Peppermint Ridge Farm
Julie Weatherhead has taken her passion for environmental science from teaching senior secondary students to estabishing a multifaceted business at Peppermint Ridge Farm. She may have left classroom teaching, but school rooms, teaching and learning are still significant themes in her working life.
Holding a degree in environmental science and education, Julie has 20 years of experience in teaching sciences in secondary schools and then VCE Environmental Science and Biology to mainly women returning to study at TAFE.
"I had spent many years rushing off to teach and long hours on correction at home and realised that I loved the farm and the atmosphere and wanted to work there if we could earn a living."
Peppermint Ridge Farm, an eight-hectare property at Tynong North Victoria has become a living classroom in the hands of Julie Weatherhead and her husband, Anthony Hooper.
Acquiring the property in 1983, they started by building their sustainable home from second-hand materials and established the farm for their own use initially, with a vegetable garden, orchards and paddocks for animals.
ENVIRONMENTALIST |