For over 100 years, the Heward family has tended their orchard in the rich and generous soils of the Riverland, South Australia. It’s beautiful, fertile country — but hot as hell in summer!
Amos 'Jack' Heward planted his orchard in the 1920s at Monash and today the family harvests 1200 fig trees, wine grapes, quinces and pecans.
Despite growing up wild and free in the cornucopia of the Riverland, Sue Heward, like so many young Australians before her, was keen to explore the world. After 28 years of global travel and career-building, she found herself deeply embedded in the Melbourne rat-race, living an urban lifestyle but desperate to share the life she knew as a child with her partner and young daughter. So in early 2016 Sue, Mark and three-year-old Frankie took the plunge: they swapped the hustle of the city for the rustle of fig trees.
Exactly one year later, Singing Magpie Produce was born. With a strong focus on customer service and the requirements of the hospitality industry, Singing Magpie brings simple, high-quality products to consumers who care where their food is coming from. We keep it simple, we don’t skimp on quality and we care about our ecological footprint.
Our Heward orchard customers are a select group of quality-conscious consumers, including Maggie Beer, Beerenberg and the Adelaide Wholesale Fruit & Vegetable market. Our move into semi-dried products aims to minimise our product waste and offer a unique Australian product to the market.
Our plan is to start small with our semi-dried figs, quinces and pecans. Then we will be offering other local produce as it comes into season.
WHY ARE WE SO PASSIONATE ABOUT DRIED FIGS?
Australia grows beautiful figs — plumb, juicy, full-flavoured and with jewel-like pink centres that make even the simplest meal feel like a medieval feast. Unfortunately, the season is painfully short and fresh figs are a bugger to transport. Dried figs are the obvious answer. However Australians are used to the bland, grey imported product that are squashed flat and dried hard for their long journey in a shipping container.
