"When I extrapolated that out into Maitland with a population less than 50,000, I potentially had around 50, maybe 60 customers in town . . . That's if they could find me."

Fairns opened the first incarnation of Organic Feast on Bulwer Street, Maitland, just over 21 years ago, on February 14, 1998.

"It's an easy date to remember," Fairns says. "I have a joke about this [business] being the love of my life . . . but, I won't repeat the rest of it here."

Back then, the business was known as Mana Farm. It was a tiny hole in the wall, just off the main strip of Maitland Mall. Its focus was fresh, locally grown and organically farmed produce.

"I used to shop at Mana Farm and talk to the owners a fair bit," Fairns says. "I learnt about the inherent problems with the conventional food system [broad acre, mono-cultural, synthetic agro-chemically reliant methods of farming] while at the same time discovered there was a different way to access and eat local and organically grown food. I guess something just resonated with me. I thought 'this is the way things have got to be' . . . I certainly enjoyed the flavours of the food a lot more."

Fairns was 26 years old with small change in his pockets and big dreams on his mind.

"I had this job where I loved the people I worked with, but I didn't love the work," Fairns recalls. "I'd spent five years working where I wasn't all that happy. I could see that in the blink of an eye I was going to be 50 and ask myself, 'well, why didn't I?'. So, I just took a leap of faith."

Armed with a $25,000 bank loan, some fledgling ideals, a dash of courage, and the requisite enthusiasm of youth, Fairns leaped feet first into the organic marketplace.

"I certainly didn't do it for the money . . . I mean, I knew there was always the potential to grow, but back then all I had was a bit of a vision, a bit of a dream, which, I guess, has turned out a bit like what we have today," Fairns says,

Organic Feast has moved twice since that little store just off Maitland Mall. Each time, Fairns reinvested whatever he could afford to diversify his burgeoning business. Beyond the fresh fruit and vegetables, meat and dairy, and dry goods products, Organic Feast offers a home delivery service, sells an impressive range of organic wine, beer, and spirits, and boasts a relaxed on-premise café and complementary health centre.

"I don't want it to sound too wishy washy, but I always envisaged this place to be a place of sunshine in the community; a place that generates life and energy and helps good things to flourish," Fairns says.

Today, Organic Feast is an affirmation of Fairns' vision to build a holistic place of community diversity and synthesis, where people come together to find healthy organic foodstuffs and products designed with human and environmental health, quality and vitality top of mind.

"It's really just replicating nature," Fairns says. "The most resilient systems in nature are those with good biodiversity . . . We have the store, we have the café, and now we have the health centre where we do yoga and meditation classes, workshops and all sorts of other things that focus on wellness, sustainability and lifestyle."

Fairns is hyper aware of the positive communal contribution that people - customers and staff - have provided to the Organic Feast ecosystem, to let it flourish in-between the cracks of a constricted, difficult duopolistic foodways system.

"I'm so grateful to the support I've received over the years. I've got so much out of this place; I've met and discovered such a diverse range of people, who have all taught me so much over the last 21 years. You can't replace that," Fairns says, his voice beginning to break. "All these awesome people around me, they're my friends and colleagues, and they're irreplaceable."