6. Good Organic Gardening - November-December 2016 AvxHome.in

GARDENING FOLK | Frank & Anita Vella
Following
tradition
With rich food traditions on both sides, this
gardening couple would make their forbears proud
Words & photos Jana Holmer
Is a gardener born or made? In the case
of Frank and Anita Vella, from Wallington,
Victoria, you could say it’s a bit of both.
Wallington is a rural township on the
Bellarine Peninsula near Geelong, the sort of
place where the local school runs an annual
strawberry fair. For 150 years, Bellarine Shire
has been a patchwork of farms and market
gardens, thanks to waves of immigrants.
Frank himself arrived in Australia from
Malta in 1963; his father, John, had a farm
in Rockbank in outer Melbourne. “Frank has
always loved gardening,” says Anita. “He was
brought up with vegetables, chooks, rabbits
and canaries.”
Frank loves goat’s milk, especially when
his mother, Mary, used to make gbejniet, a
Maltese cheese that’s a bit like ricotta. “It goes
into a basket, water comes up, it dries out.
Add oil and pepper and store in a jar. It’s that
easy to make.”
As for Australian-born Anita, she has fond
memories of her father Colin’s Chinese aunts
in the Melbourne suburb of Essendon, near
the airport.
“Auntie Flo and Auntie Mo wore traditional
red Hanfu costumes,” she remembers. “I recall
visiting them as a little girl and I couldn’t
believe my eyes. These two aunts dug up the
entire front and backy ards and replaced our
lovely lawn and flowers with weird-looking
Chinese vegetables. I really don’t know how
they kept their silk gowns so clean.
“They must have planted a complete
Chinese market: mung beans, pak choy,
ginger, luffa, soy beans, water chestnuts and
more. It eventually grew into a jungle and they
were so happy. They were the first people to
grow bok choy in their front yard. No one had
ever heard of it.
“I was so embarrassed. They would chatter
away in Chinese, flailing arms in the air, and
dig and throw and plant. They said, ‘Plants will
tell you where to grow.’ Frank and I follow that
same principle to this day.”
Light-bulb moment
Among the plants that take pride of place on
the couple’s 11-acre (4.5-hectare) property
are fruit trees such as lemon, peach, apricot,
apple, pear, tamarillo and fig. “We’re very
proud of our fig tree,” says Anita. “It has the
largest leaves you’ve ever seen.”
Frank and Anita Vella
36 | Good Organic Gardening