Many ways to be berry innovative
THEY started with a vinegar barrel and progressed to a farm shed and today they send boutique products across the globe – a range which may soon include a line of Queensland strawberry vinegar.
Queensland strawberries are not just for eating. They’re in drinks, sauces, beer, protein balls and – at a hi- tech factory run by Ian and Robyn Henderson – vinegar.
Dr Michael Sweedman, lead researcher with Australian Vinegar, stresses the strawberry vinegar bottled at the Stanthorpe factory is still a novelty enterprise and not yet commercially available.
“We did it purely for a few of our select customers and it was well received,’’ Dr Sweedman said. “But now we know people love it we are looking at the commercial possibilities.’’
The Hendersons’ business venture was inspired by Robyn’s mum and dad; Italian immigrants who kept a barrel at the family home to make vinegar out of grapes.
The couple began their own vinegar line, Lirah, then moved their operation into a shed and sent off their first exports to the US in 2004.
The Hendersons, who opened their present multimillion- dollar factory in 2017 and are now a major business in the Granite Belt town, are just a sample of the innovative minds across the state turning their attention to strawberry- inspired products.
News Corp Australia, pub- lisher of the Townsville Bulletin, is running a week- long celebration of our strawberry industry across 15 News Queensland mastheads.
The State Government has launched “The sweetest thing” campaign to encourage consumers to enjoy the fruit again.
When the strawberry sabotage crisis hit last September brewers in South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland began churning out strawberry beers as a way of helping the industry.
Newstead Brewing in Brisbane created a strawberry brew which proved extraordinarily popular.
That brew was made out of 120kg of strawberries Newstead Brewing bought from Luvaberry, a Wamuran farm west of Caboolture owned by Mandy and Adrian Schultz who have taken strawberry innovation to a new level.
The couple, who farm about 200,000 plants got tired of seeing waste in strawberry growing.
“We just got fed up with throwing fruit away,’’ says Mandy, a naturopath by profession who has always had an interest in healthy eating.
The couple have access to a $ 250,000 machine to dry strawberries and create strawberry powder used for anything from sprinkling on cereal to making strawberry ice cream.
They have also produced a line of choc- coated freeze dried strawberries as well as a strawberry kombucha drink – produced in collaboration with a business partner.