A PLOT WORTH BOTTLING

Fullerton Cove is a rural suburb of Port Stephens in the middle of the vast Hunter alluvial plain just north of Newcastle. To the east are the Stockton sand dunes; to the west a mangrove forest that wraps around the cove itself, a large backwater off the Hunter River’s North Channel.

There you’ll find Fat Wren Farm, a long, narrow 10-acre property with a dam running most of its length. At the eastern end is the farmhouse, a towering converted horse shed now divided into living and working areas, where the farm’s business goes on: cooking award-winning preserves on a modestly industrial scale.

Melinda and Nick Morris are the workforce; their young son