Produce in the SPOTLIGHT
Ahead of the big reveal of the 2022 delicious. Harvey Norman Produce Awards winners in our September issue, Max Brearley spotlights some of the finalists creating positive change.
“IT’S BEEN THE AWARDS that have shone a light on all kinds of small producers, growers and fisher folk who have been doing the right thing by the environment and by the people they supply,” says long-time judge, Alla Wolf-Tasker. Gerry Harvey of awards partner, Harvey Norman, says: “Great food experiences, at home or in restaurants, start with the best produce. Australia is blessed with an abundance of the world’s most exceptional producers: from vegie growers to those tending livestock or harvesting fresh seafood. It is this diversity of talent that translates into flavour, as producers – especially those recognised as part of the delicious. Harvey Norman Produce Awards – are increasingly ensuring their production techniques are seasonal, sustainable and innovative.”
GOOLWA PIPICO, SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Harvested with hand nets close to the Coorong National Park, Goolwa pipis are certified as sustainable seafood by the Marine Stewardship Council, but a stronger statement of sustainability is “that we’re in commercial partnership with the Ngarrindjeri Nation, who have been sustainably fishing that resource for 19,000 years,” says Managing Director Tom Robinson. It’s a fact that hasn’t escaped the notice of chef and Awards judge Jo Barrett. “What impressed me was that community engagement with the Ngarrindjeri people and how it’s reflected in their workforce. I was also really intrigued with the harvesting techniques,” she says of the nets used for hand raking the beach sands. “And of course, they were very delicious,” says Barrett.
LEAP FARM AND TONGOLA CHEESE, TASMANIA
“We’re a seasonal dairy,” says Kate Field. “We only milk for nine months a year. So, we start every year in spring, and we start kidding in late September and most of it’s done by mid-October,” she says of Leap Farm, on which they produce awardwinning cheese and meat. For Kate and her husband Iain, business growth and greater profit aren’t their drivers. It’s what
is right for their land and themselves; an approach that’s paying dividends of a different kind, being verified as carbon positive by the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture. Kate says, “across this tiny little farm – it’s only 108 hectares – after we’ve offset our own emissions, we’ve actually offset the emissions of 60 average Australian households per annum.”
BROOKLANDS FREE RANGE FARM, VICTORIA
Natalie Hardy and partner Jono Hurst raise rare-breed livestock, running British White cattle and Berkshire pigs for meat, and Finn sheep which are shorn annually for wool. While the preservation of rare breeds is one driving factor at Brooklands, another is the suitability of the breeds to their regenerative farming direction. “Every animal has a purpose on the property,” says Hardy. “So, for example, the pigs are really good at getting rid of weeds around the property and also fertilising.” Alla Wolf-Tasker says, “they have one of those amazing farms where they actually do move the cattle around so that they don’t completely eat the pasture down.”
MOOJEPIN FOODS, WESTERN AUSTRALIA
“We’re focussing on salinity issues,” says Lance McLeod, Managing Director of Moojepin Foods. In the vast WA wheatbelt, Moojepin is using saline produce like saltbush, samphire and karkalla to restore land degraded by generations of clearing and intensive farming, which has resulted in increasing salinity. “You could tell that they were grown really well,” says judge, Jo Barrett. “We’ve seen them over the years, at the delicious. Awards, and we’re seeing the range grow. It was just so consistent.”
To join the delicious. Harvey Norman Produce Awards reader event, turn to page 12...