Angus Lam was raised in Hong Kong, surrounded by skyscrapers in the vast, vertical city. Decades later, he is building towers of his own in country Australia to overcome some of agriculture's greatest challenges, like water and land use.
Mr. Lam is growing one of the nation's few commercial wasabi crops in rows of planter boxes stacked high on a property near Orange, in central-west NSW. The plants' broad heart-shaped leaves are thick and lush under the cool of a heavy shade cloth, where the crop is watered by a network of pipes that recycle rain.
Mr. Lam was attracted to the challenge of the notoriously finicky plant, which typically grows on riverbanks in Japan, requires a wet and mild climate, and takes years to mature. "People say it's the hardest plant to grow in the world," he said. "But this set-up is expensive, so I needed to grow something valuable to catch the market."
Wasabi can be a lucrative crop. Fresh stems, which are finely grated to make a paste, are sold for as much as $250 per kilogram by Australian growers in Tasmania and Queensland. High-end restaurants around the NSW region buy Mr. Lam's product for their sharp, fresh flavor, unlike the overpowering bite of pastes sold in supermarkets, which are often made with horseradish.
The wasabi crop also serves as a small-scale trial to understand how other plants might fare in the compact farming system. Clusters of tulips, hyacinth, strawberries, tomatoes, onions, and a few leggy strands of canola grow alongside the wasabi, reaching for the sunlight.
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