Issue 47 Aurora Magazine April 2022

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
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