THE Riverland is well-known for its thriving citrus and almond industries, but located at Renmark North is a small-but-bustling asparagus farm.
Going on 27 years, Renee Horvath and her family took over Renmark Asparagus from her brother-in-law last year.
Renee, who hails from Ballarat in Victoria, met her husband, who was born and raised in Renmark, in Melbourne, with the couple and their young family moving to the Riverland in March 2022.
“The niche of asparagus up here is really good, and it doesn’t get affected by fruit fly, that’s the really good thing about it,” Renee said.
If you take good care of it you can keep the season going for nine months, so it’s a pretty high-yield crop.
“I think if you just let it go and don’t rake care of it, you might get three months, so it just depends on how you take care of it.
“It’s all organic out here so we don’t use any chemicals, pesticides or anything like that, which I find makes a difference to the quality of it. We pull all the weeds by hand too.”
“We are in the process of expanding at the moment, so we are seeding it at the moment and we have got a block out here, so we are going to plant some white asparagus and give that a go.”
While the farm also grows apples, oranges and a variety of other fruits, the asparagus crop is the highest yield.
“I love working with my family. It’s just nice to wake-up and pick asparagus when you want,” Renee said.
“Having the freedom and go and pick it when I want at 12 noon instead of three in the afternoon, I can do that.
“It also tastes pretty good, so I like that. There’s a lot of things you can do with it.”
Asparagus is generally considered a temperate/cold climate plant, but it is easy to grow in a sub-tropical climate as it thrives on the rain and has no problems with pests or diseases.
“The climate in the Riverland is good, it needs to be pretty warm for it to grow well,” Renee said.
It grows really fast. It grows seven inches a day, so you have to pick it two to three times a day.”
If unpicked daily, the texture of the asparagus will go woody, so Renee will usually pick every day by herself, but occasionally she receives help from her husband, and their five-year-old son Lane.
“It is only 3pm and I have already picked twice today,” Renee said.
“Lane will usually cut the seeds to keep producing and he is pretty good at it.”
While it may seem like a comfortable situation Renee is operating at Renmark Asparagus, running a one-person show can often take its toll.
“It’s back-breaking, it’s really back breaking sometimes,” Renee said.
“I think because you have to pick it so many times a day and it’s so many rows, it’s hard on your back.
“It’s usually just me doing the picking, my husband will help every now and then, but it’s mainly me.
“I pretty much run the whole show by myself. I have thought about getting help once we get to December.
“I don’t have to get help, I just thought ‘why not?’. Then I get I get a break.”
With all local buyers, Renee is glad she can provide quality asparagus to the Riverland community.
“We do orders during the week, and then Friday to Sunday we have a stall at the end of the driveway, which has been popular,” Renee said.
“If I go visit family in Ballarat I will take some with me and there’s a few people that buy it there, but it is mainly here.”
With the property having been an asparagus farm for 27 years, Renee said there has been talk of switching it up before and exploring other varieties of fruit and vegetables.
“Because it’s only a small farm, I am not really sure what we can do,” Renee said.
Asparagus is really good if you have only got a little bit of land.”
Moving forward, Renmark Asparagus is looking to expand, with the constant demand for its asparagus a contributing factor.
“There is that demand to be able to expand,” Renee said.
“We want to grow white asparagus and there’s a bit to it. You have to keep it under the ground, because asparagus gets its colour from the sun.
“We will need to cover it and pick it with a special tool under the ground, so we will probably plant an acre and see how it goes.”
