When longtime friends Jenny Daniher and Cathy Owen needed $300 to start a new hobby, they raised money selling jars of homemade strawberry and rhubarb jam.
Their sales at a local market in Braidwood, southern NSW, funded cooking equipment to make black garlic, an umami-rich ingredient they were curious about.
The women bought a basic benchtop dehydrator, which "spewed out" heat but happened to make a delicious early product.
"We were absolutely blown away by the result. We thought, 'Oh my god, this stuff actually tastes really good'," Ms Daniher recalled to AAP.
"We thought this might actually be a goer."
They began selling black garlic from the corner of another producer's market stall, before their hobby turned into a business supplying retailers and restaurants around Australia.
"It really did just happen by accident," Ms Daniher said.
Garlicious Grown black garlic is among hundreds of small-batch and regional products featured on new online marketplace Made Mart designed to bring the farm gate to consumers' front doors.
Founder Samantha Finnegan first created a festive gift box site showcasing small and regional producers after the Black Summer bushfires and COVID-19 lockdowns.
Ms Finnegan's new iteration aims to empower independent makers, helping them reach customers in every corner of Australia year-round.
"The biggest challenge of being a small-batch producer is loneliness - you're doing everything yourself," she said.
"You're trying to run a family, most producers have other jobs, they're trying to do everything at once.
"So they need somebody else in their corner."
The website features growers' stories to show shoppers just how much passion goes into small-batch items, while makers get the chance to collaborate.
The marketplace's launch comes as regional small businesses mark the end of a tough year, with many pushing back against added pressure from large competitors' Black Friday sales.
Regional enterprises are more likely than city colleagues to be low on cash reserves, according to a national YouGov poll commissioned by independent lender Prospa.
As many as 80 per cent believed rising costs and a challenging economy were having a negative effect on them, with nearly one-third dipping into their personal savings to stay afloat.
The conditions have prompted the Queensland government to hold a makers' market in Brisbane and encourage Christmas shopping in the state's 480,000 small and family businesses.
Gabriel Gutnik, who founded Ziggy's Wildfoods on the NSW mid north coast after years of learning harvesting and fermenting practices overseas, said there was deep value in shopping small.
Ziggy's products, such as vinegars, jams and syrups, are made from plants that only bloom for weeks every year.
"It's incredibly special and to be prized," Mr Gutnik said.
"It's a whole different way of looking at the food system - it's mindfulness to the core."
On South Australia's Fleurieu Peninsula Deborah Trajanovski has taken on her parents' business Taronga Almonds, which they established by selling nuts from the back of a red ute.
A small business can offer consumers a sense of history and community, Ms Trajanovski said.
"People want that connection, they want to get back to basics.
"You can't get much more basic than the person who makes and grows the food.
"That's about as simple as you can get."
