The Lockyer Valley is known as “Australia’s Salad Bowl” and for good reason – it’s one of the most fertile farming areas in the world and grows more than 90% of Australia’s winter veggies!
Koala Farms is one of the big lettuce producers in the region. They supply their produce to supermarkets around the country and send up to ten tonnes of their crispy iceberg lettuce to Maccas every week!
Forget paddock to plate, this is farm-fresh food from field to fast-food favourites.
Anthony Staatz’s family have been farming this property for six generations and just like the produce, their business has grown from humble beginnings.
Anthony’s proud of how far they have come and says “We do about a quarter of a million iceberg lettuce a week. That’s roughly 50,000 lettuce a day. It’s a lot of work, but it’s worth it.”
The life of a lettuce starts in the onsite high-tech nursery. Anthony and the team plant a couple of million seeds a week! Once the seedlings grow, they’re planted in the field. It takes roughly eight weeks for iceberg lettuce to mature in the ground. Once ready, it is hand-harvested, cooled and trucked to the factory for shredding. Within a week to ten days, it finds its way into your Macca’s burger.
Anthony embraces innovation in agriculture, and while things have changed since his ancestors first toiled the soil, it is still a family endeavour, with Anthony’s sons working beside him.
With properties spanning the Lockyer Valley, Darling Downs and Bathurst, they ensure year-round production of iceberg lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, baby-leaf varieties and the two-pack cos lettuce you find on supermarket shelves.
“There’s always something to pick, always something to do. Wet, dry, or otherwise. We’re out in the field, trying to make it happen.”, says Anthony…and he wouldn’t have it any other way!
Keep your eyes peeled for the Golden Arches (Gatton and Plainlands are just off the highway) and Anthony’s crisp lettuces on your next road trip to the Lockyer Valley.
