Baileys: Well, my first thought is you have this gorgeous garden bed but you've got 200 members that can come and pick as much as they want each month! 

How do you manage that? How do you rotate the crops, make sure people aren't overpicking? That seems like a mind blowing task to me!

Amy: When you put it like that, it seems like a lot of work. So there's the gardening side, which takes a certain skillset, but in terms of managing what people pick we just try to have something available to harvest at all times.

 Members can let themselves in the gate any time. And really it's a lot based on trust. So people just pick for their own families and their own households. So far no one's abused that.  People have a really sharing culture that is working so well, for instance if they're picking a cauliflower they'll say 'who wants to half the cauliflower with me?'

 In terms of what's available, I just try to mix up the crops as much as I can.  I think the last list I made there was about 50 different varieties of veggies that we grow over the year. I try to mix it up as much as we can so that there's a variety of things e.g. there's not always going to be silver beet, but maybe there'll be kale instead, you know, that kind of thing. We kind of make it up as we go, but it seems to be working pretty well. 

Baileys: You also run workshops and have a lot of community involvement. Can you tell me about what workshops you've been running here?

Sophie: We recently had one of our lovely volunteers, Gloria, run a workshop on how to cook homemade stir fry.  It was a wonderful day and we picked all the veggies straight from the garden, cut them up, and cooked up the veggies right here in the garden. The stir fry was delicious!

 There's also The Little Pantry. That's a little store we run once a month. It's run by awesome volunteers and people in the community who make condiments, jams, dried herbs and flowers and such, and even honey. Anyone can come down and buy some beautiful locally made produce.

Baileys: So how do people get involved or visit the garden?

 Amy: We've got social memberships open at the moment. This means you get:

• Access to our workshops either free or discounted
• North Freo social farm hat
• Be invited to member only events
• Join in with the olive oil press 
• You can also visit us for a cup of tea at 10am each morning.  Have a chat, wander through the garden and enjoy the space.

To volunteer as a farmer there is a little bit of a wait, maybe a couple of months. Just sign up on the website and I'll let you know when our next induction is.

To become a Picking member, we also have a waiting list for that. So again, put your name down on the website and we will contact you when a place becomes available.

Baileys: I know you've been hosting field trips for the Fremantle Early Learning Center. What happens there?

Amy: The little kiddos came down fortnightly, which is lovely. Really they just have a wander through the garden, pick a few flowers and smell things. We have a beautiful sensory garden which Sophie's managed from the beginning. Then there might be a little activity like feeding the worms or planting some seeds that kind of thing.

Baileys:  Thanks so much for inviting me down! I've really enjoyed my morning here. This is a fantastic initiative that makes gardening accessible in an urban area AND you're teaching people the skills to further develop their home gardens.

 If you want to find out more about visit www.northfreosocialfarm.org or follow @northfreosocialfarm on Facebook and Instagram.