Braidwood gourmet garlic business Garlicious Grown was hosted by Member for Monaro John Barilaro at Parliament House ahead of their appearance on the NSW stand at Australia's largest food and beverage trade show, Fine Food Australia.
Mr Barilaro said Garlicious Grown is among 12 outstanding NSW food and beverage companies to present their world class products to national and international buyers at the exhibition in Sydney from 9-12 September.
"Co-founders Jenny Daniher and Cathy Owen have seen their regional food business bloom and are making a name for themselves across Australia with their award-winning gourmet black garlic cloves and powder," Mr Barilaro said.
"Black garlic is a premium super food that is taking off in retail stores, in the pantries of leading chefs and among food lovers generally.
"Garlicious Grown won a gold medal and the highest score in any class at the 2017 Sydney Fine Food Regional Food awards and we want to help this great local company take its top quality products to the world."
Garlicious Grown and the 11 other NSW stand exhibitors gathered at Parliament on Wednesday for a pre-event workshop to prepare their sales pitches for Fine Food Australia.
Garlicious Grown co-founder Jenny Daniher said she was very excited about the opportunity to showcase on the NSW Government stand.
"It's terrific to get a gig on the NSW stand as it will open a lot of doors and help grow our connections to more customers across Australia and also around the world," Ms Daniher said.
"We sell to about 150 retailers in every state bar the Northern Territory.
"We have also exported to Dubai, to China and to Singapore and have just secured a contract with Singapore Airline's online shop KrisShop."
Ms Daniher said their black garlic is created from purple hardneck Monaro garlic grown in soil enriched with compost, cow manure and other secret elements.
"We plant our garlic in March and harvest in November when it is hung to maximise flavour with moisture moving down the stalks to the cloves. The garlic is then slowly cured in special ovens to specific controlled temperature and humidity settings.
"Black garlic has a different colour, taste and texture; has twice the antioxidants of raw garlic; and for consumers there is no garlic breath or stomach upsets.
"Braidwood is great for growing good garlic because, like a tulip, it likes a good cold spell in winter."
