He should know his onions. His father grew them, and when Allan Noble bought his signature State Highway 2 property at Katikati 60 years ago it was the first crop he put down. But it was almost his undoing; it could have sent him to the wall.

'There was a glut of onions. The world was awash with onions.”

He can laugh about it now, but at the time people were suggesting he wouldn't last five years.

'We had a bank manager who was leaning on us and saying: ‘You still have to pay us the money'. It was a tough entry into the real world.”

But Allan is a pragmatic and curious person, and if there's a problem there's always a solution. So they set up the ‘drop-in' vegie place, retailing to locals from his own backdoor, to generate some cash, to keep the wolves away from the door.

'Too many farmers, growers, horticulturalists complain about having a bad year. Well, get over it – life's like that. Do what you can and learn from it.”

60-year celebrations

Allan learned. And from those lessons he has just celebrated 60 years of marriage to wife Jill, 60 years of owning just one property, the Onion Vegie Place – which is a local institution – and 60 years of doing the same job!

'If you are enjoying it, why change the game?”

And he's still enjoying – the 82-year-old started work at 8am the day The Weekend Sun dropped by – and he planned going through to 5.30pm.

'And eight days a week.”

The ‘Onion Man' they call him, but he doesn't even like onions. He'd prefer a nice Agria spud – not to waxy, not too floury and a robust flavor.

'They're a complete food. You wouldn't get sick just eating a potato.”

This year Allan Noble celebrates 60 years of marriage to wife Jill, and 60 years of owning and working on the same property, the Onion Vegie Place at Katikati. Photo: John Borren.

But he does eat onions, only raw ones, because they're good for you. Every day an onion and honey sandwich. Before you gag at the idea, there's bush science at play here.

Allan was 'on holiday” at an onion conference in Australia – he figures if you are not going to work, you may as well learn something – and a presenter was describing a project involving onions and pigs. Feed them a high fat diet and watch the cholesterol soar, then add onion to their diet and watch it come down again.

Potato juice

Good enough for the pigs, good enough for Allan who also had a cholesterol issue. He started on his daily onion and honey regime when he got home from the conference and the problem was sorted.

'No, not my favourite vegetable, but my health needed onions, so I am grateful.”

It prompts another subtle shot at his nemesis.

'I prefer the onion way because I am not into supporting the pharmaceuticals.”

Then he starts pitching potato juice which doesn't quite have the same pull-power as mango, cranberry or pomegranate.

'My mantra is there must always be another way…”

And perhaps potato juice might just be the way. Allan was on another holiday, another conference, this time in China, the world's biggest potato producer, and they were handing out cans of potato juice.

'I thought it might need something else like raspberry to make it vaguely interesting.”

What about the nutrition, the goodness.

'It's not bad for you,” says Allan. 'It's good stuff.”

Maybe!

But then Allan is not a bad advertisement for some free thinking…and potato juice, and honey and onion sandwiches. At 82, he's still doing eight hours, he's very mindful of his health and wellbeing, and still enterprising and entrepreneurial.

'I have a whole lot of creative, fascinating things going on to keep the interest levels up.”

As they say, the more we do, the more we can do. And a busy person never has time to be unhappy.

Ozonated water

That's the cue for Allan to climb on his soapbox…to hammer the case for the use of ozonated water in growing our vegetables.

'Ozonated water – sterilised, completely pure water, devoid of contaminants. It's great stuff.”

Allan's dabbling with ozonated water for crop sanitation, to control funguses on those crops.

'It's easy to use, it's low cost and helps reduce and prevent diseases.”
Again, his bugbear with pharmaceuticals re-emerges.

'For 60 years the attitude has been that chemicals will fix anything. And it's been found those things that were initially sold as wonderful are dangerous.”

But now, says the apostle of ‘better ways,' there is a very safe and efficient alternative. And he points to his large heads of broccoli on sale at his ‘drop-in' as case and point.

'Ten to 15 per cent improvement in good nutrients, 10-15 per cent improvement in size and 10-15 per cent improvement in taste.”

In the meantime the self-confessed ‘bush scientist' offers a detailed travel plan for his 2023 ‘holiday' – a 16-hour operation at Waikato Hospital to remove cancerous bone from his jaw. As with everything in Allan's life, he has done his research. ‘Listen, observe and ask the questions' is another of his mantras.

'They'll cut out the affected bit of jaw bone, screw in a piece of titanium, they'll harvest some bone from my leg, hook up the veins that keep the bone alive, throw away the cancerous bone and start reconstruction. Spooky eh?”

And the ‘Onion Man' might have to ingest his honey and onion sandwiches through a straw for a couple of weeks. But he would have thought that through too.