Sassafras farming family all ears after branching out into sweet corn

LOCALLY grown sweet corn is back on the menu for Tasmanians as this year’s harvest kicks off.

Sweetcorn

LOCALLY grown sweet corn is back on the menu for Tasmanians as this year’s harvest kicks off for the Young family.

The Youngs are well known for producing celeriac on their Sassafras property, in Tasmania’s North-West.

But after several requests for sweet corn, they grew their first commercial crop last year.

Matt Young said harvesting of this year’s 1ha crop had started and there was potential to grow even more.

“The feedback we get from people who buy it is really good,” he said.

“You can’t even compare it to the stuff that comes in from Queensland because ours is so much fresher.”

The Youngs attended their second Launceston Harvest Market last Saturday where they sell both celeriac and sweet corn.

“We were doing some markets, but because celeriac is not something a lot of people are familiar with we weren’t really selling enough of that on its own to make it worthwhile,” Mr Young said.

“With the sweet corn, though, it works quite well. People are really interested in buying locally grown products now and they’re the sorts of markets we’re aiming for.”

“You can’t even compare it to the stuff that comes in from Queensland because ours is so much fresher.”

The family used to grow sweet corn commercially for McCain a number of years ago, however all their crop now is aimed at the fresh market and local consumers.

Mr Young said they should have enough sweet corn this year to keep harvesting through to May.

As well as farmers markets, the Youngs are also selling sweet corn to local grocers in Devonport and Hobart.

Read more rural stories in tomorrow’s edition of Tasmanian Country