Scott’s passion sprouts success

Mount Barker vegetable grower Scott Samwell is a third generation farmer at Eastbrook Vegetable Farms, where the main commodity is brussels sprouts.

His long hours and dedication to the horticulture industry has been recognised, with Scott receiving the Ausveg SA Grower of the Year award.

He said the award acknowledged decades of work by his family.

“I feel a bit chuffed, it’s a nice accolade,” he said.

“My father built on his father’s knowledge, and I’m building on my father’s knowledge.”

Today, Eastbrook Vegetable Farms is a family affair including Mr Samwell’s uncle, father, brother and cousin.

They each have their own role in the business, with Scott the produce grower.

From choosing varieties to plant, harvesting, pest control, nutrition and irrigation, it is Scott’s role to ensure the six-month long crop comes up its best for the consumer.

“I’m very passionate about soil health, and don’t want to degrade it by anything we do,” he said.

“Our soil is our livelihood, if we muck that up, we won’t be here.”

The award also recognised Scott’s significant contributions off-farm, which include being a grower representative on the Strategic Investment Advisory Panel for Hort Innovation, and sitting on steering committees for industry-funded projects, to ensure they deliver benefits to growers.

The latest panel involves a three-year project, assessing the intake of vegetables in schools, infants and the elderly.

Scott has also travelled as a Nuffield Scholar, focusing on fusion farming, which takes the best practices from different styles of growing and incorporates them into a farming system.

“Sometimes it (research and advising) takes me off-farm, but it’s important for growers to have a voice,” he said.

He also welcomes on-farm trials, including integrated pest management trials, where wasps are released to combat diamondback month, and planting flower borders to provide a food source for beneficial insects.

Using target specific and minimal chemicals to be “custodians of the land” and environmentally profitable is his passion.

“When I’ve spent six months growing a crop, it looks beautiful and the sprouts are nice and green, those six months of hard work, early morning starts and late night irrigations are rewarding,” he said.

Scott will represent SA at the national awards held in Brisbane in June. 

THE Samwell family have been farming in the Adelaide Hills for more than 60 years, and have grown everything from cherries and peas to cauliflower, parsnips and potatoes.

Presently their Eastbrook Vegetable Farms operation focuses on brussels sprouts and is the exclusive Australian grower of kalettes, which are supplied to Coles supermarkets.

While the Samwells have nearly 800 hectares across three properties in the Adelaide Hills and Langhorne Creek, only 67ha of sprouts and about 7ha of kalettes are presently in the ground.

They produce between 40 tonnes and 70t of brussels sprouts a week, and last year harvested 45t of kalettes.

The first crop of kalettes was grown in 2012 after being introduced from the United Kingdom. They are a cross between a red kale and brussels sprouts.

Managing director and Ausveg SA Grower of the Year Scott Samwell said although sprouts did not have the “tastiest reputation”, the kalettes were not as intense as sprouts or as bitter as kale.

His tip for cooking them involves a light drizzle of oil and baked in the oven, so the leaves are similar to a kale chip and the stem is slightly tender.

Mr Samwell said the key to growing healthy, nutritious, pest-free produce was resting the soil for five years to stop the spread of disease such as club root.

“Our idea is to spread our risk and the season, in winter we can grow through Langhorne Creek really well and get our machinery in without destroying the soil,” he said.