The Royal Melbourne Fine Food Awards is Australia’s premium fine food event and is one of a number of food and agriculture events hosted by the Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria.

There are five Garlic categories, attracting more than 40 entries with nine competitors in the running for the Organic Hard Neck category.

Jan Goroncy of Barrington River Organic Farm manages his produce the biodynamic way, following organic and holistic principles set out by Rudolph Steiner around 100 years ago.

“I am completely chuffed to win this award, because it validates my instincts as a “foodie” as well as my skills as a farmer. It was my good fortune to have encountered this beautiful organic Hard Neck garlic at a market stall some years ago – I fell in love with it immediately, and managed to obtain some seed stock to grow it,” said Jan.

“There was no specific training available for growing this variety, so I had to draw on my experience in biodynamics, my intuition, my endless research, and my passion for farming the best quality food, to achieve this fantastic outcome,” he said.