MATT PRESTON, KRYSIA BONKOWSKI, TOM BARHAM AND RICHARD WESTON
Tasmanian White Asparagus INDUSTRY FEATURE
A decade long investment has been well worth the wait for a Tasmanian farming business, which has been awarded one of the country’s most prestigious food industry awards for a rare heirloom vegetable. W hen Richard Weston spent three months living in the Netherlands in 2012 after receiving a Nuffield farming scholarship to study white asparagus – Nuffield Australia is the country’s leading agricultural scholarship organisation – it started a journey which has provided its fair share of highs and lows. But the pinnacle arrived this August when alongside wife Belinda and partners Tom Barham and Jenna Howlett, their company Tasmanian White Asparagus was crowned Unearthed Producer of the year at the delicious. Harvey Norman Produce Awards. The awards, now in their 18th year, focus on Australia’s best producers – the people who grow, cultivate, harvest and catch the produce supplied to the country’s leading chefs and hospitality venues. And for the Weston’s, Barham and Howlett, their European inspired white asparagus, which is the only type of its kind in Australia, is certainly proving a huge hit among
the whose who of chefs in the country.
“This is our second harvest, we started in 2012… and we’ve progressed ever since,” says Richard, who alongside Belinda are also the duo behind Pigeon Hole Café in West Moonah. “We trialled it and succeeded to a certain degree in harvesting 2018, it didn’t quite work out and so we changed tact and we basically went again. Whenever you chase something for 12 years, it’s a long period of your life. A lot of money invested, a lot of time invested, a lot of travel. A lot of mistakes, but that first foray in, I don’t look at that as a failure as we learned so much from it. “This year will throw more challenges up, every year will throw different challenges in agriculture. Last year we were up to our knees in water, it didn’t stop raining. This year we’re in a really dry spell so we’re irrigating. “It’s always nice to be recognised with anything you do. But one of the things that’s really pleasing with these Delicious Magazine Awards, is they’ve chosen probably six of Australia’s best chefs [as judges]. So these people, they’re at the top of their game. They’re
20 Tasmanian Hospitality Review August/September Edition
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