Passing the taste test

“Everything we do here we grow for taste,” he said.

“Size and appearance are secondary. We’re all about the flavour and having fruit and vegies that taste exceptional is what’s kept us in the market.”

The farm started as a side hobby in 2018 while Ben was still working with the local water authority, but it turned into a fully-fledged business after 2020.

Ben, who always enjoyed growing vegies but had no previous experience as a farmer, purchased the Princes Highway-fronted land near the dormant volcano Tower Hill in 2018 with his wife Sarah and three children.

“For the first couple of years, I was just playing around, growing a few thousand strawberries and garlic,” he said.

“We had enough to be partly commercial and set up a little roadside stall out the front but I kept working and this was just a side thing.”

After getting a taste of working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, Ben decided to leave his managerial role and give the farm a shot.

“It was a massive decision saying goodbye to a stable income and jumping out on my own, but I’ve always loved growing stuff, even if I didn’t have any serious farming experience,” he said.

Ben looked online to learn the basics of vegetable farming but found “trial and error” was the best way to learn what works and what doesn’t.

“We started with garlic and strawberries and gradually progressed to other vegies and started to take over the neighbourhood,” he joked.

The home block is two hectares but they quickly ran out of space and leased five neighbouring blocks for a total of 12 hectares.

Ben describes the mineral rich volcanic soil as sensational.

“We’re right on the edge of Tower Hill,” he said.

“The closest block is about 100 metres from the crater.”

However, you still have to know what to do with that land and doing soil tests to get the chemistry right was the key to success.

“When we started, our first crops were dismal failures because I was just throwing things in the ground and putting standard fertiliser on without realising that I wasn’t addressing the needs of the soil,” Ben said.

“The soil tests pointed to what we needed and that changed everything for us.”

The addition of a few different minerals and a focus on natural growing helped put things right.

“We went from growing broccoli the size of a 50-cent piece to growing one-kilo broccoli heads. Once I saw that, I knew we could make a go of it,” Ben said.

Pests have been a big challenge for Volcano Produce but Ben and his team don’t use any conventional pesticides and herbicides, instead aiming to keep everything as natural as possible.

Diamond back moths are the most destructive but caterpillars and aphids also cause damage. Organic treatment methods have largely got the pests under control, although there are still some outbreaks from time to time.

Depending on the season, Ben employs between six and 15 staff members, with numbers peaking in summer for picking strawberries and seasonal vegies.

A spreadsheet has been developed to guide planting over the different seasons.

“Because we work on six different blocks of land and have all the different varieties, trying to organise it is pretty mind-boggling,” Ben said.

He worked with agronomists to determine what best suits the region, often planting up to six different varieties of vegetables to ensure a year-round supply.

In total, Volcano Produce has 75 different lines of vegetables, while strawberries are the main fruit.

“We get a few failures but we also get some outstanding crops,” Ben said.

Volcano Produce sells online for farm pick-up or delivery west of Warrnambool and is about to expand east of the city. The business alternates between weekend markets in Warrnambool and Port Fairy, sells to a number of IGA supermarkets and the organic growers’ market in Epping, where some of the produce is exported to Hong Kong.

“We’re certainly expanding our horizons with marketing and selling the product,” Ben said.

The efforts haven’t gone unrewarded. Volcano Produce recently won a Made in Moyne Love Local Award, which was based on votes from the local community.

The business is also doing its part for the community, providing fresh vegetables for Western District Food Share and creating a training environment for Hands on Learning students.

“Every Tuesday we have groups come out and help us pick products for Food Share and it’s sent out for emergency food help across the south-west,” Ben said.

Ben delivered food hampers on and off for 10 years as a volunteer and could see the difference it made in the community.

However, his daughter Georgia was the real instigator of the weekly collections.

“There was a post from Food Share asking for people to grow things in their gardens. My daughter said ‘Dad, we have a big garden, I reckon we can do something’.”

Ben, who is now on the board of Western District Food Share, said the donation program was good for everyone.

“It’s not rejected product, it’s a way to provide quality fresh produce to people who really need it and it gives the Hands on Learning kids an insight into where their food comes from and how a farm operates,” he said.

The farm does have some byproduct but the seconds are also put to good use. Strawberries with bug holes not suitable for individual consumption are instead used for strawberry liquor, jams and cordials.

“A lot of our product is like that — stuff that has been impacted some way so you don’t sell directly but it’s perfectly fine for making fermented product. That way it doesn’t get wasted,” Ben said.

Now well established, Ben is concentrating on efficiencies and giving customers what they want.

“We know how to grow stuff and we know we have the market for spray-free fruit and vegies,” he said.

“We have to get more efficient and streamline our processes to produce greater volumes at the cheapest possible price for the consumer.”

“I love being outdoors and growing stuff and love seeing customers’ reactions when they taste what we’ve grown. Customers often tell us that the taste of our produce reminds them of when they would pick produce from their grandparents’ garden. They often say that supermarket vegies just don’t taste like this.

“Our vegies have flavour. They taste like vegies should taste.

“It’s so wonderful to get that feedback and to see that our vegies not only taste great but can really bring back happy memories for many people. It makes this job so worthwhile.”