3. Good Organic Gardening - May-June 2016 AvxHome.in

Marleen & Ronald van der Winckel | GARDENING FOLK
The farm is a beautiful and productive place with a backdrop of mountains,
including the ever-changing Mount Roland, paddocks and native eucalypts.
hot summers. The long, warm summers
provide plenty of sunshine to enhance the
medicinal properties of herb crops.
Cyriel visited the 40ha property, took soil
samples and explored its rolling hills. He gave
the Barrington property the thumbs up and
even went to the auction to bid on behalf of
his parents. The area’s local doctor, who had
owned the property for decades, had run
horses there.
“We liked the property as it had never been
cultivated, which meant it could be easily
transformed into a certified-organic farm,”
Marleen explains. “Its topography of hills
and gentle slopes means it is not affected
by run-off from neighbouring properties and
we could see there was plenty of room for
growing shelter belts.”
While they waited for the land to gain
organic certification, they leased the house
to a farmer who ran dairy cows and kept the
paddocks weed free by slashing. After three
years, they achieved organic certification and
moved back to Australia to plant herbs.
Second start
The second move was a success. Five years
on, the family is well and truly established
in Australia. Cyriel is a forester with a keen
interest in sustainable energy. He lives on the
property with his partner, Anne. Marleen
and Ronald’s daughter, Jasmijn , is a midwife
at the local hospital and has an interest in
herbs. Niels is studying economics at the
University of Tasmania, and Emma, who was
the last of the four children to return to
Australia, has completed studies in natural
therapies and is working with her parents
on the farm.
Emma is expanding the farm’s product
range with dried herbal teas and has taken
over the production of gemmos, a special
range of organic therapies where essences are
extracted from buds steeped in oils. Emma has
increased the range of gemmos to 60 varieties,
including chestnut, hawthorn, birch, hazel and
blackcurrant. She is also continuing her studies
in western herbal medicine.
Variety of crops
Around 200 crops are produced annually.
They range from traditional herbs, including
lavender, echinacea, goldenrod and rosemary,
to niche crops grown for specialist medicinal
uses, such as gemmos.
The herbs are transformed on-site into
organic tinctures, essences and extracts.
All processing is done in a state-of-the-art
laboratory built by Ronald and housed inside
an unassuming timber barn. The materials
Lavender and
echinacea
Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) is one
of the farm’s largest crops. Flowers are
harvested in summer around Christmas
time. Marleen and Ronald grow a dwarf
lavender variety, which they believe
produces the best essence and is easy to
manage and harvest.
Once the flowers have been gathered
using a specially adapted electric
harvester, they are processed into
lavender essences and oils, and are
also dried.
Another important crop is echinacea.
Three species are grown: Echinacea
angustifolia, E. purpurea and E. pallida.
Echinacea angustifolia is grown for its
roots, which are dried. The other species
are now less in demand for medicinal use.
they produce are exported around the world,
particularly to Europe.
Their main customers are phytotherapeutic
and homoeopathic businesses
that use certified-organic materials for herbal
medicines. Herbs are also sold fresh, dried
and frozen.
The production shed and laboratory are
housed in a barn all built from scratch by
Ronald. In the foreground is one of the
echinacea plantings (E. pallida)
An overview photo
with a herb field, the
hazelnuts, a newly
planted vineyard and
Mount Roland
Good Organic Gardening | 31