Diversification a focus in the Wheatbelt

Held at the historic Cummins Theatre, AWWE chairwoman Meg Gethin said the event was about local farmers drought-proofing their businesses, being resilient and adding to the landscape of the eastern Wheatbelt as an emerging place.

"The idea behind the day is to inspire people to think of other ways of using their land by showcasing some innovative businesses that are already out there," Ms Gethin said.

"I look with interest at places like Moora, that is already establishing itself as a vibrant food place, while the eastern Wheatbelt is still finding its feet.

"Some of our presenters are slowly adding to that landscape and have come up with great ideas to step outside the box and be brave with what they are doing."

The group heard from a range of business owners, including My Provincial Kitchen's co-owner Tanya Kitto, who uses her farms lupins to make gluten-free foods, Santaleuca Sandalwood co-owner Stephen Fry who has an 80 hectare Sandalwood plantation in between Narembeen and Bruce Rock and Taste Budds Cooking Studio owner Sophie Budd whose cooking school is dedicated to teaching home cooks, and also prepared a delicious two-course lunch for the group.

Jo Buegge, a self-proclaimed British import who moved to Australia 10 years ago with her husband, Nathan, spoke to the group about the extra income streams she had created since moving to Bruce Rock in 2009.

"It was a huge difference from my life in England that's for sure, but I instantly fell in love with WA and Bruce Rock," Ms Buegge said.

When the opportunity arose to buy Bruce Rock Ag Supplies, Ms Buegge and her husband took the chance to establish a business that could complement their farm and family income.

However when the family's circumstances dramatically changed two months in, the couple made the decision to lease the farm, sell their machinery and focus solely on the shop.

After running the business for eight years, the couple sold it in February this year.

With a dream to one day own a farm again, Ms Buegge said they had been working on their other income streams to get closer to that possibility.

Alongside their farm lease, Ms Buegge now has three other income streams - pistachio nuts, an Airbnb rental and her business The Little Minky Co.

Ms Buegge's in-laws planted an orchard of pistachios 25 years ago as an insurance policy against a bad crop and she now harvests the trees by hand.

Taking around an hour per tree, with 2000 trees in the orchard, Ms Buegge said she had her work cut out for her.

"Pistachios grow in the opposite season to our winter crops as well, so all the hard work is not being done at an already busy time of year," she said.

"There are currently only two other pistachio orchards in WA a similar size to us or larger, both of which operate commercially.

"So far we have only harvested and distributed our nuts on a small scale but our future farm plans include making this crop into a profitable venture, as we literally have money growing on trees.

"The past three years it has just been myself harvesting with a few days help from my father-in-law and approximately five minutes help from the three-year-old," Ms Buegge said.

"During harvest, a day in the life of Jo would look like - be out in the paddock at 5am picking, back home by 7am to get kids out of bed and fed, picking some more around mid morning while the baby sleeps.

"Afternoon nap time for both our kids would see me outside shelling the nuts and putting them out to dry."

At the moment, the Buegges sell their pistachios through local markets and craft shops as a natural nut, but Ms Buegge said she hoped to sell them on a larger scale and produce a range of flavours unique to WA.

"One idea we have had is to offer free accommodation at our Airbnb in return for picking nuts, which would hopefully increase how many we can pick and greatly reduce our costs," she said.

Alongside their pistachio business the couple have on offer Airbnb accommodation on their property.

"We saw some mine sites closing their camps and selling off their dongas in auctions and picked up a donga ridiculously cheap, had it transported down here and placed on the farm, a nice 150m away from the house," Ms Buegge said.

The couple completed all the necessary shire approvals and renovated the donga to become a comfortable two bed, two bathroom guesthouse with a fully equipped kitchen and laundry.

"After some research into advertising it as a farmstay or short term holiday accommodation, we settled with advertising it on Airbnb," Ms Buegge said.

"As soon as we were online, we started getting bookings and I was blown away by the response we've had."

In the 12 months the couple has been operating the Airbnb they have already had a 25 per cent return on their investment.

"Some of the pros of running an Airbnb property is obviously extra income, and you meet some great people and get to show them your little piece of the world which makes you look at your own farm and town through the eyes of a tourist," Ms Buegge said.

However, even after running two businesses, Ms Buegge said she still craved something that was all her own, and so began the concept of The Little Minky Co, a handmade blanket business.

"I was around five months pregnant with my son when I really sunk my teeth into it and started researching fabric suppliers, sewing machines and working out costs, the competition and selling avenues," Ms Buegge said.

"It quickly became apparent that this was something I could do from home, around my kids and that could potentially be profitable."

After researching material wholesalers in Australia, Ms Buegge realised the cost of the material would price her out of the market and so began to look to international wholesalers online, and stumbled across Alibaba, a business that connects people with manufacturers in China.

"They do all the hard work and accredit every factory, supplier and product and I get to benefit from trading directly with a manufacturer," Ms Buegge said.

"I started off with 10 designs, locked down my shop name and started selling my blankets on Etsy."

However Ms Buegge said the work didn't stop when the products were listed on a website.

"An Etsy Shop needs constant maintenance like an actual shop would," Ms Buegge said.

"You need to change up product titles to fit in with what people are searching for, make sure your product photos are on point and add more and more details into descriptions so people know exactly what they are buying.

"I know everything we are doing will set us up for the future, so that's all the motivation I need to keep going."