Dressing for success - Sam Dart, Poppy Seed Dressing

"I’m from the coast and I’d never seen red dirt before,” Sam says. “When we first got out here I said, ‘what’s happened to the dirt?!"

Dressing for success

Sam Dart is one of those women who keeps the wheels of her country town turning.

The busy mum of two serves on several committees in Ariah Park as well as running a farming enterprise and operating her own business, Poppy Seed Dressing. After ‘marrying a man destined to be a primary producer’, Sam moved from Sydney to Wagga Wagga before the family purchased a farm near Ariah Park. “I’m from the coast and I’d never seen red dirt before,” Sam says. “When we first got out here I said, ‘what’s happened to the dirt?!’” After settling into the Ariah Park’s famously down to earth community, an early drought meant that Sam had to supplement the family income by working as an oncology nurse in Wagga Wagga. “It was so hard to get the babies out of bed at six am to drive 200 km each day,” she says. “I knew it wasn’t sustainable.” That’s when she had a lightbulb moment. “My parents had a café near Albury where my mum served this popular salad dressing,” Sam says. “She gave me the recipe and I decided to take it into a production.” Ten years on and Sam is consistently inundated with orders for poppy seed dressing, or PSD, posting it all over Australia and stocking it in 20 outlets in the Riverina. When Krishna took over the local general store two years ago, turning it into a high-quality SPAR supermarket, Sam was quick to welcome him. The SPAR now stocks PSD, a bonus for locals who are addicted to the dressing. “Having SPAR here has made life easier for everyone,” Sam says. “Even when mums are struggling to do their shopping, Krishna or one of the girls will hold the baby and put the groceries in the car for them. It’s the kind of place where everyone feels comfortable."