IT MIGHT have been a winding road for Cameron Williams in his farming career, but it would seem he is right where he is meant to be in his new venture as a garlic farmer at Neergabby.
"Mum always grew garlic in the garden and when someone in our local area suggested growing garlic at Mogumber it sowed a seed of an idea, even back then," Mr Williams said.
Farming runs in Mr Williams' veins - he grew up on a broadacre cropping and sheep farm west of Mogumber and in 2006 competed and won the prestigious National Young Farmer of the Year award.
He and his brother Bryce decided to go into partnership in 2003 and took on a neighbouring farm at Mogumber, increasing their cropping program up to 2400 hectares in 2006.
But a run of poor seasons meant the brothers were forced to move on and take on other opportunities.
"Ten years ago I would have had no idea what was going to happen and so much has changed - I thought my brother and I would keep kicking goals but it just didn't work that way," he said.
After taking on various roles including working in a plant nursery, as sales manager for 4Farmers and as a stevedore and supervisor for Patrick, Mr Williams has come full circle and back onto the farm - albeit a lot smaller one and as a garlic farmer.
"With having success to a certain degree in farming before it just felt like a bit of a waste not to be connected," he said.
"I still love broadacre farming and want to get back involved at some point down the track but farming can be a low margin enterprise and its really hard to create much of a lifestyle doing it,'' he said.
"Historically it is a great lifestyle but more and more these days the numbers are so tight you can't be as relaxed as you used to be.
"When my dad started farming everyone had a bit of everything and it was easy to make money and inputs were really low and there were profits there, but these days, you have to have massive scale and massive risk.
"Hopefully, the garlic enterprise is a reliable one that will be consistent year-in and year-out, that will generate some cashflow to do the fun stuff I enjoy such as a few cows, sheep and a bit of crop."
It has been a busy couple of years for Mr Williams.
Last year he planted his first crop of garlic, a modest two acres (0.8 hectares) on a property at Neergabby, near Gingin, the harvest of which was retained for seed.
He and wife Angela also welcomed their son Oliver earlier this year.
This year he has increased the plantings to 15 acres (6ha) and invested in a mechanical seeder, rather than hand planting the crop, and other mechanical aids.
He grows two varieties, Italian Pink and Italian Purple, which he said have varying characteristics.
"Pink is a short season variety which is very common in WA but the purple is a long season hardneck variety and they have slightly different flavour profiles with purple being spicier and nuttier compared to the pink," he said.
"It was all by chance getting hold of the seed, I just grabbed whatever I could to plant from three different sources - two were Italian Pink and one was Italian Purple.
"I put them all in but fortunately kept them separate, as when it came to harvest the pink was ready but the purple was nowhere near ready."
Like his broadacre farmer counterparts, Mr Williams is part way through harvest and has already yielded just over 10 tonnes of delicious, locally grown garlic.
"There are a lot of similarities to growing garlic versus broadacre crops and I have applied a lot of the broadacre principals when it comes to growing garlic," he said.
"It grows quite a lot like a cereal crop in that it needs a lot of nitrogen and potassium, but also free draining soils - something I have a lot of experience with in growing up west of Mogumber.
"At the same time, it has been a learning curve working out what the plant likes and doesn't like."
While he has spent the past year ironing out the production risks, the year ahead will present a new range of challenges, including establishing relationships with independent groceries and agents, marketing, increasing the size of his crop and diversifying the garlic products he sells.
This includes peeled garlic targeting the restaurant market and potentially trying his hand at fermented garlic, also known as black garlic.
"There are other growers locally here and over east that grow great garlic, but the demand is there for a larger supplier - we can't produce enough so my aim is to increase the local production to meet the demand," he said.
"Unfortunately it is very difficult to supply all year due to the shelf life of the crop.
"It is an annual crop, so is only available 6-8 months, so hopefully in time I'll be able to push the range of that and supply for a longer period growing earlier and later crops."
Mr Williams sells his products direct through his website, www.wagarlic.com.au, and through the occasional metropolitan farmers markets.
Social media has also been invaluable in promoting his business, as has the trend towards buying locally grown food in general.
"There are a lot of people who are so passionate about local garlic in particular, it is very topical and everyone is saying the same thing - 'we can't find it in the shops but we want the local stuff'," he said.
"While local garlic is a lot more expensive than imported garlic, there are people who clearly distinguish between the two and prefer the local stuff, so the demand is definitely there."
He said the support he had received from everyone, from his farm's landowner to local agents and the online community, had helped him immensely.
"It has been really valuable having other people helping me out, not just with advice but everyone has been very generous," he said.
"It's easy to get an idea and get the concept and vision but it is implementing that, taking it through and being profitable at the end of the day that is the hard part.
"For me, it was making the decision to just do it and every step of the way the right doors have opened and it has been amazing - it has given me confidence to know where I am going and what I am doing and that I am heading in the right direction."
