By Leonie Fuge
Growing organic strawberries is challenging at the best of times, let alone through an extended drought followed by years of rain.
After overcoming the odds, Stanthorpe strawberry farmer, Brendon Hoyle, has been honoured for all his hard work and innovations by being named Australian Organic Farmer of the Year.
Brendon, with his wife Ashleigh, have been in the organic industry for 16 years and became partners of Ashbern Farms in 2016 growing delicious strawberries in Stanthorpe and organic strawberries on the Sunshine Coast.
Brendon said winning at the Australian Organic Industry Awards was unexpected.
“It is a big honour to be recognized. It is a bit surreal though with all the publicity,” he said.
Since the announcement, Brendan had been receiving media requests for interviews and congratulations were arriving from around the globe.
The farmer was not one for the spotlight and preferred to share the award as a team effort.
“We have great employees and it takes hard work from them all to achieve what we have. I’m just the one who picked up the award.”
Brendan was one of five finalists chosen from various organic industries across Australia that included the winner of last year’s award, Mick Dan, of Good Harvest Organic Farm. The other nominees included a Tasmanian kimchi producer and two South Australian vegetable growers.
Brendan said that due to the calibre of nominees he had no expectation of winning and believed the reason for the award may be due to his longevity in a difficult industry.
“Strawberries are one of the hardest crops to grow organically. There is pest and disease pressure, and the wet season has been a shocker. Each year there is another set of challenges requiring us to problem solve and innovate.”
Brendan’s wife Ashleigh works with Ashbern’s distribution and said it was amazing to have the farm recognised.
“It is an encouraging sign that Ashbern is getting the product right through innovation,” she said.
Brendan explained that part of Ashbern Farms innovation to address issues with bugs was to “drop the use of chemicals and embrace beneficial bugs.“
“We contract etymologists to study the populations of good and bad insects in the fields. They advise us when bad bugs are overwhelming produce and what quantity of predator insects to release.”
Instead of spraying, drones are used like a Trojan Horse in the strawberry field to deliver an army of good bugs to fight it out.
Another tool the strawberry farmers have added to the bad bug eraditcation toolkit is a bug vacuum cleaner.
“It’s not our own idea, I saw it in the United States in 2015 to control insects on strawberry plants,” said Brendon. “One of the employees is handy in the workshop and he said he could build one.”
Brendon was impressed with the innovated final product and the results the bug vacuum cleaner offered for protecting the crop.
Though the El Nina weather pattern has been challenging for all growers, the Ashbern strawberries are thriving.
“We can only fit five or six in a punnet, but they are humoundous, pompous and delicious.”
