the farmers
Di’s Rhubarb
Di McDonald has been growing rhubarb for years.
It all started when a farmer she was working for couldn’t afford to pay her, so he gave her some rhubarb cuttings. Evidently he gave her a lot more than a bit of cash to get her though the next few months, he gave her a livelihood.Di leases a block of land from Tahbilk Vineyard. The setting is amazing, the rhubarb grows on a gum lined bank of the Goulburn River. Grass parrots potter in the green grassy rows between the rhubarb stems. Kingfishers duck and weave in and out of woody hollows. Di lives in one of three workers cottage on the vineyard, and whilst she doesn’t have any immediate family, the vineyard workers are her extended family.
When you drive on the dusty road to the vineyard you can see Di, head down bum up, quite literally. Picking and tending to her rhubarb is how she relaxes. Working seven days a week, making her own compost, weeding, taking care of her girls (the chooks) who take care of her rhubarb is all in a week’s work. On Saturday mornings she wakes at 3 am to drive to Melbourne for the Farmer’s Markets. It takes her two hours to get to the city down the Hume freeway. By the time she has a cuppa back on the farm, Saturday has been sixteen hours long. It’s hard work, but she is richly rewarded with “moments” on her farm. Today she watched two turtles baking in the sun at the river while she pumped water, and the migrating Kingfishers circled above her head. She wouldn’t have it any other way.
You can buy Di’s rhubarb from any of the Melbourne Community Farmers Markets
Kingfisher Citrus
Lex & Glenda are like my surrogate mum and dad in Melbourne! Delightfully helpful and caring, and so hard working.
Its a family affair at Mildura, where Lex and Glenda decided to give the major supermarkets the flick and get their sons back to the family farm. The income from the Farmers Markets in Melbourne gave them the opportunity to involve their family, whereas the prices from the supermarkets was barely supporting Lex and Glenda.
So now we get to enjoy their company at the Melbourne Farmers Markets…and customers across the more regional markets can meet the sons and their wives, every weekend!
Right now navels are in season and make delightful juice, and with no pips they are perfect for decorating on cakes too!
Dawsons Honey
June and Chris havent seen some of their bees for years.
Not because they dont care, just because the bees are so efficient and independent, and Chris has so much ground to cover.
You might not know, that hives dont have a permanent fixed address, and that the job of beekeeper, is almost that of a bus driver.
Whilst Chris will spend most of his 60-100hr week on the road, he couldnt possibly make it around all the hives in one week. Chris needs to transport his families to their next source of nectar, be it mountain, prickly box, or orange blossom. From the Riverina to the Mallee, to Gippsland, this beeman knows the roads of Victoria, and knows them best in the middle of the night.
Bees can only be transported when the temperature is below 18degrees to keep the honey at blood temperature, so in the summer months especially, the night road has become Chris’s friend.
In one hive there are up to 50,000 bees, with one Queen, spread across 4 tiers. The worker bees must keep the hive at a constant temperature, and they do this by fanning their wings at the entry of the hive. Three weeks later their wings have worn out, and their life as a worker bee ends.
Once the frames are full, Chris returns home to june, where she cuts the wax, and the honey begins to flow into the extractor. they extract the honey through a spinning motion, and bottle it just for you at the Melbourne Farmers Markets.
We use their beautiful array of honey flavours, in our chai tea and honey cake, the Bali Biccies, and as a topping to many loaves.
John Howell
John’s family has been working the land of Wandin North since 1854, and he’s kicking himself that he didnt listen enough to all his grandfather’s knowledge!
When John decided he hated school, he started working for his dad at the Victoria Markets, selling his grandfathers fruit. He sleep on a bag of beans, in the back of the ute on the long ride in each morning. Despite his yearnings to be a plumber, the bloodline of the business was starting to course through his veins.
By 1978 when his grandfather died, John had started work, daily on the farm. He decided the business needed a revamp, and after a horticulture course, took the business back to basics. It downsized from a 52 acre operation, to a 16 acres one, and horses & carts were replaced with tractors, and the fruit variety was diversified, to get the family through the slow periods.
Now John is responsible for bountiful crops of cherries, pears and apples of all varieties including the heritage Napolean (available in March). He grows Mulberries which fruit in the 3 weeks after Christmas, Plums from Christmas -May, Figs form March – May and Persimmons.
John attends most of the Melbourne Farmers Markets, and you can catch him with his overalls and well-moulded akubra on, behind wooden crates of his crisp, fresh fruits.
Happy Fruit
Mt Buffalo Hazelnuts