Issue 47 Aurora Magazine April 2022

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taste great southern FRESH PRODUCE AMBASSADOR STEVEN PIACUN A Voice for The Small Producer STORY ALLEN NEWTON | PHOTO LATA WRIGHT The Great Southern is blessed with an abundance of fresh produce, often attributed to the region’s microclimates, but many of these producers are small and struggle to make the connections they need to get their produce into the hands of consumers. As part of its brief to promote the produce of the region, organisers of the annual food and wine festival, Taste Great Southern, have asked young Albany farmer, Steven Piacun, to take on a role as ambassador for the producers. Steven represents the next generation of farmers in the region and will be part of the Albany Farmers Market 20- year celebrations and will be out waving the flag for the region’s fresh produce at the Farmers Market. The aim is to create greater awareness of the stunning Great Southern produce among locals and visitors. Steven, who operates Piacun Farm with his mum and dad Anne and Steven senior at Elleker says the region is rightly proud of its produce. “There’s some amazing produce around, you’ve sometimes just got to look a bit to find it,” he says. Growing up on his parents’ merino farm until he was 10 years old, Steven always wanted to be a farmer and the importance of food producers has become even more evident during the coronavirus pandemic. As well as selling their produce at the Albany Farmers Market the family is opening a retail outlet at the farm from 7am every day except Sunday selling their honey, extra virgin olive oil, free range eggs and fruit and vegetables in season. They are also experimenting with cut flowers and looking to try some crops on a larger scale to expand sales into Perth. In his role as a fresh produce ambassador for Taste Great Southern, which will feature more than 30 individual events from 5 to 15 May, Steven will talk about the fresh produce from the region, helping to forge links between producers and more than 20 chefs from across the State and region who will be showing off their talents. 5 -15 MAY <strong>2022</strong> THE HEART OF WESTERN AUSTRALIAN FOOD & WINE TASTEGREATSOUTHERN.COM.AU 24 LOVE LOCAL
taste great southern The region is renowned for its excellent produce and microclimates that allow some of the best fruit and vegetables in the State to be grown. “We do a fair few different things. We don’t get the heat to grow some crops, but the cooler weather also means fresh produce that struggles in the summer heat, like snow peas, we can do for a longer season,” Steven says. He says many of the producers in the region are quite small which presents some difficulties. At Piacun Farm he says they are transitioning from being a very small operator catering for the farmers market and a few restaurants, to producing on a slightly larger scale. Like many small-scale producers, and unlike the big conventional broadacre farms which have big companies like CBH to take the produce off their hands, they have to find their own outlets and negotiate prices as well as growing produce. “The challenge is finding markets for everything and that’s a lot of work we have to do ourselves.” Steven says at their current scale they struggle to supply all their existing customers. “There’s definitely room for growth, but it’s a bit of a fine line sometimes in not planting too much at once and spreading things out.” Over summer Piacun produces a range of summer crops such as zucchini squash, tomatoes, eggplant, beans, capsicum and chillies. Then in autumn the brassicas like kohlrabi and salad greens like rocket and peas kick in. Steven says that like every property Piacun Farm has its positives and negatives. “We have a lot of very sandy ground which is great in winter, but it also means it’s very hungry and in summer it requires a lot of water. “We do have some other soil, but our biggest problem is that our property is just one hill, so we struggle to get enough flat land to cultivate easily, but we have to work with what we’ve got at the moment.” Piacun has around two acres under cultivation for vegetable production with 10 acres of olive trees. On top of that they produce eggs and honey. Steve says they are one of many other farmers with small holdings looking for niche markets. “Especially the size we are, we really need to find those niche markets and then it’s a bit of a struggle as well with the weather. You’ll have certain crops in and you’ll get a flurry of hail come through and then you have a massive gap in production, or for some reason a crop doesn’t come up or bugs get it, so having a consistent supply of products even for a niche market can be tricky.” Piacun is having good success with supplying local restaurants including Due South, Bredco, catering vans like Market Grill and also sells its eggs through the Denmark IGA. “Chefs are really excited to have good fresh produce and they can move through a decent quantity of it which helps make it worthwhile,” Steven says. BELOW: Fresh Produce Ambassador Steven Piacun shows off some of the fabulous Piacun Farm produce and fresh flowers at the Albany Farmers Markets. LEFT: Quality control is everything, especially for small producers supplying niche markets. BELOW LEFT: Piacun’s brand extra virgin olive oil is fresh and delicious. LOVE LOCAL 25
Page 1 and 2: FREE Aurora Issue 47 GREAT SOUTHERN
Page 3 and 4: contents 4 FOCUS HENRY EDMONDSON Th
Page 5 and 6: focus Henry gets plenty of air prac
Page 7 and 8: focus laughs when she recounts thei
Page 9 and 10: safekeep commute. When the days wer
Page 11 and 12: Matt Sivyer and Sue Howard in the D
Page 13 and 14: engage WELCOME TO Playing in a comm
Page 15 and 16: enchant the Denmark River in a rain
Page 17 and 18: vogue Browse or shop local online a
Page 19 and 20: vogue New Season Winter Boots fishi
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Page 23: taste great southern ALBANY FARMERS
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Page 29 and 30: what’s on CINEFESTOZ ALBANY Celeb
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Page 35 and 36: gig guide Everything we put in the

Issue 47 Aurora Magazine April 2022

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