A YOUNG Kingstown farmer is set to make his mark on organic garlic farming.
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John Cassidy Jr’s family property “Merilba” already includes a South Devon cattle stud, fine Merino wool, an olive grove and large scale winery Merilba Estate.
The 30,000 acre property has been in the Cassidy family since 1982.
The property’s latest venture started in January with the planting of about 120,000 garlic plants over an acre.
Mr Cassidy said Australia had been a leading exporter of garlic in the 1990s, before cheaper garlic from China pushed about 95 per cent of Australian growers out of the industry.
“I just got a bit fed up with the cheap Chinese garlic and its lack of taste,” he said.
Mr Cassidy said there were also health issues as Chinese garlic is treated with chemicals and often grown in sewage.
“The garlic is fumigated with methyl bromide which is a leading cancer causing agent and a sterility agent in humans,” he said.
Mr Cassidy said he would only be selling 10 per cent of the first crop, to be picked in November.
“We’ll put most of it back into the ground so that we can expand to about 10 acres,” he said.
Next year will also mark the start of an 18-month process to gain organic certification for the crop.
Mr Cassidy said the idea was attracting local interest.
“I’ve already got a lot of people asking if they can buy garlic,” he said.
The former TAS student said despite his interest in organic garlic, he hadn’t imagined that he would end up growing it.
“We were just brainstorming ideas last year for the property for a little side project and came up with this but it might not be such a side project,” he said.