Professionals Tamborine Mountain 
If you aren’t already in the know, Pretty Produce Farm might sound like the wildest idea you’ve ever heard. A farm that grows edible flowers? Crazy talk! But it’s more than some flight of fancy, as Simone Jelley has put countless hours of hard work and research into making Pretty Produce the global supplier that it is to the point she’s one of the foremost experts on sweet treats for all the senses— making her the perfect person to explain to us exactly how the whole thing works and why someone might feel so inclined to snack on a sunflower or munch on a marigold.
By Kyle Hitchmough
For those who might not understand, can you describe what you do here?
Ten years ago, we started supplying edible flowers, garnish and baby veg to chefs. We won a couple of golden national Delicious Awards and state winner awards mainly for the edible flowers. Then COVID came along, and the markets shut down so it was all about how to go forward. Currently I grow edible flowers and garnish and then press them into pressed flower portfolios or pressed botanicals and then I send them around the world. They go generally to cake-makers and chefs globally. After ten years of research into all plants in terms of edibility, I’m one of the people globally that people ask questions about edibility of flowers because I’ve done so much self-guided research.
What uses or markets are there for edible flowers?
I have chefs that come here to pick for themselves, which is great. Hazelwood Estate has just gotten their first one hat, the guy in the Paddock restaurant in Binna Burra, and Nathan Dunnell from Elska comes out and picks, he just won Queensland Restaurant of the Year. They’re chefs that are interested more in the creativity behind plants and so I grow very unusual and different things that they can’t really find anywhere else. They’re very excited to see how they can get creativity from the space and then take it into the kitchen. We also open up the farm to florists who are creative more on the couture side, and they can come out and pick for a more organic and fluid sense of design with cut flowers as well. I foster a space of creativity all to do with flowers and edible plants.
What kinds of flowers do you grow here? Which are edible?
At the moment I’ve got 100 different types of plants that grow flowers you can eat. There are literally 400,000 species of plants, and we believe we can eat 300,000 of them. It’s just whether they taste any good. The Chinese have been eating and drinking flowers for thousands of years.
Do you have to do anything special to prepare your flowers for consumption?
You cannot use chemicals. You cannot. I’m chemical-free, so I let my insects and animals come to live in the farm with me. When you jump on our website, http://prettyproduce.com.au, it says “Farming and nature together in the one heart.” What it’s doing is giving a place for wildlife and nature to live within farming by not using chemicals.
Is there anything among your produce that’s notably popular or bestselling?
The current fad with the cakes is wild meadow cakes. They generally have a light background of butter cream, and with the pressed flowers and garnish, people arrange them around the cake and press them into the cream and into the fondant to make it look like it’s actually a wild meadow of all different heights and colours. It’s like you’re looking at a garden. A really lovely aspect of that is you’re inviting the garden into the kitchen.
As a local, what’s your opinion on the Canungra area and community?
Canungra’s amazing. It has character and it has so many different jewels that you can visit. This road goes up to O’Reilly’s and Lamington National Park. O’Reilly’s vineyard has Mountview Alpacas where you can have a beautiful day, a glass of wine and a pizza or a picnic and walk the alpacas, that’s very popular. This is the gateway to both the Gold Coast Hinterland and the Scenic Rim, which is full of incredible scenery and businesses. Canungra is very well-placed for all of these things.
Are there any particular things you like to do in the area?
I have to say I love Mount Tamborine. I love the different microclimate and the beautiful gardens up there. There’s some really lovely businesses up there that do top quality stuff, famous distilleries and breweries, beautiful restaurants and world-class wineries, Gallery Walk which is really interesting… Generally, I just love the fact that you’re on top of the world there with the most incredible views that go to the ocean one side and through to the bush on the other. It’s an amazing place to visit.
What do you think Pretty Produce Farm really provides to the area?
It adds biodiversity. It adds a sense of identity in terms of the culture of the area and it adds some colour. It’s just one more beautiful section of a giant tapestry that is the Scenic Rim. It’s full of really passionate and exciting people who love what they do and really love to share that with people who want to visit, especially through the Destination Scenic Rim Farm Gate Trail. All of the farms fling their gates open and people come from Brisbane, the Gold Coast, NSW, wherever. It’s a wonderful thing that the Scenic Rim is able to be switched on in that way.
What do you enjoy most about doing this?
I just love the flowers. Walking among the beautiful brightly-coloured zinnias and cosmos, that’s it for me. I love watching the bees or the butterflies through the flowers, the frogs, and the light that comes on in the afternoon. That’s purely what recharges the little heart battery.
What’s been your most memorable moment here?
We do a different concept in the summertime called the Wildflower Forest, and just grow flowers for people to wander around and enjoy. That’s from November through to February.
We are always looking for new topics for our blog. If there’s something you like to see more of, email your suggestions to: social@professionalsserendipity.com.au, or email the writer at kyle.hitchmough@hotmail.com.
