“ I was born in Sydney and lived there for over 50 years mainly in the inner city area. In 2007 we bought a property in The Channon. There was nothing there so we put a caravan on the property. It was an old cattle paddock and we decided to make a bit of a tree change. We were sick of living in the city plus I had a few health issues which required fresh air a bit more activity.
I had done courses in medicinal herbs and we were quite passionate about them. I was also fascinated by them.
We came up here and before we even built our house we started planting. There was a fence around a 70 acre paddock so we moved an old house from near Casino and renovated it. We harvested the hardwood timber for the decks from our property. We have our own water supply. We put in 40 or more different types of herbs just to see what worked. Six or seven were suitable for this region, of those we then selected 3 or 4. We camped on the property before we moved here. The toilet was a hole in the ground and the shower was a bag with holes in it. We‘d stay for 3 weeks and getting back to a bathroom was heaven.
It’s very hard too sell medicinal herbs in Australia. Most are imported. We had the farm certified organic and ended up selling to organic wholesalers for culinary purposes mainly. We sold Ginger, Turmeric, Lemongrass, Chillies, etc. We still had the desire to develop the medicinal side of things. Three years ago we started experiments with SCU at the time to make a Bitter Melon product, later a Turmeric product and in the last 2 years we launched our first extract and I’ve had it listed with the TGA as a listed medicine. It’s on the shelves now in a few places like Fundies. We are hoping to produce more medicinal extracts from the produce we grow on the farm. It’s fresh, Australian, its origin guaranteed and it’s all certified. We do it the old fashioned way by hand in small batches.
We have 8 pet cows on the property and we only use them for manure. They’re all named after herbs. There is Amla, Ashoka, Moringa, Butterfly, Brahmii, Ginger, they keep the grass down and they are all tame. They know their names. If they are in a group together and you yell out a name, the right one puts her head up. I do that to impress my guests (laughs).
When you have a medicine listed with the TGA you have to provide an evidence register based on either traditional or scientific usage. Ours is based on both and you can only make claims supported by the evidence. We’ve done the whole plant whereas there are some turmeric and other medicinal products that have bits added in or bio-synthesised parts. Ours is pure turmeric.
I had always been in office work till I moved to the Northern Rivers. I had a couple of businesses in food and catering and lectured in a couple of colleges. When I came here I found it a challenge to be a farmer and obviously the body takes a bit of a beating so I find Turmeric helps with that. We are planting Andrographis and Ashwaganda at the moment. I always carry a snake bandage when we are going away from the house as we’ve seen lots of snakes.
We love Lismore. It’s such a friendly place, I can’t get over it. I’ve never known a place as friendly and where people are so genuine. People in shops including kids working after school genuinely ask how you’re going. They are actually polite and interested in what you are doing. Some people from the coast who don’t even know Lismore give it a roasting but I love it here. People nod and acknowledge your existence and drivers are more obliging and patient.