Broccoli Harvest: Formosa Farm

Next up was Formosa Farm in Cressy. Located just off the main road from Cressy to Poatina, this farm meant a drive along a very narrow mud path and then down a steep hill, which in wet conditions was pretty dangerous!

Ironic name too, I thought. The irony only to be lost on those not so educated. “Formosa” is of course the original island name for the island of Taiwan, as chosen by the Portuguese. The meaning of which is “beautiful island.”

For me the personal irony was that I had left the UK for Taiwan last year, and was now working on a farm called “Taiwan” as i saw it.

To make things even stranger, I was working with and giving a lift to the lovely Jenny Chen, my Taiwanese friend from Taichung, pictured having a cider with me there on her last night on Tasmania.

The lonely barn on a cold winter morning at Formosa Farm.

A nice piece of broccoli at Formosa farm.

Formosa Farm also saw the end of an era for me – it was on this very field on my last ever morning living in Poatina where my broccoli harvesting finished. It was a short day, on a Friday. A winter chill was in the air and Jenny Chen had already left…

Working on the world’s first ever broccoli harvester at Formosa Farm (yes I did a mixture of manual and machine broccoli harvesting at Formosa). More on the harvester itself on another post…

This was a nice photo I took and will always remember – how the broccoli field at Formosa Farm looked just after we had finished. 12 full weeks to the day of broccoli harvesting (on 13 different farms) and it felt good to know that the job was complete. I had worked hard and was actually ready for a wee break. The plan was to go to Bruny Island the next day, and start cauliflower the next Tuesday.


However I got the call that night to start work again at 8 am the next morning, up north in Forth planting Pyrethrum. And after that it was onto cauliflower…


ME DOING A DEMONSTRATION OF HOW TO CUT BROCCOLI AT FORMOSA FARM:



DRIVING INTO FORMOSA FARM:

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