Small but mighty

Micro herbs are a booming business. Many Sunraysia eateries are jumping on board with the trend and having them garnish a number of their meals. But what you might not realise is many of the micro herbs making their way onto your plate are grown locally by Sprig & Fish owner Danielle Linklater. Caitlyn Morgan chats to Danielle about her “surprising” business venture and her future plans. Pictures: Louise Barker

AFTER the birth of her daughter Amelia in 2013, Danielle Linklater swapped setting numerous fish nets and camping under the stars for a more “family friendly” career.

While working at The Murray-Darling Freshwater Research Centre in Mildura for eight years prior, Danielle chose not to specialise but rather to learn everything she could about “fish ecology, riparian vegetation communities and water quality and develop an understanding of their relationships and interactions”.

“My work enabled me to develop an appreciation and understanding of the balance required for the environment to support events such as native fish recruitment and how quickly that balance could tip and result in fish disease or hypoxic events,” she says.

“It was after welcoming Amelia that I wanted to explore another industry more suited to family life.”

Aquaponics ticked all the boxes Danielle had been looking for.

“It was where my passion for healthy, clean and fair food and working with the environment all came together,” she says.

In July 2016 she started her aquaponics business and in 2017 she welcomed her son Art into the world.

It was after the birth of Art that got Danielle looking for an additional business venture to accompany the aquaponics business.

“There was a local demand for micro herbs with businesses previously bringing them in from Melbourne and Adelaide,” she says.

“I wanted to meet the local community needs and they are a nice supplement business to the commercial aquaponics set up.

“I love that they are something I can do all year round and they are quite pretty, compared to aquaponics, which depends on the climate.”

Danielle currently growing radish, kale and beetroot, as well as rocket during winter.

“The rocket is amazing,” she says.

“People think they are just a nice garnish but they are more than that, they all have great nutritional values.

“They are more nutritious than mature and fully grown vegetables or herbs and have a stronger, more intense flavour.

“For example; 100g of broccoli micro herbs is of equal nutritional value as eating eight heads of broccoli.”

The micro herbs are harvested every seven to 10 days and with only a few days to get things “right” Danielle says it isn’t as easy as someone might imagine.

“Some weeks it is hard to get it right so when I do I am very happy,” she said.

“I have been trialing different growing techniques with the hope of getting it just right for the restaurants.”

Danielle supplies exclusively to Mallee Food Distributors, who then sell it to the public.