Giving names can be a tough job. When you name people it identifies them for life. It must carry a huge amount of responsibility. But giving names to things is different. When you choose a name for a place that you plan to live for the rest of your life, and you hope to be successful enough to afford you a living, well, that name becomes a part of you. Of us, in this case.
This very task faced us recently, and today I want to tell the story of how our farm got its name - eventually it was easy to come by, and is pretty straightforward in the end, but it took a while to get there. Just as importantly I want to explain why we chose that name, and what we hope it means in the future, as we hope our name becomes an important part of our story.
The One Tree Farm. A simple name with a very simple premise - there is a single tree on the piece of land we are building on. A eucalyptus tree, as it happens. When we decided on the name for the farm, I didn’t know what kind of tree it is, but a eucalyptus tree suits us well, as it is fast-growing and resourceful, two qualities we hope to replicate in the coming years.
The multi-functional aspect of a eucalyptus tree is of real interest, as we aim to get multiple applications out of everything we grow and use.
For instance, there are plenty of health uses - it’s used to reduce symptoms of coughs, colds, and congestion and also features in creams and ointments that relieving muscle and joint pain - as well as commercial uses. Hopefully the rest of our plants follow its lead!
And that’s where we are today. A piece of land and a single tree.
It would be pretty easy for anyone to understand that name if they visited our place today, but in the next 3-5 years and beyond, we hope our name will need some more explanation.
After last year’s sugar cane was harvested, this piece of land looks pretty barren. Sandy topsoil, with clay soil below gives a redness to the earth.
We want to transform the land and bring a bit - a lot - more greenery. An abundance of plant life.
We hope our One Tree Farm name will confuse people.
We hope to have lots of trees, lots of plants and vegetables, and lots of flowers.
You never know, we might have to rename it as the Hundred Tree Farm.
