A DESIRE to generate an income from a small landholding drove Ian Cuming to buy an established kiwi fruit farm planted on six hectares at Beenak, on the peri-urban border of Melbourne in Victoria.
It was a risk for someone who wasn’t raised on a farm, graduated with a law degree and worked as a youth worker.
His interest in agriculture was piqued working for several years with adults with special needs, on a farm in Britain.
He returned to Australia and employment as a youth worker while looking for his ideal farm.
In 2002, raising a young family, he bought the Beenak farm two weeks before harvest began and relied heavily on a neighbour and an inherited farm worker to crash-learn his new trade.
Kiwi Fruit, or actinicia deliciosa, also known as Chinese gooseberry, was originally called strawberry peach by European consumers. Mr Cuming grows the commonly known fuzzy kiwi fruit.
The fruit grow on a long-lived deciduous vine that can, if allowed, spread into surrounding trees.
Mr Cuming’s vines are really small trees, with thick gnarled trunks.
Fruit growth occurs on new shoots from last year’s growth, so heavy pruning of older wood is encouraged.
Promptly changing the conventional farming practices to biodynamic, Mr Cuming now harvests 15 tonnes of fruit off 1.8ha of established vines.
“We’re on Australia’s second smallest kiwi fruit farm,” he said.
“I thought I could make some money out of it and support my family.
“The family has grown but it’s still generating a healthy income, still with the original kiwi fruit vines – I think because the trees are not being pushed with fertiliser.”
The clay soil supports what can only be described as verdant trees.
Mr Cuming sprays biodynamic preparations onto the soil twice a year – summer and autumn – and applies compost as required.
An irrigation licence of 25 megalitres, from the local MacRae Creek, allows him to pump from a dam, watering the trees through a piped drip system.
“I have to regularly water the trees and mow the rows between them to control weeds,” he said.
“I Whipper-snip under the trees, particularly to control blackberries. Pruning occurs during winter to September; sometimes the trees need a second summer prune, depending on growth.”
New fruit grows on the shoots put out the previous season.
“Just before Christmas, when the trees start flowering, I have to get some bees in for pollination,” he said. Pollination requires about 25 hives – so the number of bees to flowers ratio is quite high and the insects feel compelled to compete – and the bees need “good flying weather”.
“If the bees can fl y and all the flowers are out, it takes two weeks for pollination to be completed,” Mr Cuming said.
“Petals drop and fruit starts to form – in January, I spend a fair bit of time thinning the fruit.”
Harvest is usually late April and throughout May.
This year harvest began early, in mid-April, and was completed in the first week of May.
The fruit then goes into cold storage with the first ripe kiwis available a month after picking; they are sold until late September.
“I use a refractor scope to test for sugar in the fruit and that dictates when we harvest them,” Mr Cuming said.
“We need the sugar in water content to be 6.5 per cent and above for picking.
“If left out of the fridge, they normally take two weeks to fully ripen.”
Selling into the wholesale and farmers markets of Melbourne, Mr Cuming receives a premium as an accredited biodynamic farm.
“At least 60pc of total production is sold to the wholesale organic market.
The remainder – 35 to 40pc – we sell direct at farmers markets in Melbourne,” he said.
While he prefers to eat kiwi fruit fresh, Mr Cuming finds most customers consume them as juice, combined with other fruits.
“And my wife (Anne Tollan) likes using them to marinate and tenderise meat,” he said.