When Georgia walked out of the family court in Melbourne with nothing more than her grandfather's dilapidated barn in the Yarra Valley, her ex-husband Greg laughed to his golf buddies. 'She took an un-fenced five-acre swamp,' he gloated. 'She'll be bankrupt by Christmas.'
Georgia spent her last four thousand dollars of severance pay at an obscure heritage poultry exhibition in regional Victoria, buying fifty odd-looking blue-and-white feathered chicks that ordinary poultry farmers dismissed as useless crossbreeds.
Her neighbors chuckled every time they drove past. 'Georgia's playing zoo keeper,' they murmured at the general store.
What the town didn't know was that these were historic French Marans and Cream Legbar hybrids, prized across gourmet European kitchens for naturally producing pastel-blue and dark-chocolate hued eggs with twice the yolk density and richness of supermarket eggs.
A celebrated chef from a three-hatted restaurant in Melbourne tasted one at a local weekend farmers' market. Within three months, Georgia had exclusive supply contracts with thirty premier dining institutions across Australia. Her boutique farm was grossing over $60,000 a month in high-margin organic culinary produce.
When Greg's suburban construction company hit hard times during the commercial credit crunch, his banker recommended he approach private agricultural investors in the Yarra Valley. The principal owner waiting across the polished oak desk was none other than Georgia.
