I had the absolute privilege recently of touring Matthews Quandong (Santalum acuminatum), Muntrie (Kunzea pomifera) and Wattle Seed (Acacia sp.) farm in Nhill. Matthew's farm is on approximately 120 acres in the Wimmera (Wotjobaluk Country), Northeast Victoria and is in a semi-arid zone with sandy clay soil. The farm was originally purchased as a hobby farm in the 90's but with such great love and care, the farm is flourishing into a mass-producing wonderland. Matthew 'retired' from his corporate life and is now running Ni Ni Well full time.
When we first arrived, we were met by Matthew and the Mullum Mullum Indigenous gathering place men's group who had camped there the night before. Once everyone had woken up enough, we set to de-seeding quandong and sorting out class A and B fruits. The class A fruits will be cryovac'd and frozen for sale to restaurants and business owners (See ETCH sparkling drinks where Matthews Quandongs feature as an ingredient). The class B fruits get turned into Quondong chili chutney which I bought several jars of to take home, delish.
After we had processed the Quandong, we were fortunate enough to visit the farms where the produce is grown which was a short car ride from Matthew's place. Here we got to see the rows and rows of incredibly maintained muntries. Muntries (Kunzea pomifera) are a prostrate shrub that generally spread as a ground cover. What Matthew has done on his farm is espalier the fruit shrubs up wire similar to grape vines to create easily accessible harvesting and row maintenance.
The farm produced approximately 3.5 tonnes of Muntries last season and are sent to a freeze-drying facility to preserve their flavour and nutritional benefits for up to 20 years. Matthew sells the freeze-dried bags of Muntries, frozen Muntries and to my delight, dark chocolate coated Muntries which were my favorite.
Matthews farm also has a wide variety of Wattles (Acacia sp.). He grows them in rows and harvests the seeds out of their pods. The bags of dried seed and ground/roasted seed are sold in bags to consumers. I bought a bag of each and cannot wait to try slow cooking my Acacia microbotyra seeds to utilise them as an ancient grain. I'm thinking a wattle seed rice pudding, (stay tuned for recipe and pictures).
After a beautiful day on the farm, it was time to say goodbye, for now........because we both had dinner reservations in a barn. We set off on our next adventure to Banyan where we feasted on an Australian native themed dinner (check out chef teacher Cat Clark). I will do a follow up blog about the night so go check that out.
I just want to say a huge thank you to Matthew for hosting me for the day. It's incredible to see what he has achieved. I love learning and sharing Australian native plant knowledge and Matthew was a wealth of it. Have a look at the photos from my amazing day and find the links to Ni Ni Well below.
Ni Ni Well Instagram
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