Oils ain't oils for canola at Eradu

Some common canola oils that are on supermarket shelves are considered to have a bad reputation as they are heat treated and chemically extracted using solvents such as hexane, which can disrupt the stability of the oil molecules, turn it rancid, destroy omega-3s which were present and even create trans fats.

However, Block 275 is a cold pressed canola oil grown and processed on Fiona and Liam Mann's farm at Eradu and maintains the integrity of pure canola oil, including having less saturated fat than extra virgin olive oil.

The difference between mass produced canola oil and Block 275 is most noticeable in the colour, smell and taste.

"We are often asked why ours is so yellow, but the real question is why the other one isn't yellow," Ms Mann said.

"Our oil has a colour, taste and smell because it's an unrefined product.

"The taste and smell is quite nutty."

And the difference has been noticed by foodies, chefs and restaurants, boutique grocers and supermarkets across Western Australia.

Block 275 came about when the couple felt the need to diversify their business.

They run a 680 arable hectare cropping farm, which is considered quite small for the Mid West, so they wanted an income stream that was independent from the farm and contracting business but would fit in well with raising their three sons, Callum and James, 11, and George, 8.

Originally from Scotland where his grandfather was a farmer, Mr Mann has worked in the industry all of his life and Ms Mann is from a farming family and was also previously as an agronomist.

"I have a friend in Scotland who was doing a similar thing with cold pressed canola oil and we realised there wasn't anyone in Australia doing it," Mr Mann said.

"We visited him to see what his setup looked like as he had been producing canola oil for four or five years by then.

"Cold pressed canola oil is much more mainstream in the United Kingdom, but they call it rapeseed oil.

"It's not weather dependent and sometimes in a bad year where there isn't much to do on the farm or with our contracting business, it can be a bit quiet.

"So we grow the canola, have complete quality control and are able to capture some of the value down the supply chain."

As a dynamic team Mr Mann takes care of the pressing and filtering - they both pitch in with bottling and labelling and Ms Mann handles the marketing.

They had the vision for the business soon after moving to the farm in 2015, which they lease from Ms Mann's parents.

Then in 2016 they bought the press, filter and tanks, which cost about $25,000.

"We had some tough years on the farm which made it difficult to get the business rolling, so the equipment sat there for a couple of years," he said.

In 2017 the logo was designed, which became a critical aspect in highlighting the oil's provenance.

Then in 2019, things really kicked into gear and they launched in 2020 - during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"While launching in the middle of a pandemic was scary, it worked in our favour," Ms Mann said.

"People became more aware of where their food comes from and there was a big push to support local businesses and producers."

Provenance is at the heart of the business, perhaps most evident by the name itself - Block 275, which is the farm's road number.

And the logo is a representation of the Greenough River flowing through the property.

"On a map it is very distinctive where the river flows through our farm as there's a curve, so I can pinpoint our farm just by seeing the river," she said.

"We thought about naming the business after our farm name, Midoxgate, which is Liam's family farm name in Scotland, but a lot of people struggle to pronounce it.

"I would have loved to use the farm name because that would have cemented the provenance but I knew that was going to be a stumbling point for us.

"I went to an event in Perth which happened to be about food and everyone was talking about where food comes from.

"So we decided to use the fact of having a small farm to our advantage, because we can pinpoint where batches come from, even down to the paddock."

Maintaining the traceability of their canola is a focus for the couple, so they buy new canola seed (non-genetically modified) every year to ensure its integrity.

"If we have left over seed, we sell it off-farm," Mr Mann said.

"But we don't want to be caught short because provenance is too important for us, so we basically always make sure we keep more than we need."

The variety of canola is dictated by what performs the best on their farm, which is currently Bonito.

"The variety has to perform for the rest of our business and we haven't had the chance to compare varieties on taste, quality etc," Mr Mann said.

Sustainability is also a passion for the couple and there is no wastage as the byproduct is sold to Tara Beef, Allanooka, as high energy cattle feed.

Pressing the oil takes about 100 continuous hours and every three hours another 60 kilograms of canola needs to be put into the press.

Once pressed, the oil is then filtered which is about a six hour process.

"We would do about 2.5 tonnes of canola in a batch, which gives us about 850 litres of oil," Ms Mann said.

"The reason that we do 850L is to optimise the efficiency of the filter and it is much easier to clean the filter after doing a full batch because it's at capacity."

No business is immune to challenges and Ms Mann said on the processing side, the key challenge has been not having enough moisture in the canola seed for pressing.

This has been an issue for every batch so far, with the most recent being particularly dry.

"The press needs the seed to be within a small window of moisture, so we have had a challenge in the past couple of years with our canola being too dry," she said.

"We've had to add moisture in to make it press - only about one per cent - but otherwise it won't press."

To add moisture into the seed, they put 20kg of seed into large containers and add 500 millilitres of water, then put it into a cement mixer (which was new and had only been used for this purpose), let it sit for 10 minutes, give it another mix and put it back in a tub where it sits for six hours and then it is ready to be pressed.

"So it's a bit of a process when you're getting up at 2am in the morning to do it, we'd like to get to the point where we can automate it a bit more."

On the operations and marketing side, Ms Mann said understanding freight was "difficult to get my head around".

But on the other side of the scale, she was proud of how far the business had progressed after launching less than 12 months ago.

"The number of chefs that have come onboard has been really exciting - that was something that wasn't on my radar at first," she said.

"I'm pretty stoked that within less than a year we have a product in the leafy suburbs of Perth.

"I'm proud that we're making it happen and the way we have managed to get it done, it has been a big learning curve.

"There was probably a time when Liam was thinking 'why are we not bottling oil yet?' and I was in the office a lot working out how to get the label right, figuring out why the barcodes weren't scanning, making sure all the nutrition information was correct, working out which labels and information needs to be on the bottle, learning food safety protocols - everything takes time and it has all been in between running a farm, contracting, doing our volunteer commitments and raising three kids.

"It was getting to the point when we were wondering if we would ever get it off the ground."

As for future plans, they want to keep growing and supporting their strong customer base, including into the Eastern States although freight may be a hurdle.

While at first Ms Mann had no desire to export, now she was more open to the idea.

"If you'd have asked me six months ago about exporting, I would have thought absolutely not, whereas now I'm interested to learn more about what's required," she said.

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