THE name says it all: Salt with Attitude.

"It's salt with a kick - you can use it anyway you want," Annette Green, of Millicent in South Australia, says.

    AT A GLANCE
  • Who: Annette Green
  • What: salts and seasonings
  • Where: Millicent, South Australia
  • Why: spice of life
  • Report: GEMMA GADD

From the trees of Adelaide to the markets of Alice Springs, Annette has scoured Australia's offering of native plants and seeds to create her distinct range of Green Farmhouse seasonings and salts, all made on the family farm.

The concept began in the early 1990s when the decline in the wool industry started to impact on the mixed-farming enterprise Annette runs with her husband, Peter.

"I had to have something to do," Annette said.

And so she started with a range of "wet" products - mustards, jams and chutneys - and in doing so, discovered a market for seasonings and salts using native Australian flavours.

"From the beginning, the products always had a bush slant," she said.

"I've always been interested in native plants - I have an ability to marry spices together and know what goes with what."

The foundation product in the range - Drover's salt - is sea salt blended with saltbush flakes, native peppercorns and other spices.

"I wanted to create an all-in-one salt and seasoning for campers and people travelling who don't want to take the whole spice rack with them," Annette said.

The range has since grown to three salts - there is also Sunaami Salt - and four seasonings; Pepper Power Lemon, Boobialla Bush Seasoning, Coolamon Herbs and Corroboree dust.

All the names reflect the product's core ingredients and purpose; Sunaami Salt includes seaweed and can works well with seafood and Corroboree Dust is a red-spice mix, representing the red dust of an Aboriginal Corroboree dance and made with ingredients used in traditional Aboriginal cooking such as native pepperleaf and kurrajong seed.

"Names are very important in selling products," Annette said. "They convey not just the ingredients but the Australian bush feel that is so important to the tourism trade."

The products are sold in the Sydney and Adelaide airports, tourism information centres and delis.

Ingredients are mostly sourced locally or from where they grow natively within Australia - the bush tomatoes are from plantations in Alice Springs and the wattle seeds, muntries, seaweed and saltbush are all grown and harvested locally.

The pepper berry comes from Tasmania and the lemon myrtle from northern NSW.

Annette washes and dries some ingredients - such as seaweed and lemon peel - herself. "I'm a great stealer of seeds off the (Kurrajong) trees in Adelaide and I have my sources ... my husband gets very embarrassed by this," she said.

But Annette needs to be creative - for one, Kurrajong seeds are not commercially grown and so she has had to discover her own means of harvesting and processing the seeds from the boat-like pods.

"They are prickly and difficult to handle, but when the seeds are roasted, they have a lovely nutty taste," she says.

Availability of such ingredients can vary, meaning Annette needs to plan well in advance to ensure the Green Farmhouse range can be made year round.

"The local wattle-seed supply has been low this year and so I've had to seek out a supplier who has guaranteed a three-year supply," she said.

Ingredients are bought in 1kg to 25kg bags and mixed according to recipes developed in Annette's own kitchen.

The products are then packaged on the property and sold in 30, 40 and 80 gram sachets ($6.50), 40g jars ($8.50) and 200g stainless-steel shakers ($19.95) online or distributed by the boxful to major outlets.

While breaking into the niche and top-end market has proven lucrative, Annette said convincing regular household cooks to try the products has been tougher. "It's harder to get the general public on to the idea that native bush herbs can be used in mainstream cooking," she said.

"But, because our kids are getting more allergies and asthma, people are more concerned about preservatives and additives - Green Farmhouse products are natural, Halal accredited and gluten free."

Online sales are steadily increasing and Annette will this year market it to France's high-end provincial cooking and restaurant trade.

"The Italians are not interested - they are more closed about their cooking - but the French are adventurous," she said. "There's a fair bit of input that goes into a business like this, but Australian native foods and flavours are slowly creeping into cooking both here and overseas."