Stanbridge

How did you come to be a grower?
I love being outside with Mother Nature, I love the challenge, and I love seeing the results for our efforts. It’s a lot of hard work and long and different hours, but in the end, the reward of seeing what comes out through all that’s put in, makes it all worthwhile. 

Why do you grow what you grow?
This is what I have done all my life and was passed down to us. I also didn’t want to see it all go to someone else when my father’s decided he’s had enough.
It’s not easy growing quality citrus, so that’s what I mean by the challenge, and that’s what I really enjoy so that’s why I do it.

Are you hoping to pass on the farm to your kids or grandkids?
Yes, I really hope that they will think the same way as I did and decide to take on the business. Of course there are some factors to consider and one of those is whether it’s a viable business but importantly it’s up to them whether they want to pursue this path.
I love being part of this industry and supporting this industry so I just hope to see it passed on and I’m not the last generation of farmers in my family. 

What has been your proudest achievement in your farming career?
To date, I’m quite proud of two milestones:
1. Streamlining the farms which means it’s made everything easier to run 
2. Changing our orange varieties to what the juice market wants which is good sweet juice high in Brix.

Creating an efficiency that makes life a bit easier for everyone has been an accomplishment I’m very happy with. But also the ability to adapt to consumer demands to stay relevant and actually produce something consumers see value in is in my opinion key to running the farm. 

People often think all fruits are created the same, but in reality, quality is hard to produce, can you tell us the hard work that goes behind the cultivation 
We work around the clock at harvest time and summer and according to the weather conditions which is monitored daily to help make the right decisions on irrigation. This basically means we need to be able to adapt to different working hours and long hours as well. We use monitoring equipment in the field to tell us when trees are looking for water. We are spraying nutrients at night when it’s too hot to help with the brix levels. We are constantly testing fruit maturity to tell us best time to harvest. All this makes a difference to the quality of the fruit, and timing of doing all the above is so important as well.