We often talk about Coaldale Walnuts being ‘sustainable’ … but what does that really mean? If you’re interested in reducing your environmental footprint as a consumer, you might be interested to know how we’re striving to reduce our environmental impact as a business.
We are proud to have been approved and listed by Sustainable Table on the Regenerative Map of sustainable food producers.
We’re minimising non-organic inputs
On the farm, we have moved away from salt-based inorganic fertilisers, now focusing on fertilisers from natural sources such as kelp, fish oil, humate, molasses and sheep manure. We use sheep to eat grass and weeds in the orchard laneways and under the trees. Some weeds like thistles are manually cut. We have reduced herbicide use to almost zero.
We are reducing our carbon footprint
Our sheep ‘mow’ the orchard for us, so we can cut down on machine mowing, and reduce use of fossil fuels. Branches pruned from the orchard are chipped and used as mulch for the trees, along with walnuts shells from our cracking plant. All activity is done on-site, meaning we don’t use fossil fuels transporting our nuts for processing. We have also reduced inorganic nitrogen input by switching to organic inputs (a 2016 Greenhouse Gas Emission audit on our farm showed this to be a whopping 60% of our carbon footprint, so improving this was a priority for us).
We’re helping soil biological activity and carbon sequestration
Our natural fertilisers enhance soil biota, as do the several tonnes of walnut shells and approximately 35 cubic metres of tree prunings which are now returned to the orchard, adding organic matter to the soil. We regularly test the soil to measure changes in soil carbon levels, biological activity as well as nutrient availability. Soil carbon is starting to show signs of improvement but this takes a long time.
We’re encouraging biodiversity
Our orchard is part of the ecosystem on the property and we try to farm in an ecosystem-friendly way as much as we can. The orchard is full of birdlife and pademelons come out at night to graze between the trees. We’re planting native trees and shrubs adjacent to the orchard where we can, and supporting natural biodiversity hotspots, such as this wetland (which is full of frogs!).
We use water as efficiently as possible
We use soil moisture monitors to provide real time measures of moisture, so we’re not guessing how much water to put on our trees: we only irrigate when we know they need it. No ‘just in case’ irrigation for us! We irrigate at night which is more water efficient as the cooler temperatures help to reduce evaporation.
We are reducing plastic packaging
Yes, we still sell walnut kernel in plastic zip-lock packaging: this has proven difficult to avoid so far as the high oil content in walnuts means if they’re not stored properly they can start to deteriorate after several months, which affects the flavour. Our in-shell walnuts are sold in 4kg calico bags, and pickled walnuts are in infinitely recyclable glass jars. Most importantly, we are seeking opportunities for selling our nuts ‘naked’ – with no packaging at all! We sell in-shell walnuts in bulk at our annual open farm, so customers can bring their own bag or other container. We use recycled packaging or compostable mailing satchels for posting online orders. We also sell kernel in bulk to Eumarrah, where customers can buy them in their own containers (and we supply walnuts to Eumarrah in cardboard boxes with compostable liners and tape).
So … we’re not all the way there yet but we’re improving all the time. We know we need to be responsible as a business and as global citizens, so we’re proud to be doing our bit and we’ll keep working at it.