If you’ve visited the Northern Rivers in NSW, there’s every chance you’ve dropped in on The Farm in Byron Bay. It’s home to a collective of growers, producers and eateries, including Three Blue Ducks, as well as some of the happiest chickens, pigs and cattle you’ve ever encountered.

The bucolic venture, which is predicated on sustainable, chemical-free farming, is the handiwork of founders Tom and Emma Lane, who will also soon open The Beach House overlooking Angels Beach.

Inspired by their own rural childhoods, and holidays spent on a 30-acre farm in Federal bought after the birth of their last child, Lulu, Tom and Emma made the decision to leave the Sydney rat race to give their four children a life of more freedom. This led them in 2013 to a neglected 80-acre farm outside Byron that has evolved into The Farm and the resulting Growers’ Collective.

The intrepid couple has now penned a luminous book, The Farm Community.

In addition to profiles of their like-minded peers and vegetable-centric recipes, such as those extracted here, the volume reads like a manifesto. “It’s all about a connection to food, real food, that is as close to nature as possible,” says Emma.

The Lane’s approach to entertaining follows a similar vein. “We try to eat as close to organic as possible,” she says. You can’t get more hyperlocal than the Lanes, who pluck ingredients from outside of  their door. A macadamia nut and pork salad showcases the region’s favourite nut, avocado salad is topped with a nutritious seed sprinkle, and hearty lentils are enlivened with a zesty lemon dressing. Honey pikelets, meanwhile, are a lighthearted way to educate kids about pasture-raised eggs and beehives. See here to experience the full menu, inspired by The Farm at Byron Bay.

Are they ever tempted to order in from Three Blue Ducks? “Yes, all the time!” says Emma. “Sometimes, if we can’t get a table, one of the gorgeous staff members will run an order across to our office, out the back of the kitchen.”

This is an edited extract from The Farm Community (Hardie Grant Books, $39.99). Available where all good books are sold.