Appendix C- Farm Story

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368 Kinmond Creek Farm Story

What are you going to farm?
With consideration, we will be organically farming Alliums with a specific focus on softneck
subtropical garlic varieties, both GlenLarge and Giant Russian Garlic as a cool season

crop, and Culinary Ginger (Zingiber officinale) and Turmeric as warm season crops.

Garlic

These types of subtropical garlic grow well in Queensland. They are unique in their lack of
chill requirement that all other temperate, cool and cold climate garlics require and for
their short growing season of only 5-6 months in warm climates. Expected Garlic yields in

Australia are currently between 3000 kg - 5000 kg per acre.

Ginger

Ginger is a hardy tropical crop and therefore grows particularly well in the subtropics. It
also grows well in areas that experience a dry season, provided there is irrigation. The
majority of Queensland’s ginger farms are located along coastal areas such as the
Sunshine Coast that experience high temperatures and humidity, and high rainfall during
summer. Ginger is a warm climate plant and its growing season is approximately 5-6
months in ideal conditions. Expected Ginger yields in Australia are currently between
10,000kg -15,000kg per acre.

Turmeric

Turmeric is part of the Ginger or ‘Zingiberaceae’ family of plants, commonly used for
culinary or medicinal purposes. Although Turmeric enjoys the same climate and growing
conditions as Ginger, Australia currently imports most of its Turmeric from India, Vietnam
and Indonesia and local organic Noosa Turmeric is often extremely hard to purchase.
Expected Tumeric yields in Australia are currently between 3,000 to 6,000 kilograms per

acre.

How are you going to do it? What will the process be?

The land has stood idle, not being farmed for well over a decade and previously was used
to intensively grow sugar cane. Sugar cane has a high fertility requirement, as a result of
cane farming the land and soil quality is deficient in nutrients. Considerable rehabilitation
work is needed to bring the soil quality up to a fertile standard, as well as the soil levels

needing to be adjusted as the old mounds sugarcane was grown in are still present.

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Prior to any farming, a one time plough and till is required at a minimum to address the
uneven cane mounds, remove unwanted regrowth from a decade of neglect. Improving
soil fertility through regenerative agricultural practices will be the primary focus initially. Soil
fertility will be improved with several stages of cover cropping to both fix nitrogen in the

soil, shade soil, facilitate soil biology and create compost in situ.

Further work is required to create adequate fencing to protect the new parcel of land from
local wildlife (wallabies and deer) and the occasional roaming cattle. Secure fencing is

imperative to maintaining success.

Water will be imperative to growing our preferred crops, Our property has an existing bore
that is adequate enough for small farming operations. Additional work will be required for

us to trench and supply water to the new parcel of land.

Once the land has been rejuvenated we would be seeking an organic certification with
one of the certification bodies. This standard and ideal ties into our goal of "providing small

scale crops grown organically for our local communities".

We will be able to have 2 crop rotations per year, Alliums & Garlic during the cooler months
of Autumn and Winter, and Ginger and Turmeric during the Spring and Summer periods.
These opposite season crops naturally complement each other in our climate and growing
conditions. Ginger and Turmeric rhizomes need to be pulled from the soil and provide a
natural and efficient way to prepare for subsequent garlic plantings. Garlic will enjoy the
friable loose soils leftover from harvesting the gingers and requires little maintenance and

so the cycle goes.

Garlic requires drying, curing in order to enjoy long storage, up to 6 months. Generally
flavour improves if the bulbs are kept and cured before use. This storage quality allows us
greater flexibility in selling produce during the warmer summer periods. And inversely
Ginger harvested prior to the Winter months get to enjoy the cooler temperatures that

assist and aid in their storage.

A converted insulated shipping container is all the infrastructure required for curing and
storage of crops on site. These alternating seasonal crops will allow our family a more even

cash flow and more consistent income over the year.

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Who are your customers?

We would be seeking to establish trade accounts with produce stores in and around the
Noosa region. As well as promoting and supplying our organic product to local chefs and
restaurants looking for local organic produce with low or no food miles. Additional produce
could also be sold direct to the public both through local community farmers markets

(starting with Pomona and Kin Kin).

What are you doing currently?
We currently have an existing Lychee orchid in our commercial shade house 60 x 20m. We
are wanting to expand beyond a single seasonal crop (Dec-Feb) and gain more cropping

variety, business opportunities and resilience by diversifying our crops.

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