in a chair. Was it a couch? Did you get to lie back? It was a literal couch that you lie back in. And then I went under the hypnosis and it's not like entertainment hypnosis. It was a male or female? It was a female. Okay, I feel a bit better. I went under hypnosis and yeah, she basically empowered me to make better decisions. And do you remember any of it? I'm just trying to get my head around the concept of it. I remember about 70% of it. There's parts of it where I, yeah, it's sort of like a dream. So does she have like... You're now in my power. She does, she does. Does she have that type of voice or? She does, she does sort of really. And it's like a constant, you know, you're safe, you're hearing my voice. You're now. Did you laugh at all because I'd be like. No, I was so susceptible to it. I was like melting in the chair. I really, really, I feel like it really worked on me. It was a comfy chair though. Yeah, and it was just really positive. You know when you start a diet, you're like. Oh, this is going to be terrible. I don't have any of those negative thoughts about what I'm missing out on. It's all just like empowered positive control. Beautiful, yeah, change of mindset. Because there's a lot going on in your mind and how you're back global, front global, right, like whatever. Like your subconscious has a lot of power over you. That's what she does. She talks to your subconscious mind. It's like that little devil on your shoulder. Yes, the fat little devil. Fuck off fat little devil. Yeah right. Well that's it. I'm very happy Bernadette. Best to look with that. You look radiant. I'll keep you posted. You look radiant. I was meant to say that to you. Did I say that you looked well yesterday morning? I feel, I'm feeling good. A good wake. Really good wake. Yeah, there's a nice glow. You've got a nice glow to you. What have you got going on? Um, nah, I haven't been for any operations. So last week we had Wednesday because we normally do a podcast on Wednesday and we had a little bit of a technical issue. A technical issue. A pickle as I had to. A technical pickle. I did like that. A technical pickle I emailed our guest. The only pickle I'm allowed on my gastric surgery. Don't talk about food. So I emailed saying we have a little bit of a pickle and setting the scene, Bernadette wasn't at home. had to go somewhere else. Her husband wasn't at home either, but he's our IT department. And he abandoned and made a very critical dialed in from wherever he was. He's a complete technical support and he fixed our issue. So we were probably OK, but we didn't want to, you know, we wanted to let our guests know pretty, pretty early in the day. And he was very happy and we're very excited about this guest and we will get them on again. But that morning. So the night before, my story starts the night before. Yes. So I was being a food warrior. Craig, I was we were having a Caesar salad for for dinner. Craig took the bacon out to get it ready and fry it up. And it was completely out of date. Like I'm Googling how safe is bacon like five, excuse me, five days out of date. I mean, I'd give it a run, but I did terrible. Oh, you know, I did, I did. And then I forgot, I'm thinking, we've got a massive podcast tomorrow. So I thought, oh my God. And the thought, I was like, Bernadette's gonna bloody kill me. I'll have the drops. Just because I wanted to be a food warrior and Craig wouldn't eat it. And I was like, oh for God. And it was actually tasted. best bacon has ever tasted. Is it one of those things that even if you made it sick, you would have just kept a lid on it? Because is it like- Probably, yeah. If I did have the shits, I wouldn't. No one would know. Like in bridesmaids, when she's trying to eat that almond. She's like, actually it's delicious. So that was one thing that happened last week. Oh, and then this morning I was putting my underwear on, my bra on, and this just shows you I need to get new underwear. all the claps at the back just flung. Do I need to start a go fast? I was like, I think I need to go and get underwear. I think, you know. Help us support our role. Well, I did think of. I mean, I do have to spend a bit of money on my underwear anyway, because like my my my chest is a little bit bigger. And yeah, so this morning I was like, happy international women supporting women. I was like, I'm not supported today at all. But yes, anyway, that is, they're my two stories, my bacon story and my bosom story. And then of course we had the horticultural show last weekend. Oh my Lord. I was away the weekend and I was like, Bernadette was at the show and she, how many wins, Bernadette? So we had two grand champions, a reserve champion. Can you just explain, because I had to Google what a reserve champion is. So grand champion means you've... overall won the best unit for that category. So for example, you have all of the vegetables. You've got first place, zucchini, first place, potatoes, first place, tomatoes. Then they'll pick a first out of all of those, a grand champion out of all of those, and then a reserve champion, which is the second best out of that whole category. Yeah, right, okay, yeah. Yeah, because I had to kind of start Googling that. I was like, what's the story? What gives you the right to be a grand champion, a reserve champion? And then I was like, she's better than better. Should I add that to my Seedy Chats email? Grand champion. Grand champion, you should do, absolutely. Yeah, maybe do the explanation. A link. Link to the explanation. And then we got 10 firsts and five seconds, but I actively encourage anyone in your region to search out your local show to have a go because I had so many people walk past and go, oh, my tomatoes would have won that or I could have done that. You know, there's nothing I like more than a bit of, I mean, healthy competition. That's my two loves is gardening and competition. So that horticultural show is pretty much the top day on the calendar for me. Because you weren't well the weekend before and you were like, thank goodness. It wasn't on the show. The show weekend. Yeah, and I was very proud of you. Well done. And I should enter next year. You have to. I have to. Josie and Annabel are the founders of Food to Soil. They make fertilizer from food waste to improve the soil and plant health. This also helps climate change. Together they have a diverse range of experience in food, nutrition, permaculture, market gardening, sustainability and land regeneration, which our last podcast was about as well, so that's very exciting. They join forces over a mutual desire to reduce waste and do something positive for the planet. Food to soil returns nutrients and beneficial microbes back to the soil. Josie and Annabel believe that healthy soil is part of the solution for a better future. Their core food to soil mission is to honour the earth, something we all should be doing. Absolutely, and so well, thank you very much and welcome to the show. You're welcome. So tell us a little bit more about yourselves. How did you meet Josie and Annabel? It was kind of by accident. Josie was doing some work for her sustainability. Waste Consultancy gig at that point. And she came into where I was working and we just started chatting and got along really well and realized we had a lot in common. And we also had a person in common called Jeri Gillespie who had been working on this process called hydrolysate which is where you take waste and proteins and you ferment them to make this amazing biologically alive fertilizer. And so anyway, Josie and I just kept on getting together, having meetings, talking about it. And we basically went, we've seen so much waste in our respective industries. We can't stand it. We both understand the value of the nutrition in the food that's being wasted. Josie from her dietetics background, me from my hospitality background. And then later I was doing a lot with growing my own food and raising children and all that sort of stuff as well. And we're... massive waste haters. So just the thought of this nutrition going back into landfill as waste rather than being recaptured and returned into our growing systems drove us crazy. And so we just kind of had this Nike moment where we went, let's start this business, let's do this because if we don't do it now, we never will and someone else will so let's do it. Let's get cracking. Yeah, I'm I think we'll coin that hashtag waste haters. I love that. It's a good one actually. Yeah. He's a champion. Yeah. We should go global with that. I said it's, I said it's like home. Kids would get out of like, uh, is it Miranda sings? I don't know. You just like young kids. Sounds like something she would have said. It does. And I, I noticed from your, um, from your website, so food to soil have actually kept. 88,133 cups of coffee out of landfill. I think 87,000 of those were mine. And 5,024 kilos of emissions of CO2 saved so far. 7.6 million tonnes of food waste ends up in landfill every year. Like, it's huge. And it's hard to even wrap your mind around that. It's kind of like, what's that gentleman that done that program with fashion? And he built... Craig Rourke. That's right, yeah, he built the tower in Martin Place and everyone walked, but we need to do that with food, right? I mean, it'd be pretty disgusting. Oh, you mean to visualize the issue. Yeah, to visualize it, yeah. Like when, on that show where they show people how much they eat in a chip in a week. Okay, yeah, and it all just piles in. That's what we need with weights. That's right, yeah, because for me, that stat, when I say it out loud, I know it's massive, but you know, when you say it to some people, they just go, oh, right, okay, and then they park it, like, and yeah. And 2.5 million of that comes from Australian businesses alone. It's actually more, it's more like four, it's like half the amount of food waste is actually from commercial food waste. And it's also in the processing and the distribution of food. Yes. Before we've even, before it's even ready on the supermarket shelf for people to eat, vast amount is wasted and it's time, it's money, it's resources, it's water, it's yeah. And when did you have that aha moment where you realised the value of the waste? I'm going to jump in on that one. Just from my background is in nutrition and dietetics. So I've worked at Queenbeam Hospital for a very long time in that space. And it used to, you know, in one regard, I would be going up to the ward and feeding people nutrition and often synthetic nutrition in little bottles that would, you know, the waste associated with that would irk me as well. But you'd be boosting people up with good food or good nutrition whenever you could to get their health better. And yet, you know, down in the loading dock, you'd be throwing vast amounts of it away to see it go to landfill and create more gases to heat the planet. And it was like, uh, there's a, it's a no brainer where we, we know we can reuse those nutrients. And our process very much looks at the importance of the microbial life in our product, because the way the human gut processes food waste is kind of very similar to how the soil biology works. It's both really dependent on the functionality of all the microbes. So we just, we ended up kind of going, that was probably our, both of us that have different aha moments. But for me, it was definitely, wow, there's food waste we want to use as nutrients. And wow, we also need the microbes and we have access to lots of it. This should be a business of the future. And if we don't do it, somebody else will. So. as crazy as we were, we often think to ourselves, oh my Lord, how did we realise this would be so arduous and time consuming? Maybe we would have gone, maybe not, but we kind of. We can vouch for that. I know what you mean. Sometimes you have a great idea in the mix. It's shaking up your life. What are we doing? It's a complete rabbit hole, isn't it? Yeah, we had lots of those moments. And so we're really glad that we work together really well. We can kind of boost each other up where there's times where we think there's certainly got to be easier ways. Yes. Yeah. And I can relate a little bit just with you talking about working in Queenbeam Hospital. I worked for a medical company for years and devices. And I used to see all the medical waste and I'd be like, hold on, where's that going? It was in predominantly in wound care for me. And I'd see all this waste and I'd be like trying to research as to medical, where's again, a rabbit hole as to where it's going. So it's great that you've followed through and you have actually, you know, come up with a plan and a business that can actually help climate. Yeah, plastic waste in the medical world is huge. It's like 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from healthcare. And it's 10% coming from food waste. So yeah, there's, yeah, healthcare has a lot to do in terms of reducing its carbon footprint. Not to mention the few people that healthcare keeps alive that don't even recycle. I'm sure there's a couple of them. Actually, Bernadette, you were listening to a podcast a while ago, and it was both a lady that... people that want to be composted, the body. Oh, I want to, do you know about this? Do you know that you can compost your body when you die? No, I want to. I often joke that I want to be macerated and turn into hydrolysis and spray back over. So, so in the US, and I'm looking into what's possible in Australia, they literally take your body and within 30 days, they break it down into soil. They return the soil to your... loved ones to then be put in a garden or something like that and they just fully compost you and I'm in the process of riding it into my will. Yeah I know. It's so about Ali. They do that in the UK as well and they put you in almost like a cardboard box and I think they would spray you with something similar to ours. So Annabelle maybe that's a business pivot. That's awesome. Honestly. Unbelievable because the emissions used in the incineration process, information is huge as well and has a huge impact on the environment. So that just makes sense. It just makes sense to me in so many ways. Mm hmm. Yeah, it does. Anyway, well, maybe it could be body to soil or. Oh, yes, I like it. I mean, I'll donate my body. Here's your first customer. I'll be your first cadaver. That's funny. Tell us about the actual, I suppose, process that food to soil. Like the process, I know that you collect from food waste from cafes. What goes, like is it everything? What actually goes into, what do you collect? Everything? Just the organic waste. So we give our cafes basically a list of do's and don'ts to try and minimise on contamination because we don't want any plastics or metals in there. Yes. But we still, when it arrives at site, we still decontaminate by hand. Wow. And yeah, and that's quite arduous, but it's just something that has to be done. We insist on a high quality input. Um, so we can have a high quality output. We then macerate it, which is basically like an enormous blender. And then we pipe it into our fermenting tanks and we add our inoculum. and let it brew much like you do wine and beer. What's an inoculum? An inoculum is basically the good bacterias that break down those food components really quickly and in a healthy way. We're basically trying to introduce good bacterias which will thrive in that environment, take over the environment, break down the food. into amino acids and peptides, which are things that plants find really easy to absorb and all other things that are good for the soil and then at the end of it you have this beautiful beautiful tonic. And that tonic is live isn't it? Is it, Avril was kind enough to get me a jar, is that something I need to worry about? You know do I need to burp the jar? Is it like a kombucha? Well the bottles we sell it with, we have vented lids and so you don't need to but we've got one shop in Canberra um Dirty Jane next to Dirty Jane's is called Antica's Botanic. That's where I got it that's where yes I know you're quite new new new there yeah yeah we are new there she's wonderful Tracy and yes those ones will need to be burped every now and then exactly like kombucha you know. What we often do too is we just don't really put the I mean you wouldn't want to put it in your handbag carry it around everywhere but you could leave the lid on. which is quite loosely on as well. So it doesn't, you know, allows a little bit of airflow. I've got some little fermenting jars with an air lock lid. So I might pop it in that. Bernadette has had many accidents with fermenting. So she's well used to it. So that's why she would have asked the question. But yeah, we were pretty excited to actually try it. I've been using it on my, on a hedge actually outside that's quite stressed. I've been using it on that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was quite excited to use it. What kind of hedge is it? I don't know. It's like a bug standard, basic, like a patina. That's a little bit stressed. It's one that I inherited. It's been there since we've moved, moved in. But I noticed I don't know whether it's the actual because we've had a lot of rain or. Yeah, I like the patina. A lot of them have got like a leaf curl. It's like a bit of a fungal thing going. Yeah, because the and it's the same with the viburnum. So, yeah, it's. Yeah, it's a good idea to apply food to soil, but essentially, I think the weather of life has caused a lot of problems. Yeah, so I've noticed that there is a lot more new growth happening, which is great. Yeah, you want photos. Yeah, yeah, I should. I should actually take some photos. I took, I did actually take some before photos. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I will be able to track it, but there's some nice new growth coming through and it has some little flowers on it. too, I've noticed a little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, but yeah, so I, and I said to Bernadette, when you open it, there is going to be an odor from it too, Bernadette. But that'll dissipate, that will go. And how am I working it into the regime? So it's a liquid, it's a one to 100 ratio. And is this in lieu of a liquid fertilizer? Yeah, well, it is a liquid fertilizer. So yes. basically. We've also got a food to soil product that's got seaweed at it. For those people who really love seaweed because seaweed is great. It's just not the only fertilizer on the market. Yeah, so if you've got food to soil with seaweed, you probably no longer need to apply your seaweed solution. But if you don't need it, you can. Love that, less things. Nice touch that one. Yeah, it's that one. Yeah, very much. And you just literally use it like you would any other liquid Tonic you just put if you've got a nine litre can you put in a slush of 90 mils or so of food to soil and top it up with water and just spray and it can be used directly on foliage like on your leaves as leaves but it can also be used as a soil drench to feed your soil with the good microbes it needs as well. The other thing it's really excellent for is as a seed germinator. Actually, I'm very excited about this because normally we grow a good bit of garlic. And I think this year I normally do a seaweed soak and I've been thinking, I can't wait now. In April, I reckon I'm going to do it all. We're going to supercharge the garlic. In food to soil. Yeah, I was thinking about that this morning as I was getting my kids out the door trying to, you know, mind mindfulness. Yeah, trying to keep myself. Annabelle has amazing garlic. Like her garlic, she gives me a tier two. So do you soak 24 hours prior to planting? I haven't with garlic. I'd usually just apply it topically because I'm probably a bit lazy because I have a lot of garlic. So I do like a whole big garden bed of it. So for me, it's easier to apply it over the top. But you could definitely use it as a seed. I'd be really, really interested. I would do it depending on the weather. Say if I was going to plant in the afternoon. I would probably put or get, prepare all your garlic cloves, give it a nice dunk probably, because if you're gonna have a lot, and then pull it out of it, like you might have a sieve that it's sitting in, and then pull it out. Okay. And then just let it dry for the rest of the day before you put it in, and that'll give it a really nice chance to absorb. But it doesn't have to sit in the fluid for a really long time. Right, okay. It can just be a few minutes, then pull it out. and then let it dry and put it in. I could actually just do a little. That's good to know, because sometimes you think you've got to do it the night before. Well, that's what I would normally do with seaweed, with like a seaweed solution was the night before. But I might even do, yeah, do one batch, do a little batch of the night before, maybe just one or two cloves and just monitor it. We love doing little tests like that. The other thing is things like your spinach family. they've got a really hard, knobbly outer casing, and then I would soak the night before. Okay, yeah. I've just started some of those and did not do that. And I was like, gee, this is a weird seed. It's been hard knobbly seed, but I probably should have pre-soaked it now that I think about it. Yeah, you're normally pretty good at pre-soaking. Like you soak your sweet peas and your peas. Yeah, I didn't think about the spinach, but it is that harder. Mm. What I do a lot is that transplant soak as well before if you buy a seedling, soak it in a bath of food to soil blend before you plant it in to your veggie patch. Or even if you're doing a transplant of a hedgerow plant, it's a really good idea to soak the roots in that yummy microbial mix. Do you ladies have elephant garlic? Yes, I actually won grand champion at the horticultural show last Saturday. She did. Ten wins. Ten wins. Yeah. That's awesome. So what am I doing with my prize champion? Actually, you know what? I did think, because you were saying like a few days before and I never thought of it, but a few days before you were watering your zucchini like mad to get my marrow as big as possible. To get the weight up and I should have said get your food to soil on it because that would have been your ultimate right. Well this year I'm planting my garlic for the first time in a new place which is a bit worrisome for me because it's always done so well where it is and I have had rust here even though I've only been here a few years. I've had rust in one of the beds before on my alliums. So I'm very open to, you know, get some food to soil on them and give them the best chance. Really good idea. In fact, that's what I was gonna say. Things that can tend to suffer from fungal disease, like snow peas, zucchini. Tomatoes. Tomatoes, yeah. Yeah, tomatoes do really well with food to soil. It really helps keep that stuff at bay. And so spraying, that's like with your leaf spraying? Yes. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's quite interesting because what you want to do is try and build them as strong as possible that they're going to repel any of those pests that are going to play havoc, isn't it? Is that the theory like behind it? That's the theory. So because our product is so full of good bacteria and fungi. As a topical application, it can actually directly fight any of those nasties that are already existing on the plant. Yes. But you're also, the plant is able to take in the nutrition a lot better as well. So you're creating a healthier plant, but you're also applying something that makes conditions that are harder for those bad things to live in. And what a wonderful- Back to the human here as well, you guys. Same with humans. That's true. They'll fight disease better if you've got a good microbiome and you've got more energy and more resilience to fighting off disease, colds, flus, if you've got good microbiome. Yep. And what a wonderful organic alternative to, I contacted the Garlic Society, obviously I take it quite seriously. I contacted the Garlic Society about my rust and all they recommended was copas, a copper. solution and I was really hesitant because we tend to shy away from those things. So I'm excited to have this alternative to look at. Maybe we need to contact them and let them know on their little leaflet they could include. That's where we love, you know, being a startup business, you don't have huge capital to put into R&D for all these things. So we really love that feedback from our customers who've used it on different applications for us to kind of get that, you know, that... that more feedback on its effectiveness. Proof is in the pudding. And even though it's aneSeedyotal, maybe some of this research has yet to be done, right? Very much so. Like we have worked with the University of Southern Queensland, University of Queensland, local soil scientists. And so we have done some, but there is just so much research that could be done. Yes. And ANU, we've got a student at the moment, Kelvin, doing some work at ANU as well. So yeah, it's all gold, but the more the better. Absolutely. Yeah, that's fantastic. Well done. That's brilliant. What else with the actual microbes? Tell us a little bit because I'm quite interested with the whole fungus. Like tell me a little bit more about that. Like how does that work? Why is that important? Basically, as you know how you're asking for about the inoculum, we grow our own bacteria. and we inject it in, or not inject, put it into our food waste. And it's basically a food base for the fungi and bacteria to grow in. And in doing that, it is eating it and digesting it. And it's in that digestion process in the microbe that it sort of spits out different forms of materials. So proteins, for example, in the food waste get transformed into peptides and amino acids and they're things that are a form of food for plants that is much easier to take in rather than say a synthetic fertilizer. But if you have, if I think what you're talking about is what action they have in the soil. Basically in the soil, they coexist with plants roots and they kind of talk to each other The microbes can invade into the plant's roots as well and feed them directly like that. And then the plant exudes sweet juices and then the microbes feed on it and then the microbes poop and colonize the area and they have this symbiotic effect around the root mass. And so if you see a root mass from a plant that's got a really healthy soil, healthy rhizome, You pull it out of the soil like this, and it's a cluster of dirt around the roots. The roots will not only be bigger, but they have like a sheath over each little root. And that is like what this sticky exudate that the soil clings to. And there's an incredible sort of microcosm of life in that sheath and what's happening in that area. Whereas the plant that is just existing in a plain dirt, and then fed with chemical synthetic fertilizers, they will just have like your four roots like this kind of thing. So it's like a microcosm as opposed to, you know, four major elements feeding a plant. And as Josie said, it's like that whole microbiome. If the plant's healthy, it will do better, provide healthier, more nutritious food as well. Does that end? Yeah, great explanation. It also tastes good. They say there's lots to do. bacteria in the soil that actually helps the flavonoids. So when you know when people say that they've tasted organically grown basil or tomatoes and it just tastes so much better. Yes we talk about this all the time right. I didn't know where it came from though. That's very interesting. So they link you know back to those fabulous microbes. And it's kind of a lot of our food nowadays as well being hydroponically produced. that we're kind of missing that soil element, aren't we? So again, it affects the whole flavor. Unbelievable. And it makes you appreciate too, when you visualize, you just told such a great story there. When you imagine it like that, why the no dig element is important too, because we don't want a disturb all of that wonderful, you know, all that little mini, what did you call it? A microcosm. under the soil, we want to help preserve it. And even that inoculant that you were talking about reminds me a little bit, you know, I make sauerkraut and you take the brine from the previous batch to sort of kickstart. The mother. The mother. The mother. Yeah, so it's similar sort of a process. You're just kickstarting it back in, you know, with that plant into the soil. Yeah, same with sourdough. Yeah. That's right, of course, yeah. That's what we do, the more you talk about it, the more it's like, oh, aha moments. Yeah, it's true. I make sourdough too and it's just true. It's like you start seeing all the links everywhere. Yeah, it's pretty amazing isn't it? Yeah and I think the more that people can make those connections because sometimes people, you can just be so disconnected especially with waste, so disconnected. Some people, you pop it in the bin, you put your wheelie bin out the front and that's, you don't think about it again. So I think it's just getting all those connections for people that help them be more aware. That's right. And that's, that's one thing that we wanted with this podcast was just to introduce people, introduce a conversation and maybe have that moment, which yeah, which we have all the time. We hope people have with us as well. What one thing that I find interesting when I visualise it in my mind is I go, if we're growing something, it takes X amount of energy, X amount of nutrients, X amount of water. and we're growing that and then we're taking that produce from there. So that's literally come out of the soil slash air. Yep. So to get that nutrient back in there, we can either mine this quarry over here to get that and build this synthetic fertilizer over there to get that. Or we can literally take the waste that has potentially come from that and other sources similar and literally just put it back in. And what makes more sense to me, because they're also going to be the nutrients that plant needs because they've come from the earth. So to me, it's just a no-brainer. And we're pretty lucky. We compost, we worm farm, we do all that. I still see the need for food to soil with growing, but there's people that don't have that luxury of... being able to worm farm or compost. So food disposal is perfect for their- They don't want to. They don't want to. They don't want to do with the waste. And it is much easier. Time or energy or space. Mess. That's one of the things that we find that a lot of our customers who have more indoor plants, it's, you know, they don't have the space to kind of get messy and get dirty in the garden. So how do I get those nutrients back in, in a natural way without having compost piles and worm farms? And I think the thing about food soil, whilst it's strong and diluted, once when you diluted at 100 to 1, you don't notice the smell at all. Oh, not at all. No, that was, I just knew Bernadette, it's just that type of personality. It'd be the first thing she'd say to me, because I often say things to her and I think she's not listening to me. Anyway, and then a few weeks later, I presented as my own idea a few weeks later. A few weeks later, I'm like, I just said that to you. And she'd be like, Oh, really? So, so we were messaging the other night and I was like, and you do remember about the slide. It's more of it's not even, it's not even a bad odor, just bringing it up. I just would like to comment. It's not even a bad odor. It's just sour. It's just slightly sour. Like a ferment probably. It's like a ferment. We actually don't think it's that bad because we spent so much time around and we got other smells and we go, well, that's bad. Wait till you start composting my body. You definitely get used to it. We've yeah. Yeah, no, it's not. It's definitely not, but I knew Bernadette might open the jar and then, and then comment, um, comment on how long can the jar be kept for? Like, I mean, yeah, that's a good question. If it's live, if it's live, like what's the, I mean, do we, we don't need to keep it in the fridge or anything, no. No, no, no, you don't need to keep it in the fridge. It can last for a good couple of years. Um, if obviously if you're keeping it in a hot shed, it's not going to last as long. Of course. Yeah. But if you're keeping it under fairly mild conditions, it'll last a really long time. Yeah, it's in your laundry and it's under my kitchen sink. So, perfect. In my constant battle to control nature, which I'm trying to let go of, if I used it in a higher concentration, would it be better? It depends what you're using it for. Like we've done trials really early on where I was applying it weekly, but at the standard dilution. And by about the fourth week, the plants were starting to suffer because it was too much. Oh. Um, so it's like any fertilizer, if you over fertilize, there will be a negative impact, but in saying that, because it's not a synthetic fertilizer, you do have a lot more leeway. And what frequency would you recommend? So what depends what you're feeding. Like if you're feeding something that's really hungry, you can feed it more often and at a higher concentration. So if I've got teenager plants. If you've got teenage plants that are producing a lot, like maybe something like a zucchini tomato plants that's mid absolutely height of production, you might actually be applying it weekly. Or the other thing is at a higher dilution as well. When I'm spraying my fruit trees, I spray them at a higher dilution because I'm trying to control fungal diseases. Um, yeah. And so we do like a one to 50 ratio rather than one to 100. I've done that. And my measuring has certainly not been that precise. It's been a bit of glob, glob, glob, glob in my watering can, that'll do. And it's never had a really adverse effect. But what we, the premise is, is if you apply microorganisms to the soil, they will self multiply anyway. So isn't it, you don't necessarily need to be using a large amount because it will kind of continue to work once you've applied it. You'll, you know, it's that kind of premise. And would you even apply it if I didn't have veggies in the ground to the soil for soil sake? Absolutely. 80%. Even here I had sort of clay and rock when we started. So I'm sure, you know, you can use it as an improver. I guess I'm... Yeah, and there's a lot of, we haven't done any... large sites that need soil remediation, but there's a lot of scientific papers about using biological fertilizers for soil remediation. So yeah, it should be really good for that. Annabelle, do you use your food to soil on larger areas? So we've just done a podcast with a regenerative agriculture farmer. And I'm just like, I'm just, there's alarm bells going off in my head and I'm going to regenerate an area of my land. And I'm thinking, oh my God, this will be fantastic. Even just to spray, cause we're doing cover crops. And just to kind of maybe spray in on top of when you see. Yeah, 100%. We've got some broadacre trials literally starting now. The farmer got eight mills yesterday. So I think he was going to put it in today, or maybe today. Yeah. Yeah. And I've. extensively on my property like over. Yeah like large larger scale than like veggie beds and indoor plants. Yeah absolutely so my properties I mean it's only I think it's 14 acres something like that. Yeah. But you can have a look at my property when the weather's bad and say we're in drought and have a look at the health of my property compared to adjacent properties and it am I allowed to say stands out like dog balls? Absolutely, we are SeedyChabs. But I think Josie's got some interesting stuff to say on that. Yeah, you might have said it all, I think. I knew that if you wanted application rates per hectare, we have got that and we're trialling a few to kind of get a bit more precise. It would be a stronger concentration than it is to 1 to 100 because you're spreading it over a much broader area of land and possibly land that hasn't or soil that hasn't been as well tended to. Very depleted. You know, given rather than to get to patch. So that's why we're looking at kind of that five to 10 litres per hectare kind of a ratio. And so we're actually excited about getting those results and networking with our regional farmer who's also really into the whole process of what we're doing. It's definitely the way to go to work with people who are kind of already on the bandwagon of trying to reduce. chemical synthetic inputs. Absolutely. Yeah. And it's branded beautifully as well. Like you've got, so your containers. I'm seeing it everywhere. It's all of a sudden, I'm seeing it everywhere. In Canberra. We have to let our marketing guru know she's doing a good job. Yeah, yeah. No, I, it's out there. Like I noticed it's in that beautiful health food store in Mountain Foods. Mountain Creek, that's it. And then there was a few other places, obviously. I got very excited when I saw it at Antica's Botanica's and because it's all about handiness on getting the product, right? So how people, how they shop and I'm always around there. We do sell it online. We've got an e-commerce site, but we hate charging people shipping, you know? But that is the reality of life. And we do have a... a growing customer base. And it's interesting, a lot of the people who buy it online are people who do live on properties. And it's not so easy for them just to get to a shop anyway. So they're used to paying shipping and postage and do it that way. So at least we feel like we're being of service to those people that can't easily get product. Gibbs. Yeah, Gibbs. Yeah, Gibbs. Yeah. So that's that'd be a handy place too. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Craig's business is in far from there. That's definitely the future plans is to get it out into more wholesale stores, just to the ease of people to pick it up. Do you ship internationally? We do have a little bit of a little bit of an international following, just in case. We'd like to, but at this point we're not. It's just, it's just too complex. Yeah, absolutely. completely get that because my family will be like, can I buy it? No, you can't. I will be buying it. I won't send it over to them. Now we have global ambitions to have food to soil brew houses is what we call out. I love that. Yeah. And it's, it's felt the Austrian way. Like, yes, great. Yeah. So, and we, we have, yeah, visions to have a food to soil brew house, regionally in urban settings all over the world. so that they can create local fertilizer from their local inputs. And yeah, so that your family could maybe buy some. Is it Scotland or Irish? Irish, yeah. Yeah, Irish. Yeah, there we go. Maybe Guinness Brew House could have a food to soil brew house. Yeah, we could use this. Bent. What do they use? It's not hops or something? It's hops is for beer. I can't remember. You wouldn't want to confuse the two, would you? Get the wrong. Brewhouse chap. There's eating and drinking. You have a side view. Yeah, no, it wouldn't be like your coffee and your tea, yeah? No. Oh, whoops, that was the slurry. Oh, and I know on your, I did see on your website that you use upcycled machinery or upcycled items. Yes, I read that too. So yeah, tell us, tell us a bit about that. What do you upcycle? Are you allowed? Is it a secret? No, we can tell you this one. For our current Microfactory, Brewhouse, which is at Nithawa, we, because being a startup business, you have to do everything off the smell of an oil rag. And we upcycled some kind of old milk vats, that eight hundred litre kind of and then so to do that, then we have to, there's lots of IP kind of things probably more around the process of how we do it. But When it came to the tanks and any opportunity that we can to reuse something that's already in existence rather than kind of create more waste in the whole process of buying something new, we're a hundred percent all over it. So in the next Microfactory, we will do that to whatever extent we can, but because we're going to need to kind of scale up quite significantly, it's going to be a bit of a wait and see. It fits in with our B Corp status as well. So have you guys heard of that one? No. We are B-Sperts, but I've not heard of B-Corp. B-Corp status is a worldwide process that's recognised. If you've got B-Corp status, it means that you are satisfying their requirements for, say, social governments, environmental, and a heap of things like that. So from your packaging to your inputs, to your hiring policy, to your cultural policy. to what else, even down to your banking. Right. So yeah, if you've got B Corp status, it means that you're basically a better business for a better world, which is how we've been trying to tag ourselves since the start, because that is part of our main mission. Thank you. So we're very proud of that. It's actually really hard to get for a lot of people because we're a new business and that's been our ethos from the start. It's been time consuming, but relatively easy for us. But to grow a tree it can be really difficult for a lot of businesses and they just can't cut it. Yeah. We would just like to ask what your first memory of gardening is. Do you have a first memory? Another really embarrassing one. Oh, beautiful. You go and then I'll say one. I was 17 years and I was living in my first little unit by in Cook and I had a single tomato plant. in the backyard and it was essentially like had all these huge eucalyptus trees around it. So it literally would have been just like some dirt and I dug out a hole and put this poor plant in and it struggled. And I think I literally got one green tomato about this big on the skin of the plant. Well done. At least you got one. Mine's a really, I was just thinking it made me think. My grandfather was one of the first owners of Fleming's and he had this, he had a really big nursery in mascot. I like, I'd love for him to be alive now and to see what I'm doing and be able to talk with him about it. He died when I was quite young, but, um, yeah, I remember being in his, they, they grow in Sylvania, which is the south of Sydney, and they had it like a house that was down into a slope and it was very much the garden of the time, lots of diosmas, you know, that kind of, you know, like the flat, the things that grew in your grandparents garden. And so I kind of think, yeah, I just remember playing around in his beautiful garden and now I'm thinking, there we go, pop, you're gorgeous. And it's come full circle. It has come full circle. Yeah, it is a mum's amazing gardener, but yeah, I would never have predicted that this is where my kind of career path would have taken and yeah, that we sort of missed that opportunity to tell him. Oh, he knows. I just wanted to thank you so much for your time and all that insight and for meeting with us. We really appreciate it. We do really appreciate it. Thank you so much. We're pretty chuffed to be invited. So thanks guys. It was very enjoyable. That was a fantastic chat with them, Josie and Annabel. Did you enjoy that? Such an empowering chat to two wonderful business women on International Women's Day as well. We're very lucky. Yeah, very, very lucky. Doing great things in our local community and a great product. I can't wait to get out there and use it. That's right. If anyone has any questions for them. You can find them on their socials. They're very interactive. They will get back to you pretty quickly. And or send them through to us. We can ask them for you. OK, so until next time, Avril. Slán le. Oh, my Lord, Slán le. Gurmán gyth. Gurmán gyth. Brínidh.