THE walls of Mate’s Gully Cafe are adorned with contemporary painting by one of its owners, Paul Nolte, but it isn’t the artwork that brings people through the doors – it’s the fresh produce picked on the farm each morning.
It’s not unlike a cafe you’d find in a hip suburb of Melbourne or Sydney – except it’s at the bottom of Wagga Wagga’s main street in southern NSW.
Mr Nolte is a farmer who grew up on a mixed cropping and sheep enterprise at Coolamon in NSW’s Riverina, while his wife and partner in Mate’s Gully Cafe, Marcia McCoy is Wagga born and raised.
Ms McCoy left her home town to pursue a career in front-of-house management in some of Sydney’s top restaurants.
But she returned to work with Mr Nolte and helped establish the organic vegetable business and cafe.
The cafe was opened in May 2009 in the same building Ms McCoy’s father once operated a dental surgery.
But before they stepped into the cafe business, the couple ran a catering business from the farm, selling into local markets.
Mr Nolte purchased a 303-hectare farm on Mate’s Gully Road near Tarcutta in 1996 and set out to pursue his passion for producing fresh, healthy produce.
After an initial foray into herbs, which were “the latest thing” at the time, Mr Nolte turned his hand to growing organic vegies, which he sold locally and, eventually, into the Sydney market.
When Ms McCoy returned to Wagga she joined him in the venture.
She was reluctant about opening the cafe but the couple’s experience and skills have been a good combination, with the cafe drawing many visitors who love the fresh food and produce.
Mr Nolte jokes it is a marriage of convenience because he looks after the farming and the preserving of excess produce while Ms McCoy uses her extensive background in hospitality and cookery for the day-to-day operation of the business.
Mr Nolte’s son, Brendan, is also onboard as a full time farmer, with Mr Nolte going out daily to help and returning laden with fresh vegies and fruit from the 500 tree orchard and eggs from the chooks.
The cafe’s motto sums it up: “From our farm to your plate”.
But the couple has been amazed by customers who find the concept so novel as more and more of society seems to be conditioned to think fruit and vegetables can only be mass grown.
“When the apples are in season, I’ll cut some up and hand them around to our customers and it’s incredible to watch, as many of them haven’t had an apple straight from the tree since their childhood, but they never forgot that taste,” Mr Nolte said.
“To watch them experience that and tell their children ‘this man grew this apple’ is special.
“A lot of people seem to think they’re not allowed to grow their own fruit and vegetables, it’s a big generational change.”
He laughs when he tells the tale of how when he’d sell lettuce at the farmers’ markets, instead of removing the occasional, but inevitable, snail in them, he’d hand it to the customer and tell them very solemnly, “now you make sure you give it a good home, ok?”.
“That’s probably one of the best things about the cafe, being able to share that with people,” he said.
“It’s a hectic lifestyle... but we love it and it’s so enjoyable and our staff tend to stay and become part of it as well.”
One of the challenges they faced was not only incorporating all the in-season fruit and vegies into the menu, but dealing with the glut which can occur.
“Because you’re able to buy virtually anything year around from the supermarket, a lot of people have really lost that sense of when something is in season and how it actually tastes.”
