It’s been nearly 10 years since a family started converting a North-West farm into Australia’s first organic quinoa patch.
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Still the only organic producers of the South American “superfood”, the Damens also grow organic spelt, oats, linseed, buckwheat, lupin and beef at their 237-hectare farm, Kindred Organics.
Quinoa is an ancient crop and food staple of the Incas, which, in the past decade-or-so, has become a fashionable health food.
Originally from Holland, Henriette and Lauran Damen moved to Tasmania in search of a farming lifestyle.
“My dad was a contract sprayer in Holland and was pretty involved in the chemical industry but he wanted to get away from that and go more into farming,” Peter Damen, who works on the farm, said.
“Land prices were very expensive in Holland so they decided to come to Tasmania where the land prices were a lot cheaper.
“He wanted to move away from chemicals altogether and more towards biological farming so we were doing a lot of composting.”
The family slowly converted the farm to meet the stringent certified organic guidelines in small steps.
“We did one paddock at a time to see how it went and how the market was. In 2007 was when we converted our first paddock to certified organic.”
The Damens use a composting system to make nutrients for the paddocks.
“We also do a lot of mechanical weed control,” Mr Damen said.
“It’s advanced technology these days, and we use natural bacteria-based sprays if there are any issues.”
Mr Damen said quinoa sales shot up in 2007, and when they began growing it in 2008, demand and prices skyrocketed until 2013 when they became a bit more stable.
“They’ve increased a little bit here and there since then,” he said.
"The spelt and other products more gradually increased.”
The family exports some products overseas, but most goes to Sydney and Melbourne.
“The clean, green image definitely helps out, and the Tassie brand - especially here on the North-West coast where we’re surrounded by trees and nice, clean fresh air and major forests.”
Mr Damen’s daily routine on the farm changes with the seasons.
“We’re calving at the moment so I’m spending a lot of time with the cows, feeding them and keeping them happy, sorting out any issues.
“I’m looking after all the livestock and doing some inch rowing and other field work when it’s dry, sporadically. A lot of maintenance as well.
The clean, green image definitely helps out, and the Tassie brand - especially here on the North-West coast where we’re surrounded by trees and nice, clean fresh air and major forests
- Peter Damen
“The busiest time of year is spring time when we’re preparing all the soil, getting everything planted, putting on nutrients - compost spreading, inch rowing.
“There’s a lot of fieldwork that time of year.”
Kindred Organics produces around 120 tonnes of quinoa each year now.
“We started just trialling it out and growing a small two-hectare spot when we started, but we’re now growing usually around 40 to 50 hectares.”
Quinoa has been an important food staple in South America for thousands of years.
It was cultivated in the mountains of Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Chile as far back as 3000 years ago.
NASA discovered its nutritional value back in the early 1990s, calling it the “most complete food” to take on long space missions.
It began appearing in health food shops in the United States as word spread of its health benefits, and that trickled out to the rest of the Western world, and into mainstream supermarkets and cafes.
Quinoa is famed for being gluten-free, low in fat and relatively low on the glycemic index.
It also has double the protein of most grains, three times the fibre of brown rice and a good dose of iron, which is an essential mineral that keeps blood healthy.
Quinoa is also a good source of magnesium, manganese, copper, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, vitamin E and B vitamins.
Kindred Organics’ quinoa is grown, harvested, cleaned and polished on site in the North-West.
The Damens have a special washing and drying facility that pre-washes it.
Now an award-winning brand, Kindred Organics is sold in Tasmanian health food stores, while about 80 per cent is sold to interstate businesses.