WHEN you get hit by the vegie growing bug, it’s a hard disease to shake off, part of the problem is that it usually sneaks up on you, you start with a patch in the backyard, and then all of a sudden, bang, you’ve got a hectare of land under production and you’re selling vegetables at farmers’ markets.
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This is what has happened to one of the seasonal growers at the Orange Region Farmers’ Market, Mark Coen.
Mr Coen only appears at the markets during summer and autumn, when his crops on his Narromine property are ripe and ready for harvest.
“I get started planning and planting in September and go through usually until April,” he said.
With 25 acres of rich riverside loam to play with, Mr Coen’s productive area of one hectare is bountiful with the traditional summer crops of tomatoes, melons, cucumber, eggplant, capsicums and pumpkins.
“I have 30 rows of tomatoes and we just harvested 50 buckets of tomatoes that hold between 10-15 kilos each. That’s a lot of tomatoes to get rid of,” he laughed.
To help reduce his stock levels, Mr Coen sells directly from his farm on Warren Road and also provides selected IGA stores with fresh produce.
His experience with selling his produce comes from a time when he sold what he grew from his own fruit shop.
“I was a builder for a long time but I owned the fruit shop in Narromine for a few years and used to sell what I grew from the shop,” he said.
The Orange Region Farmers’ Market will open from 8.30 to 12.30pm this Saturday in the north court of the Orange Regional Gallery in Peisley Street.