This year Booyong Conservation Retreat once again took part in the Hastings Landcare’s 2017 Farm Gate Tour.
The Farm gate tour was created to provide people with the experience to visit local properties and experience how farmers protect our environment and practice sustainable agriculture. It’s a self-driven tour featuring approximately ten properties open over the June long weekend and a wonderful opportunity to showcase local produce and natural conservation.
Despite the wet weather this year, we welcomed several families and couples to Booyong. Booyong is stunning in the rain, the creeks are running, the green moss is glistening, bright coloured fungi emerge and the sunlight penetrates the rainforest beautifully. We discovered the only way to explore the rainforest is in the rain and we were mostly protected by the dense canopy of the rainforest during the walks.
We offered two guided walks throughout the day and thoroughly enjoyed sharing the rainforest and conservation area with guests. What a pleasure it was to spend all day in the conservation area talking about trees and indigenous and native flora! We offered two walks to visitors, one shorter one through the rainforests and a longer Hilltop walk encompassing the back boundary and dryer eucalypt forest area. A big thank you to Leonie from Landcare and her husband Steve who also came along and showed families through the Rainforest Walk! I don’t know what we would have done without them, their assistance was greatly appreciated. Families who visited during the day were also free to explore the forest independently and seemed to enjoy the experience immensely.
We had many young families join us over the weekend for Hastings Farm Gate tour and they were mostly equipped for 
the wet weather in their gumboots. It was delightful seeing the children exploring the conservation, eating bread on a stick, climbing, swinging on the hammock and enjoying the property.
We also greatly appreciated our local visitors throughout the weekend. During the short time we have been at Byabarra we have been overwhelmed by the welcoming nature of the local people we have met. I must say it makes it more 
difficult to go home to Sydney each time we visit!
Booyong also offered locally propagated plants for sale this year including: Red tower ginger, Dragon fruit “pink skin white flesh”, Orange sweet potato, White sweet potato, Mint, Basil, Bell chilli, Capsicum, Passionfruit “Panama gold”, Black sapote “Chocolate pudding fruit”, Bush lemon , Turmeric, Strawberry, Citrus seedlings (orange 2 types, mandarin 3 types, grapefruit 2 types) AND Kombucha scobys tea.
What an amazing day and such a pleasure to meet such lovely people at Farm gate tour. If you didn’t make it this year, we hope to see you next year and please don’t hesitate to visit our website to discover more about Booyong Conservation Retreat!