Damien Manno has to own one of the best-smelling farms in the country. Unfortunately, he doesn't get to enjoy that part of his job. "I can't smell it anymore," Mr. Manno said. "You're in here all the time; you get immune to that smell, so that's probably one bad thing about farming basil."
Mr. Manno, who runs Quality Harvest in Kudla, north of Adelaide, is one of the largest hydroponic basil farmers in South Australia. Production there has grown from 1,000 to almost 30,000 bunches a week over the past decade. Mr. Mann was named young grower of the year at last year's Hort Connections national awards.
It was a big achievement for someone who grew up on a vineyard, studied to become a winemaker, and then switched to growing herbs in a greenhouse. "I didn't really know what I was doing." "I actually bought a book [about hydroponic food production] and read the book, you know, probably a hundred times."
His choice to go big on basil was motivated by his family's traditions and a gap in the market when he noticed a lot of herbs were coming in from interstate. "Coming from a southern Italian background, my nonna used it a lot, my mum used it a lot, so it was just a familiar plant," he said. Mr. Manno initially grew just basil and Asian greens, but he has since diversified into other familiar herbs such as coriander, mint, and chives.
Read more at abc.net.au