A local home business that was born out of the pandemic has been nominated for an Australian Rural Business Award.
The extended lockdowns were the catalyst for Shelley Neale to create her business, The Khancoban Kitchen, which specialises in gourmet pantry products.
Shelley was working from home as a travel agent but in July 2020 her hours were drastically reduced when the lockdowns took full effect.
As someone who loves to cook, she became increasingly frustrated with the scarcity of quality spices available locally and one night when she was unable to get all the ingredients for a butter chicken meal for dinner, she decided to source her own.
“It was cheaper to buy in bulk and I then identified there was a gap in the market I could fill with a quality product,” Shelley said.
“Having 12 years experience in the tourism industry, I decided to theme my business and the names of my products around major landmarks, towns and attractions in the Upper Murray and Snowy Valleys regions to draw more attention to the beautiful area we call our home.”
The initial range of five products which was launched in November 2020 and included Cudgewa Cajun, Bringenbrong Burgers and Pine Mount Peri Peri has now grown to fifteen ‘make-a-meal’ kits and eight seasonings and barbecue rubs.
“The Khancoban Kitchen is a small business dedicated to the simple things in life – good, healthy, fresh food; participating in and promoting our community; and looking after the environment,” Shelley said.
“Our products are also ‘kid friendly’ in that they are not overly spicy, which is a great way to introduce them to different tastes and cuisines.
“We also use enviro-friendly packaging for all our products.
“I am humbled to be nominated for the awards and its nice for The Khancoban Kitchen to be recognised,” Shelley said.
The awards are presented by Australia’s leading online marketplace for rural and regional small businesses Spend With Us (www.spendwithus.com.au) to celebrate, highlight, and recognise the absolute talent that exists out there in rural and regional Australia.
For the second year running the Australian Rural Business Awards are shining a light on what small businesses in rural/regional Australia are achieving in business excellence, innovation and sustainability, new business, Australian made and e-commerce.
Designed to acknowledge the strength, resilience, and talent of small business owners in rural and regional areas, the awards recognise that businesses in these areas have been through it all including droughts, bushfires, mouse plagues, floods, a lack of tourism and a global pandemic in the past few years alone.
The founders of Spend With Us have been overwhelmed by the response to the awards and are so excited to see how many businesses have been involved.
The winners of The Australian Rural Business Awards for 2023 will be announced during an online event on Friday from 7.30 pm. Tickets on sale now for $11 and can be purchased here: https://events.humanitix.com/the-2023-australian-rural-business-awards.
This article appeared in the Corryong Courier, 22 June 2023.
