Fast forward to now and organic produce has grown into a huge health trend that is shaking up the fresh produce market.

Mr Fortunaso and his wife Emma are now bringing their food to the twice monthly Slow Food Earth Market Maitland in The Levee to give shoppers more choice.

"Michael's vision has always been to be able to provide people with organic produce at reasonable prices, rather than people saying 'oh, it's organic, I can't afford that'," Mrs Fortunaso said.

"Being organic is better for life, better for the environment, better for sustainability. Everything is just better, so if you are going to do it you might as well put in the hard work to grow organic.

"The Slow Food market is all about that, it's giving us somewhere to sell our food to shoppers."

Their property, Mikor Farm, is certified organic and spans across 1200 acres which is used for vegetable growing, a fruit orchard and beef cattle grazing.

At the moment they are producing a range of vegetables including broccolini, cabbages, sweet potato, beetroot, kale, silverbeet. and cos lettuce.

"It's a stunning area, the lifestyle is incredible. Being outdoors, in the dirt, doing it all, we love it," Mrs Fortunaso said.

In the lead up to summer the couple will start bringing their organic fruit to the market.

"You'll see apples, cherries, peaches, nectarines - they will all be ready around Christmas," Mrs Fortunaso said.

Unrelenting drought across the Hunter is unlikely to dampen their production, thanks to a useful water source.

"We're lucky that we have the Chichester River running through so we can irrigate from the river. We also do cattle so we are struggling with that side of the drought because of the dams and the grass, but we are nowhere near as drought-stricken as people in other areas," Mrs Fortunaso said.

Slow Food Hunter Valley is thrilled to have another stallholder on board.