Susan Parsons: Pialligo plot is Molly Johnson and Tom Reid's great escape

Molly Johnson and Tom Reid were not happy when, two years ago, they moved into a one-bedroom Canberra apartment without space to grow crops. After the mother of a friend told them about her garden plot at Pialligo, they contacted the farmer, Roy Priest, the next day and a Pialligo lot was theirs. A pal, Eddy Collett, gardened with them and other friends, Eliza Hopkins and Nick Daines, took the adjoining plot.

Tom Reid grew up on his parents' small farm south of Canberra bordering Namadgi National Park where they continue to run a small herd of cattle. Molly Johnson's parents are both farmers and she grew up on a farm in Wombat near Young where they had cattle, free-range pigs and meat turkeys and chickens, vegetables and an orchard. Molly and her sister, Annabel, were in charge of the egg side of the business and had to lock up the chickens every night and collect and package the eggs. All the produce was sold to Canberrans.

Tom says his parents and Molly's are great gardeners who inspired them to grow their own food. So, in the garden of their first house in Lyneham, they would go outside to pick something to go with breakfast and still be out there gardening in their pyjamas at midday and be late for university.

They have been obsessed with growing edibles ever since.

At Pialligo, they are growing root vegetables, including carrots and beetroot, from seed and lettuce, rocket and Asian greens and broccoli as seedlings purchased from the farmers' market. Garlic, onions and broadbeans have been planted for winter/spring cropping. With Roy Priest's permission, they have added to some of their beds pig manure compost from Molly's family farm. They try to put back in the soil as much as they take out and the pig manure has improved the fertility. Priest provides fantastic lucerne mulch that is good to use for water retention on resting beds as it keeps the weeds down and breaks down well. They use it less around crops as it is perfect slater habitat.

Tom and Molly now live in Braddon where they share the cooking and cleaning. Their favourite autumn/winter dishes include a leek and lemon fettuccine with leeks from their Pialligo plot. Their all-time favourite for winter is a slow-cooked Boxgum Grazing pork belly roast, rubbed with ground fennel seeds, garlic, salt and olive oil, which is roasted over vegetables with white wine. Then there is poached rhubarb for dessert.

Boxgum Grazing is a family run business managed by Claire and Sam Johnson on a property set in box-gum woodland at Murringo near Young. Sam says they produce totally grass-fed black Angus beef cattle and white cross-bred pigs which produce free-range pastured pork. They are passionate about producing high-quality food and regenerating the rural landscape.

They began marketing Boxgum Grazing produce to Canberra in 2012, firstly through Southside Farmers' Market, then at EPIC Capital Region Farmers Market at Mitchell. Now they only attend EPIC on a Saturday morning and do a site collection point drop off for other customers in Kingston on Saturday afternoons. They also supply produce to several Canberra restaurants and cafes including Mocan and Green Grout and Monster Bar and Grill in NewActon, Ginger Catering at the National Arboretum Canberra, Silo and Local Press at Kingston and Tupelo in the City.

Boxgum Grazing has just held its annual open day on the farm near Young when the Johnson family encourages people to visit and see how the animals are managed and why they are central to the regeneration of the biodiversity of the farm and woodland.

In the Capital Region Farmers Market recipe book, a community project of The Rotary Club of Hall published in September 2014, Claire and Sam Johnson share a recipe for Boxgum corned beef that is simmered for two to three hours in two small bottles of beer (lagers are best), golden syrup, water, cloves and bay leaves.

Susan Parsons is a Canberra writer.