This Feature

Transcription

This Feature

PLUS
FRESH
RECIPES | NEWS | WINE & BEER | REVIEWS
Thursday, March 6, 2014
THE
DEEP
south
Discover the producers
and growers of WA’s
Southern Forests region
Pull-out seasonal produce calendar. P11-13 | Recipes from one of the area’s top cooks. P18-19
FRESH
Thursday, March 6, 2014
INDEX
Welcome ................................ 2
Intro & Road Tripping
With Broadfield ..................... 3
Avocados, nuts &
potatoes.............................. 4-5
Berries & finger limes ........... 6
Cherries & Broadfield............ 7
Beef, lamb, truffles &
Broadfield........................... 8-9
Marron & Broadfield ........... 10
Seasonal calendar ........... 11-13
Garlic & Manjimup Fresh ... 14
Feijoas, Grilled &
Broadfield............................. 15
Plums, lettuce, jams &
Broadfield........................ 16-17
Recipe spread ................. 18-19
Wine & sparkling grape
juice ................................ 20-21
Limes & olive oil ................. 22
Persimmons & Broadfield .. 23
Fun facts & attractions ....... 24
Welcome to our special southern
forests edition of fresh
T
he magical Southern Forests region is
renowned for growing world-class produce,
including more than 50 types of fruit and
vegetables, truffles, marron, avocados, cherries,
beef . . . the list goes on.
Only recently heard of it? That’s probably thanks
to a group of passionate locals — and the State
Government’s $7 million allocation from its
Royalties for Regions initiative — who recognised
the wealth and abundance of produce in the region
and formed the Southern Forests Food Council in
2010, specifically to brand and unify the area to
give it an identity much like its counterparts
Margaret River and the Great Southern.
In this edition we meet some of the growers and
take a grassroots look at the region’s produce
spanning from Manjimup and Pemberton to
Northcliffe and Walpole, making its catchcry,
Genuinely Southern Forests, ring true.
“It’s all about creating awareness at this stage,”
Southern Forests Food Council executive officer
Allen Burtenshaw said. “It is such an isolated
region . . . the water, the air, the soil . . . it’s all so
clean and crisp, which makes for a top-quality
product.”
He said while much of the produce had not been
branded in retail shops yet, he encouraged
consumers to ask. “We want consumers to tap their
retailer on the shoulder and ask about Southern
Forests produce so then (the
retailers) in turn are
encouraged to stock it.”
Genuine fresh local produce
from genuine down-to-earth
locals.
I’m genuinely excited.
Hermione Stott
Fresh editor
COVER SFFC
chairman
Bevan Eatts
PHOTO Iain
Gillespie
FEATURES EDITOR
Mark Mallabone, 9482 3574
[email protected]
EDITOR
Hermione Stott 9482 3451
[email protected]
STAFF WRITER Olga de Moeller
WINE Ray Jordan
BEER Vic Crossland
CONTRIBUTORS Amanda Lewis,
Connie Clarke, Don Stott, Jennifer
Susanto-Lee, Mark Irving, Berlinda
Conti & Emma Chitty
DESIGN Rochelle Smith
ADVERTISING Marissa Owen
9482 3754
For more information on
Southern Forests region,
go online to
southernforestsfood.com
The isolated Southern Forests region
produces a vast range of crisp, clean
and exciting food products.
Three-and-a-half hours south of Perth a
large group of food and wine producers is
relentless in its quest to claim the mantle of
WA’s food bowl.
Farmers, winemakers and chefs are in
pursuit of excellence and innovation.
So it was my great pleasure to spend a
week with some of the great people of the
Southern Forests region, bounded by
Manjimup, Walpole, Pemberton and
Northcliffe.
I was lucky enough to visit unbelievably
friendly folk nurturing potatoes, cherries,
apples and grapes. Avocados are abundant
and healthy cattle happily graze below
towering karri trees. Prized truffles slowly
mature, shaded by hazelnut groves.
The food by Pemberton chef Sophie
Zalokar at Foragers looked so incredible
my job of shooting the dishes was a breeze.
If you’re interested
in where your food
comes from and having
a chat with some of the
people who grow it, get
down to this beautiful
region.
Iain Gillespie
Photographer
It’s producing the goods
3
FRESH PLUS
Growing area is foodie heaven, writes OLGA DE MOELLER
standards for fresh, premium local
produce.
“There are people like Kim
Edwards, who grows Chinese
cabbages — he’s fourth generation
— and Al Blakers, who’s pretty
much a pioneer of truffles; his
family has been in the region for
more than 100 years,” Allen
Burtenshaw, SFFC executive
officer, said. “But we’ve got new
people coming as well. Just in the
past 12 months, a strawberryraspberry grower from Bullsbrook
has set up an additional farm in
Pemberton because he’s seen the
soil and conditions, which are
optimum for what he does.
“I’ve just experienced my first
cherry season and can’t believe the
quality. What a lot of people don’t
realise is that it’s all grown in
pristine conditions and has just
been missed on the radar for so
long,” Mr Burtenshaw said.
“But with more and more
consumers wanting to understand
where their food comes from and
how it’s produced, the region is
becoming a pretty compelling
proposition.”
SFFC chairman and plum grower
Bevan Eatts described Southern
Forests as “WA’s premier food
bowl” and said the ultimate aim
was to establish it as an
“internationally recognised
culinary tourism destination.”
A third-generation farmer
working land established by his
grandfather in 1946, he believed
the Genuinely brand encompassed
everything Southern Forests did
best, with its multicultural and
‘The
beauty of
this area
is you
can grow
just
about
anything.’
multi-generational community
priding itself on its produce. “The
beauty of this area is you can grow
just about anything and there’s
such an incredible variety,” he said.
“We want to strengthen regional
pride; we want people, when they
go to the supermarket, to know our
brand and know the produce from
this region is well grown with care
to an extremely high standard. We
don’t have a lot of pests and
diseases because of our isolation,
which is largely the reason hardly
anyone knows about us.
“Hopefully, now, when people
see the Genuinely stickers on
produce in stores they will connect
the dots and buy it.”
Southern Forests
Southern
Ocean
manjimup
pemberton
northcliffe
walpole
perth
road tripping with broadfield
At last. The possibility of doing a Jack Kerouac;
hitting the road, as it were, to experience the lives
of the great and the good, the princes and
paupers of rural life and immerse oneself in the
richness, both good and bad, of life off the
freeway. Unlike Kerouac’s On the Road, this
four-day journey to the south of WA was not
likely to include sleeping in railway cars or
desperate mendicancy or, in fact, any hardship at
all. But seeking inspiration from the great man, I
was reminded of his simple aphorism: “Nothing
behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so
on the road.”
The idea was simple, go to the Southern
Forests region and discover . . . stuff. To be a little
specific, food, wine and restaurant stuff. And
write a diary. “Tell it how it is, Rob,” they said.
“Meet locals; talk to people who drive headers
and know what crutching is; eat some food . . .
enjoy.” The reason? The large and unwieldy
group of farmers, food producers, wine makers
and hospitality peeps who make up the Southern
Forests Food Council wanted us to experience the
bounty and potential of their region, which,
probably like you, I thought was the Great
Southern region, which it isn’t.
Southern Forests is an entirely discrete
“appellation” stretching in a long band from just
north of Manjimup south to Pemberton and on to
the south coast at Walpole. It includes towns like
Northcliffe, Quinninup and some of the state’s
most spectacular national parks: D’entrecasteaux,
Beedelup, Greater Dordagup and Shannon.
It is a complete surprise. Pemberton and
Manjimup are known for truffles, marron and
trout. But avocados? Artisanal dairy products
with a national reputation? Fine wines?
With the diary on the passenger seat, I headed
south through Bunbury, Bridgetown and on to
Manjimup, where we (photographer Iain “Dizzy”
Gillespie and I) were to be based. Surprise #1: It
takes no longer to get to the Southern Forests
than it does Margaret River – just a bit over three
hours. Surprise #2 Sophie Zalokar’s Foragers B&B
is not all long-drop toilets and smouldering joss
sticks. It’s sophisticated, minimal and
comfortable chalets are complete with a barbecue
on the veranda, massive five-star hotel bed, a
view to a treed creek and the deep nothingness of
a forest silence: an anechoic quiet that makes
one’s city ears ring.
Thursday, March 6 2014
N
ext time you bite into an
apple, slice an avocado, or
mash a potato, chances are
it was grown in WA’s Southern
Forests, a picturesque, fertile
region 300km south-west of Perth
that’s earning a reputation for
top-quality food.
With 80,000ha of farmland and
about 8000ha of crop plantings, it
produces nearly 40 per cent of the
State’s potatoes, 50 per cent of its
apples, 70 per cent of its avocados
and 90 per cent of its broccoli, not
to mention 85 per cent of the
southern hemisphere’s black
truffles for a total gross agricultural
value of more than $150 million a
year.
It’s home to the internationally
famous Pink Lady apple, which is
grown around Manjimup, and has
nurtured one of Australia’s
youngest and most exciting wine
regions in the heart of karri
country, Pemberton, where the
rich, loamy soil supports more than
40 vineyards.
Much of the agricultural and
pastoral land is worked by third
and fourth-generation farmers,
who have joined forces in a
190-member Southern Forests
Food Council, which was founded
in 2010, followed by the Genuinely
Southern Forests brand launch last
November to identify produce
from Manjimup, Pemberton,
Northcliffe and Walpole. Fresh off
the mark are Karri Country
Potatoes, grown in the rich, red
earth of Manjimup and Pemberton,
and one of the first regional
products to meet the SFFC’s
FRESH PLUS
4
A passion for avos
Stewart Ipsen says
Southern Forests is
perfect for growing,
writes AMANDA LEWIS
A
s a fourth-generation
Southern Forests farmer,
Stewart Ipsen has seen
everything from sheep and cattle
to apples, cauliflowers, potatoes
and broccoli grown on the family’s
land — but his current passion lies
with avocados.
On a co-owned property west
of Pemberton, he has set up and
runs a 91ha 30,000 tree orchard,
which on a good year produces
350,000-400,000 5.5kg trays of
mostly Hass-variety fruit.
“I’m the fourth generation in
agriculture from our family,” he
said. “My great-grandfather
pioneered Mayfield, the family’s
First port of call, the enthusiastic, clever French
family — father William, mum Debra and son Dean,
pictured below — who own one of the biggest
avocado farms in WA. Avocados? In the Southern
Forests? Aren’t they a tropical fruit? Yes and no.
According to William French the weather is
perfect for them and the western growing season is
counter to the east coast season, which puts WA in
the avocado box seat, as it were, once the eastern
seaboard’s season is over. There are no effective
storage protocols for avocados (unlike like, say,
apples which can be cold stored for over a year
without any ill-effects), so they remain truly
seasonal in this country, which means when all the
eastern orchards have exhausted themselves, it’s
WA’s avos which feed the nation from October to
February. And how? The French family — which has
a long history in the region as cauliflower and onion
producers before moving into avocados — has about
16,000 trees over two properties on Channybearup
Road producing about one million kilograms of
avos a year. That’s just one family on one farm. They
are magnificent specimens too (the avos, not the
family). Big, rich and
creamy, they lead a man’s
thoughts to guacamole.
Note to self: must make
guacamole for the
culinary-challenged Iain
Gillespie tonight.
The French family
happily posed for some
silly photos — “could you
juggle some avos while
we snap away” — and did
so with great aplomb.
Nice people.
farm, from virgin forest in the early
1900s, originally running cattle and
sheep and then adding apple
orchards.
“The apples were removed in
the early 1970s and my father and
uncle moved into producing
horticulture crops including
potatoes, cauliflowers and
broccoli. We still run cattle but our
main focus now is producing
avocados.
“We planted our first avocado
trees at Mayfield in 1996 and from
there, expanded down to
Pemberton (their current location)
in 2003.”
Mr Ipsen, whose brother also
grows avocados in the area, said
the region’s good rainfall, rich soil
and dry summer made for ideal
growing conditions.
All the fruit was picked by hand
from the ground or using cherry
pickers and during peak harvest
times, up to 40 backpackers and
locals were hired, he said.
“The dry summer months
during which we harvest helps to
produce fruit which has a very low
incidence of anthracnose, which is
the main cause of internal defects
in avocados,” he said.
“Our main competitors during
the harvest window, New Zealand,
don’t have this advantage.
“This dry Mediterranean climate
also keeps problem insects away
allowing us to produce fruit using
virtually no insecticides.
“Avocados will grow in a variety
of soil types but they require large
volumes of good water — up to 150
litres per day per tree during the
summer months.
“The Pemberton region is
renowned for its high rainfall. Our
farm averages 1200mm per year
which helps to fill large irrigation
dams on the property.
“The soil consists of deep karri
loams which support the large
karri trees which surround the farm
and which avocado trees also
thrive on.”
Pemberton grower Russell
Delroy started growing avocados
in 1987 and from humble
beginnings has become one of the
biggest growers and suppliers in
the country.
Mr Delroy, who grew up on a
wheat/sheep farm in Esperance,
said his 180ha Pemberton orchard
produced 16 million Hass avocados
last year, rising to 24 million pieces
when the fruit he sourced and
packed for other growers in the
area were added.
Delroy Orchards, was
responsible for around half the
total quantity of avocados
produced in WA, with the fruit
from Southern Forests’ growers
accounting for more than half of
WA’s $90 million avocado industry.
“The South West of WA has a
really good reputation for growing
a very high-quality, consistent
product — good flavour, good
shelf life and much better internal
quality,” Mr Delroy said.
“The brilliant thing about
avocados is that there are very few
meals you can’t use them in from
breakfast and lunch to dinner.
“They just hit the sweet spot
and tick all the boxes for
convenience, health and taste.”
Fontaninis add to apple pie
I
t was the apples that first gave
Manjimup its reputation as a
horticultural centre of
excellence. One of its claims to
fame is as the home of the pink
lady.
And while it’s still one of
Australia’s best apple-growing
areas, Manjimup has come a long
way in recent years. Avocados,
cherries and truffles have joined
the humble apple and made a
home for themselves in this fertile
area of the South West.
And just as Manjimup
horticulture has diversified, so too
the pioneering Fontanini family has
spread its wings since its arrival in
WA early in the 20th century.
Germano (Jack) Fontanini
migrated from Lucca, Italy to join
his brother Archimedes (Archie).
He took up land next to his
brother’s and today, two
generations later, three
generations of Fontanini live on
that 46ha. Shaun Fontanini, one of
Jack’s great-grandchildren, has a
home on the farm with wife Neysa
and their five young children. So,
too, does his father Tony and his
wife Shirley.
Shaun said the farm’s trees were
divided roughly equally: one-third
apples, one-third avocados and
one-third nuts — chestnuts,
walnuts and a few hazelnuts.
Apples, he acknowledged, were
a bit of a struggle at present, with
rising costs, increasing
competition from Eastern States’
growers and returns staying the
same. “But then they’ve supported
us for the past 20-30 years when
we didn’t have the avocados,”
Shaun noted.
Tony said South Australian
growers enjoyed warmer weather
and were able to bring their
apples to the market before the
‘You’ve
got to
keep up
with the
new
varieties
and the
new
growing
practices.’
P
otato grower Glen Ryan has a thing
about Laura. Boiled, mashed or
roasted, his favourite spud always
comes up trumps.
“It’s got the best flavour, texture and
structure of all the varieties,” he said. “You
can do anything with it. Royal blue is
currently the standard bearer, but people
we’ve given Laura to say it’s better; even
chefs. When mashed, it already looks like
it’s got butter in it — and it’s the only one I
bring home to eat. Even those who love
Delaware because of the flavour say Laura
is better.”
Mr Ryan and brother Dean have been
growing potatoes for more than 30 years
on part of the 512ha family farm started by
their parents in the late 1950s near
Pemberton. He said they weren’t expected
to take over the business but family ties and
the scenic landscape with the Warren River
running through the property lured them
back. “In fact, our parents never
encouraged us to take this on but I guess
it’s in your blood,” he said. “I finished school
and took a gap year, then ended up staying.
Dean came straight back to the farm after
Year 12.”
The brothers grow 11 varieties, including
several under trial for better eating and
cosmetic qualities. Red-skinned Laura has a
rich yellow flesh and finally made it after
four seasons, with production now close to
20 tonnes a week. “We thought it had a fair
bit of promise pretty much from the start
but had problems planting it up because
the seed line was discontinued,” Mr Ryan
said. “It was trialled in South Australia and
they had
trouble
with it
Manjimup apples were ready.
But the Fontaninis have high
hopes for a new variety of apple
called kanzi, a crunchy red apple
which was bred in Belgium.
They’ve planted 5000 Kanzi
trees on the farm over the past
four years and got a small crop last
year. “Everyone’s always looking
for something new,” Tony said.
Shaun added: “You’ve got to
keep up with the new varieties and
the new growing practices.”
The nut trees were a way to
spread the family farm’s interests.
“The story used to be that if an
apple tree died, they’d replace it
with a nut tree — a chestnut or a
walnut tree,” he said.
But it also reflected something
of Jack’s history. “He used to grow
chestnuts in Italy in the wild and he
knew that they’d go well over
Chestnuts grow well in Manjimup,
here,” Shaun said.
enabling the Fontaninis to diversify
Mark Irving beyond apples. Picture: Craig Kinder
because the skin would peel away, but
we’ve largely managed to get around that. I
think once it gets going, it will become the
new standard bearer because it’s such a
good allrounder — and that’s what people
want.”
There are more than 20 potato growers
in the Southern Forests region, which
produced 19,911 tonnes — just over 38 per
cent — of WA’s crop last year. All are around
Pemberton and Manjimup. Mr Ryan said the
farm was licensed to grow 3500 tonnes a
year, with Nadine by far the biggest crop,
but that was expected to change as
different “make-do” varieties and trial crops
succeeded. Maranca, Jelly, Sifra, Mozart and
Senna were in the pipeline for commercial
production down the track.
“Nadine is a white-skin and flesh variety,
but the flavour is traditionally in the
creamier-to-yellow-flesh varieties,” he said.
“When I started, Delaware was the only
variety we had and it was the standard
bearer for a long time. It’s a great potato
when it comes to taste, texture and
versatility; one that’s good for boiling,
mashing and roasting, but it did not handle
the washing process well and the shape can
be questionable.
“We haven’t grown it for 10 years.
Unfortunately, consumers go a lot on
appearance — they want their potatoes to
look like apples, all shiny and bright — and
that can be extremely frustrating for a
grower.
“At the moment, Nadine ticks all the
right boxes in that it washes up
magnificently, looks the part and has pretty
good yields but we’re looking at better
potatoes with our trial lines, so things will
change as new varieties make the grade.”
APemberton
avocado grower
Stewart Ipsen
with some of his
freshly picked
crop.
Third-generation potato grower
Maurice Humphrey is carrying
on a family tradition on the farm
started by his grandfather just
outside Pemberton in 1924. Top
crop this time of year is the waxy,
squiggly, yellow-fleshed kipfler
that’s perfect boiled or steamed.
“It makes a great potato
salad,” Mr Humphrey said. “We
were approached to grow them
for the restaurant trade but
popularity has picked up and
supermarkets are stocking
them.
“It’s something different and
you can get a nice, even shape
without bends and twists in
sandy soil or karri loam as it’s
called down this way. We’ve been
doing them for eight years and
are slowly putting in more and
more.”
He said the season ran from
January to May and he was
trying to dig up about four
tonnes a week. He also had
supplied seed to a couple of
growers in Busselton and
Myalup with the aim of having
kipflers available year-round.
“They’re a good potato but
probably too fiddly to use daily,”
he said. “We would eat mainly
Royal blues.”
Potato variety shows its versatility, writes OLGA DE MOELLER
5
FRESH PLUS
the king of
the kipflers
Lovely Laura has great taste
Pemberton
potato growers
Glen and Dean
Ryan.
FRESH PLUS
6
Berry different
A couple have switched from
cattle to fruit, finds EMMA CHITTY
W
Jill and Rob
Baker with their
boutique
fingerlimes.
hen Phil and Kay Gravett
decided to sell the
family’s cattle farm, they
searched high and low for a better
place to live.
“It was nearly two years later
that we bought this property,” Mr
Gravett said. “We looked at
relocating in different parts of the
State, interstate — we did have a
good look around but we couldn’t
really find anywhere that was
better to live.”
And so the Gravetts stayed in
the Southern Forests region,
moving into orchard management
and choosing to grow figs.
“I’d been picking and packing
fruit for a neighbour around the
road,” Mrs Gravett said. “He was
going out of figs and we could see
a niche market for them.”
Mr Gravett said figs were a
wonderful product to grow locally,
as they were such a fragile fruit.
“They do import from interstate
but the fruit aren’t in as good a
condition,” he said. “They’ve got to
pick them greener and they don’t
ripen once they’re off the tree.”
The Gravetts have opted for
smaller fig trees, but have a lot
more of them — the trees cover
5ha of their property in a
progressive plan that started
in 2007. They said it
made picking
the figs easier,
as well as
keeping disease
out of the trees.
In addition to
figs, the
Gravetts have
their very own
form of berry
growing on their
property —
fondly named
the Rustleberry
after a tiger
snake that found
its home under
the berry bush.
“When we were cleaning up the
property, I walked along the dam
wall and found this berry bush,”
Mrs Gravett said. “It looked a bit
like a blackberry but it was
definitely different — we tasted it
and it was absolutely delicious.”
A cross between a European
blackberry and an old English
raspberry, their rustleberries have
won accolades in Delicious
magazine and become popular.
Rustler the snake has since
been featured on the berries’ logo
and even influenced the name of
the Gravett’s property,
affectionately called Rustlers.
Mr Gravett said branding their
‘I walked
along the
dam wall and
found this
berry bush
. . . It looked
a bit like a
blackberry
but it was
definitely
different.’
Kay Gravett
product, as well as winning the
award, had helped them.
“We found it very hard to get
the berries into retail — when they
were just another berry, they just
weren’t prepared to give them
shelf space,” he said. “This year, we
used our logo to promote them
and were able to get rid of our
whole production very easily.”
The Gravetts have faith in
branding their region — just like
their rustleberries — to increase
interest and trust in the area.
While they are looking to their
retirement, the Gravetts say they
won’t become “grey nomads” and
plan to stay on their beloved
Manjimup property.
Manjimup’s Kay
and Phil Gravett
with their
delicious fruits.
Delicious citrus yield tasty caviar jewels
In recent
years,
Pemberton
Finger
Limes
have
become a
household
name in
foodie
circles, and
it’s not
surprising
really.
With their
caviar-like balls of
citrus jewels and a tiny
window of availability that rivals
the truffle season, they’re as rare as
the proverbial. Jill and Rob Baker and
their daughter Jacquie, who handles
the marketing, are the masterminds
behind the successful enterprise,
which they established only a few
years ago when the couple retired.
“Rob and I have had a property
down here in Pemberton for around
12 years now,” Mrs Baker said. “We
were due to retire and knew we
wanted to do something with the bit
of free land we had. As we’ve always
been wine and food buffs, we started
looking around and came up with the
idea of a little boutique industry. We
jumped online and looked at all sorts
of things, including tulips, and then
someone suggested we grow limes.
So we started researching limes and
Australian native food, and finger
limes came up.”
The appearance and taste of a
finger lime is one of a kind. Looking
not dissimilar to caviar roe, the tiny
orbs inside the fruit share the same
texture. Once popped, they emit a
wonderful citrus flavour.
Pemberton is not short of a drop
or two of rain and is renowned for its
rich soil and Mediterranean climate,
making it perfect for finger limes.
“The pH of the soil down here is
just right for limes and we’re in quite
a protected spot from the wind,” Mrs
Baker said. “The beautiful tall karri
trees also protect the lime plants,
which is really important as they have
got lots of thorns on them. So if the
wind blows and bashes the fruit onto
the thorns, they get damaged. It’s
lovely to have the protection of the
karris.”
In most cases, people tend to kick
back a little during their retirement
years, but not the Bakers.
“It did feel like a bit of a risky
venture at the time but basically we
just got on with it and have learnt
heaps,” Mrs Baker said.
The couple planted hundreds of
finger lime trees on their property in
2006, and it took about four years for
them to start bearing fruit at a
commercial rate. This year, they’re
expecting 200kg from the season
(1kg per tree), and the forecast is to
produce 10kg per tree over the next
few years.
Starting about the end of March,
the season only runs for six to eight
weeks, making for a short but intense
burst of activity.
“We just pick like crazy during
that time,” Mrs Baker said.
Finger limes are great with
seafood, especially when paired with
freshly shucked oysters. They’re also
good for topping a pavlova.
Jennifer Susanto-Lee
• This year’s popular Cherry
Harmony Festival will be
held on Saturday, December
13, with the Long Table
Lunch to follow on Sunday,
December 14. For more
information, visit
cherryfestival.com.au.
• Cherries are super-seasonal
and are only around for a
three months of the year, so
make sure you get in quick
this December.
B
eautiful, crimson
cherries are
undoubtedly one of
the most anticipated fruits
coming into WA’s festive
season but if buyers can
resist temptation until a little
past Christmas, they will
taste the pick of the crop,
according to thirdgeneration cherry farmer
George Grozotis and wife
Kathy, of Cherry Lane Fields.
“The later variety is
always a better cherry,” said
Mr Grozotis who manages
10,000 trees at his family’s
Manjiump orchard which
started life as a tobacco
farm in the 1940s.
Grower George Grozotis.
“Cherries picked later
have more crunch, more
sweetness and grow bigger but
Cherry trends have changed
everyone, of course, wants them in significantly over the years,
time for Christmas, so we try to
particularly compared with 10
educate people on buying them a
years ago when an acceptable
little later.”
premium cherry was about 26mm
Cherry season starts in
in diameter.
November and finishes midToday, cherries need to be about
January before the budding
32mm in diameter and Cherry Lane
process starts all over again.
Fields has adapted varieties to suit
“It’s a big gamble growing them. market demand.
All the hard work starts now (early
“The cherries my grandfather
February), when we look after the
grew don’t even exist anymore.
tree as much as possible by
They were much smaller and
watering and fertilising to achieve
probably wouldn’t grow as well
strong buds. Then we put the trees down here now,” he said.
to sleep (into dormancy) until
“Climate change has meant
September,” he said.
we’ve had to introduce new
varieties that suit the warmer
weather, even though the Southern
Forests region is still perfectly
suited for cherry production and
they do taste better down
here.
“The region has very
good water and the soils
are excellent (a mixture of
karri loam and sandy soils
from jarrah and blackbutt
country).”
The couple send about
70 per cent of production
to longstanding customer
Woolworths and the
remainder goes to
independent supermarkets
such as IGA.
“The main varieties we
grow are sweetheart, sweet
Georgia and Simone. The
sweetheart is more of a
rounded, bright red cherry,
whereas the sweet Georgia
has more of a heart shape
and a deep mahogany
colour,” he said.
“Simones are similar to
sweet Georgias. I think they
are most likely a mutation
of that breed.”
Harvesting starts at the
crack of dawn, with Mr
Grozotis’ team picking
while the sun is just rising, and
stops once the temperature
reaches 22C.
“Once cherries get hot, it’s very
hard to bring their temperature
down,” Mr Grozotis said.
“After the cherries are picked,
they are transported from the
orchard within 30 minutes,
hydro-cooled and chilled for at
least 24 hours before packing. This
also helps with stem retention.
“Cherries don’t ripen once
they’re picked like a tomato or
apricot might. You can’t pick them
green — you can only pick them at
their premium.”
“I do love growing them — I
can’t really imagine doing anything
else.”
Berlinda Conti
Next morning it’s off to the King Trout and
Marron Farm, a tourist venture which
prospers as much on home cooking and a
cheery welcome as it does on science, fish
husbandry and water ecology. The
unassuming couple who own the property, on the
Old Vasse Road at Pemberton, are tree changers.
Hubby and wife, Lisa Foley and Darrin Fitzgerald,
pictured below, are running an accessible tourism
venture “with no airs and graces”.
Darrin manages the hatchery at one end of the
property, paying forensic attention to the baby
trout and marron and their highly technical diet
and ecosystem management.
Oh, and if you wonder why there are no weeds
or reeds around the massive dam, marron are
omnivores and they love nothing better than
snacking on the grasses that ring their watery
home. We dispatched a couple of plate-sized
monsters which
were promptly
(and very well)
cooked for lunch.
Sweet. By the
way, there is no
such thing as a
King Trout, just
rainbows and
browns. That
was the name
given to the
business when
WA Inc heavies
Laurie Connell and
Brian Burke built
the hatchery in the
1980s as an
investment.
Don’t ask. If only
they’d stuck to
seafood.
Nutritionally, their beauty is more than skin deep
Perth-based naturopathic
nutritionist and co-author of The
Eat Well Cookbook, Jan Purser,
says cherries can help reduce gout
attacks by lowering uric acid
build-up and inflammation
and also assist with
stabilising blood sugar.
“Cherries are beneficial
in reducing blood glucose
levels as well as lowering the
risk of gout attacks. If you
suffer with gout seriously,
consider having cherries or cherry
juice.”
Here are some facts from
grower George Grozotis:
Store cherries loosely packed in
the fridge (0-4C is perfect) and
leave stems on to keep them
fresher for longer.
Cherries are a top antioxidantrich food.
Cherries are fat, cholesterol, and
sodium-free with one cup having
3g of fibre, fewer than 90 calories
and 16 per cent of the daily
recommended dose of vitamin C.
Cherries are rich in vitamin A,
calcium, protein, and iron and also
contain melatonin (which regulates
sleep cycles). There is 260mg of
potassium in one cup of cherries.
Anthocyanins in cherries give
the fruit its red colour and help
protect the heart and surrounding
tissues.
Boron is found in cherries. It
helps maintain calcium balance.
Cherries have
been part of
the family for
generations
7
FRESH PLUS
Colour of Christmas
Dinner that night was on the balcony at
Foragers. Dizzy reckons the salted
chargrilled quail I knocked out was: “Yeah . . .
all right mate.” The finest review a man
could get. The avocados were too firm for
dinner that night. There’s always tomorrow.
The Foragers cook-your-own breakfast
arrives the night before in a wicker basket.
All (or as much as possible) is local produce.
The bread, an entire loaf of it, is made by
Sophie in her restaurant kitchen just steps
away from the chalet.
It is a lavish brekky and sure beats the
standard journo breakfast of espresso and a
gasper.
FRESH PLUS
8
Beefed-up hectares
Manjimup
farmer Ian
Ryan.
Margins are tight and cows are serious news
B
eef farming doesn’t get much better
than this. Rolling hills, lush pasture
and towering karri trees are an idyllic
backdrop for grazing cows.
“Our children, in particular the middle
two, are mad-keen farmers and say they
never want to leave,” Walpole producer
Angie Cooper said. “We don’t go anywhere
on school holidays because they want to
help us, in particular our young bloke,
Tommie. He’s obsessed with cows; has
posters all over his room, studies breeds and
wants to collect them all. He has his own
small herd that’s calving now, so it’s hard to
get him off to school at the moment.”
It’s a generational thing. She married the
boy next door — in these parts, the
adjoining paddock — and they do
everything from scratch. Husband Brad
transports the animals for processing to
keep track of their welfare every step of the
way and the couple are working on a
business plan to build up farmgate sales
under their label, Cooper’s Beef, to
supplement their mainstay milk-fed vealers.
“We farm organically, which means no
herbicides, no synthetic chemicals, no
drenches or pour-ons,” Mrs Cooper said.
“We are lucky enough to have this land and
want to improve it. It’s not a big farm
—120ha — and all our animals are valued
right through to the end.
“It’s a pity we can’t butcher them
ourselves but we’re having a part of the old
dairy shed converted into a retail outlet and
hope to employ a butcher so he can cut up
the carcases for us. The plan is to
cut out the middleman over the
next five to 10 years.”
Forester Mark Bending has
made the change over the past 15
years, buying properties to
concentrate on beef farming
because it’s less intense than
running sheep. With 1500ha and
300 breeding cows, he sells
340-350 head a year and a lot of
it ends up in Coles. It’s a
Simmental-Angus cross for good
eating and the combination
works well in ensuring animals
don’t get too fat.
“Generally, just about
everyone here would run a small
herd for commercial production,”
he said. “My wife’s from
Manjimup, so it made sense.
We’ve got a huge pasture
potential, which suits grass
fattening but we’ve just put in
1500 avocados because they
grow so well in these parts.
“I would say 80 per cent of
meat in this region would be
milk-fed vealers but it’s not a
process I was interested in. We
hold ours until they’re 18 months
to two years old and try to get
them as close as we can to 550kg
for the domestic market.”
Margins are tight. Industry
veteran John Della Gola, who
Driving south out of Manjimup, I popped in to
see John Della Gola, whose branded beef was
famously embroiled in a dispute with super chef
Neil Perry’s Rockpool Bar and Grill in Perth. He
was appointed as a meat supplier to the
restaurant to great fanfare only to be let go
quietly a few months later. It was big news down
Manjimup way but one suspects it’s now water
under the bridge.
The outspoken and laconic third-generation
Italian/Australian leans on my hire car and
explains his plans to diversify away from beef and
into farm-machinery sales. On the day of our visit
he was taking delivery of his first load of headers
and tractors at his new showroom and offices.
“I love it but the beef industry is really hard
now. We need the Government to get real about
an abattoir down our way,” Mr Della Gola said.
“The two major abattoirs in WA are joined at the
hip to the major supermarkets. It’s impossible to
get time on the kill floor.”
I left the likable larrikin as he hurried away to
his office to make plans for his new business. He
says he will never leave the beef industry entirely.
He loves it too much.
I missed the “mad” ebullient Al Blakers whose
truffles are eaten from New York to Paris and
from Singapore to Sydney. He was elsewhere
apparently — probably Paris.
I did manage, however, to pop by the Wine
and Truffle Company’s trufferie and cafe and say
hello to the truffle dogs. They won’t have long to
wait until their super-sensitive noses are needed
for truffle season 2014. A walk through the trees
revealed large truffles beginning to push up the
ground around them as they become fat and
ripe. They had been carefully covered in sand to
keep them “underground” until harvest time.
Truffles have rapidly become an icon crop in
the Southern Forests region: the only crop which
is readily coupled to tourism events such as the
annual Truffle Kerfuffle weekend and as a
significant attraction for domestic and overseas
visitors.
It has put Manjimup on the map. Last year in
New York, a waiter at a fashionable Tribeca
restaurant informed us that: “Tonight, we have
the most amazing truffles from Man-gee-mop in
south-western Australia.” Every table got the
same patter.
Middlesex
farmer Mark
Bending aims
for the
domestic
market.
‘Last year,
our fuel
bill was
$130,000;
this year
it’s going
to be
$170,000,
so it’s not
getting
any easier.’
John
Della
Gola
started farming in 1970 at 14, runs 7000
head on 6000ha, and said he was getting
$4.40/kilo for his cattle in 2000 compared
with $3.40/kg now.
“In 14 years our margins have gone down
25 per cent,” he said. “Last year, our fuel bill
was $130,000; this year it’s going to be
$170,000, so it’s not getting any easier. My
youngest son, Joseph, doesn’t want to die a
farmer, so we’ve just set up a tractor
business — Southern Forest Machinery — for
him and his wife, Chelsea, in partnership
with myself.”
It opened last month, with Mr Della Gola
and his other son, Matthew, helped by
Matthew’s partner Felicity Willett, working
100-hour weeks on the farm started by Mr
Della Gola’s father as a 40ha plot in
Pemberton in 1952.
“Before I came along, he bought another
120ha in Pemberton, then 180ha for me in
Northcliffe about the time I started,” he said.
“I’ve built up the holding and never really
thought of doing anything else.”
He’s put his Della Gola Prime brand —
supplied to Neil Perry’s Rockpool when it
first opened in Perth — on the backburner,
with 80 per cent of his meat sold under
Bunbury processor DBC’s premium Tender
Ridge label to food service.
“No Della Gola cattle go on boats and
that’s a conscious decision, so when my wife
and I see them on the TV, we know those
animals are not ours. It makes life easier
because we know their destiny.”
Olga de Moeller
Mining for black gold
Blue gum business leads to calculated punt on truffles
growing lamb variety
Lamb farmer Ian Ryan is in for the long haul on the
family property just outside Manjimup. He’s just bought
another parcel of land from his uncle that was sold off
years ago and is now back to the original 400ha
holding established by his father John 50 years ago.
“Dad still helps but it’s mainly my brother Gary and
I,” he said. “The farm’s gone from dairy, to spuds, then
beef cattle, sheep and cauliflower for export — until the
cauliflower market collapsed.”
Vegetables — cauliflower, broccoli and several types
of cabbage — are the mainstay, though Mr Ryan said
they were more labour-intensive than lamb, which has
had a good run this year.
“We’ve had plenty of rain and an early start to the
season, with a reasonably late finish,” he said.
His flock of 2700 ewes is primarily merino for wool
and prime lamb, with border Leicester and poll Dorset
crossbreeds for meat. “It’s good eating lamb,” he said.
“We try for the optimal amount of meat-to-fat using
better genetics — and it also gives us a better lambing
percentage.”
Apple growers Stephanie and Jim Carstairs, who
have a 120ha farm in Manjimup, have opted for Suffolk
sheep to take advantage of the Great Southern’s cool
climate and wet winters. They run them on adjoining
land leased from truffle grower Al Blakers and have a
small flock of Wiltshires and cattle on other blocks.
Mrs Carstairs said the couple initially liked the look
of the British-bred Suffolks — they have distinctive black
heads — and found they were well suited to the region.
“They do well down here and have really big, solid
lambs, which has worked out well because we have
foxes and they were eating our smaller Merino lambs;
they wouldn’t survive the first 24 hours,” she said.
“They’re also more economical to run for us because
they’ll eat silage and hay — almost like cattle — so it
fitted better with what we could produce ourselves. We
try and grow them out entirely on grass but they get
extra fodder sometimes.”
She said the meat was more heavily marbled, which
made for a better flavour, but the marbling was quite
fine, so the fat cooked out. “That, reportedly, makes it
leaner and adds to the palatability,” she said. “I think it’s
nicer and sweeter (than other lamb); certainly
distinctively different but not overpowering.”
The Carstairs sell their lamb at the local farmer’s
market and at Fontys Pool caravan park.
Olga de Moeller
market, Mr Blakers knew the million-dollar
gamble he took in 1997 had paid off.
And with the product improving with
every harvest, Mr Blakers predicts the
region will outstrip France’s production in
less than 15 years.
“The whole world is chasing truffles
from Manjimup,” Mr Blakers said. “Our
French distributor (Plantin) tells us they are
as good if not better than those produced
in France. We’re in demand. In culinary
terms, we are the rock stars to rock stars.”
The road to success was neither quick
nor easy for Mr Blakers and his family,
whose business growing Tasmanian blue
gums led to their calculated punt
Manjimup’s loam over clay soils would
eventually deliver high-quality truffles for
export.
During an experiment on the Blakers’
Five Acre Nursery in the mid-90s Mr
Blakers and a CSIRO research team
attempted to transfer local mycorrhizal
fungi on to the roots of
the Tasmanian blue gum
to improve growth rates,
and it was then he had an
epiphany.
“At the time there
were pinot grapes being
harvested in the area and
sold to Moet & Chandon,”
he said. “That’s when I
put two and two
together and thought
that inoculating the trees
with truffle spores would
work.”
Mr Blakers planted
1600 hazelnut and oak
trees inoculated with
spores imported from
France and waited — it
takes up to seven years
for the first truffle to
mature.
And what a difference
a decade makes, with
Manjimup Truffles now
producing well over a
tonne of black gold
every year. Along with
two other major
producers in the
Manjimup area, the
truffle’s trajectory is
moving higher and faster
than ever.
This year, the region
will produce close to five
tonnes or 85 per cent of
Australia’s truffles.
“It won’t be long until
Manjimup is the truffle
capital of Australia,” he
said.
Connie Clarke
I
t’s known as black gold and retails for
about $2000/kg, making it one of the
most expensive foods in the world.
Traditionally sniffed out for centuries by
pigs in the forests of France and Italy, it’s
now left to man’s best friend to unearth the
spot where this fungal delicacy grows.
Chefs are mad for it, and for the past
few years third-generation Manjimup
farmer Al Blakers has supplied truffles to
restaurants from Paris, to New York and
Sydney.
Last August, when he found himself
dining with 18 Michelin-star and three-hat
chefs at the Hong Kong Yacht Club, Mr
Blakers knew the rest of the world was
sitting up and taking notice too.
The sought-after Perigord truffle he
Manjimup truffle grows from 3000 hazelnut and oak trees
farmer Al Blakers on 42ha of rich Manjimup soil was already a
is a thirdhit with Australia’s top chefs — including
generation
Matt Moran and Neil Perry — but with their
farmer.
wider acceptance in the lucrative Asian
9
FRESH PLUS
Manjimup farmer
Ian Ryan.
I dropped in to see Anita and
Wayne Edwards, pictured below,
at their unassuming farmhouse.
It is surrounded by machinery
and Schutz containers.
They are a clever couple
charting a sustainable, organic
course with their farms and their
Bioveg brand of organic produce.
I lunched with them at the farm
where I sat down to my first
“raw” meal.
None of the ingredients are
cooked in any shape or form.
I hid my sneer and tucked in.
How was it? Absolutely,
bloody marvellous.
I had a view that the raw-food
movement was an extremist
vegetarian splinter group with
that back-to-the-16th-century
agenda so loved by Greens and
their fellow travellers.
But the food, when prepared
in such as expert manner, was
superb. It was brilliant in its own
right and real restaurant-grade
stuff. Anita is a “certified raw
chef” whatever that means (but
she clearly has a professional
touch) with a commercial kitchen
on the farm where she prepares
food for sale and catering.
The Edwards’ Bioveg products
get a premium at the Perth
markets. And they can never
grow enough to support the
demand, Wayne says.
FRESH PLUS
10
Left: Forest Fresh Marron
owner Dave Evans.
Above: Blue Ridge
Marron’s Steve Vidovich.
Blue Ridge Marron’s
Peter McGinty.
Picture Craig Kinder
Endemic marron a fine treat
I
f you sit down to a fine-dining
establishment with marron on
the menu, chances are it has
come from the Southern Forests
region, where they thrive like no
other place in the world.
Thanks to pristine conditions,
marron are endemic to the region
and of the world’s yearly supply,
WA contributes three-fifths of it,
according to Blue Ridge Marron’s
Peter McGinty.
Together with business partner
Steve Vidovich, they source — and
grow — 18 tonnes of marron
annually, nearly a fifth of marron
worldwide, which they then sell to
restaurants, wholesalers and
export to Europe.
‘Some
lobsters have
a tendency
to get a bit
stringy the
bigger they
get, whereas
marron have
more of a
flaked-type
flesh and the
taste and
texture
doesn’t
diminish the
bigger they
get.’
different kettle of fish
“Trout that doesn’t taste like trout” is
the way Blue Ridge Marron’s Peter
McGinty describes the rainbow trout
that he grows and sells in addition to
marron.
He said he started growing trout as a
way to better use the dams at the
Yanmah facility five years ago and
attributed the trout’s different taste to
the high-protein pellet diet he fed them.
He sourced his baby trout — or fry —
from the Pemberton Trout Hatchery.
“Instead of just chucking them in the
dam and letting them eat what’s
naturally in the dam, they feed on
different pellets depending on their size,
so the fry are fed three times a day, seven
days a week and once a day when they
get bigger,” he said.
“We can put on growth rates of about
1.2kg per year and because it is a full
pellet diet and they’re not just eating
what’s in the water column, they look and
taste very similar to Atlantic salmon.
“Traditionally, trout out of rivers are
pretty average-tasting fish but if you
tasted these, you’d go ‘Wow, they are
different’.”
This supplied marron comes
from about 160 licensed marron
producers from Perth down to
Augusta and across to Esperance.
“World production of marron is
still less than 100 tonnes per year,
so WA provides a huge chunk of
it,” Mr McGinty said.
“People have taken them to
different countries and tried to
produce them but because of poor
water quality or temperature —
they like a cooler climate — they
simply won’t grow.”
Mr McGinty, who has lived in
Yanmah, 12km from Manjimup, for
the past 35 years, said marron
were grown semi-intensively in
purpose-built ponds or through
extensive cultivation, where
people trapped existing farm
dams.
At the Blue Ridge facility,
rainbow trout were also grown in
the dams that supplied the ponds
to make them more sustainable.
“Below the trout, in the same
water, we keep the marron and the
waste from the trout feeds the
marron, so we don’t actually feed
the marron in these dams,” he said.
While most Australians knew
what marron was, outside of the
country, not many people did and
Mr McGinty said he was constantly
asked what it was and what it
tasted like.
He said the best way to
describe the delicacy was to
compare it with lobster.
“Some lobsters have a tendency
to get a bit stringy the bigger they
get, whereas marron have more of
a flaked-type flesh and the taste
and texture doesn’t diminish the
bigger they get,” the former cherry
farmer said.
Like any food with a delicate
flavour, the best way to cook
marron was to keep it simple, Mr
McGinty said.
“Restaurants tend to take the
flesh out for fine dining because it
is less stringy and has a unique,
delicate flavour, while some
restaurants boil and chop the tail
up into medallions and serve it
back up in the shell. As for me, it
doesn’t get much better than
grilling it over a fire and eating it
with crusty bread.”
Pemberton’s Dave Evans is
another man who knows his
marron. He owns and runs the
small family-based wholesale and
retail business Forest Fresh Marron
and said marron thrived in the
region because every condition —
from the water quality to the air,
temperature and food availability
— was ideal.
While marron was still a
little-known produce, exposure on
television cooking shows had
helped boost its profile.
“The flavour of marron is quite
unlike any other produce and is
delicate, sweet and succulent,” he
said.
Amanda Lewis
summer
southern forests seasonal produce
DECEMBER
Apple juice
Apricots - King Ross
Avocados
Baby spinach
Beef
Beef - vealers
Boysenberries
Beetroot
Beetroot - organic
Beans - cannellini white
Broccoli
Cabbage - Chinese
- green
- megatons
- organic green
- organic red
- red
Capsicum - green
Cauliflowers
Cherries
Corn
Cream
Cucumbers - Lebanese
Fish - redfin
Grapefruit
Herbs - basil red
- basil green
- chervil
- chives
- coriander
- dill
- mint
- parsley
- rocket
- sage
- thyme
Honey
Kale - green
- organic
- red
Kohlrabi
Lamb - fat
- Suffolk
Lettuce - coral
- cos
- iceberg
- oak leaf
Loganberries
Loghurts
Marron
Milk
Nectarines - white
- yellow
Nuts - macadamia
Olive oil
Pears - cocktail
Plums - black
- red
- sugar
Potato - almera
- Delaware
- Desiree
Potato - Dutch cream
- kestrel
- Lady Christi
- Laura
- Nadine
- red rascal
- rodeo
- royal blue
- Ruby Lou
- sapphire
- white star
- organic
Pumpkin
Rhubarb - organic
Raspberries
Rustleberries
Silverbeet
Strawberry
Tomato - cherry
- truss
Wheat - buck
Zucchini
JANUARY
Apple juice
Apricots - King Ross
- golden sweet
Avocados
Baby spinach
Beef
Beef - vealers
Blueberries
Boysenberries
Beetroot
Beetroot - organic
Broccoli
Cabbage - Chinese
- green
- megatons
- organic green
- organic red
- red
Capsicum - green
- red
Cauliflowers
Cherries
Chilli/peppers
Corn
Cream
Eggplant
Figs - Preston
- Deanna
- black Genoa
Fish - redfin
Garlic
Herbs - basil red
- basil green
- chervil
- chives
- coriander
- dill
Herbs - mint
- parsley
- rocket
- sage
- thyme
Honey
Jujubes
(Chinese red dates)
Kale - green
- organic
- red
Kohlrabi
Lamb - fat
- Suffolk
Lettuce - coral
- cos
- iceberg
- oak leaf
Logan berries
Marron
Milk
Nectarines - white
- yellow
Nuts - macadamia
Olive oil
Beef - vealers
Blueberries
Blackberries
Beetroot
Beetroot - organic
Beans - season starts
Broccoli
Cabbage - Chinese
- green
- megatons
- organic green
- organic red
- red
Capsicum - green
- red
Cauliflowers
Cherries
Chilli/peppers
Corn
Cream
Eggplant
Figs - Preston
- Deanna
- black Genoa
Fish - redfin
Passionfruit
Plums - black
- red
- sugar
Potato - almera
- Delaware
- Desiree
- Dutch cream
- kestrel
- Lady Christi
- Laura
- Nadine
- red rascal
- rodeo
- royal blue
- Ruby Lou
- sapphire
- white star
- organic
Pumpkin
Garlic
Rhubarb - organic
Raspberries
Lettuce - coral
- cos
- iceberg
- oak leaf
Silvanberries
Silverbeet
Strawberry
Tomato - cherry
- truss
Wheat - buck
Zucchini
FEBRUARY
Apple juice
Apples - gala
- organic
Avocados
Baby spinach
Beef
Herbs - basil red
- basil green
- chervil
- chives
- coriander
- dill
- mint
- parsley
- rocket
- sage
- thyme
Honey
Kale - green
- organic
- red
Kohlrabi
Lamb - fat
- Suffolk
Marron
Milk
Nashi fruit
Nuts - macadamia
Olive oil
Passionfruit
Pears - Bartlett
- red corella
- rossi (little red)
Plums - black
- red
- sugar
- green
- satsuma
Potato - almera
- Delaware
- Desiree
- Dutch cream
- kestrel
- Lady Christi
- Laura
- Nadine
- red rascal
- rodeo
- royal blue
- Ruby Lou
- sapphire
- white star
- organic
Pumpkin
Quince
Quince - organic
Rhubarb - organic
Silvanberries
Silverbeet
Strawberry
Tomato - cherry
- truss
Zucchini
AUTUMN
southern forests se
MARCH
Apple juice
Apples - gala
- golden delicious
- green star
- hi early
- Jonathan
- kanzi
- organic
Baby spinach
Beef
Beef - vealers
Blackberries
Beetroot
Beetroot - organic
Broccoli
Cabbage - Chinese
- green
- megatons
- organic green
- organic red
- red
Capsicum - green
- red
Cauliflowers
Chilli/peppers
Corn
Cream
Eggplant
Feijoas - Duffy
Figs - Preston
- Deanna
- black Genoa
Fish - redfin
Garlic
Herbs - basil red
- basil green
- chervil
- chives
- coriander
- dill
- mint
- parsley
- rocket
- sage
- thyme
Honey
Kale - green
- organic
- red
Kohlrabi
Lamb - fat
- Suffolk
Lettuce - coral
- cos
- iceberg
- oak leaf
Limes - Tahitian
- native finger limes
Marron
Melon - honeydew
Melon - rock
- water
Milk
Nashi fruit
Nuts - macadamia
Olive oil
Passionfruit
Pears - Bartlett
- comice (French)
- Packham
- red corella
- rossi
- gold rush
Plums - black
- red
- sugar
Potato - almera
- Delaware
- Desiree
- Dutch cream
- kestrel
- Lady Christi
- Laura
- Nadine
- red rascal
- rodeo
- royal blue
- Ruby Lou
- sapphire
- white star
- organic
Prickly pears
Pumpkin
Quince
Quince - organic
Silverbeet
Strawberry
Tomato - cherry
- truss
Trout - rainbow
APRIL
Apple juice
Apples - Fuji
- gala
- golden delicious
- Granny Smith
- green star
- hi early
- jazz
- Jonathan
- kanzi
- pink lady
- splendour
- organic
Baby spinach
Beef
Beetroot
Beetroot - organic
Broccoli
Cabbage - Chinese
- green
- megatons
Cabbage - organic green
- organic red
- red
Capsicum - green
Cauliflowers
Chilli/peppers
Corn
Cream
Eggplant
Feijoas - Duffy
Figs - Preston
- Deanna
- black Genoa
Fish - redfin
Garlic
Herbs - basil red
- basil green
- chervil
- chives
- coriander
- dill
- mint
- parsley
- rocket
- sage
- thyme
Honey
Kale - green
- organic
- red
Kohlrabi
Lamb - fat
- Suffolk
Lettuce - coral
- cos
- iceberg
- oak leaf
Limes - Tahitian
Marron
Melon - honeydew
- rock
- water
Milk
Nashi fruit
Nuts - chestnuts
- walnuts
- macadamia
Olive oil
Passionfruit
Pears - Bartlett
- comice (French)
- gold rush
- Packham
- red corella
- rossi
Persimmons - non stringent
Plums - black
- red
- sugar
Pomegranate
Potato - Almera
- Delaware
Potato - Desiree
- Dutch cream
- eureka
- kestrel
- Lady Christi
- Laura
- maris piper
- Maxine
- Nadine
- norland
- purple Congo
- red rascal
- rodeo
- royal blue
- Ruby Lou
- sapphire
- organic
Prickly pears
Pumpkin
Figs - Deanna
- black Genoa
Fish - redfin
Quince
Quince - organic
Nuts - chestnuts
- hazelnuts
- walnuts
- macadamia
Silverbeet
Strawberry
Tomato - cherry
- roma
- truss
Trout - rainbow
MAY
Apple juice
Apples - fuji
- gala
- golden delicious
- Granny Smith
- green star
- hi early
- jazz
- Jonathan
- kanzi
- Lady Williams
- pink lady
- splendour
- sundowner
- organic
Baby spinach
Beef
Beetroot
Beetroot - organic
Broccoli
Cabbage - Chinese
- green
- megatons
- organic green
- red
Capsicum - green
Cauliflowers
Chilli/peppers
Corn
Cream
Eggplant
Feijoas - Duffy
Figs - Preston
Garlic
Honey
Kale - green
- organic
- red
Kohlrabi
Lamb - fat
- Suffolk
Limes - Tahitian
Marron
Melon - honeydew
- rock
- water
Milk
Olive oil
Pears - Bartlett
- gold rush
- Packham
- red corella
- rossi
Persimmons - non stringent
Pomegranate
Potato - Almera
- Delaware
- Desiree
- Dutch cream
- eureka
- kestrel
- Lady Christi
- Laura
- maris piper
- Maxine
- Nadine
- norland
- purple Congo
- red rascal
- rodeo
- royal blue
- Ruby Lou
- sapphire
- organic
Pumpkin
Silverbeet
Strawberry
Tomato - cherry
- Roma
- truss
Trout - rainbow
Truffle - black
Watercress
winter AND SPRING
ts seasonal produce
JUNE
Apples - Fuji
- gala
- golden delicious
- Granny Smith
- green star
- hi early
- jazz
- Jonathan
- kanzi
- Lady Williams
- pink lady
- splendour
- sundowner
Beef
Beetroot
Beetroot - organic
Broccoli
Corn
Cream
Garlic
Fish - redfin
Honey
Kale - green
- organic
- red
Kohlrabi
Lamb - fat
- Suffolk
Lemons
Limes - Tahitian
Marron
Milk
Nuts - chestnuts
- hazelnuts
- macadamia
- walnuts
Olive oil- new season
Oranges
Pears - gold rush
Persimmons
Potato - Almera
- Delaware
- Desiree
- Dutch cream
- eureka
- kestrel
- Lady Christi
- Laura
- maris piper
- Maxine
- Nadine
- norland
- purple Congo
- red rascal
- rodeo
- royal blue
- Ruby Lou
- sapphire
- organic
Pumpkin
Silverbeet
Swede
Tamarillo
Tangello
Tomato - cherry
- Roma
- truss
Trout - rainbow
Truffle - black
Turnip
Watercress
Wheat - buck
JULY
Apples - Fuji
- golden delicious
- Granny Smith
- green star
- hi early
- jazz
- Jonathan
- kanzi
- Lady Williams
- pink lady
- splendour
- sundowner
Beef
Beetroot
Beetroot - organic
Broccoli
Cream
Garlic
Figs - Preston
- Deanna
- black Genoa
Fish - redfin
Honey
Jujubes
(Chinese red dates)
Kale - green
- organic
- red
Kohlrabi
Lamb - Suffolk
Lemons
Limes - Tahitian
Marron
Milk
Nuts - macadamia
- hazelnuts
Olive oil
Oranges
Pears - gold rush
Persimmons
Potato - organic
Pumpkin
Silverbeet
Swede
Tamarillo
Tangello
Tomato - cherry
- truss
Trout - rainbow
Truffle - black
Turnip
Watercress
Wheat - buck
AUGUST
Apples - Lady Williams
- sundowner
Beef
Beetroot
Beetroot - organic
Broccoli
Cream
Garlic
Figs - Preston
- Deanna
- black Genoa
Fish - redfin
Honey
Kale - green
- organic
- red
Kohlrabi
Lamb - Suffolk
Leek
Lemons
Limes - Tahitian
Marron
Milk
Nuts - macadamia
Olive oil
Oranges
Pears - gold rush
Persimmons
Potato - organic
Pumpkin
Silverbeet
Swede
Tamarillo
Tangello
Tomato - cherry
- truss
Trout - rainbow
Truffle - black
Turnip
Watercress
SEPTEMBER
Asparagus
Beef
Beetroot
Beetroot - organic
Broccoli
Broccoli - organic
Cream
Garlic
Feijoas - Duffy
Figs - Preston
Figs - Deanna
- black Genoa
Fish - redfin
Honey
Kale - green
- organic
- red
Kohlrabi
Lamb - Suffolk
Leek
Marron
Milk
Nuts - macadamia
Olive oil
Pears - gold rush
Potato - organic
Pumpkin
Silverbeet
Swede
Tamarillo
Tomato - truss
Trout - rainbow
Truffle - black
Turnip
Watercress
OCTOBER
Avocado
Asparagus
Beef
Beef - vealers
Beetroot
Beetroot - organic
Broccoli
Broccoli - organic
Cream
Feijoas - Duffy
Figs - Preston
- Deanna
- black Genoa
Fish - redfin
Herbs - basil red
- basil green
- chervil
- chives
- coriander
- dill
- mint
- parsley
- rocket
- sage
- thyme
Honey
Kale - green
- organic
- red
Kiwi fruit
Kohlrabi
Lamb - Suffolk
Marron
Milk
Nuts - macadamia
Olives- table
Olive oil
Pears - gold rush
Potato - organic
Pumpkin
Silverbeet
Tamarillo
Tomato - truss
Trout - rainbow
Watercress
NOVEMBER
Avocado
Asparagus
Beef
Beef - vealers
Beetroot
Broccoli
Broccoli - organic
Cream
Grapefruit
Feijoas - Duffy
Figs - Preston
- Deanna
- black Genoa
- redfin
Herbs - basil red
- basil green
- chervil
- chives
- coriander
- dill
- mint
- parsley
- rocket
- sage
- thyme
Honey
Kale - green
- organic
- red
Kiwifruit
Kohlrabi
Lamb - Suffolk
Lettuce - coral
- cos
- iceberg
- oak leaf
Loquats
Marron
Milk
Nuts - macadamia
Olive oil
Pears - gold rush
Pumpkin
Rhubarb - organic
Silverbeet
Stawberry
Tomato - truss
Trout - rainbow
FRESH PLUS
14
United front
for growers
A decision to band together
has been successful
fresh approach
to garlic harvest
T
he south-western French winegrowing region
of Bordeaux’ oceanic climate and clay soils
are credited with producing world-class
wines for centuries — and it’s Manjimup’s similar
climate and loam over clay soils that is fuelling the
town’s growing reputation for high-quality fresh
produce, according to broccoli specialist Brad
Ipsen.
Essentially the conditions in both places were
similar, he said. “We have hot days and cool nights
and you only have to look at the size of the trees to
get an idea of how good the soils are.”
Mr Ipsen is typical of the growers in the town
with a population of just over 4200 people. His
family has been in the area for generations, from
when his great grandfather arrived in 1906. By the
mid-1970s, grandsons Eric and George had become
cauliflower pioneers, exporting to Singapore until
2003, when the SARS virus and a weak Australian
dollar saw their market fall away dramatically.
“We grew potatoes and kept up with the
cauliflower for a few years before we decided to
branch into broccoli,” Mr Ipsen said. “My father
(Eric) and uncle’s (George) partnership had
dissolved by 1993 and that’s when I came back
from Europe to help Dad in the business.”
Around them, several other growers were doing
the same, growing a number of different
vegetables for WA and Eastern States markets and
sending them away to be packed and shipped. The
Asian markets including Singapore were being
inundated by cheaper Chinese produce and
avenues for export were limited. By 2009, half a
Kim Edwards
Picture: Craig
Kinder
E
Manjimup garlic producer Rick Scoones
bought custom-built machines from France.
dozen growers got wise and banded together.
“We came together under one brand. That’s
when Manjimup Fresh was born,” Mr Ipsen
said. “The whole operation (including packing,
shipping and marketing) just kind of evolved.”
While the growers still produce several
different vegetables lines, each of the families
specialises in one. At his Goodonga farm 8km
north-west of the town centre, Gary Ryan
grows cauliflowers, something his father Ian
started doing in the mid-1970s.
“Back then our biggest market was
exporting into Singapore and Malaysia but
we’re now concentrating on the WA market.
We target the high end,” Mr Ryan said.
Their success is built on the back of earlier
generations who cleared the bush and made
little income in the first few years. What keeps
this crop of growers moving ahead is science.
Working smarter is paying dividends for
several families, with leaf and nutrient testing
allowing them to grow vegetables with better
flavour and fewer blemishes.
“Leaf testing allows us to detail trace
minerals in each vegetable,” Mr Ryan said. “We
may need to lower the copper levels or lift zinc
levels but it means we can produce healthy
plants all year. If you produce healthy plants in
the first place, there is less need to spray.”
At Kim and Donnette Edwards’ property,
Chinese cabbage has become the specialist
line and the couple produce 8000 individual
cabbages every year, along with smaller
quantities of cauliflower and broccoli.
“The consumer is getting fussier, and so we
need to keep an eye on everything,” Mrs
Edwards said. “We do our testing fortnightly.
We record the wind and take soil samples.
People want a bigger, sweeter vegetable that
lasts longer and that’s what we’re now able to
deliver.”
Connie Clarke
very time he wakes up on his property, which is halfway
between Pemberton and Manjimup and surrounded by
towering forests on three sides, Rick Scoones knows he
made the right decision.
Three years ago, the former marine biologist started the
ultimate tree change and — without a farming background —
decided to try his hand at growing garlic.
Garlic is not traditionally grown in the region, with just a
handful of producers embarking on growing programs in the
past few years. Yet, such was their faith in their ability to make
a decent living from the region’s loam-rich soils, that last May,
Mr Scoones and his wife Barbara Loessl finally took the
plunge, selling everything and making a permanent move to
the Southern Forests region.
“The rat race was no longer attractive and I’d always
wanted to try farming,” Mr Scoones said. “I don’t have a
farming background but I have an environmental science
background and worked in aquaculture for many years, so I
knew we could bring a scientific approach to farming.”
Despite leaving behind a well-paid position, and swapping
standard office hours for an average 50 to 55-hour week, the
successful harvest of almost 10 tonnes of top-quality purple
garlic last season made it all worthwhile. The decision to buy
custom-built machines from France to split the bogs in the
soil, sort and plant the cloves and even brush down the
sorting tables, meant the couple could get by with just two
backpackers for a few hours a day during the seven-month
harvesting season.
With their product already selling at the Bunbury Farmers
Market, the search for new markets has started.
“We’d love to see our product on the chopping boards of
chefs from Perth’s top restaurants,” Mr Scoones said.
By the time Easter rolls around, the couple, along with
their two French backpackers, will start their third growing
season, which spans from April until late November. After
higher-than-expected rainfall and little sunshine last
September, they are hoping for a much better commercial
crop to sell to the Perth markets this year.
“We want our product to be as good as it can be. In that
way we are no different to other growers in the area that have
been here for generations — we want to be consistent, and we
won’t let a second-rate product on to the shelves.”
It’s a sentiment shared by Northcliffe born-and-raised
farmer David MacDonald, who has also tried his hand at
raising garlic for the past two years.
Last season he and his partner Catrin Iversen produced a
tonne of high-quality purple garlic, under their JaHa label
using a clean-and-green approach.
“Best of all is that you know that it’s locally grown and
where it’s coming from — it comes from a pristine part of the
world and the flavour is fantastic,” Mr MacDonald said.
Connie Clarke
I
There was much more I
saw on this whirlwind tour:
serious art galleries (as
opposed to gloomy shop
fronts masquerading as art
galleries, selling macrame
installations, wooden fruit
bowls and rustic pottery to
coach tours). There’s the
incredible edible products
from the Holy Smoke shop
in Manjimup; the stunning
grounds and restaurant at
the Silkwood Winery out
on Channybearup Road,
which this month beat all
comers to take Red Wine of
the Show at the local wine
show. And there is the
extraordinary multimilliondollar business success
story that is the trendbucking Bannister Downs
Dairy.
Orchardist and feijoa
pioneer Robert Taylor.
Picture: Craig Kinder
t takes several mouthfuls to get a taste for
feijoas. “The first one always tastes like soap,”
Manjimup grower Robert Taylor said. “You
need to eat three or four, then you just can’t stop.
They grow on you and are wonderful on
ice-cream. You can eat the flowers too — and
they’re magnificent. They’ve got a sweet, honey
flavour and I’m told the leaves make a good tea,
though I haven’t tried it.”
A cross between pineapple, strawberry,
passionfruit and guava on the palate, the feijoa is
native to South America and looks like a stunted
avocado.
Mr Taylor, an electrical contractor, has been
growing them on his apple orchard for 12 years
and giving them away to friends because
nobody knew what they were. He’d always
wanted to farm and bought the run-down
orchard in the 90s so he could follow his heart,
then took out a couple of mates in the know and
asked them what he should do. One told him to
bulldoze the apple trees; the other suggested
cutting off the tips and watering them so they
would grow. Luckily, that worked.
Feijoas — sometimes called pineapple guavas,
though they’re neither — went in later, again on
advice from one of the mates, a Kiwi agricultural
consultant, who said they were popular in New
Zealand.
“I had no idea what feijoas were,” Mr Taylor
said. “It took about five years to get the first crop
but nobody seemed to want to buy them. I hung
on and kept watering them and giving them to
friends . . . until last year one of the other growers
in the area told me he’d just sold some for a good
price and that they were chasing them.
“Unfortunately, mine were earlier than his, so I
was at the end of my run. But since then I’ve had
people coming to me and saying ‘we’ll buy
everything off ya’.”
He can’t account for the turnaround but it’s
given him the confidence to keep growing the
fruit, which was introduced to Australia in the
early 1900s and is sometimes used as an
ornamental hedging plant and windbreak.
There are many varieties of fruit. Mr Taylor,
one of about three growers in Manjimup, planted
98 Duffy bushes, which he’s let grow into trees.
And they’re in season now.
“This one is a little bit sweeter and has a
crinkly skin,” he said. “Just remember, it’s from
the guava family so you get all these other
flavours. A lot of people don’t like them at first.
Even my grandkids told me not to eat them
because they tasted like soap but they love them
now.”
Cut them in half and eat them like a kiwifruit,
minus skin. “A lot of people make jam from them;
in New Zealand they make wine, too.”
Best of all, feijoas are the quintessential
tree-ripened fruit because they’re almost ready
to eat when they fall to the ground.
“Supermarkets are buying the fruit now, so it
looks like their time has finally come.”
Olga de Moeller
GRILLED Dingup House Historical B&B and restaurant chef/owner PETER ELLIOT
WHAT IS YOUR FIRST FOOD
MEMORY?
Plucking and eating Cape
gooseberries at my grandparents’
house. It was great fun just peeling
them open and chewing on them
— it’s a memory that’s stuck with
me for years and years. I now grow
my own Cape gooseberries and I
make relish with them and put
them through salads.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE MEAL?
Beer-battered nannygai and chips.
If any sort of battered fish is on the
menu when I go out I’m into it.
Nannygai’s a lovely southern fish
that’s a bit like snapper.
BEST COCKTAIL?
I drink red wine.
BEST CHEAP AND CHEERFUL?
Karridale Tavern. I haven’t been
there for a bit but they used to do
this seafood platter that I loved. It’s
just a nice environment — good
food, well presented, you can have
a cold beer and it’s not as touristy
as most other places, so it’s a little
bit quieter and out of the way.
When we’re in that neck of the
woods we definitely try and get
into that place for a meal and a
beer.
WHAT WAS YOUR LAST OMG
FOOD MOMENT?
We had a weekend in Melbourne
recently where I ate everywhere.
The whole family went over for a
weekend, ate out every meal and
just enjoyed every bite.
WHAT IS YOUR ONCE-A-YEAR
FOOD INDULGENCE?
I spoil myself whenever possible. I
do love my marron or any sort of
shellfish though, any chance to eat
all that sort of stuff and I tuck in. I
keep it really simple — just boil it
up, shell it and eat. Little bit of
pepper, little bit of lemon and I’m
happy. I can get marron all year
round here, too. Sometimes when I
get special requests for marron on
the menu I’ll get a couple of extra
and me and my son usually knock
off one or two just because we can.
BUCKET-LIST RESTAURANT?
St Betty in Hong Kong. Shane
Osborn, the chef, came and stayed
here last year for the Truffle
Kerfuffle and I met him.
He’s just this nice,
down-to-earth, family
bloke. He keeps the
food simple, uses
good produce, and
presents it well. Plus
he’s a West
Australian boy.
WHAT ARE THE
MAJOR BENEFITS OF
BEING IN THE
SOUTHERN FORESTS
REGION?
Just having the best
variety and quality of
Australia’s produce right at
your doorstep, as well as learning
from the producers.
WHAT PART DO YOU PLAY IN THE
SOUTHERN FORESTS REGION?
The business that we run here is
just my wife, me and my son. It’s a
family business and we do
everything from cooking to
cleaning to gardening — we do
lock, stock and barrel. We enjoy
what we do and we’re very happy
about it.
Dingup House,
Dingup Road,
Manjimup
9772 4206 or
dinguphouse.
com.au
Feijoas will grow on
you, says a fan who’s
nurtured them for years
FRESH PLUS
A time to blossom
15
Success in cool climate
The Easts have a window
of time to grow lettuce
FRESH PLUS
16
W
It’s picking time
for Manjimup
plum grower
Bevan Eatts and
his kelpie Pip.
henever you ask for
lettuce at Subway or sink
your teeth into a Big
Mac, you’re probably eating David
East’s carefully grown produce.
The Manjimup-based lettuce
grower supplies his harvest to big
processors throughout WA in
summertime, who then supply
many fast food and chain stores.
“You’d be quite surprised at the
amount of people in WA who don’t
know what Manjimup does or what
we’ve got down here,” he said.
After working on his father’s
cattle farm when he was younger,
Mr East had an ambition to move
into horticulture. He began his new
career in 1983, growing cauliflower.
“I left school in 1982, came
home and couldn’t see a future in
just doing cattle,” he said. “I looked
to diversify into vegetables and
cauliflower was one of the biggest
vegetable products grown in the
area for export.
“I spoke to a friend of ours and
he taught me how to grow it —
that’s how I got involved.”
When China entered the export
market as a fierce competitor in
the late 1990s, Mr East said many
vegetable growers couldn’t
compete and were forced to bow
out of the industry altogether.
“We could see the writing on
the wall. Within about four years
China virtually wiped us out. A fair
few growers sold their properties
and moved on,” he said.
“In about 95 when they started
to put pressure on us we could see
we needed to get into another
commodity, so that’s what we did.”
David and his wife Lee moved
to lettuce growing in 1998 and
have continued to use their rich
Southern Forests soil to make it
their specialty. They grow, manage
and harvest 120ha of lettuce
varieties, including iceberg, cos
and gourmet and baby leaf
spinach.
A key component to their
success is that they can produce
lettuce at a time of year Perth
growers can’t — in summer. The
Easts grow and harvest their
lettuce from December to midMay, when they hand the reins
back to Perth. The capability for
this successful summer harvest is
all thanks to Southern Forests’
temperate climate.
“The opportunity to grow
lettuce came when they couldn’t
get quality out of Perth in
We do
enough
turnover in
six months
(of
harvesting)
to last us
12, so we’ve
got to go
really hard
for that
period of
time.
David East
summertime and were looking for
regions to grow the iceberg lettuce
and other products,” he said.
“All their modelling suggested
Manjimup had the climate specific
to suit the things they needed, so
they came and saw us about it.”
When the Easts are in their
production period, it’s all hands on
deck for long days of harvesting
and planting.
“My boys are now back with us
on the farm and they want to be
involved in it — it’s a great place to
live.”
Emma Chitty
David East
and his crop.
Picture:
Craig Kinder
It’s a plum way to make a living
T
hird-generation farmer Bevan
Eatts has been tilling the soil
around west Manjimup his
whole life. Plums are the name of
the game and the farm has a wide
range of varieties on the go for five
months of the year.
The 275ha farm wasn’t always so
loyal to stone fruit, however. The
family first took ownership of the
land in 1946 — a far smaller
property back then — and built it
up over time. They ran a dairy herd
on the land, which was milked the
old-fashioned way (by hand),
before evolving into sheep farming.
It was nearly 40 years ago, in
1976, that the family decided to try
their hand at growing vegetables
instead of running livestock.
“We used to grow cauliflower
for export in the boom days, and
we had a regular truck run where
we used to drop produce off at
Busselton, Bunbury and
Donnybrook,” Mr Eatts said.
The family was looking for a
better quality of life, one that didn’t
involve working seven days a week,
when they decided to delve into an
industry they’d never considered
and which was right out of their
comfort zone — stone fruit. They
knew the Manjimup region was
suitable for growing the fruit and
were attracted by the plum
season’s short time frame.
“Coming from a vegetable
background, we knew nothing
about fruit trees,” Mr Eatts said. “So
we thought we’d start with stone
fruit, which is meant to be easier
than apples. There aren’t many
stone-fruit growers in WA. It’s
pretty much a niche market now.”
The orchard took a few years to
kick into gear and start bearing
fruit and now the farm is all plums,
with more than 5000 trees
flourishing on the property.
There are 11 plum varieties on
the farm, including black Amber,
candy Rosa, fortune, Amber jewel,
Kelsey, midnight sun, Tegan blue
and Angelino.
“The way it works is that we
start picking one variety between
Christmas and the new year, and
then two weeks later another
variety comes on, then another one
two weeks after that, and so on,”
Mr Eatts said.
“That goes right through to the
end of April. Purple majesty is the
first plum variety we pick, which is
about Christmas time.”
As all farmers know though, you
can have good and bad seasons.
“The last season wasn’t so great.
In September 2012, we had some
hail, when the fruit had only grown
as big as a thumbnail. The hail left a
mark and, as the fruit grew, the
mark got bigger. As a result, it
meant we couldn’t sell our crop as
a first-grade fruit,” Mr Eatts said.
“Generally, first-grade plums sell
at about $2.50 a kilogram, while
second-grade plums sell at about
$1-$1.50 a kilo. So that’s a huge
difference, despite the fact that the
same amount of work goes into
growing them and that they taste
the same.
“That’s probably something we
need to educate consumers on.”
Jennifer Susanto-Lee
Manjimup’s
Beth
Shorthouse.
People want to know the origins of
their food, writes CONNIE CLARKE
A good jam should have plenty of fruity lumps and
should be at least 50 per cent sugar or it’s not worth the
effort, according to Manjimup berry farmer Beth
Shorthouse.
“You need to be able to taste the fruit,” Mrs
Shorthouse said. “And you need the sugar to make it a
jam, otherwise the flavour isn’t right.”
Retired schoolteachers Mrs Shorthouse, 70, and her
husband John, 75, bought their property in 1985,
charmed by the beautiful karri forest that surrounded it.
In 1996, they decided to turn their hobby into a business
and now grow almost 500kg of berries every year.
Whatever is not sold at the Manjimup Farmers Market,
where Mrs Shorthouse is co-ordinator, goes into a
colourful array of jams, preserves, jellies and sauces.
The Yallamurrup range is made from their 17ha
property in the Middlesex Valley, about 8km south of
Manjimup. Seven varieties are grown and handpicked by
the couple, including raspberries, loganberries,
boysenberries and English gooseberries.
“John grows the orchard full-time now after he retired
in 1998,” Mrs Shorthouse said. “I like to try lots of
different combinations. We don’t sell to Perth, it would be
too big an operation, especially since we are getting to
the age where we’ll have to hand over to somebody else.
But there’s lots of interest and our products are available
in the tourist bureaus and wineries.
“While we’re still healthy we’ll continue — we love it,
especially meeting so many different, interesting people
all the time.”
A
in Britain and Aldi over east.
Mr Giblett bought the Newton
Brothers’ Orchards outright in
1990, converting one of the three
orchards to organic in 2008. He
has since watched his three adult
children become integral parts of
the operation, and hopes his
grandchildren will continue in what
has become one of the country’s
biggest suppliers of organic fruit.
“I see myself as just a caretaker,”
Mr Giblett said. “Whether they
share our passion and are in tune
with what we’ve created remains
to be seen, there are no
guarantees.”
With the big two throwing their
weight behind organically
produced fruit and vegetables,
along with a growing consumer
demand for safe food, Mr Giblett
can only see a bright future for the
Southern Forests region.
Family-owned and family-run
growers have been diversifying
into organics for many years.
“People want to have a
connection with the farm and the
farmer,” Mr Giblett said.
“They want to know the origins
of their food sources — how it was
grown and by whom. We’re in tune
with that. These are the apples that
my grandchildren eat and there is a
sense of trust and a relationship
that we forge with our customers.
“The last crop was a really nice
one and we have bigger and better
things in store this year. We want
to produce a premium apple and
quality fruit that will last in market
all year. There is a certain crunch
and taste factor that you want to
achieve each time. We’ve been
supplying the Woolworths Macro
brand for a while, and the fruit for
the ValleyView label (Coles) has
been really good. There have been
very few problems. I couldn’t be
happier.”
Horgan that a large facility for tastings
and special events and VIP wine
events would be the way of the future.
As it turns out Mondavi was
nothing short of a prophet because,
many years later, there’s nary a serious
wine business in WA that doesn’t have
facilities above and beyond a bench
and a spittoon.
The gardens alone are worth the
visit to Salitage: they are manicured
and lush. And, in a
region impoverished for
hotel rooms, his luxury
chalets are in great
demand. And then
there’s those
exceptional
cold-climate wines
made by Sue
Mountford, pictured
right with me . . .
Harvey Giblett
with Newton
Orchards
apples.
Picture: Craig
Kinder
Connie Clarke
It’s hard to get a good coffee in
Pemberton or Manjimup but then
that’s always the way once you get
more than 100km from a capital city.
So, drink juice, or better still, wine.
Along the ridiculously picturesque
Vasse Highway, on the way to Pemby,
lies some of WA’s most celebrated
wineries. John Horgan’s Salitage is a
case in point. And something of a
surprise. If I had any expectations
about this place it would have been
of a small cellar door made from
undressed timber and with samples
being doled out by a Dutch
backpacker with a nose ring and an
immediate need of depilatory cream.
The Salitage cellar door is
anything but. It is a massive building
inspired by the ideas of America’s
most famous wine producer Robert
Mondavi, who suggested to John
they’re jammin’
s he watches his
grandchildren Jasper and
Sacha run around picking
fruit from the orchard founded by
“10 pound poms” George and
Harold Newton in 1929, Harvey
Giblett feels a deep satisfaction.
After decades of hard work, the
85-year-old business started by Mr
Giblett’s father-in-law George is
tasting the ultimate success with
their royal gala, fuji, jazz, Granny
Smith and pink lady apples now
being carried by both of Australia’s
supermarket giants, as well being
shipped interstate and overseas,
including to Marks and Spencer
FRESH PLUS
Apples customers trust
17
FRESH PLUS
18
Southern comfort
Foragers’ Sophie Zalokar shares some of her
best recipes using Southern Forests produce
Roasted cauliflower with caraway, pickled walnuts,
kale and macadamia pesto
VEGETARIAN
Serves 4
300g kale, ribs removed,
coarsely chopped
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp salt plus extra
1 cup macadamia nuts,
lightly toasted
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
small lemon, zest only
2 1⁄2 tbsp lemon juice
1 cup parmesan, finely grated
plus extra
1 medium cauliflower
olive oil
sea salt flakes
1 tbsp caraway seeds
4 whole pickled walnuts, sliced
Italian parsley leaves,
to garnish
freshly cracked black pepper
Blanch the kale in boiling salted water, cooling under cold
running water. Drain well before rolling in a tea towel to dry.
Crush the garlic with the salt in a mortar and pestle until a
creamy consistency. Place the kale, macadamias, half the
extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice and zest and crushed
garlic in a food processor. Process until a coarse puree.
Transfer to a bowl and fold through the grated parmesan
and remaining extra virgin olive oil. Check seasoning and
adjust if needed. Preheat oven to 220C. Slice the
cauliflower from top to bottom into 2cm thick pieces.
Place the slices and small pieces that will break off as
you slice on to an oiled baking tray and drizzle with olive
oil. Season with sea salt flakes and caraway seeds and
roast for 20-25 minutes until browned at the edges and
tender. Serve the roasted cauliflower slices layered on a
platter, garnished with small spoonfuls of the kale
pesto, slices of pickled walnut, a little extra grated
parmesan, Italian parsley leaves and freshly cracked black
pepper.
Manjimup white-bean puree with potato and buckwheat flatbread
PERFECT STARTER
Makes 3 cups
250g Manjimup white beans or
dried cannellini beans
2 cloves garlic
1 fresh bay leaf
1 tbsp sea salt
1 tbsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped plus extra
1
⁄3 cup extra virgin olive oil
freshly cracked black pepper
local extra virgin olive oil
Soak the white beans overnight. Drain before
putting into a big saucepan with water to cover
the garlic cloves and fresh bay leaf by 5cm. Bring
to the boil and simmer until just tender. Add salt
and cook further until the beans are soft. Drain,
reserving the cooking liquid and the bay leaf.
Allow the beans to cool a little before pureeing in
a food processor together with the rosemary,
extra virgin olive oil, third of a cup of the
reserved cooking liquid and freshly cracked
black pepper. Leave to cool to room temperature
before serving drizzled with a little best-quality
local extra virgin olive oil, a scattering of more
finely chopped rosemary and garnished with the
bay leaf. Serve with flatbread (see recipe).
Makes 4 flatbread
300g mashed potato, cooled
100g buckwheat flour
1
⁄2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1 large free-range egg
olive oil
sea salt flakes
Preheat oven to 220C. Mix the
mashed potato, buckwheat flour,
baking powder and egg with a pinch
of salt until a soft dough. Divide into
four portions and place on a lined
baking tray. Flatten each with
flour-dusted fingers into round disks,
prick the breads with a fork, drizzle
with a little olive oil and bake for 20
minutes until the edges are browned.
Serve sprinkled with salt flakes.
19
FRESH PLUS
Photography & Styling Iain Gillespie
Marron, roasted walnut, avocado and
pink lady apple salad with truffle salt
and apple cider vinaigrette
SUNDAY LUNCH
Serves 4
1 cup walnut kernels
4 x 300g fresh marron,
purged
1 tbsp apple cider
vinegar
1 tsp lemon juice
1
⁄2 tsp sea salt
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 small iceberg lettuce,
torn into bite-size pieces
2 radishes, thinly
sliced
1 avocado, sliced
1 pink lady apple,
thinly sliced
1 small bunch fresh
dill, tips plucked
from stalks
truffle salt to garnish
cracked black pepper
Dry roast the walnuts in a 200C oven for 20 minutes
until just brown then transfer to a dry tea towel.
Gather the corners of the tea towel together and
rub the skins away from the walnuts. Transfer to a
coarse sieve to separate the skins from the roasted
walnut. Reserve to the side. Place the live marron in
the freezer for 20-30 minutes until they no longer
move but are not yet frozen. Bring a large pot of
water to the boil and add the salt. Gently put the
marron in the boiling water, cover immediately and
cook for 3-4 minutes. Remove from the pot and
plunge into iced water. Twist and pull the head away
from the tail. Using kitchen scissors cut up the
middle of the inside of the tail and ease the flesh
away from the shell. Pull back the flap from the top
of the meat and gently remove the alimentary canal
before thickly slicing the marron meat. Make the
vinaigrette by whisking together the apple cider
vinegar, lemon juice and salt and then the extra
virgin olive oil until emulsified. Compile the salad by
scattering the iceberg on a platter, topped with the
radish slices, marron pieces, sliced avocado and
apple. Drizzle over the dressing and garnish with
the roasted walnuts, fresh dill tips, truffle salt and
freshly cracked black pepper.
Honey and rustleberry
semifreddo with toasted
hazelnuts
SWEET DELIGHTS
Rob Broadfield
chews the fat
with Southern
Forests
champion
Sophie Zalokar.
Don’t miss West
Weekend
magazine’s
Gourmet Edition
on Saturday.
Serves 8
1 large egg
4 large egg yolks
100g plus little extra honey
300ml whipping cream
250g frozen rustleberries, roughly chopped
1
⁄2 cup toasted hazelnuts, roughly chopped
Line a 1 litre loaf tin with baking paper,
overlapping the top edge of the tin. Beat the
egg and egg yolks with the honey in a bowl
over a saucepan of gently simmering water
for about 10 minutes until the mixture is pale
and thick. Allow to cool in the fridge,
whisking occasionally to incorporate the
edges. Whip the cream until thick and then
gently fold in the egg and honey mixture.
Fold through the chopped rustleberries and
pour into the prepared tin. Cover with a piece
of baking paper before freezing for a
minimum of 4 hours. Serve drizzled with a
little more honey and the toasted hazelnuts
scattered over the top.
• Foragers is a farm-based
cooking school and dining room
with self-contained
accommodation in the Southern
Forests region, 6km south of
Pemberton.
• Sophie Zalokar and her
husband, Chris, moved from
Fremantle to this breathtaking
7.4ha property with their two
children in 2005.
• The property now sports newly
built luxury accommodation for
guests, a productive kitchen
garden, and a 40-seat dining room
with a large commercial kitchen.
Foragers is at 1 Roberts Road,
Pemberton. Phone 9776 1580.
Kinship of the vine
RAY JORDAN shines a spotlight on the
families behind this region’s vineyards
FRESH PLUS
20
T
Olde Eastbrook
Winery’s Justin
and Jodie
Omodei with
daughter Charli,
4, and Gus the
dog.
he wines of Pemberton and
Manjimup within the
Southern Forests region are
some of the most exciting in the
State. Yet they are also the most
frustrating. Just when you think it
has come of age with a great pinot
noir, a chardonnay or even a
merlot, it lets you down the next
time around.
It’s not always its fault. But quite
why is hard to put a finger on.
Vintage certainly plays a part and
this region is susceptible to
significant and subtle vintage
variations that can be as
frustrating for the producers as
they are for the consumer.
There is no doubt that when
things go right, this region
produces some of the best fruit in
the State. The climate and soils
seem ideal for quality wine. It sits
on a huge mass of granite rock
called the Yilgarn Craton,
recognised as the oldest rock
formation on Earth, dating back
more than three billion years. The
gravelly ironstone soils
that have formed on the
higher ground above the
craton are found
throughout Pemberton
and the Smithbrook
vineyard.
The chardonnays have
an elegance and
refinement that is the
most akin to the modern
restrained expression of
this variety becoming so
popular, especially in the
Eastern States.
Sauvignon blanc is
another white variety that
really excels and there
have been some
marvellous examples made by
Houghton over the years that take
it to another level of complexity
and expression.
Of the reds, the most likely to
succeed has been pinot noir. The
climate and soils seem right yet,
over the years, the wines have not
had quite the consistency you
would like to see — still that’s pinot
noir isn’t it — although the past few
years have seen this change.
Having said that, some of the
best examples of this variety made
in WA have come from producers
such as Picardy, Salitage and
Batista Estate.
‘All we are
doing is
going back
to practices
that have
been
commonly
used over
many
generations.’
Dan Pannell
Special for sparkling
With their propensity for producing high-class chardonnay
and pinot noir, the Pemberton and Manjimup regions with the
Southern Forests area are well placed to produce quality
sparkling wine. In the early days, producers such as Domain
Chandon in Victoria’s Yarra Valley and Houghton took fruit
for their sparkling wines.
And while it is not quite cool enough to produce the type of
fruit currently required for the finest Australian sparkling
wines — most of that is coming from down in Tasmania — the
fruit from this region is well suited to sparkling wines, with
the longer, cooler ripening period ideal for quality bubbles.
Two producers who are making a statement with this style
are Olde Eastbrook and Smithbrook, who have bitten the
bullet to make this time-consuming and quite expensive style
of wine.
Both the wines are first class and the Smithbrook The
Yilgarn blanc de blancs 2010 last year won the title of Best
Sparkling wine in the annual West Australian Wine Guide.
The Olde Eastbrook chardonnay pinot noir 2010 is
full-flavoured style of sparkling, made in the traditional
method and aged for 30 months on lees.
Merlot is another red variety
that has risen to lofty heights in
some years with Chestnut Grove
making some truly exceptional
wines. Other producers also have
produced some beauties and I
remain convinced that, given the
right clones, it may well rise above
pinot as the red wine of the region.
One of the most impressive
producers in the region is Salitage,
which was established in 1989 by
John and Jenny Horgan. It hit the
ground running with some
excellent chardonnays and pinot in
the early years and has continued
to produce a mix of top-shelf
premium wines with a value-formoney range under the Treehouse
label, with chardonnay and pinot
noir the features.
Jenny Horgan lost her
courageous battle with cancer last
year and John is continuing with
the business at this stage. His
background is impressive. He was
a key part of the establishment of
Leeuwin Estate with his brother
Dennis and also studied under
famous Californian winemaker
Robert Mondavi before taking
equity in Domaine de la Pousse
D’Or in the Cote D’Or region of
Burgundy.
Horgan said: “This is a
magnificent region to grow grapes
and I have no doubt that the
quality of our wines over the years
has been a direct result of the
viticulture and how we have
maximised the natural
environment to produce the best
fruit.”
Picardy has been one of the
high-profile producers of the
region since being established by
Clockwise from
above: John
Horgan, of
Salitage;
Vic Peos, of Peos
Estate; Picardy
winemaker Dan
Pannell.
Pictures: Iain
Gillespie and
Craig Kinder
a grape-drinking escape
the vineyard through to the winery
and I have no doubt this
contributes to the excellent quality
of the wines.”
While pinot has been a strong
suit here, the chardonnays also are
outstanding with finesse and great
complexity while cabernet franc,
shiraz and merlot also contribute
to a range of first-rate wines.
Another interesting producer in
the region is the Olde Eastbrook
vineyard, which is owned by the
Omodei family. The 20ha were
planted in 1998 but as well there is
a big planting of avocados, a
trufferie and trade cattle.
“We have an ethos here to work
as hard as we can, while we can,”
Justin Omodei said. “As long as we
keep the right attitude, work hard
and stay healthy, we’ll keep doing
our bit.”
In addition to an impressive
range of table wines which are
made by Mike Garland at the
Castelli winery near Denmark, Olde
Eastbrook also has released a
sparkling wine which is showing
some encouraging results.
The Peos family have been part
of the Manjimup region for the best
part of 80 years, although they
were making wine in Macedonia
more than 100 years ago. The Peos
venture into wine in Manjimup
started when the brothers Vic,
John, Kon and Chris banded
together in 1996 to create their
vineyard as a legacy to their father
Jim and grandfather Py who had
made wine in Macedonia before
coming to Australia.
Previously, the Peos family have
lived off the land farming. The Peos
Estate wines are consistent and
deliver on quality and value for
money with the reds a highlight.
Vic Peos said: “We have found
the climate in Manjimup ideal for all
of the farming we have pursued. It
allows consistency and gives
distinctive characters which say
these wines are from Manjimup.”
Another of the
excellent producers is
Smithbrook, which is now part of
the Fogarty Wine Group. The focus
in the past seven years has been on
getting the vineyard back to its
“natural expression” with low
yields supported by minimal
inputs. This fits in with the overall
environmental strategy, where
vines for Smithbrook are grown
without irrigation. The range is
exceptional.
Alana Starkie
with her
non-alcoholic
sparkling grape
juice, which has
proven popular.
Bill and Sandra Pannell, who had
previously set up boutique icon
Moss Wood at Margaret River.
The Pannells were joined by son
Dan and have been turning out
some first-class wines, with the
focus on creating great pinot noir a
driving influence.
The vineyard is where much of
the attention has been focused.
The Pannells have been strongly
influenced by what is done in
Burgundy and, as a result, the
vines are close planted to promote
competition between vines and
trained low to enable them to use
heat radiating from the gravelly
soils in the evenings.
Picardy is very aware of its
pristine environment and so
undertakes a strong
environmentally
friendly
approach.
Dan Pannell
said : “All we are
doing is going
back to practices
that have been
commonly used
over many
generations. It’s
not about just
taking from the
land, it’s about
giving back too.
“Our
philosophy here
is to be hands-on
in every part of
the process from
because we can’t leave it on the skin, so
it doesn’t have as many tannins as a red
wine,” Mrs Starkie said.
Mrs Starkie, a former agriculture
project manager with the South West
Catchment Council, is devoting herself to
the business full-time as production
increases to meet demand. Three years
ago, they picked 5 tonnes of grapes; this
year it’s 15 tonnes, as outlets from Albany
to Perth snap up the range.
“The first year, we did a fairly small
batch because we wanted to see
people’s reaction and sold it mainly
through farmer’s markets and local
shows,” she said. “We’ve now got a viable
business and want to grow it within our
means.”
The plan is to produce their own
grapes in three to five years as they plant
up their 50ha Middlesex property —
about 5km from Manjimup — where they
got married two years ago. ‘We’re
putting in sauvignon blanc, shiraz and
also Canada muscat, which is the main
flavour in our muscat juice,” Mrs Starkie
said. “It’s a little-known grape but we
think it’s got real potential. Those
cuttings will go in this winter. But the
really nice thing about the property
we’ve bought is that it’s next door to
Sally Starkie’s original family farm.”
Olga De Moeller
FRESH PLUS
M
iddlesex producers Alana and
Paul Starkie are on to their third
vintage of sparkling grape juice
and this year is set to be a corker with
production up three-fold since they
made their debut with Sally’s Lane in
2011.
Named after Mr Starkie’s great
grandmother, Sally Starkie, the range is a
premium alternative to wine and uses
grapes from David and Monica
Radomiljac’s Pemberley Estate, in
Pemberton, topped up with pickings
from Mrs Starkie’s family vineyard,
Shedley Wines, in Bridgetown.
“We call it sparkling grape juice
because it’s non-alcoholic,” Mrs Starkie
said. “My husband and I are both
non-drinkers but coming from a
winemaking family I like and appreciate
the taste of wine but don’t like the effect
alcohol has on me. So we’re doing
varietals under our own label to fill that
niche for people who don’t drink. These
people still want a nice option when
socialising so they don’t feel out of place,
because Paul and I know what’s it like to
be stuck with ginger beer or orange juice
when there’s just nothing else on offer.”
The Starkies pick grapes about two
weeks before winemakers, so they’re
lower in sugar but higher in acidity for a
more balanced flavour and process close
to 0C to stop fermentation. Everything is
hand-bottled and hand-capped. Varieties
include sauvignon blanc, shiraz, taminga
— an Australian cross-bred grape — and
muscat. “Winemakers generally pick
grapes when they have quite a lot of
sugar and the sugar is converted to
alcohol but if you were to drink that as
straight juice, it would be too sweet,”
Mr Starkie said.
“We’ve always hand picked our
grapes but this year we’re
experimenting with some machine
picking, so we can do it at 3am when
the grapes are really cold, then crush
and press straight away and have the
juice in tanks by 7am.”
The couple started with two
sparkling grape juices — sauvignon
blanc and cabernet sauvignon, which has
been replaced with shiraz. “The shiraz is
a little bit different to what you’d expect
21
FRESH PLUS
22
Learning on the land
has yielded results
for this couple
Pemberton
lime grower
Brian Thornley
and his wife
Val Icanovska.
Limes the perfect tonic
Y
ou can’t make a decent gin
and tonic without a slice of
lime and one of the people
we have to thank for being able to
enjoy that magic ingredient is
Brian Thornley, of Pemberton
Limes, now one of the biggest
producers of Tahitian limes in the
southern hemisphere.
Mr Thornley is not a citrus
grower by nature: he’s an
accountant. For many years he ran
a successful practice on the
Terrace until he sold it to one of the
international firms.
At the time, 60 per cent of his
clients were rural based and
included large family businesses,
motels, large trucking outfits,
timber companies, and growers of
one sort or another — potatoes,
wheat, barley, beef, sheep and
cattle. Among other places, his
work took him to the Southern
Forests area, where he developed
a particular affinity for Pemberton
— so much so that he bought a
property there which he shares
with wife Val Icanovska.
“Then about six years ago we
decided one particular block was
very undulating country where we
were out on the edge of the forest,
and we decided to put a crop in
there,” he said.
There were a number of reasons
why he chose limes as the crop.
First, he was looking for a taxeffective investment, particularly
one which no one else was using:
“No one was growing them — the
tax schemes weren’t interested in
them. You had avocados, which
were heavily involved with tax
schemes; you’ve got the wine
industry which, as you would
appreciate, is flooded with them,
and there have been others around
the nut industry — until it all
backfired over the last couple of
years,” he said.
Climate change was another. “It
may seem a bit strange that we
decided on limes because it’s not
sub-tropical down there but we
were working on the fact they were
saying we were having a 2C or so
climate change. That meant that
the Pemberton climate would
probably be where Harvey is at the
present time, which is one of the
major citrus growing areas.”
Pemberton Limes is into its
second year of commercial
production and from an initial yield
of 16,000kg from 1100 trees, this
year they expect about 24,000kg,
with a projected peak production
of 50,000kg in two years time.
“This is the normal yield for
those types of trees and that’s
what we expect to turn out year
after year for about 20 years,” Mr
Thornley said. “Fifty-thousand
kilos is quite a sizeable amount and
would probably flood the WA
market, so we are actively looking
at exporting.”
Interestingly, Mr Thornlie has
achieved this remarkable level of
output without much formal
expert advice: “We couldn’t find
anything from the Department of
Agriculture in WA. In fact, they
were mortified that we’d even
thought of doing it.”
What he did use, though, was
the experience he had gained
‘We were
working
on the
fact they
were
saying we
were
having a
2C or so
climate
change.’
working with and listening to his
clients. “I believe we’ve adopted
those good habits that a lot of my
clients who are successful in the
horticultural business use in grain
growing and the like; that if you
look after things and you get the
timing right, you should end up
with a good product,” he said.
Don Stott
Harry
Hercock.
olives love
growing
conditions
It is called the good oil for a reason
and the olive oil being produced in
WA’s Southern Forests region is a
real corker.
First-generation olive oil producer
John Higgins, who has produced and
processed olives for the past decade
that he has lived in Pemberton, put
this oil richness down to the area’s
lengthened olive growing season.
“The area is ideal where we live as
it allows us to have one of the longest
growing seasons in the world — this
slow growth rate helps the quality
and the taste of the fruit,” he said.
“The soil is mainly karri loam and
the rainfall average is 1200mm — the
olives love it.”
Though winding olive oil
production back, Mr Higgins, an
electrician by trade, said he had
harvested about 80 tonnes of olives
and produced 11,000 litres of extra
virgin olive oil annually on his
42.49ha property under his family’s
Channyridge label.
These olives came from 4500
robust, mild and fruity-flavoured olive
trees including Minerva, WA mission,
coratina, Zues, Kalamata and jumbo
Kalamata varieties.
“We have stopped producing but
are still selling the remaining stock
of our single-variety extra virgin as
well as our mandarin and
lime-infused olive oils,” he said.
Manjimup’s Harry Hercock also
knows a thing or two about olives —
in fact, his whole family does.
DON STOTT talks to a persimmon grower
Together with wife Leanne, the
Hercocks first planted olive trees in
1996, had their first harvest in 1999
and are behind the small production
Bookalaam olive oil label, which they
sell at the Manjimup Farmers Market
and the George Street Merchants in
East Fremantle.
He said the family’s small
300-tree grove comprised of a
Spanish milling variety called WA
mission (from New Norcia) and an
Italian variety called frantoio and
yielded nine tonnes of olives and
about 1200 litres of extra virgin and
lime-pressed olive oils last year.
He said olives grew in a wide
range of environmental conditions
and thrived in the cooler South West,
and he used minimal intervention
(chemicals, fertiliser and water) and
minimal machinery to grow and
harvest his olives.
“In general, South West oils are
different to warmer area oils but WA
olive oils all have their own merits,”
he said.
Mr Hercock said his wife, children
and extended family were crucial to
the day-to-day running, production
and marketing of the Bookalaam
‘We started
out with 150
trees but we
decided to
take some of
them out, and
we’ve netted
off 30 to 35
trees with a
cover over the
whole lot to
keep the
wildlife out
with an
electric fence.’
range of products, which also
included dukkah; lime-roasted
almonds; plum and lime jam; plum,
lime and fennel conserve; and limeand-plum-roasted almonds.
Julian Sharp is another small
olive oil producer who hails from
near Pemberton, his home for the
past 36 years.
Despite no family history of oil
production, he has been producing
organic-certified olive oil for four
years from the olives harvested
from his 2.5ha, 540-tree grove
which is mainly comprised of
olive-oil varieties. He also has 50
trees for table olives.
Olives WA executive officer
Vanessa Hawthorn said most
Southern Forests region olive
growers farmed relatively small
groves yet produced high-quality oil
for the gourmet market.
She said of the 16 million kilos
of olives harvested in WA in 2012,
WA Olive Council members in the
Southern Forests region produced
973,000kg of olives, yielding
160,000 litres of extra virgin
oil.
Amanda Lewis
persimmon that bear edible fruit.
The most popular for cultivation
are those from China and Japan.
There are others from The
Philippines, India and America.
The main types of commercially
grown persimmons are the
astringent variety, which is only
edible when fully ripe, and the
non-astringent variety, which can
be eaten when still firm or when
fully ripe.
In a good year, Mrs Backhouse
would probably pick two to three
500kg bins. It’s not easy, however.
“We started out with 150 trees
but we decided to take some of
them out, and we’ve netted off 30
to 35 trees with a cover over the
whole lot to keep the wildlife out
with an electric fence as well,” she
said.
It seems the emus will walk
through the electric fence for a
feed of persimmons, the kangaroos
eat the flowers, and the possums
tear their way through the netting
to get to them. Then there are the
wattlebirds, the parrots and the
silvereyes, for whom the
persimmon is the fruit of choice.
“If you take into to account the
repair of the netting, the weed
spraying and mowing and the fact
that they have to be pruned every
year up on a Hydralada, it’s hard
work,” she said.
No wonder Australia hardly
ranks as a producer.
So what does one do with
1500kg of persimmons?
“I do sell them into my local
supermarket,” she said. “My son
sells them into the co-op in
Northcliffe. We don’t normally
make a lot of money out of them.
I’d hate to try and survive on
persimmons.”
Mrs Backhouse also dries them
and cultivates the non-astringent
variety, which is crunchy like an
apple.
Apart from the avocados, the
persimmons, and quite a lot of
livestock, the Backhouses have a
few fig trees, about 40 lime trees, a
couple of macadamia trees and
goodness knows what else.
Mrs Backhouse also has a little
shop — a roadside stall, in fact —
where she sells her excess produce.
What with the netting, the pruning,
the possums, the kangaroos, the
emus, the birds, and a shop, a city
slicker might be forgiven for
thinking twice about that hobby
farm.
Don Stott
It took three days but in a flash of afflatus (ancient
Greek for “bugger me”) I got it. I mean, I really got
it. The Southern Forests region of WA is like
Margaret River 20 years ago but less touristy and
more agrarian. The people are open, cheerful and,
as we discovered roaming from farm to farm and
hearing their stories, damn smart.
The Southern Forests is unspoilt. It is
predominantly a rural economy and while it
doesn’t have the tourism chops of Margaret River,
it has none of the pressures associated with the
often conflicting agendas of Margaret River’s wine
producers, tourism operators, developers, holidayhouse NIMBYs and the vestigial hippie culture
with its romantic notions of a tie-dyed community
of the 1970s.
The afflatus hit while sitting on the balcony at
Bill and Di Pannell’s house at the family’s vineyard.
With us were Bill’s son and one of Australia’s most
accomplished winemakers, Dan Pannell, and a
couple of hungry young itinerant vineyard workers,
taking their crib. We were sipping a cappuccino —
Bill’s a dab hand at homemade espresso — and
talking about, you guessed it, wine. It was a warm
day, the white noise of insects was rising from the
trees and the breezes, such as they were, wafted
through the vines. It could have been the Southern
Rhone. It was the Pannells’ Picardy vineyard, just
outside Pemberton at the very heart of the
Southern Forests region of WA.
Bill Pannell, who famously created the Moss
Wood vineyard and its much awarded
Bordeaux-style cabernet, is a scientist (he was for
decades the
former muchloved Shenton
Park GP) and
his son is a
winemaker, one
of the best in
the country. It’s
no surprise
then that their
winemaking is
informed by
both science
Picardy Wines.
and heurism,
which gives
the wines their rapier- sharp flavour profile
and that little extra which one suspects comes from
the vines and perhaps an unconventional flourish
or two from the winemaker.
One talks about “livin’ the dream” but rarely
does that extend to actually wanting other people’s
lives. Sitting on that shady balcony, with those
people in that place . . . well, one had a tinge of
envy.
I said farewell to Sophie Zalokar and drove
homewards after just a measly four days in this
extraordinary region — the fruit-and-veg basket of
WA and an emerging tourist destination with
natural and cultural attractions to burn. I was the
richer for it, especially the people I met, but I left
nearly $1000 poorer with some of the staggeringly
good Picardy Merlimont and Reserve pinot noir in
the boot. I pressed my nose against a real estate
agent’s window on the way out of town — 60ha
(150 acres), some fat tail lambs and a good cellar,
that’s all I need.
23
E
ver thought of getting away
from the stresses of city life
and buying a hobby farm?
That’s what Tom and Faye
Backhouse did after 28 years in the
old Forestry Department. It’s a bit
more than a hobby farm now,
though — more a country
cornucopia.
“I started off in Gosnells when
we were first married,” said Mrs
Backhouse, left. “And then we
transferred to Grimwade for four
years, and then transferred to
Walpole for two and a half years,
then to Quinninup for 18 months,
and then we transferred to
Pemberton in 1976.
“So we’ve been around the
blocks a bit . . . but we loved
Pemberton so much we decided to
buy this hobby block out in the
Warren National Park — 4ha —
which has been our livelihood since
1984. But now we’ve got about
32ha. We mainly grow avocados,
but I like persimmons, so hubby
had to put some persimmons in for
me.”
It might be just a sideline, but it
still puts the Backhouses among
the very few people in Australia
Faye Backhouse. who grow persimmons in any sort
Picture: Craig Kinder of quantity at all.
There are many species of
FRESH PLUS
A particular dedication
the attractions
Southern
Ocean
walpole
perth
SPRING – Beetroot
“We believe organic
farming is the only way
to go and whole point of
growing organically is
to have your finger on the
pulse and understand what’s
lacking in the produce and fix
the cause.” – Wayne Edwards
SUMMER
Pictures: Craig Kinder
WINTER – Tomatoes
“We use locally sourced jarrah sawdust
in the hydroponics and it’s all on a
recirculating system. This is good for
us because water waste is minimal
. . . the benefit to us is that we
have protected crop, minimal
sprays and not much is left
to chance.” – Shane Ylioff
manjimup
pemberton
northcliffe
AUTUMN
SUMMER – Cauliflower
“We do our testing fortnightly
– we record the wind and take
soil samples. If we’re going to
sell to Coles and Woolworths
as well as the smaller retailers,
people want a bigger, sweeter
vegetable that lasts longer and
that’s what we’re now able to
deliver.” – Kim Edwards
AUTUMN – Apples
“We want to produce a premium
apple and quality fruit that will last in
market all year. There is a certain crunch
and taste factor that you want to achieve
each time.”
– Harvey Gibblet.
Southern Forests
fruit and vegetables – Manjimup being
the heart of the region’s food production
– and has a gross agricultural value of
$127 million per annum.
Equally impressive is that 70 per cent
of Australia’s avocados come from this
region, 90 per cent of WA’s broccoli and
90 per cent of WA’s potato production.
And let’s not forget about wine, with
Pemberton and Manjimup producing
some of the
most exciting in
the State.
WINTER
Just a three-hour drive
from Perth is the major
agricultural producer in
the South West of WA
the seasons
This region has 80,000ha of agricultural
land, 50 per cent of WA’s apples come
from here and it is the home of the
internationally recognised pink lady
apple.
It is renowned for black truffles and
the highly anticipated fourth annual
Truffle Kerfuffle on from June 27 to 29 is
expected to attract foodies and chefs from
across Australia and around the world.
Another major foodie event is the Cherry
Harmony Festival held annually in
December.
Not just all about truffles and cherries,
the region has more than 50 varieties of
SPRING
Tony Fontanini on his Manjimup
property. Picture: Astrid Volzke

This Feature

Transcription

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