Peter Bryant breathed a strong sigh of relief when his 2021 garlic crop was safely out of the drenched ground.
From the front verandah of the family home he shares with wife Sam and son Jack, he could see his precious annual crop getting soggier with each rainy day, including a downpour that temporarily flooded them in.
When the sun shone between storms, the farmer behind Christmas Creek Garlic got local workers in to salvage as much as they could.
On 7 December, a small but powerful crew mostly made up of local high school students, pulled more than a tonne of elephant garlic from the muddy soil.
Willem Auguszczak, who will do year 12 at Beaudesert High in 2022, led the team including his little brother Jakub, Rory Bean-Sinclair, Jack Page, Luke Johnson, Clayton Cash, Deegan Schubring, Mhairi Boyle, Max Hitchcock and Noah Browning.
Noah’s mother Kylie Vanseveren was also among the workers, and Peter’s brother Ross Bryant came from Brisbane to help.
Peter said it was a smaller crop than last year, due to rain delaying planting to May and hampering the harvest but having it out of the ground was a weight off his shoulders.
“I’m glad it’s over, because the worry of it all rotting in the ground was playing on my nerves,” he said.
“Many of the workers have been with us from the start and together we’ve been able to feel that reward of seeing it from planting to picking and cutting.”
Peter, who started Christmas Creek Garlic in 2017 and juggles small scale farming with driving trucks and contracting to other local farmers, has a vision to become a year-round farming business.
He is aiming for a three-tonne garlic harvest in 2022 and plans to also diversify to aromats including ginger, rosemary, thyme and kaffir lime.
The latest harvest of Christmas Creek Garlic will be available in late January from the farm gate at 316 Christmas Creek Road and at local stockists including The Big Pumpkin.
