Meet a desert gardener growing her own edible jungle. Stephanie Cutmore (the perfect last name?) lives in rural Western Australia with her two girls and husband. They've been on a committed, bumpy journey to own and run Indara Farms.

Stephanie persistently studied Permaculture, under the most extreme circumstances, so she could cultivate a nourishing landscape for her family – a choice driven by her “meat and potato” upbringing and her changing attitude towards food after she became a mum. It's an impressive tale, ending with a super Pickled Beetroot recipe.

Name: Stephanie Cutmore
Occupation: Homemaker / Hobby Farmer
Location: Meckering, Western Australia
Family members: Steph, Luke, Elara (5yo), Indie (2yo)

I'm a full-time stay-at-home mum – a choice I never really planned for and one that has been hard to accept. I'm appreciating the value of being a full-time parent, now my kids are starting to get a bit older. My husband works away on a fly-in fly-out roster and can be away for up to two weeks at a time. My kids miss him dearly, and that's why I feel it's so important that they have at least one constant person here.

I want my kids to look for joy in the simple thing's life can bring. My 2-year-old has a keen eye for sunsets, and both the kids enjoy collecting the eggs from our new chickens. I allow a lot of time in our schedule for boredom. I notice the great games and activities they come up with to entertain themselves, rather than needing something to entertain them. In return, I believe it inspires their creativity.

Indara Farms is a play on our daughter's names. It’s a combination of Indie and Elara. My husband and I grew up in the area, spending most of our time in Northam. We built a brand-new beautiful home in a nice new estate in town, which at the time I thought would be our "forever" home. So, I didn't always plan to be on a farm. However, when I fell pregnant with my first child all off a sudden, I wanted different things. I wanted the lifestyle I grew up with on our hobby farm in Toodyay. But I wanted even more than that. I wanted to grow our food. I wanted to farm, I wanted chickens! I wanted the kids to run freely outside and to climb trees, be in nature and enjoy all the freedom a farm can provide.

It took three years before we finally found the right property for us, and that was in Meckering. Our property is only 28kms from Northam where our families are still living. Being close to them and our friends was important to us as we wanted them to share the lifestyle we were dreaming of. My 5-year-old is in a small school here with only 25 kids in the whole school. She loves it and has already made some close friends.

The real estate agent said to us that a lot of people dream about this fantasy of living off the land. It sounds so idealistic, but the reality is its hard work and very few people achieve it. So, I'm proud we're now really starting to see the dreams come to life for us.

We've grown everything from heirloom seeds. I believe in the heirloom varieties, because not only do they have beautiful stories, but you get to try things you just can't buy in the local supermarkets. Right now, we're growing: green cauliflowers, green and purple coloured broccoli's, a few varieties of snow peas, all the colourful carrots (including my daughters' favourite purple ones!), radishes, turnips, spring onions, lettuce's, colourful silverbeet, potatoes, broad beans, beetroots, calendula, nasturtiums, radicchio, a few varieties of kale, dill, wombocks, onions, leeks, pak choi, celery and the brocoletti that went to seed. Oh, and garlic! Seeing the kids’ faces light up when they pull something out of the garden is the best feeling. They love trying the new stuff "they" grew. It makes the hard yards all worth it.

2019 was the toughest year of our lives. One night at around 3 am, a freak storm ripped the entire roof off our house. We had to literally run in the middle of the night and leave everything behind. It would have been easy at that point to walk away from the farm and give up. It became a nightmare with insurance companies, and we helplessly watched the house get worse and worse as the winter rains came and more and more storms hit our roofless home. We had to move with two tiny kids in tow, and it had an immediate impact on continuing with my permaculture studies.

The Permaculture course is very hands-on and requires months of garden observations and interactions.Now all of a sudden, I wasn’t able to be on the farm. I had to start from scratch at our rental property in town. I cut a few olive barrels in half, set up mini worm farms and somehow completed my Certificate III when many others didn't. It would have been easier to throw my hands up in the air and say maybe I'll do it again next year, but I was proud I didn't.

Growing up, my family cooked your typical meat, peas and mashed potato style cooking – with a “spag bol” night thrown in. Mum hated cooking and dad tried his best. They both worked full-time jobs and didn't have the time or knowledge to cook anything fancy. We did however, all sit down at the dinner table together to eat our meals as a family. My fondest cooking memories would have to be when I visited my grandparents' house, which was most school holidays, and Nan baked cupcakes with me. Those simple pleasures meant the world to me.

Before kids, my cooking was basic. Very. Basic. Not many herbs or fresh vegetables or greens in the diet. Happy to grab the takeaway if we wanted. I started to teach myself cooking through reading and using cookbooks like Jamie Oliver. I was beginning to enjoy cooking and starting to learn how to bake and cook meals, but I wouldn't say it was a very healthy diet.

After having kids and gaining a lot of weight during pregnancy, I realised that my eating habits were bad. I realised I needed to change. I started to open my eyes to how broken our food system is and how much convenience foods impact on our health. I guess that's why I've started to grow my food, so I know that those green leaves on that stunning silverbeet haven't been sprayed with any chemicals and are full of nutrients that are good for the kids and me.

These days, I look up an ingredient that I have an abundance off in the garden and use recipes to try new meals. I love making different meals now. I love experimenting and tasting new things. I think because I came from such a bland food upbringing (and there's no takeaway for 60kms out here), it forces me to cook things even when we've had a busy day and are tired. Before we may have just got takeaway, now, we cook.

The best lunch box snacks from the garden are probably the most basic. A carrot pulled from the dirt fresh that morning – washed, the tops cut off, not peeled. My daughter loves eating carrots this way. Peas are also wonderful; they open the pods and eat all the peas out of it. Homegrown melons are also so beautiful in summer. And now we have our chickens; a hard-boiled egg is always a treat too.

Permaculture teaches you how to design and get the best out of your space by using your energies wisely. There's no point growing beautiful herbs down the back of your garden when you need them at dinner time, and it's raining. You're not going to run down the backyard. So, you'd place these herbs at your back door or on your windowsill near the kitchen instead. The same goes for every other element you place in your garden. Where are you going to put the compost bin? Somewhere you can access and walk past every day. Where will the veg patch go? North-facing to get the most sun. It's really about placing different design elements in the right place so they can all interact and work with each other most practically.

Design a space you dream off. Dream. Draw. Write it all out on paper. On paper, you can change your mind a million times, and it's not going to cost you anything. Research spaces and find others you admire to talk to and learn from them. Then draw away. That way, when you can implement your design and have something to follow, you know you're going to have something amazing at the end of it. You'll know what you want. And when you do invest the money, you won't be wasting your time doing things over and over again.

Pickled Beetroot Recipe

I've found if you grow a vegetable garden, you always have an abundance of something at one time. Learning new ways to store produce is very helpful. This pickling recipe is an easy one to follow that a friend of the family shared with us. The flavour is incomparable to the shop-bought tinned beetroots! Plus, my two-year-old loves them.

8 to 10 large beetroots
1 ½ cups water
3 cups of apple cider vinegar
1 tsp whole peppercorns
2 bay leaves, fresh or dried
6 cloves
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 cinnamon stick
½ tsp sea salt
1 ½ cups caster sugar

Wash beetroots thoroughly. Cut off the leaves, but keep a centimetre of the stem attached.

Place in a large pot on the stove and add enough water to cover the beetroots. Cook until you can push a fork into them but they’re still firm.

Remove from stove, drain and leave the beetroots to cool down. Gently remove the skins using your hands or a knife (wear gloves as the beetroot will stain your hands). Cut the beetroots into slices or julienne strips.

Place all other Ingredients into a separate saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer for 5 minutes and then strain.

Pack the sliced beetroot into a large hot sterilised jar and pour over the brine, making sure it completely covers the beetroot. If you need to, you can top up with extra apple cider vinegar.

Secure with lid and store in the fridge. Start tasting after about a week to really let the flavours immerse in the Beetroot. Keeps for up to one month.