So Chrissy Teigen texted me over the weekend and said,
my friend Richard's going to be on your show.
She's in love with you, she's just raving about you.
I follow you on Instagram, I think you're amazing.
I love what you do.
I love where you live
Chrissy is like our fairy godmother to Flamingo Estate,
she's been amazing.
Yeah.
We've had lots of fun together.
Yeah, she went to your house thinking
that it was a restaurant, expecting you to serve her.
You know, yeah.
She followed us on Instagram and she sent a DM and said,
can I come over on Friday night for dinner?
And I was like, the team was like,
Chrissy Teigen sent you a message
and I was like, oh my god.
So I was like, sure.
So I clean the house with my toothbrush.
You know, it's so clean, it's so clean
and we cooked dinner and Chrissy walks in with John
and with the kids and with her mom
and she sits in my living room on the sofa
and she looks around she's like, where are the tables?
And I was like, what tables?
And she's like, isn't this a restaurant?
I was like, no, this is my home and that's my bedroom
and there's the kitchen and I cooked you dinner.
And so we had dinner, John played the piano
and then it was just amazing.
We had four more dinners and she's become a great friend.
We made a jam together and--
Yeah, no, she just raves about you.
And I think, like I said, I follow you on Instagram
and it's just-- your place is incredible.
So explain how you came up with this idea
and how did you get this house?
How did you know that man who you got the house from?
Well, I didn't know the man.
I grew up in Australia, in rural Australia, and my mom
and dad honey farmers and so I'm a beekeeper.
But I left as quick as I could, I left like many of us right,
I'd run away from my childhood.
I ran to America, to the bright lights
and worked in advertising and I was always
a sort of a beekeeper and always had bees.
And I found the house originally because I
put bees in the garden and this old 90-year-old man
came with a little walking stick and we became friends.
And that's how I found it.
So Flamingo is my home and it's so funny
because you run away from the things
that you did as a kid a lot.
And then they all come full circle,
you know, now I really believe the garden is your doctor
and therapist and friend.
All the stuff my mom used to tell me.
Yep.
After running away from it so hard.
I agree.
Yeah.
So you started selling just honey from a bookstore, right?
And then it turned into this thing now where people can--
you can get fresh boxes of vegetables delivered
to your door from your place.
Yeah, so two things happened the first week
of COVID, which will never, ever happen again.
The first one was, I have a book store here
and I also own an advertising agency.
And they both kind of fell apart during COVID,
we lost all our clients, the bookstore shut.
I had 60 people with nothing to do.
And so I had to give them a project.
And then that same week, a farmer that we know
said, you remember the restaurants were closed,
so a farmer we know said, I'm gonna
lose my farm because I can't sell my veggies.
Said, no, no, no, bring your veggies to my bookstore.
My parents had lost their farm when
I was a kid so it's like, we're not going to let that happen.
And we started selling vegetables in the car park.
I think she thought that we could
sell a dozen boxes and that first week
of-- the first Friday of COVID we sold 300.
The next Friday we sold 600.
And as you said now we've delivered to over 150,000 homes
across the city.
And one farmer became two, became six,
became 75 farmers now.
So all these people are now in our network.
It's incredible.
And, I mean, to support the local farmers, which we all
should do.
I mean, I think everyone should go to your local farmer's
market or whatever and what you're doing is incredible.
I mean, it's just--
we have to take a break, and you should follow him on Instagram
too, because you learn more about it.
But we'll be right back.
We're back with Richard Christiansen
from Flamingo Estate.
It's just such an amazing thing that you're doing
and especially because it's called regenerative farming.
That's right.
And explain what that is.
It's the oldest thing in the world.
It just means no pesticides, and no chemicals, and soil health,
and sequestering carbon, and that sort of stuff.
And obviously, regenerative produce tastes amazing,
tastes better than-- also it's great for the environment.
And with all that stuff, it's not
just fresh produce we've been making.
Olive oil and soap and hot sauce and mustard and 120 products
now, from all those farmers.
And I think the interesting thing about farming
is, I knew from my parents was that the margins are low,
those people work so hard.
Farming is the hardest job in the world.
They never rest and so they work hard.
And I think they deserved another revenue stream, which
is what we're trying to do.
And make really, really great stuff from that produce.
And I think the other thing that I learnt in the last year was
that I used to think I worked with the most creative people
in the world.
But these people are the most creative people in the world.
That mushrooms can help anxiety and raspberries
are good for sex and mugwort is good for dreaming.
That sort of stuff.
This amazing stuff.
And in a world where we all think we know everything
about everything because of Instagram,
it's amazing to meet people who just like geek out on one thing
and they love it.
It's so refreshing.
It's wonderful.
And it's so true, I mean people are learning
and really, like you said, it's a healing thing
to work with your hands, to have a garden,
to get your hands dirty, and to learn that there
are foods that can heal you.
We don't have to do anything more than that.
And mushrooms are--
Man, that's a whole lot of the thing.
Mushrooms can do--
I mean, they're great for you.
Yeah, 100%.
Yeah.
I always said, as I said in the beginning,
my mom said the garden is our doctor, therapist, and friend.
And it's so true.
It's right under our noses and I think--
Yeah.
For me, especially, but I'm sure for everyone,
COVID gave us all the chance to sort of reevaluate how
we wanted to spend our lives.
The food we wanted to eat, the wine we wanted to drink,
the music we wanted to listen to, all that stuff.
And so I think eating really well and enjoying
all that stuff is like, chef's kiss.
Yeah.
Amazing.
Well, your place is amazing.
To find out more about Flamingo Estate,
you can go to ellentube.com.
I want to thank David Spade and Coldplay.
I want to thank all of you for watching.
Thanks for being a part of my final season.
I feel the love in this room.
I send it back to you, take it and spread it around
in the world.
Bye everybody.
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