MARILYN and Ian Lanyon are preparing to step back from more than two decades of business innovation.
The Boort couple behind Simply Tomatoes, Woolly Warmers and Aussie Wool Quilts this week announced they would retire early next year.
Son Damien has taken over the tomato branch of the rural business with the couple putting their Country Wool Bedding, the 21st century incarnation of the popular quilt line, up for sale.
Ian says there is already interest in the Woolly Warmers lines.
“We’re finally going to retire but we’ll always be doing something,” he said.
Marilyn, who for three years had an entry in Who’s Who and collected rural and industry awards at state and national level, said the rural enterprises had brought tourists by the busload to their property since opening Simply Tomatoes in 2002.
Aussie Wool Quilts was acquired in 2012 and Marilyn later designed and patented the Woolly warmers.
“It has not been me or Ian ... the whole family and our workers have been the amazing ones,” Marilyn said.
“Family has been the backbone and that’s pretty important.”
Ian said: “Marilyn started all this and she became very well known.”
“Everything was made at the farm until we opened the shop in Godfrey Street a couple of years ago. “We had tourist busses coming and we started an RV camp site. People liked coming to the farm.”  The shop opening was a response to COVID restrictions. “We couldn’t have visitors so we opened the shop to keep bringing people to Boort,” he said.
Ian said the growth of Aussie Wool Quilts has seen Boort-made products sent around Australia.
“The arrival of online websites for sales certainly helped that,” he said.
With Ian and Marilyn handing the Simply Tomatoes reigns to Damien, he now oversee the hand-picking of green tomatoes ready for a four-day process of being preserved in a salt and vinegar brine and finished off in extra virgin olive oil, oregano and garlic.