Urban Farm Life.

The Acre in Camperdown is one of my favourite ‘urban farm’ spaces in Sydney.

I first visited it a few years ago when it first opened. It’s still hard to believe that this eatery / urban farm / community centre used to be a lawn bowls club. The transformation feels more ‘complete’ now in that the vegetable patch is fully operational and vines have begun to grow with confidence around the wooden awnings that frame the main building. Nature seems to have a slight upper hand over humans here and that’s a good and rare thing in the inner city.

Master SSG is no longer the impulsive preschooler he was the first time he explored the play area but he still loved running his hands over the play boards. The other thing that never grew old is the uncontrollable urge to tear around the common for as fast and for as long as he could. My friends and I positioned ourselves at all the main exit points just to make sure we didn’t lose anyone.

On a Sunday as glorious as the one we had, exit duty wasn’t as onerous as it could’ve been.

Behind the bar was this pizza oven that was working overtime to keep up with demand. The heat from the oven also went a great deal toward taking the chill out of the sunny but definitely wintery day.

The only slight dampener of the day was how slow things in the kitchen were. Granted it was a very busy afternoon but we had pre-booked the set menu. It took around two hours for the adult meals to arrive. Fortunately, orders for the children were taken early and their food came out pretty quickly.

I highly rate both the Bellini (surprise, surprise) and the fish croquettes.

While the wait for lunch continued, I took a stroll around the outdoor dining area.

The public library contained books for both young and old.

Trestle tables under umbrellas featured a tempting selection of cheeses from which you could design your own cheese board as well as baked goods to take home for later.

We snacked on the breadbaskets in between drinks. Of course there were drinks plural. It was Sunday afternoon, after all….

All the boys had fish and chips with bonus vegetables and fruit.

Staff were deeply apologetic at how long we had to wait for our meal and did all they could to accommodate us.

The roast chicken and chips were well worth the wait.

The pear and blue cheese risotto was surprisingly not my favourite dish. It looked beautiful but just lacked a little something in the flavour department.

Along with the main restaurant, there’s also a converted shipping container at the front which serves coffee, cake and snacks.

A section of the verandah just down from the bar where you can sit, eat and watch the world go by- or your children tearing around along the perimeter of the fruit and vegetable patch as the case may be.

The stunning free-form cake in honour of my friend and host for the afternoon.

Before we knew it, our afternoon in the sun turned a bit chilly as the sun began to set.

It was time to round up the children and their belongings, rug ourselves up again and walk back to the inner city streets of Camperdown in search of our cars. All under the watchful eyes of the Chesty Bonds guy….

Is there an urban farm close by to where you live?

Conversely, if your life is on your farm, how does heading into the city make you feel? Invigorated by the change of pace and energy or not so much?

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