North East Tour - Day 4
Day 4 - Hillsbourgh quality Nut farm, Stanley, HPA, Mytrleford and Pepo farms, Ovens
Day four was a busy one, with 3 farms to visit. We had the most beautiful drive up to Stanley through all the autumn leaves, showcasing to the Qld'ers how lucky they were to be visiting at this time of year to see all the autumn colour.
Our first stop to meet with Anita and Drew at Hillsbourgh quality nuts. Here we learnt about their enterprise in growing chestnuts, hazelnuts and truffles, selling as much as possible at their lovely. As we walked through the trees, we saw how Drew integrates animals (sheep) into his rotation and how important it is to look after you soils to maximise crop quality and yeild. His practises were amazing to see, how the care he takes with his trees leads to such beautiful big chestnuts and hazelnuts, which the students had fun foraging for on the ground as we walked around. With pockets bulging with nuts we headed back to the cafe for some fresh and tasting scones and drinks made onsite by Anita.
We could have spent all day there but we had to move onto our next stop.
A short drive over the hill to Myrtleford we found our next stop at HPA (Hop Products Australia)
Here we learnt all things Hop production, from the growing in the paddocks, up the string in huge rows, to the site of processing. All aspects of the hop process was located on site, which made for a huge operation. They harvest the hops around March-April which employs many people from pickers out in the field, to maintenance staff in the processing shed and every job in between. It was great to see that all aspects of the process can be done on site, to create many jobs for people in the local community.
We saw the end product being boxed and shipped off all over the world. The end product being a palletised product sent to make beer.
Thank you very much to Aaron for giving up his time and showing us around. Also for sharing his story on how his skills in other crops, such as orchards, was transferable to hops, demonstrating to the students that just because they start out on a particular career pathway that they need to stay in that area, as there are so many different paths to choose from in agriculture.
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