About Us
The Tassie Hemp Shop is made up of Tim Pip and Kate Schmidt and Ben Lawless. Other members of the family include Nick, Isobel and Jack Schmidt.
Our Business
Health. Local. Sustainable. Delicious.
At Woodlands farm we grow hemp. At this stage, we grow hemp for the seeds. Our hemp seeds are either dehulled to make hemp hearts or pressed to make hemp seed oil. After our hemp seeds are pressed, they can also go through a mill to make hemp flour. This is all completed within a 30 km radius from Woodlands farm.
Our Story
We first began growing hemp at Woodlands Farm 9 years ago. Previously we grew hemp for larger co-operations. Tim Schmidt has been a keen supporter of the growing industry and with the community we live in we thought maybe selling our own hemp was not such a silly idea. We already knew how to grow hemp. Since 2019 at The Tassie Hemp Shop we have been learning how to package, sell and distribute our products, collaborating with local producers and our farmers market community.
The directors of The Tassie Hemp Shop live at Woodlands Farm located just out of Deloraine in North West Tasmania. Here, we live and grow our Tasmanian Hemp Seed. Our Hemp Hearts are dehulled at Forager Foods and our Hemp Seed Oil is pressed at 41 Degrees South Salmon farm. Our team at the Tassie Hemp Shop began selling our products at Harvest Market Launceston and Farmgate Market Hobart. This was a great way to meet other market producers and learn and share information about local produce in Tasmania. Now, our products are available at a range of stores across Tasmania and some interstate wholefood stores and cafes.
Our Family
Tim Schmidt is a keen contributor to the Australian and Tasmanian hemp industry. He is a proud member of the Australian Hemp Council, chairman of the Tasmanian Hemp Association and the main director of The Tassie Hemp Shop. Tim’s level of involvement illustrates his passion and commitment to the hemp industry. When he is not busy working with hemp he is managing the productivity of Woodlands farm. This involves the growing of hemp and other food alongside pasture management. Pip Schmidt works her magic behind the scenes including all of the other things it takes to run a farm.
Ben Lawless is just as passionate about the industry as Tim. After spending over 15 years in the printing business, Ben has been able to share his knowledge in business, marketing, and design to support The Tassie Hemp Shop. Ben is also great at researching and sharing information with our customers, answering all of their questions on any Saturday or Sunday at the local farmers market. The Tassie Hemp Shop would not be where it is without Bens support with packaging, distribution and commitment to our business. If you can’t find Isobel and Kate at the market over the summer then you know they are working behind the scenes working on our social media sites, learning how to take photos, fly a drone and building skills in website design.
Our Farm
The directors of the Tassie Hemp Shop are based at Woodlands farm where we grow hemp seed for our range of hemp products. Woodlands is five minutes drive from Deloraine in Northern Tasmania. Woodlands features river frontage, 650 acres of arable land and 220 acres of native bushland. This beautiful farm was purchased by Alwen and Kathleen Graves in the 1940’s. As a published author, Kathleen wrote a book called Tasmanian Pastrol. This book features the descriptions of farming in the Meander Valley during their first year at Woodlands. Now, Woodlands farm has been in our family for 3 generations.
At Woodlands we grow hemp, pastures and potatoes. We first began growing hemp in 2013. Before learning about hemp as a food source, we grew hemp for larger co-operations mainly because it is so good for regenerating our soil. Hemp became legal as a food in 2017 and the market began to change. It was 2019 when The Tassie Hemp Shop got together and decided that maybe selling our own hemp wasn’t such a bad idea.
Our Environment
At Woodlands farm we are always looking at ways to improve the land, its productivity and the biodiversity. In 2016, we saw the negative effects of climate change on our tree population at Woodlands farm. While we have always planted trees and aimed for sustainable farming practices, this just highlighted that we could do more. With the support of Landcare Tasmania, we plant trees every year. From 400 to 1200 trees, we are passionate about farming regeneratively and encouraging biodiversity.
