FRANCES BENDERAWW FOOD • ISSUE TWENTY THREE
What made you start a salmon farm?
Having grown up in the Huon Valley in
Tasmania with a father as a fisherman,
the sea has always been close to my
heart. My husband, Peter, and I started
salmon farming in 1986 in the beautiful
waters surrounding the family cattle
and sheep farm at Hideaway Bay after
receiving a grant to commence salmon
farming in this location. In our first year,
we harvested just under 43,000 fish, using
one pen and one lone employee. Thirty
years later, we harvest over four million
fish a year, and have witnessed the
reputation and demand for great−tasting
Tasmanian salmon continue to grow
both locally and abroad. What began as
a diversification of the family cattle and
sheep farming enterprises soon grew
into a highly successful business that
would dominate our commercial lives
and bring exceptional quality salmon
to the world.What importance does a region,
suchas the Huon Valley, have to
salmon farming?
The Huon Valley is well known for its
artisan growers. We pride ourselves on
investing in world−class sustainability
practices to respect the pristine marine
environment in which we farm, while
utilising the elements of the region to
produce the highest−quality salmon.
The Huon heritage of pride and respectfor both the environment and region
is engrained into every aspect of our
company culture.What are the biggest myths around
farmed salmon?
We find there are always misconceptions
about how much room the fish have to
move in our pens. We’ve designed and
built the largest pens in the world, which
are 240m in circumference and about
35m deep. As a result, our fish take
up roughly 1% of the total water volume
in the pens so they’ve got lots of room
to swim around.Consumers are demanding more
transparent information on where their
food comes from and how it is produced.
What does Huon do to meet this need?
We are advocates for “conscious
consumerism”. At Huon, we created
a Sustainability Dashboard that shows
live data straight from our reporting
systems in multiple locations into
the platform in real time – a first of
its kind for the aquaculture industry.
We want our consumers to understand
the full “egg−to−plate” journey behind
our products and also our ongoing
commitment to sustainable practices
and farming techniques – the health and
wellbeing of our salmon, the quality
of their marine environment and the
freshness of the end product.MEET
THE
FAMER
Frances Bender, the co−founder
of Tasmania’s Huon Salmon,
reveals why Australia’s
salmon is world class.BUCKWHEAT SOBA
NOODLES & MISO SALMON
PREP + COOK TIME 30 MINUTES SERVES 4
270g buckwheat soba noodles
1 tablespoon miso paste
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon rice malt syrup
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 x 280g salmon fillets, skin removed
8 green onions, trimmed, halved
150g snow peas
1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger
¼ cup (60ml) soy sauce
2 tablespoons mirin
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 green onion, extra, sliced thinly
2 teaspoons black sesame seeds
1 Preheat oven to 200°C/180°C fan.
2 Cook noodles in a large saucepan
of boiling salted water for 3 minutes
or until just tender. Drain; keep warm.
3 Combine miso, vinegar, syrup and
half the vegetable oil in a large bowl.
Add salmon; toss to coat. Arrange
green onion halves, side by side, on
an oven tray; place salmon on top.
Drizzle with remaining vegetable oil.
Roast for 10 minutes or until salmon
is cooked as desired.
4 Meanwhile, boil, steam or
microwave the snow peas until just
tender; drain. Refresh in a bowl of
iced water; drain.
5 Place noodles in a medium
bowl with ginger, soy sauce, mirin
and sesame oil; toss to coat. Flake
the salmon onto noodles, add the
cooked green onion and snow
peas; toss gently to combine.
Serve topped with the
extra sliced green onion
and sesame seeds.
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