When MasterChef series two winner, Adam Liaw, cooked up a storm in the Season Restaurant kitchen at Peppers Salt Resort and Spa, every course of his 'divine degustation menu' was flavoured with the unique tastes of the Tweed. There were oysters resting in a delicate yuzu vinaigrette. The warm duck larb hid bubbles of native finger lime pulp. The scallop dumplings swirled in a kaffir lime-infused cream.

Whilst he didn't put in an appearance at the gala Peppers event, the undoubted star of the show was the source of this rich and rare harvest: Farmer Gerard 'Buck' Buchanan from the TweedValleyvillage of Chillingham.

Out on his 400-hectare property tucked into the foothills of SpringbrookMountain, Buck grows a unique mix of exotic Asian citrus fruits and native bush tucker. With his perennially bare feet as red as the volcanic Mt Warning soil beneath them, he takes all the celebrity chef fuss in his stride.

“We've had Paul Mercurio filming out here and Maggie Beer from The Cook and The Chef,” he drawls, “and Thommo from Creek to Coast cooked his beer-can chicken up there in the barn.”

For those chefs who haven't made the trek out to Chillingham, Buck's presence is felt in the weekly supplies of hard-to-find fruits, greens and herbs that are regularly delivered to the kitchens of some of Australia's top restaurants.

“I send off a kilo of fingerlimes to Tetsuya's in Sydney every Monday morning and Ian Hemphill from Herbie's Spices takes our kaffir lime leaves, lemon myrtle and curry leaves.

“We also supply wholesalers who deliver to all the top city restaurants like Azuma's in ChifleyPlaza and Jonah's at WhaleBeach, and a lot of the local NorthernRivers and Gold Coast chefs are now using our produce.”

Fifteen years ago, when Buck first decided to experiment with bush tucker fruits, it was a very different story.

“I'd been growing bananas, avocados and mangoes here since we took over the property in the early 70s,” he says. “I guess it must have been in the mid 90s when I started seeing the writing on the wall for the banana industry and decided to try something different.

“I looked at the bush tucker fruits that were native to the area 'cause I figured they wouldn't need much fertilizer or insecticides. I also talked to chefs to find out what fresh produce they had trouble sourcing – like kaffir limes which, at the time, they could only get in a powdered form.”

Ignoring the Department of Agriculture's advice that kaffir limes wouldn't grow in the Tweed, Buck trial-planted 17 trees. The experts were wrong, it seemed: The knobbly Asian citrus flourished in the rich red volcanic soil and Buck's plantation now numbers somewhere between 2000 and 3000 trees.

Turning to local species, he had similar success with the native finger limes; developing his own unique seedless variety and expanding his initial planting of 20 trees to almost 1000.

Over the years, Buck has continued to experiment with natives and exotics: The alien-looking Buddha's hands fruit from the foothills of the Himalayas, bergamot oranges from southern India, the highly prized Japanese yuzu fruit, Tahitian limes and Thai bananas, sharing orchard space with local Warrigal greens, lemon myrtle, Davidson plums and more.

Pushing the boundaries even further, he's developed his own natural fertilizers and an insecticide derived from the neem tree to produce a varied harvest that is totally chemical-free.

Today, the rustic Chillingham Bush Tucker roadside stall at the front of the property, diligently manned seven days a week by Buck's wife Anne, is as much a tourist attraction as a source of fresh local produce. Tourist vans and coaches call in regularly, as do locals showing visitors around the Valley. If Buck's not “somewhere up the back”, he'll take them on a cook's tour of the showcase garden where he's planted a selection of the unique fruits and vegetables he grows in larger commercial plantings elsewhere on the property.

“The finger limes always create a lot of interest,” he says, snapping open the small pod-shaped fruit to reveal a froth of caviar-like bubbles of lime. “Even some of the local people have never heard of them but it's really good that we're now getting chefs from all the local restaurants who want to use them in their dishes.”

Always looking to try something new, Buck has also developed his very own range of Chillingham Bush Tucker body products which now includes shampoos, conditioners, moisturisers, deodorants and body sprays infused with kaffir limes, finger limes, yuzu and lemon myrtle.

“But I reckon this one's our best seller,” he says, proudly holding up a jar labelled 'Buck's Foot Scrub'. “Everyone wants to know how my feet stay so soft when I never wear any shoes. I tell 'em this is my secret weapon!”

FACT FILE:

Open seven days a week, Chillingham Bush Tucker is approximately 15 mins from Murwillumbah on the Numinbah Road. Phone Destination Tweed toll-free on 1800 674 414 or go to www.destinationtweed.com.au for more information.