Over the past year, the team behind the Hobart City Farm have been hard at work cultivating a small block of land on the outskirts of central Hobart.
Co-founder Bridget Stewart says garlic is the first crop they have harvested and has exceeded their volume estimates by a long shot.
“We got this land in January 2015 and spent most of last year preparing the ground and didn’t get a spring crop in,” she says, adding that there are four other farmers and co-founders working on the project: James Da Costa, Louise Sales, Sam Beattie and Hannah Moloney.
“Garlic’s been our first big harvest. We’d done the maths on what we thought we’d get and made pretty conservative predictions, but as we were harvesting we realised they are all kind of medium to large heads. We’re still cleaning them but I’d say we have more than half a tonne.”
Ms Stewart says only a quarter of their small site is dedicated to garlic, with the growing area just 15 by 20 metres. A significant amount of the crop has already been sold to local businesses, with more set to be available to consumers through the farm’s online store.
“We’ve just sold somewhere in the realm of 200kg to the Tasmanian Black Garlic Company,” she says.
“We’re also selling smaller lots to restaurants and also some to a guy that does a lot of fermentation. The rest we’ll sell direct to the public.”
While Hobart City Farm has just less than half an acre of their small site currently cultivated, Ms Stewart says there are a wide variety of vegetables coming into season.
“We’ll have zucchini, tomatoes and basil online soon, and there’s lots more coming into season like cucumbers, gherkins, salad mix, spring onions, radishes, turnips, rhubarb and beans.”
She says tomatoes, in particular, look like they will have a good yield this year.
“We’ve dedicated our poly tunnel to tomatoes. It’s 22 metres long, in a barn shape, and we’ve got about 15 varieties in there – all climbing tomatoes to make use of the vertical space,” she says.
“We reckon we’ll get about 12-15 kilograms per plant, and we’ve planted 180.”
The success of the garlic crop has given the farm a boost of awareness and publicity, particularly because it is such a unique venture in Australia. Although there are a growing number of smaller, co-operative farming businesses around the world, Ms Stewart says the Hobart City Farm is one of the only ones in Australia.
“This type of structure is much more common in the United States,” she explains.
“There’s a lot of community gardens in Australia, but we’re set up as a market garden, so we’re selling produce, renting the land – we’re business owners really.”
With local companies and the public already showing a keen interest and demand for their produce, the Hobart City Farm is off to a promising start. Ms Stewart says the garlic should be available for customers to purchase within the next week. Plans for sales and other farm-based events such as workshops are also lined up throughout the year.
For more information:
Bridget Stewart
Hobart City Farm
Tel: +61 411 027 133
Email: hello@hobartcityfarm.com
www.hobartcityfarm.com