When a whopping 59 millimetres of rain landed on Austin Breiner's farm he couldn't wipe the smile from his face.
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And neither could his family, friends - and even his customers, who knew he had been struggling to keep his crops alive.
But despite the biggest deluge of the year, the Oakhampton farmer's woes aren't over.
The rain earlier this month was a blessing, but it has come too late for him to swing into his usual winter vegetable production. He should have had his crops planted weeks ago, but it was too dry then and there was no decent rain on the radar.
He will plant some now - so he has food to bring to the Slow Food Earth Market Maitland in The Levee, but he won't have his usual wide variety.
In fact, he won't be able to return to normal production levels for another six months. That's if mother nature gives him a lot more follow up rain to keep the plants alive.
"It has been 12 months since we've had that much rain, we've had little bits here and there but it has been too hot that it hasn't done anything at all," he said.
I'd almost forgotten what it was like to see rain here. It's still dry deep down in the ground, so we will need more rain, it's definitely not drought breaking rain.
The deluge put two metres of water into his empty dam and it's now about half full. He's hoping more rain will arrive soon to fill it up and once that happens he can irrigate his crops and won't have to cart water on his ute from a nearby bore.
"I should have all of the cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, silverbeet and brussels sprouts well and truly on their way, but I don't," Mr Breiner said.
"I will plant some, I will try to have some sort of continuity, but I'm going to be very light on produce until late spring. Unfortunately these things happen sometimes."
Slow Food Earth Market Maitland chairwoman Amorelle Dempster urged the city to support Mr Breiner, and the other farmers, at the next market on April 18.
"Austin would usually plant an incredible range of biodiversity to give people at the market so much choice, but he can't do that now, so he is adjusting what he is planting to bring food to the community," she said.
"He is focused on growing food for the community and it would be great if shoppers supported the farmer, especially in times of strife, because the farmer is thinking about their diet."