Calderwood Valley Farm is operating as a fruit and vegetable outlet again. Photos: Supplied.
Calderwood Valley Farm is flourishing once again, offering fresh, locally-grown produce to the Illawarra.
In just a few weeks, it has expanded from online deliveries to opening an on-farm store, becoming a go-to destination for seasonal fruit and veggies.
With a focus on quality and transparency, manager Dave Du Bois now has big plans to transform the farm into a true community hub.
Dave worked as a farm manager on the property 10 years ago when it ran as a successful produce outlet by another company, with the farm having seen numerous management companies since then.
“As soon as people walk in, they’re like, ‘Oh, we’ve been waiting for this’ and ‘We’re so happy that you’re open again,’” Dave said.
“So there’s obviously people that used to come here back in the day.
“I’ve been trying to get my foot back in the door here for a while, because I know the potential of it.”
Dave has been operating another fruit and veg home delivery business, Avondale Organics, which has delivered from Helensburgh to Ulladulla for the past 14 years.
It was while he was a tennis coach that he first pivoted into having his own produce business.
“Mum was dabbling in a bit of gardening at the Dapto Community Farm, and I just started going down and doing a bit of labour to help her out,” he said.
“Then we started selling some of our produce to family and friends. Then it turned into relatives and their friends, and then it turned into the whole of the Illawarra basically,” he said, laughing.
Eventually they shifted into wholesaling, and now home delivery – everything from bakery items to meat and vegetables.
In July, he finally took over Calderwood Valley Farm, now operating the fruit and veg businesses simultaneously.
“This was originally just a business on the side to supplement what I was doing,” he said.
“But it’s just so much work here with planting and managing the crops that it’s probably going to become more of a full-time thing.”
In October, Dave started an online delivery service for Calderwood Valley Farm and within a few weeks had opened the on-farm shop one day a week.
He said already it had grown to opening two days a week, with a focus to eventually build to six days.
“We’re looking to stamp ourselves as the best provider of fresh fruit and veggies in the area,” he said.
He said nothing was stored in frozen cool rooms, with produce either taken fresh from the onsite gardens and hothouses, or fresh market produce delivered daily by others.
“At the moment, we’ve got cucumbers and lots of leafy greens, some herbs and spinach, kale, all that sort of stuff,” he said.
“Then our tomatoes are nearly ready.
“We’ve put a pause on growing at the moment, just to see what people are actually buying in the shop, and then we’ll plant and manage our beds around what people will be buying over the next eight to 12 weeks.”
He said the goal was to ramp up summer seasonal produce, like cucumbers, eggplant, tomato and capsicum.
Meanwhile, he said growers from the Dapto Community Farm were contributing to the store, along with eggs from pasture-raised chickens in West Dapto, fruits and products from the Apple Shack at Darkes Glenbernie Orchard and mushrooms from a few minutes down the road at Caldwell Valley Mushrooms.
“Where we can source locally, we definitely prioritise that,” he said.
“We’ve had really good positive feedback, and we’re just trying to get the awareness out there that people can use this as another option,” he said.
He said a few years ago it was used as a certified organic farm, where management grew for organic shops and wholesalers in Sydney.
“Originally, we were focused 100 per cent on organic and certification, but the cost and the demand for it is just not really worth the return,” he said.
“So we basically give people the option – this is spray-free, or this is grown here, or this is market fresh, and let them make the decision.
“They’re more than happy with that.”
He said the property was made up of 11 acres of paddocks and six hot houses, with the goals now to upgrade the shop, open it six days a week and invest in fridges and cool rooms to make it a one-stop shop.
“Maybe early next year, we want to start setting up a market day where we have stalls and maybe a mobile animal zoo and give people more of a reason to come down,” he said.
“We’ve got the space here, so we’re looking at doing that and maybe getting some of our beds up and running for community ventures for groups like the Men’s Shed and places like that.
“We’d like to have more of a community-based theme around some of our plots that we don’t have the time or capacity to manage.”
You can visit Calderwood Valley Farm at 49 Calderwood Rd, Calderwood or learn more about its opening hours.
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