The beginning…

Nearly fifteen years ago we had this crazy idea to try and grow Tassie’s delicious, wild native mountain pepper (Tasmannia lanceolota) on our Geeveston farm in Tasmania’s Far South.

Josh had found a tree while hiking around his parents’ 300-acre property in Geeveston covered in berries and thought how good would it be to have a ready supply of pepper berry in the back yard.

He snipped off a branch and managed to successfully propagate from that original tree in the backyard of our farmhouse (which was on the same property). The original specimen didn’t just survive the propagation, she thrived. We actually still have the first tree.

We’ve been growing and drying our own pepper berries ever since and haven’t used black peppercorns at home since (why would you!).

From there…

The wheels were set in motion and in 2015 we bought 30 acres from Josh’s parents in Geeveston and planted our first trees.

At the time, and even now, there are only 2-3 other farmers exploring this niche crop and we have worked on continued selective breeding and propagation practices with other growers as we continue to expand our orchard.

Today…

We currently have over 3,500 Pepper Berry trees here in our two orchards using organic methods to farm our trees aiming to replicate wild conditions.

For us organic farming doesn’t begin and end on the farm so we also choose to use bio-degradable and compostable packaging as well as encouraging customers to buy our refill packs to lessen shipping volume between our farm and your home.

Open for business…

Up until now we’ve only been able to supply friends, family and a few of our favourite local chefs and gin producers with berries however this year saw our first major harvest and we are so bloody happy to be able to share our pepper berry with you. Seriously, so happy!

Pepper berry can be used in lieu of black pepper (which is the easiest way to explain it to those that haven’t tasted it) but once you smell the aroma, you’ll realise it can be used across way more dishes (both savoury and sweet) as well as in beverages (our favourite is a spicy margarita!)

We’ll update recipes regularly to help you find even more ways to enjoy our pepper but really it’s a case of “pepper berry with everything” as far as we’re concerned!

We really hope you love what we do, we’ve put our heart and soul (and a lot of hours weeding) into producing every product available in our store for you to enjoy.

Abby + Josh