Flavour gurus unfazed by lack of crop
NINIAN and Ann Stewart-Moore were looking for a challenge when they moved from their sheep and cattle grazing property in Hughenden, Northwest Queensland, to Crows Nest, just north of Toowoomba.
The Stewart-Moores completed their succession plan and passed their grazing enterprise on to son Jack and his wife Kylie.
With family in the Toowoomba region, when the opportunity to take over Bunnyconnellen Olive Grove and Vineyard came up, they jumped at the chance.
Rural Weekly visited the Stewart-Moores’ property ahead of the Regional Flavours festival in Brisbane this weekend, where their produce will be on show.
Regional Flavours, presented by our sister paper,
The Courier-Mail, is Australia’s largest, free food and wine festival.
A love of wine and olives made it an easy decision for the Stewart-Moores to take on the business.
“We were open to ideas and this came up and we thought ‘okay, we could do that’,” Mr Stewart-Moore said.
“In the bush you’re used to entertaining and running bars at shows, and polocrosse carnivals, so we knew we could do that side of things.
“We get to do regular quality control and taste-testing to make sure everything is up to scratch.”
Since buying the grove three years ago, Mr Stewart-Moore said they hadn’t had an olive crop yet, due to the dry conditions.
“The olive trees and the wine grapes are currently not producing, mostly because of a lack of water,” Mr Stewart-Moore said.
“The lack of irrigation and rainfall has prevented any production for about four or five years.
“While that’s happening we’ve been getting our olives from other growers. We don’t actually have our own product.
“We value add, we get the bulk raw product and we do the value-adding from there.”
Bunnyconnellen makes its own marinaded olives, tepanades, and infused olive oil in the on-site kitchen, – all of which will be showcased at Regional Flavours.
“In 2018 there would hardly have been an olive produced in Queensland,” Mr Stewart-Moore said.
“There would only be a couple of groves I know of where the micro-climate was right for them.
“We’re trying to grow a Mediterranean product in a sub-tropical climate. It only works some of the time.”
After running out of water and having to buy it in, even for their house, Mr Stewart-Moore said they had put in a new bore.
“Hopefully when the season goes back to normal we’ll have some production,” he said.
“One of the other things we’re looking at is olive leaf extract. A lot of growers in Queensland are looking that way because they’re not getting the olive production.
“There are lots of health benefits. As a powder or formed into tablets, olive leaf extract can be a health supplement. It’s full of antioxidants.
“Olive trees will stay healthy and pretty much grow anywhere. But the micro-climate for flowering and fruiting needs to be spot on.
“They like a cold, wet winter and a hot, dry summer. The only thing we can give them is dry at the moment.”
As a momento from their former life, Mr and Mrs
Stewart-Moore brought some of their sheep with them to Bunnyconnellen.
They have about 100 sheep as well as some agistment cattle on the 101ha property.
“They (sheep) do a good job of keeping the olive trees trimmed nicely, and keeping the grass down and dropping a bit of fertiliser around. It’s a pretty good combination,” Mr Stewart-Moore said.
“Those ewes are just starting to lamb at the moment. I actually took 60-odd down to Warwick last week.
“Next Sunday I’m taking some to Esk for slaughter, to come back through the local butcher.
“The prices aren’t too bad at the moment, and they’re merinos so we’re getting pretty good value with wool as well.”
Mr Stewart-Moore said they have about 30ha behind exclusion fencing to protect the sheep from wild dogs, with the help of their maremma dog, Frank.
Bunnyconnellen was originally a dairy farm when it was settled in the 1870s.
The previous owners planted olive trees and wine grapes about 20 years ago.
When the Stewart-Moores bought the property, they decided to expand the business.
“The old machinery shed has been converted into a cellar door and the car shed into a bed and breakfast, and the school bus shed into a little gift shop,” Mr Stewart-Moore said.
“These lawns under very old Moreton Bay figs are a nice setting for weddings, and there is a flat where we can put a marquee.”
This is the fourth year Bunnyconnellen has appeared at the Regional Flavours event.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity for everyone in rural and regional parts of Queensland to get into Brisbane in front of the foodie people and showcase their wares and showcase the region,” Mr Stewart-Moore said.