Even at the height of this year’s summer drought in the Lower Hunter John Lee, ‘Glenmoore’ Upper Chichester near Dungog said the Chichester River, that forms a boundary on his 250 acres property, never went completely dry.

It’s no wonder that for decades that just down the road from his farm the valley was earmarked for the building of the Tillegary Dam to supply water to the ever expanding population of the Newcastle-Maitland region.

Those plans were eventually abandoned and the acquired land sold and returned to agricultural production.

Mr Lee says ,perhaps one day, another dam may be built on the Upper Chichester but in the meantime he is busy cultivating and marketing organically grown vegetables on his little oasis.

He has owned ‘Glenmoore’ for 32 years having fallen in love with the farm at first sight.

Growing up on a cropping property in Victoria Mr Lee eventually spent many years working in the Hunter’s mining industry and as a trainer for heavy plant and equipment operators throughout the country.

Abundance of fresh water, a great community and closeness to major markets made the property ideal for organic vegetable production. 

“I was always interested in growing produce organically after having a bad experience on my family’s property using 2-4,d spraying wheat. I became really unwell and decided then to stay away from chemicals,” he said.

He admits controlling weeks is his biggest headache growing vegetables organically and has relied on WWOFFEers (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) is overcome the problem. 

“But changes to the visa laws means, for me, there are few WWOFFers available. So I am looking more towards raised beds and using green houses to grow the vegetables,” he said.

Always experimenting with different crops and heirloom varieties Mr Lee is a regular at the Newcastle markets.

His produce has also gained favour with Hunter chefs looking for some different ingredients.

“We find it easy to grow big vegetables in the Upper Chichester, for example, last season’s red onions weighed 1kg/each and were just as tasty as the normal sized examples,” he said.

Onions, garlic, radishes, beetroot, tomatoes and pumpkins are among the crops he grows.

One of his pet hates is customers squeezing tomatoes and in the past up to half what he takes to market have to be returned to chooks due to being as he puts it squeezed to death.

“Handling tomatoes like that is fine for the modern cricket ball type varieties they are bred for that but heirloom varieties are not. I have tried different methods to discourage the squeeze but people need to be educated on not doing that to organic produce,” he said.

Otherwise he loves the markets as it’s a very social affair.