Produce from the Crystal Creek Plantation at Rollingstone, north of Townsville, will end up in local markets, as owners Kerry Boswell and Sven Fehrenbacher are selling their vegetables directly to local customers.
For their 40 hectare property called Rollingstone Ranch, the couple accessed a Sustainability Loan from the Queensland Rural and Industry Development Authority to purchase the land, which allowed them to be self-sufficient and diversify into new crops. They grow small crops including Asian vegetables, baby leaf spinach, kale, rocket, lettuce, bok choy, zucchini, cucumber and tomatoes.
They started growing a small patch of cucumbers on Sven's parents' farm eight years ago, but as the business was expanding, a lack of space on the parental property limited their options and the decision was made to buy their own farm.
"We found this one at about 2am on a Sunday morning on the way to market and we knew it was ours," she said. "We've gone from a small 10-acre (four hectare) block to 100 acres (40ha) which is nice, and we have a lot of room to expand and fulfill our dreams. We could see ourselves here and we could see ourselves developing it into something."
Their new property allows plenty of opportunity to diversify into new crops, with the couple planning to move into the fruit tree market in the future.
Source: queenslandcountrylife.com.au