The Producers, a Food Podcast. · A Deep in the Weeds Production

AgriCULTURED Special Series Episode 4: Annette Reed (Tasmanian Natural Garlic and Tomatoes) - grown with passion and care.

·31 min·1 clip

Annette says small farms cannot compete with Bunnings or supermarkets on price, only on quality and know-how.

1. The Producers episode follows AgriCULTURED with Annette Reid of Tasmania Natural Garlic and Tomatoes in Selburn near Launceston. 2. Annette Reid and her husband Neville Reid run the farm, and Dani Vallant frames them as growers with long experience on a former bush block. 3. The episode asks what a small Tasmanian farm offers that a supermarket or broadacre system cannot. 4. Annette says she and Neville have been at Selburn since 1987, and everything on the property has been built over nearly 40 years. 5. She explains that the farm grew tomatoes and garlic after earlier attempts with cattle, truffles, and sheep. 6. She says family crises pushed them toward a smaller, jointly manageable enterprise that could restore the farm’s health. 7. Annette describes garlic as the more straightforward crop, with planting from April to June and harvest from late November to mid-January. 8. She describes tomatoes as a year-round process, with seeding starting on 1 August, seedling sales in October, and fruit from early January to about May. 9. She says the tomato program also includes saving seed from about March onward for the next season. 10. Annette says the farm has about 300 tomato varieties in its seed bank and grows about 150 each year. 11. She says garlic has been reduced from about 15 cultivars to six or eight because some varieties do not thrive in Selburn. 12. She names Tasmanian purple garlic as the main cultivar because it has strong flavour, easy peeling, and large cloves. 13. She also mentions Rojo de Castro, Lachalan, and Dungansky as cultivars that extend the harvest and storage window. 14. Annette says the farm rejected hydroponics after an early March frost in 2010 wiped out an outdoor crop. 15. She says they chose to keep growing in soil and later added polytunnels only for protection and season extension. 16. She explains that annual soil tests, mustard green manure, and native insectary plantings are central to keeping the tunnels productive. 17. Annette says a good day is cool weather, enough sleep, pruning tomatoes early in the season, or picking 150 to 200 kilos of fruit. 18. The interview style is relaxed and practical, with Annette answering from direct farm experience and Dani Vallant prompting specific details. 19. People interested in Tasmanian produce, soil health, and small-farm selling will get the most from it. 20. People wanting fast-moving drama or abstract food theory may skip it.

As heard by us

A frost-prone farm story that finds its warmth in pruning, picking, and problem-solving.

Annette Reid's turn on The Producers reads as a grounded farm portrait, all tomatoes, garlic, red loamy soil, cold tunnels, and the steady judgment that keeps a small block productive in frost-prone country. It stays close to the work, and that focus gives the piece its warmth.

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Why you'd press play

Tomatoes, garlic, and the stubborn calm of farming summer crops in frost country.

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