Farmer Matthew Dennis, a regular at the city’s produce market, has developed a summer vegetable box to give shoppers an easy way to buy direct from the farm hay shed.

He started selling the box last week and has already taken 50 orders. He cannot quite believe its success. 

The box offers 11 varieties including two type of cucumbers, sweet banana capsicum, beans, button squash, burgundy onions and zucchini.

Pumpkin, potatoes, kale and eggplant are also included. 

Mr Dennis said shoppers were happy to pre-order a box and drive out to his Morpeth Road farm to collect it. 

“It’s really popular, it’s gone a lot better than I thought it would,” he said.

Mr Dennis hoped to start the box a few weeks ago but cold mornings and humid conditions hampered those efforts.

“The vines don’t like the humidity, they like the dry heat and they don’t like a lot of water,” he said. 

“The cold mornings mean it takes longer for them to ripen.”

Mr Dennis will continue the weekly boxes in the new year.

He has changed his farming practices to try to stay on the farm and create a sustainable future for himself. He is also trying to keep the farm going for his son Liam, who wants to follow in his footsteps. 

There used to be 40 farmers around them growing a wide range of produce. Now there are only a handful left. Mr Dennis said regular support from shoppers was the only way to keep farmers on the land. 

Mr Dennis’ 40-tonne pumpkin crop helped kick start a fresh food revolution in the city after thousands of shoppers flocked to central Maitland to buy his pumpkins in March at an impromptu stall.

The pumpkins had been destined for fertiliser because of the cost of sending them to the Sydney markets. Transport costs, and the cost to grow and harvest the crop would have left them without any profit.  

The mammoth support for fresh produce helped instigate the monthly market that ran between May and November.

Mr Dennis hopes to sell some of his food at the city’s produce market next year.

He and the other producers who sell at the monthly initiative are hoping Maitland council will continue to support it. 

The council is still considering Slow Food Hunter Valley’s application to run the market in The Levee again next year. It has previously said it would do everything it could to help.