Motlop driven to share stories of native foods

The idea for the business, which supplies native herbs, greens and fruits to food service venues, wholesalers and highly renowned SA chefs, was born in 2018 when Marlon first identified a gap in the market for the products.

Working with Quality Harvest director Damien Manno at the time, with the help of Joe Capobianco and Daniel Motlop - the latter of who is Marlon's cousin and owner of native game meats business Something Wild - the group formed the idea for The Native Co.

"We wanted to be the entity to come in and supply quality Australian first foods to the Australian customer, yeah round," Marlon said.

The Native Co's 6000 square metre greenhouse is situated in Kudla, just south of Gawler, and grows 16 different types of herbs, with saltbush and warrigal greens the best-sellers. Some products are also grown on farmland in the Barossa Valley.

"Hitting our straps as COVID-19 started meant demand, particularly interstate, has sometimes been patchy but it's becoming more consistent now," Marlon said.

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"Now we've hit that steady patch, the norm is to sell about 50-60 kilograms of warrigal greens each week, and it's continuing to pick up.

"With Daniel's help, we've built great relationships with some key SA chefs, we work with Simon Bryant, Gavin Robertson, we send products to Maggie Beer, she particularly loves our native basil."

Marlon said continuing to capitalise on these relationships was important, not only from a commercial sense, but from an education sense to help spread the word on native ingredients.

"As a First Nations grower, there is the responsibility to capture the stories and origins of each plant, and where they come from," Marlon said.

"Cultural origins are so important, and food provides a great segue into the education of Australia and Australian history."

Placing recipes and facts on labels and packaging, and being featured on a number of cooking and culture shows are just a few of the ways The Native Co is attempting to give customers a better insight into the products, which are also available at a retail level at Something Wild in the Adelaide Central Markets.

Marlon's passion for Australian native ingredients earned him a Nuffield scholarship in October, which will take him across Australia and overseas to create a body of information showing the importance and nutritional benefits of Australia's first foods.

"With the study topic of Australian first foods, a lot of the information that I'll be researching is right here in Australia, which is a special thing," he said.

Going forward, Marlon said he intended to break down any preconceived ideas about native ingredients.

"The nutritional benefits are much higher than your everyday soft herbs and greens, that means you don't have to use a whole lot of them," he said.

"It's more of a value-adding angle, enhancing what you're already doing, rather than necessarily substituting products."

Running The Native Co is a far cry from Marlon's previous life as an Aussie Rules player for Port Adelaide and the Glenelg Tigers, and is also in stark contrast to his successful music career with former teammate Rulla Kelly-Mansell, but the love for spreading the word on native ingredients is certainly burning strong.

"Seeing the journey of a plant you grow, into a high-class venue like the Adelaide Convention Centre, or a restaurant down the bay, is so special," he said.

"And whenever people walk into the farm, their senses go through the roof - it's a particular kind of look on their face. Our products are not just something people are absorbing and eating but an experience, and they're walking away with a lasting feeling.

"Wanting to capture that is so exciting and it's what gets me up every day. I want to bottle it up, and share that with the rest of the nation and the world."

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