Farmer in Focus – Harrison & Sons

When you bite into a perfectly sweet rockmelon or crack open a crisp watermelon at Capital Region Farmers Market, there’s a good chance it came from Harrison & Sons. Right now, in the peak of melon season, this multi-generational family farm is bringing some of the region’s finest melons to Market every weekend.  

The Harrison family has been farming the rich soils of Araluen since the Gold Rush days. Today, mum, dad, and their two adult children work side by side, maintaining the family’s proud tradition of providing fresh, quality, locally grown produce at affordable prices.  

Harrison & Sons has been a fixture at Capital Region Farmers Market for over two decades, earning recognition as one of the founding stallholders.  

“The customer interaction and feedback is what we love most,” says Troy, the son of the family. “We get to communicate the how and why behind what we grow. People will tell us things like ‘that was the best corn I’ve ever eaten’ the week after they buy it. We used to send produce to Sydney markets, but we rarely got that kind of feedback there.”  

The family grows an impressive range to suit every preference: personal-sized seedless watermelons (2-3kg) in three or four varieties, yellow seedless watermelons, traditional seeded watermelons (4-5kg), and four distinct varieties of rockmelon, including two Italian styles and two with distinctive striped suturing.  

The secret to their continuous supply? The family plants melons eight different times, every two weeks, ensuring fresh melons keep coming from January right through to April or May.  

While melons are the stars of summer, Harrison & Sons follows the seasons throughout their farming year. November and December bring peaches and nectarines, while the new year kicks off with sweet corn, melons, field-grown tomatoes, beans, capsicums and pumpkins.  

The devastating 2019-20 bushfires impacted the farm, but the family has been steadily replanting with exciting new additions planned to include plums, apricots, and avocados.  

Stop by Harrison & Sons at the Market this weekend and taste the difference that generations of family farming knowledge make. You’ll find them at Market weekly from November through April.  

And don’t be shy about giving them feedback the following week. That connection between grower and eater is what keeps this multi-generational farm thriving.