Following a cold and wet QLD winter, Harris Farm Markets West End is celebrating the advent of spring with five of its best produce, highlighting locally grown products and helping to ease those winter lurgies.
Strawberries from Stothart Family Farm in Moreton Bay. Broccoli from Windolf Farms at Upper Tenthill in the Lockyer Valley. Carrots from Kalfresh in the Scenic Rim. Corn from Mulgowie in the Lockyer Valley. Avocados from Balmoral Orchards in Toowoomba.
These are the Top Guns of Spring 2022 – locally grown stars at Harris Farm Markets.
1. Stothart Family Farm in Moreton Bay: Strawberries
Bryan and Jane Stothart started growing strawberries five decades ago on the family’s 20-acre farmland in Bellmere. David Fairweather, a son-in-law, now runs the farm and has introduced new ideas to improve what his parents-in-law started. He developed The Hanging Gardens of Bellmere, an innovative system of growing strawberries without any soil. Instead, the plant is cultivated in a hydroponic system using coil, a coconut fibre mix.
Stothart Family Farm’s quality strawberries are tabletop grown, easily picked from the hydroponic system with its nutrients and deliciousness well-contained. The strawberries are protected from pests and diseases.
2. Windolf Farms at Upper Tenthill, Lockyer Valley: Broccoli
Henry Windolf founded Windolf Farms in the 1930s in Lockyer Valley and is now managed by third-generation family members Paul and his wife Sharron, alongside Paul’s cousins Jayson and Jillian. The farmland primarily produces broccoli, lettuce, parsnips, washed potatoes, watermelon and pumpkin.
Their broccoli production is for export quality. The family has been exporting to Singapore for more than a decade, aside from supplying local supermarkets.
3. Kalfresh in the Scenic Rim: Carrots
Kalfresh Vegetables, based in Kalbar in the Scenic Rim, has operated for three decades. The farm was established by father and son Barry and Robert Hinrichsen.
The company has built a solid reputation as one of the leading producers of juicy and nutritious carrots in Australia, picking, washing, packing and shipping the produce in minimal time so its quality is maintained. Kalfresh also provides premium prepared vegetables to the food service industry as well as ready-to-eat products for retail.
4. Mulgowie in the Lockyer Valley: Corn
The farming company developed by the husband and wife team of John and Dell Emerick started more than 70 years ago. Today, Mulgowie Farming Company spans five locations across Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, as it has become the largest sweet corn grower in the country.
Mulgowie started growing super sweet corn varieties in the 1980s and then launched baby corn varieties around 2004. The farming company has received awards for its streamlined operations, allowing the supply of sweet corn for 12 months a year.
5. Balmoral Orchards in Toowoomba: Avocado
Established in 1988, Balmoral Orchards in Toowoomba South grow avocado trees, with fruits that have a distinct buttery-nutty flavour, in free-draining, volcanic red soil so the environment remains disease-free. The harvest is done by hand with the help of a Nifty Lifty and the fruits are then decanted into bins and moved to cold storage before it’s carefully inspected, graded, and classified for distribution.
Balmoral avocados are packed with vitamins and minerals. Their products are highly sought after for their excellent value and supply.
‘Imperfect Picks’ at Harris Farm Markets
In addition to the spectacular, Harris Farm Markets is shining the light on Imperfect Picks, Harris Farm Markets’ seasonal range of fruit and vegetables that might not look perfect from the outside but are as perfect and full of flavour as ever on the inside.
“Our Imperfect Picks program helps reduce the astonishing statistics that *25 per cent of Australian crops currently never leave the farm gate because they are a bit, well, unattractive, and do not meet the visual specifications of some supermarkets and consumers,” said co-CEO Tristan Harris.
“It means that every time you buy an Imperfect Pick, you are helping us take more from our farmers, you are helping reduce food wastage, and importantly, you are saving up to 50 per cent!”
So, if you see Pudgy Imperfect Pears, Lumpy Pink Lady Apples, Warped Eggplant, Twisted Sweet Potatoes, Unruly Imperfect Zucchini and Scruffy Mangoes in the aisles, remember they taste just as good as their “perfect” looking cousins!
Harris Farm Markets along Boundary St, West End is open daily from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.
