Australian Garlic from Kangaroo Island – The Story of Three Amigos

Every small food producer has a story behind them, but the tale behind this Australian garlic producer is the most moving one I’ve ever heard.

Many years ago I wrote a post about why you should buy Australian garlic, rather than imported garlic – and in the ensuing 11 years nothing much has changed. We still import more than 95% of our garlic from China, it’s still grown using questionable chemicals, and it’s still irradiated and sprayed with other chemicals on arrival here in Australia.

However there’s a few more options to buy Australian-grown garlic these days, and I want to share the story of one South Australian producer.

There’s nearly always an interesting story behind small-scale food producers – stories of passion, drive, commitment and tenacity. However, the story behind Kangaroo Island Fresh Garlic is particularly poignant. I don’t recall ever hearing one as heart-rending as this.

Kangaroo Island Fresh Garlic had it’s genesis back in 2012, when Shane Leahy was chewing the fat with his close friends, brothers Sam and Lachie Hollitt. Sam had been playing around with growing garlic, and Lachie and Shane were impressed enough with it to see the value in a joint collaborative future as Australian garlic producers.

Sam Hollitt was the entrepreneurial visionary, Lachie brought the skills, and Shane had the land – so together the three amigos began visiting other growers and researching further. However, life had other plans.

Within the next two years both Sam and then Lachie were gone – Sam was killed in a devastating car accident, and Lachie lost his life to cancer 12 months later.

It took Shane a while to recover from the grief of these blows, but in 2015 he planted his own Australian garlic crop. Committed  to the shared vision of the three amigos, he got through the first tough few years, gradually building a strong and successful business producing premium value-added Australian garlic products.

But life had another curve ball for Shane, in the shape of the catastrophic Kangaroo Island bushfires of 2020.

While he was volunteering on the Country Fire Service trucks helping to save other properties, the fires had raced towards Shane’s property taking all but his family, his dogs, and the shed housing his crop. The fires raged for weeks longer, keeping Shane and every other able-bodied local fully occupied and away from what was left of their farms and businesses. And all the while his garlic languished, waiting for the attention it needed to be prepared for the market.

The arrival of the army reserves on Kangaroo Island at the tail end of the fires was the lifeline the island needed, and when the reserves heard Shane’s story they pitched in enthusiastically. It was with their assistance that he was able get his product out, preventing what would have been absolute disaster and the ruination of the three amigos’ dream.

Unknowingly, I’ve been using these premium products for some years now, simply because of their outstanding quality, but learning the inspirational story of the enormous grit and determination behind the brand makes them even more impressive and meaningful to me. I’m so glad I found them.

Today Kangaroo Island Fresh Garlic is flourishing, providing fresh and processed Australian garlic products to a national market. I’d urge you to check out their online store for the full range of fresh garlic braids, garlic powder, granules and salt. God knows – if ever a brand deserved heartfelt support, it’s this one.

Now excuse me, I seem to have something in my eye …

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