Among all the stories of food waste, job losses and crops being destroyed coming out of Australia’s Goulburn Valley area, one company has found a way to turn farmers’ unused and unsalable produce into premium quality, delicious products that retail well. Faire Ferments, a business manufacturing premium ciders and wine, sprang up when the Goulburn Valley Food Cooperative discovered tonnes of excess pears being produced two years ago. Sam Pendergast, a founding member of the Cooperative, has since started the company, funded by the Cooperative, which does fermenting and bottling of pears and apples, and most recently in mid May took on a load of 20 tonnes of plums, created a wine, and is now overseeing the process of that wine being distilled into a spirit.
The continued success of Faire Ferments has been no surprise to Mr Pendergast, but he says he does feel like the ‘stars aligned’ when he had finished with the pears, and received a call from well known Australian wine writer Max Allen suggesting he go and collect a load of organic apples, before later discovering the plums. “We started with 10 tonnes of pears eighteen months or so ago, did our first run of cider, and the state of the industry was such that there was a massive amount of pears available to keep us going so we’ve focused on cider for the past 14 months.” He didn’t have to search for more fruit. “Then when that supply ran out, I got a call from Max Allen.” Then just a short while ago he heard about the plums. “Hearing of 20 tonnes of premium quality blood plums going to waste was more than my grower Dario or I could take,” he said. Mr Allen is now involved in the initiative at board level.
There is always potential for finding different fruits, and different ways to use what is not accepted by the major retailers, according to Mr Pendergast. “We could have just called ourselves ‘Faire Cider’ but we knew that if we were going to stick to the model of resourcing from farmers we had to remain open to other possibilities,” he told Fresh Plaza. For now, the cider and spirits are enough to keep the business busy, and he said he is always looking for new retailers and stockists, as well as suppliers of produce.
For more information
Samuel Pendergast, Director
Faire Ferments
Phone: +61498109742
E-mail: sam@faireferments.com.au
Website: www.faireferments.com.au