FORGOTTEN ARTISAN LIVING

Have you ever wondered about how cheese is made? How to keep a sourdough starter alive? What makes a cow happy? What it is like to hand feed an alpaca, or just learn about homesteading and small-scale farming?

by Rebecca Mugridge

A down-to-earth way of living can be experienced first-hand, locally, in a welcoming environment with Sanna Kidd, a gorgeous woman who loves her animals and bringing old ways of farming and food-making into more people’s lives.

Sanna and her husband Richie started something special when just two years ago they bought a piece of land that backed onto Paynters Creek at Rosemount, just outside of Nambour.

“Making cheese, I love to teach people how to do that,” Sanna says warmly. “At our little farm in Rosemount we go back to traditional ways of doing things, making things in a paddock-to-plate kind of way, the best we can.”

Sanna and Richie are the creators of Forgotten Artisan Living, where Sanna has created a space for interested people to learn about homesteading, food, farm animals and creating a connection between ourselves and the food we eat.

Coming from a hospitality background, as a sommelier, and running a very successful café in Maroochydore for eight years, Sanna knows the difference quality ingredients make. Through her café she had been sourcing local and ethical ingredients and non-mass-produced products for years.

Sanna was already curing her own meat and salmon and making breads for the café, and she became passionate about the source of food and also the process it can go through. It was important to her to learn each ingredient’s story.

Buying land in 2020 was the beginning of Sanna realising a dream to be more connected with food, and with animals, who she has always had a strong bond with.

“I understand it’s not everybody’s dream, but for me it is. It started with a love of horses when I was young and grew from there.

“Growing up in Sweden my best friend’s grandparents had a dairy farm and we would spend summers there falling asleep in the hay, listening to the peaceful sound of cows chewing their cud, it was such a picturesque way of living,” Sanna says.

A way of living she was keen to follow with their own piece of land as they started their homesteading journey.

“Two years ago, a friend of mine found a little calf in a dam in Eumundi, full of ticks, and she said, ‘do you want a calf?’ We now have about 43 animals. We have goats, alpacas, cows, horses, a dog, a cat and chickens,” Sanna says happily.

“The cows have had their babies, so I milk them every morning, and I have to do that at five am. If I don’t do that at five, they get angry with me,” she laughs.

“At the moment I milk cows and goats every morning and then I feed all the animals, then normally I go in and make cheese and yoghurt right away.”

Sanna says the method of artisan farming brings peacefulness, as well as connection, back into our lives.

“When something is made in small scale - which is what artisan means, small scale – and it is made by hand and not mass produced, there is just such care taken in it.

“I love artisan things,” Sanna admits, “I think if many of us could just have a breather and bake in our kitchens and get a bit dirty with our hands in the garden, we might be surprised to find we feel happier and healthier.

“I think some people would love to do it [homesteading] but then they think how much hard work it would be or they don’t know where to start. But you can start with one plant box.

“People come and explore the farm with their kids and then they come back a few weeks later with the rest of their family. They see it as an educational thing.

“They want their kids to learn where eggs come from and see them go into the chicken coop and collect the eggs and give the chickens a cuddle. To learn what a rooster looks like compared to a chicken. It is very rewarding for all of us.”

At Forgotten Artisan Living people and families can come and milk a cow, collect eggs, learn about growing food in a humane, sustainable way without unnecessary chemicals and stress.

Sanna is quick to point out, this is not a petting zoo. It is about learning again the old ways of doing things, hand-crafted ways. It is about patience, simplicity and deep connection to our food and how it comes to be on our plate.

Our local farmers and older generations know this way of living well, but it is something many people in the digital age have lost connection with. Sanna’s homesteading journey led her to discover how much she loves bringing the education and hands-on experience of food into the lives of other people and children.

“If you build a lifestyle you enjoy, you don’t need holidays.”

Sanna’s knowledge, classes and workshops can be found on her Forgotten Artisan Living Facebook page, along with farm visit times.