The risk of big-name supermarket shelves being stripped of goods and restrictions enforced on markets throughout the pandemic reminded many of the need to have back up options for basic necessities.

This was the case for Temora girl Nicola Turner.

Miss Turner has spent the past few months under the sun and braving the cold in an effort to get a new business off the ground.

The result was a regenerative farming venture, Middle Sister Farm, based in the small town of Murrulebale, 58km north of Wagga.

"The regenerative model means that we focus on the soil before we focus on the plants, because if you have healthy, active soil, it will pave the way for great growth," Miss Turner said.

"You can't have one without the other."

After spending three years studying a visual arts degree, living in Melbourne and even overseas, Miss Turner began to relish the time she spent back in regional NSW when visiting family.

She said the ongoing global pandemic has been a "big push" for people to realise the importance of being self reliant.

"Being able to grow your own nutritious food is to important, and to regain a lot of essential skills we've lost," Miss Turner said.

"It doesn't have to be huge, either, you can do a lot with a small space.

"Salad greens are really good for beginners and to get a lot of value out of a small space, plus they're so nutritious, versatile and have such a high turnover rate.

The move to small-scale farming was something Miss Turner said would not only bring the community back together, but also shift away from endless debt for farmers.

"It's so hard for family farms to exist now, it's this endless cycle of buying a tractor, then having that debt, and so you need to produce more to pay off that debt, but then you need more equipment to do that and it just goes on and on," she said.

"I'd love to see that smaller scale system come back where their might be a few separate growers, maybe a flour mill, stuff like that."

Middle Sister Farm veggie boxes will begin distribution on a weekly subscription-based model for the season, with the first batch to be ready in December, however, some produce will be available earlier at the November Rewild Community Market.

A Wagga nursery said it was apparent there had been a surge of interest from people wanting to grown their own food.

Lesley and Graham Cheshire took over ownership of the Chaston Street Nursery in February this year, just before COVID-19 hit. While they didn't have long to get a sense of the regular sales figures before the pandemic hit, Mrs Cheshire said talking to other distributors and wholesalers revealed sales of plants like fruit and vegetables were on the rise.

"The products are getting harder and harder to get a hold of," she said.

"We deal from a lot of local growers around here which works for us, but even they're running short on stock."

Mrs Cheshire said she felt the combination of more time and restrictions on spending had a part to play in the gardening boost.

"I think that not being able to go on holidays is freeing up time and also money they would have otherwise spent on those holidays, so they're putting it into their gardens," she said.

"A lot of young, first-time gardeners are coming in too, looking for advice and finding it's not as hard to do as they might have thought."

But self-reliance on food did not have to be confined to fruit and vegetables. One Border beekeeper Matt Gledhill was all for spreading the joy of his job.

The Mountainbee owner based in Pine Mountain, just south of the NSW-Victorian border, takes his 300 beehives around the Riverina region to pollinate produce.

But even one hive could see a small-scale keeper reap the benefits.

"Go along to a course, find a club and chat to someone there. There's nothing stopping someone from jumping in," he said.

Mr Gledhill said beekeeping was a "phenomenal" experience.

"It's an amazing thing, to feel their warmth buzzing around you, the sound and the smell when you open up the lid," he said.

Yet, he feared it was a dying industry.

"Young people are wanting to go away and explore, work in the cities or the mines in high paying jobs, even if you go to any field days or conferences on beekeeping, it's all old blokes attending," he said.

"We need to figure out how to get young people back into it, and I think showing that one hive can make a difference will help."

The result of beekeeping at a produce level was the liquid gold found in most kitchens.

"Honey fixes everything," Mr Gledhill said.

"It's a marvellous thing, you can substitute it in cooking, it has so many health benefits, it's great.

"But you can even just have a hive to help pollinate your garden."

The keen beekeeper said his career choice also had a positive effect on his state of mind, and felt it could help others too.

"I'm a firm believer that bees are fabulous for mental health, once you put that suit on and lift the lid off, you're in their world, it takes you away, the noise and smell, it takes you to a different place," he said.