Peninsula Collaborations

Richard Hawkes is a farmer with an eye on the big picture. He owns a Boneo market garden and on sustainable principles, making his own compost, sowing green manure crops and making the most of recycled water. He engages with the local community through a popular farm gate shop open daily, a free maize maze where families can wander and lose themselves, and free community open days. He has also built a network of small businesses and farmers with whom he works to create better opportunities for business growth and, more importantly, some really delicious things to eat and drink.

Richard is a sixth-generation market gardener, working alongside his father, Barry, who moved the family from farming the back blocks of Mordialloc in the 1960s as housing encroached on the farmland. They have 65 hectares around Boneo, spread across several farms to make the most of the different soil types: some free-draining but hungry for organic matter, others darker, denser and better able to hold water. He also swaps land and shares equipment with neighbouring farmers.

“It’s about creating a farming community,” says Richard. “It’s based on trust and is about sharing resources, looking after people, and working through problems together for mutual benefit.”

Another great example of collaborative success is a beer made with neighbouring brewers St Andrews Beach Brewery. “We grow green cover crops,” says Richard, “and Dad Barry sees himself as a bit of a bartender. So we sowed some barley because it has longer roots than other plants and can feed on nutrients deeper in the soil. We harvest the barley, plough in the stalks for compost, St Andrews gets the grain to make delicious beer, and Dad gets to pour it,” says Richard with a laugh. “Everyone’s happy.”

Richard is also growing durum wheat. Not a lot, but that could change judging by the success of the collaboration Hawkes Farm has had with Island Pasta, an artisan pasta maker in Mornington.

“Tine and Luca started making gnocchi with our potatoes and that was great,” says Richard. “Then they asked me about durum wheat, a high-protein wheat that’s perfect for pasta. I saw a gap in the market – no one is producing artisan durum wheat – so now I grow it.”

Island Pasta’s new paccheri and tagliatelle, made with Hawkes Farm durum flour, were released this winter.

Hawkes Farm also produces hard wheat flour. While the acreage isn’t large, there was enough for Barry Hawkes to invest in a late 2000’s grain header, a beast of a machine that he drives with pride. The grain is stone-ground by an artisan miller and is now used by a handful of specialty bakers on the Mornington Peninsula.

One is Red Hill Baker in Balnarring, which bakes Hawkes Potato Cafone, a style of loaf originally from Naples made with both Hawkes Farm Titanium wheat flour and the farm’s potatoes. Blended in a sourdough and slowly fermented, the final loaf has a golden crust and a soft, nutty crumb.

In Dromana, Miller’s Bread Kitchen uses roasted Hawkes Farm potatoes on top of a chewy focaccia alongside sweet copper-gold caramelised onions and delicious morsels of confit garlic.

A slightly sweeter collaboration is the Swedish cinnamon scroll from baker Johan Svensson of Peninsula Pantry. Originally from Helsingborg in Sweden, he uses Hawkes Farm flour to make tightly rolled scrolls laced with cinnamon sugar, baked until golden and slathered with sweet fondant once cooled. They have a beautifully soft, short crumb, a nutty flavour and the exotic aroma of Dutch cinnamon.

That collaboration runs even deeper. Johan had his retail bakery elsewhere, but the workload was too much, and he was considering moving to wholesale only. Richard Hawkes offered him space in a packing shed and said, “Just do the baking. We’ll sell some of the baked goods through the store.”

Now Johan is making his delicious sweet treats in a custom-built bakery that, until recently, housed a potato packing line. He also makes a beautifully soft potato bun for Hawkes Farm’s Friday night burger bonanza.

Working well with other people seems to be Richard Hawkes’ superpower. His local distributor is Nick Thompson. He delivers Hawkes Farm produce to local restaurants, grocers and, when necessary, restaurants closer to Melbourne. He started 12 years ago as a 16-year-old who could barely say boo to a carrot. He put on the leather greengrocer’s apron and found a new confidence. Within the space of a few years, he became the farm gate store manager. A few years back, started his own business, who owns MP Harvest, handling the distribution logistics for Hawkes Farm, doing the run from farm to local restaurants, greengrocers and, when needed, to the city wholesale markets.

“It can be lonely being a farmer,” says Richard. “But I want to enjoy every day I’m here. I decided long ago not to be a price taker, getting screwed by the supermarkets. That’s why I work with other people. Life’s too short for anything else.”