John & Richter

In 2014, the Richters started a small passionfruit farm at the base of Mt Beerwah in the Glass House Mountains.  Both left corporate careers to become farmers, driven by a desire to spend more of their lives together, in a beautiful place doing honest, hard work to make a living.

Anticipating a steep learning curve, the couple have sought advice and knowledge wherever they can find it – as well as applying a healthy amount of trial and error, with more error than success in the very early days.

They have about 4,000 vines all producing Sweetheart – the variety that seems to flourish in the area. The total farm is about 24 acres, but with a large area of natural bush which backs directly to the national park around Mt. Beerwah, the productive land is limited to about 12 acres.

Growing passionfruit is extremely challenging for novices to farming.  Its a crop with a mind of its own and no two seasons are alike it seems.  Bordered on two sides by bushland, the farm is partly protected from the weather although the storms that fire up on a summer afternoon and pelt lightning down on the mountains at the bottom of the block are quite spectacular.