Her mantra is ‘a little bit of this and not much of anything’. Glenyce Creighton, one-woman show, is chatting to me at her stall of many delights – knobbly sweet potatoes lurk alongside bulbous beets and sun-dappled spiky cucumbers; there’s citrus and turmeric and soil-covered potatoes and custard apples. Not possessing a cool-room means Glenyce only sells what’s just been picked on the farm where she’s lived and worked for forty years, so it’s spanking fresh and, yes, often only in small quantities. ‘When we first came to our farm’, she tells me, ‘we put in three trees of everything, to have food all year round.’
Depending on the season you’ll find turkey and goose eggs at her stall. ‘When I have them here they just go’, she says, explaining that while turkey eggs are the size of duck eggs, goose eggs are much larger. ‘You just treat them as normal eggs,’ she says. ‘They just have longer times to cook.’
Hen and duck eggs she carries pretty much all year around and it’s the duck eggs used in the pavlovas she sells. They’re available on Fridays at the Mullum market as well as at New Brighton on Tuesdays, where there’s also a whole range of gorgeous baked goods like quiches and cupcakes, the very popular little gluten-free lemon tarts, family-sized chocolate and orange cakes. Many gluten-free, these are the work of Glenyce’s chef-trained daughter, who, together with her mother, is also responsible for those beautiful floral displays on sale. ‘We’re self-taught’, says Glenyce. ‘I just love the whole process’, she continues, when I ask her what the best part of her business is. ‘Now I’m working with my kids, and the grandchildren are learning.’ The worst bit? ‘Paying the bills!’ she laughs.
Glenyce Creighton is at New Brighton on Tuesdays from 8 – 11am and at Mullumbimby on Fridays from 7 – 11am.
