The Orange Lady
On Wonega Rd, Red Cliffs in Millewa-Mallee country, the land is flat, the sky is big, the dirt is red and there are no fences, which means you can walk off the road right into the orange groves and grape vines.
Every week Gaby Robb drives 550km from her citrus farm on Wonega Rd to the farmer’s markets around Melbourne, where over the years she has become known as The Orange Lady.
Red Cliffs is irrigation country – in 1923, with the hope of establishing a dried fruit industry, the largest pumping station in the Southern Hemisphere was built here. It drew water from the Murray River up over the red cliffs and onto the hundreds of 15 acre blocks that were given to World War I soldier settlers, along with free grapevines and cheap loans.
In the late 70’s Gaby, who grew up on a Manangatang wheat farm, and husband Chris, a city boy who trained as a teacher, moved to Red Cliffs from Melbourne and bought an old 15 acres soldier settler block planted out with sultana grapes.
They took a gamble and put in citrus; navels, valencias, mandarins, grapefruit and limes, followed later with another punt on pistachios and pomegranates.
But even when they added a neighbour’s 15 acre block and then another 30 acres, their harvest was always too small to be of much interest to the big packing houses.
Which is how Gaby and Chris got into farmers markets.
Twenty years ago they dipped their toe in at the new once-a-month markets in Castlemaine and Bendigo. They got a feel for it and started driving down for the Melbourne weekend farmers markets.
The Orange Lady name was coined by Phoebe, Gaby and Chris’ daughter, who with brother Francis, grew up working the farm and the market stalls (that’s them above).
Francis “ran away for ten years” – he travelled, got his plumbing ticket, worked here and there before coming back and buying into the farm.
He says his favourite view is from the house where the pistachios and the citrus back onto the bush where there’s always a mob of roos grazing amongst the rows.
Right now while their trees are flowering one of Francis’ less glamorous jobs is checking the pest monitoring traps.
Gaby and Chris have always been conscious of the environment and were early adopters of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) where predator insects are encouraged to control pests and sprays, used only if needed, are targeted so good predator bugs are left unharmed.
When I ask Francis why people like their oranges he explains that often commercial citrus gets picked green and then goes into coolrooms, whereas they can let their oranges ripen and pick to order every week.
It’s one of the advantages of staying small.
You can find Gaby, Chris, Francis and Phoebe’s fresh picked navels here….
Heirloom tomatoes delivered
Days are getting longer, soils are warming, which means it’s time to start planting your tomatoes.
For this week only from Tuesday 15th to Saturday 19th we’re delivering CERES certified organic heirloom tomato seedlings.
There’re six varieties to choose from!
- Tommy Toe
- Cherry Orange
- Riesentraube
- Kangaroo Paw Brown
- Grosse Lisse
- Black Cherry
Stock is super-limited so get in quick and find them here.
I just saw Black Cherry have already sold out! But have no fear if you miss out you can get the full range of around twenty varieties at the truly incredible CERES Nursery in Brunswick East.
Have a great week
Chris
