Some of Australia’s most renowned chefs judged Moonacres Farm to have the best seasonal produce in the country at the delicious. Produce Awards earlier this month.
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The organic fruit and vegetable farm in Fitzroy Falls took home the From the Earth trophy after winning the same category the state awards held earlier this year.
Owner and manager Phil Lavers said it was a great feeling to have been acknowledged for the passion and effort behind his more than twelve-year enterprise.
“This is our first time winning not only this award but any sort of national award and we won not for a particular vegetable, but for our seasonal produce overall,” Mr Lavers said.
This is our first time winning not only this award but any sort of national award and we won not for a particular vegetable, but for our seasonal produce overall
Moonacres is the only farm in the Southern Highlands producing fruits and vegetables on a commercial scale. Produce from the farm is sold at four farmers markets every week, including Moss Vale markets every Thursday afternoon from 3pm to 5pm.
“We sell to a lot of really good restaurants in Sydney and through the wholesale system in Sydney. In the beginning there wasn’t a lot of infrastructure down here for the kind of produce we make, so we had to make one,” Mr Lavers said.
“I’m now here [on the farm] most of the time, but in the beginning, I used to do most of the deliveries. It was a fair amount of driving around,” he said.
There is now a team of five, including Phil Lavers, that manages the produce and property, a challenging task not only because the farm is run using organic methods.
“The general rule of thumb is one acre per person, per year, and we do about five acres each year and have as many people, including myself, to help manage that. All of our fertilizers have to be natural, all our practices have to look after the structure of the soil and we can’t use herbicides and so on, so it makes it a considerably larger burden,” he said.
Mr Lavers said there was another challenge on the horizon due to prolonged drought conditions.
“Wallabies are coming onto the farm more and more looking for food, this time of year especially as they haven’t got much to eat,” he said.
While the drought hasn’t otherwise directly impacted his farm, Mr Lavers said it was only a matter of time before it would if rain continues to evade the region.
“Our dam would normally be full, at this stage it may last until December. The dam supplies the farm the water needed to operate. We plan a year ahead, so we know what we’ll be planting next year, right now. But that’s assuming that we’ll have the water and if we end up not having the water, we’ll stop planting,” he said.
“The cost of sticking a seed in the ground is not that expensive, the cost of maintaining it, weeding it, looking after it for 3 to 6 months as it grows, that’s the expensive part.”
As for what makes Moonacres produce the best in Australia, Mr Lavers said that it came down to dedication and dirt.
“We’re so passionate and we have some of the best soil in Australia,” he said.
Three other Southern Highlands producers took home gold medals at the awards night in Sydney.
Li Sun Exotic Mushrooms in Mittagong was named a gold medallist in the ‘From the Earth’ category.
Li Sun was started by microbiologist Dr Noel Arnold in 1987 and some varieties are grown in a now defunct railway tunnel under Mount Gibraltar and supply some of Sydney’s best-known restaurants.
Pecora Dairy in Robertson was also named a gold medallist in the ‘From the dairy’ category.
Pecora is a 93-hectare property with East Friesan ewes run by Michael and Cressida McNamara. Their artisanal cheeses are featured in several restaurants in the Southern Highlands and in Sydney.
Redleaf Farm in Fitzroy Falls is run by Sam and Katrina Sparke. The Sparkes raise beef cattle, sheep and pigs and took home the gold medal in the “From the Paddock’ category for their free-range suckling pig.
