Did you know ripe limes are yellow?
Known for being green, limes are picked and sold unripe as they offer a different flavour profile and are easier to transport.
When the Trethewey family began growing limes just a few years ago, it had a hard enough time trying to sell green limes, let alone finding homes for all the unwanted yellow ones.
It was time to do something different.
Veronica and Grant Trethewey moved their sons, David, Jared and Seth, from the northern Perth suburb of Clarkson into the fertile countryside of Wanerie, about half an hour's drive north west of Gingin, in 1999.
They rang in the new millenia with a few goals - to be self-sufficient, to make a living from the land and to enjoy a country lifestyle.
"It was always our dream to have a farm in the country," Ms Trethewey said.
Before they bought their property, Ms Trethewey's parents bought land in the area.
"We would travel out for the weekend and when we needed to go back we'd feel sick in the gut - we put it down to missing the farm," Mr Trethewey said.
Since then their property, Bethel Estate, has gone through constant evolution, being planted, dug up and re-planted again.
"It was a vacant block - everything you see here, we've built," Ms Trethewey said.
At every turn, the couple have been met with learning.
One thousand mango trees have been and gone, as they were hard to care for and were too few in number to be profitable on their hobby-sized farm.
"Every time it rained a little bit you would have to spray the mango trees because they get black spot," Mr Trethewey said.
For 10 years, they ran a vineyard, but approached a crossroad as a virus wiped it out in 2019.
It was either put in new stock, or go in a new direction.
The couple chose the latter and put in 500 lime trees.
But when it became hard to make a stable profit from limes, they needed to pivot again.
"We used to take them to markets and sell them for next to nothing or really good prices, depending on the size and season," Ms Trethewey said.
For a while they started selling the limes directly to restaurants, but then they came across a very niche product relatively unknown to Australia and formed a new business, Australian Black Limes.
Black limes - also known as limoo amani or loomi - are commonly used whole, sliced or ground in Middle Eastern cuisine.
The limes are dried until they no longer contain water, becoming highly aromatic and adding equal parts sweet and sour flavours to a dish.
Typically imported, the Tretheweys are the only Australian producers of black limes.
Ms Trethewey is also a bookkeeper and one of her clients, a man of Muslim faith, supported her through her research and experimentation process of putting the black limes to use.
"When I spoke to him about the black limes he got really excited," Ms Trethewey said.
"He helped me develop the black limes because he uses them and knows what he likes."
Australian Black Limes is now proudly zero waste as all the limes - even ones that would be rejected by consumers, - go through the drying and dehydrating process.
The positive reception for black limes came unbelievably quickly and the family created their first product, black lime relish, in March this year.
As word of this special ingredient travels around the country, chefs and connoisseurs are eager to get their hands on Ms Trethewey's range of black lime products.
Now, ground black lime, salt, chilli, as well as whole black limes are stocked at various cafes and market shelves around the State.
Next on the cards is a black lime gelato and there's interest from a chocolatier, who wants to use the ingredient in chocolate.
The demand has been high, forcing the Tretheweys to rapidly upgrade their production capacity.
A new shed extension, with a commercial kitchen, custom-built ovens and room for a cafe couldn't come soon enough, as Australian Black Limes grew.
Ms Trethewey said she was excited to begin incorporating tourism into the agribusiness.
She hopes to create a family-friendly environment, where visitors can learn how farms operate and produce grows.
Their location also puts them in ideal territory for stargazing.
The property is also home to six cows, including a calf named Cookie and a pig, Henry.
Ms Trethewey envisions incorporating these socialised animals into a complete farm experience
"Cookie will be our welcoming cow, for cuddles, petting and selfies," she said.
It is Ms Trethewey's dream to pass the farm on through the generations.
They have three grandchildren, who love to spend time on the farm.
The Tretheweys were both born in New Zealand and came to Australia in the late 1980s.
Ms Trethewey's father was a kiwi fruit grower, while Mr Trethewey had experience on sheep, cattle and dairy farms, but other than this, their agricultural knowledge was formed in their own backyard.
Their property was bare, and for a while, they only had bore water to drink and wash in, with no running water.
"It took us about three or four years to get our first rain tank and we felt like a king and queen," Ms Trethewey said.
Small at only 12 hectares, every inch of the property had to be practical.
"Everything on the farm has a purpose," Ms Trethewey said.
"We have chickens for eggs and cows for meat," she said.
Limes can be harvested for about 10 months of the year and the fruit takes six to eight weeks to grow.
They're harvested by hand, about once a week.
Mr Trethewey said the trees were easy to manage, with few diseases and the fruit wasn't a preferred by birds.
The world has already shown Mr and Ms Tretheway the endless potential of Australian Black Limes, cementing their position as a high quality producer within the Shire of Gingin.
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