Vegetable grower achieves double win in crop awards

CONSISTENCY and hard work have paid off for Stuart Applebee and his team who have won two major crop awards this year.

Mr Applebee and his family’s Esandsea Farming operation were named as the top swede and bean growers at Harvest Moon’s annual awards dinner. 

The family also runs a major contracting business and farm on a property near Gawler. 

“We’ve had a big year,” Mr Applebee said. “I think the season helped but we have a lot of people behind us agronomy-wise and I’ve got some really good support from field staff and we have a great team here.

My son works for us as an apprentice, and we’ve got another young guy that works for us as well so it’s not just me.” 

The family lease the main property they grow on and also some extra area at North Motton and Gunns Plains. 

“It’s a beautiful spot here, the sea is just down there,” he said. 

“We’re subject to quite a few weather events, don’t get me wrong, but the climate here is very temperate, so we don’t get the extremes in temperature.”

Mr Applebee said while last season was not without its challenges, especially for swedes, overall it had been a very good year. 

This is the fourth time the family has won the company’s top swede award and there is also some friendly rivalry with Mr Applebee’s sister and her family who also regularly grow the crop. 

“We’ve grown swedes for probably 10 or 12 years now for Harvest Moon,” he said. “We’ve done very well out of swedes over the years. 

They’re a nice little niche crop that we can grow straight after peas so we double crop and it also fits in well after pyrethrum for some reason.” 

Mr Applebee said the long, dry growing season did create some issues.

“It was a bit harder this year with the swedes because of the dry weather and we were putting a lot of water on them trying to keep them growing,” he said.

“They just seemed to sit there for ages and didn’t do much. When we harvested them though they were way better than we expected, so that was good.” 

While swedes are a labour-intensive crop due to the fact they are hand harvested, Mr Applebee said some investment in technology for possible mechanical harvesting by the company would be a game changer. 

“Once you’re irrigated the swedes up and they’ve struck and are on their way normally they look after themselves,” he said. “But this year we had to put in quite a lot of effort to keep them going. 

I also enjoy the relationship with the Harvest Moon guys as well. The guys that manage the swedes are fantastic.” 

Mr Applebee said the season was ideal for bean production. “Beans were amazing, they were probably the best beans we’ve probably ever grown,” he said. “The season really suited them, and they just grew.”

Mr Applebee said while they had a small issue with disease in beans just prior to harvest it was an excellent result overall. 

While they had excellent yields, Mr Applebee said quality is their main focus. “The yields were higher, but the quality was excellent and that’s what I like,” he said.

Mr Applebee said beans also fit well into their rotation which also includes other crops such as potatoes and poppies.

“We double crop them as well and have a December to January sowing period for them and that fits in with what we do,” he said.

“They’re a quick crop too so a very quick turnaround from sowing to harvest, which is another good thing about them.”