A Sunshine Coast strawberry grower is waging her own war on waste to stop tonnes of delicious fruit being dumped because they fail to meet the look the supermarkets want.
Mandy Schultz started by tackling waste on the family farm, freezing and freeze drying second-grade fruit that would otherwise be thrown out and selling it to a fast-growing group of Facebook followers.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2018-06-20/strawberry-waste-solution-saves-delicious-fruit-from-dump/9886384#lightbox-content-lightbox-12
It was after years of giving away trailer loads of strawberries for animal feed every time there was prolonged heavy rain, that she decided to take action.
"Basically, one day I had a hissy fit. I was in the pack house and I said 'this is ridiculous, they're such good quality fruit'," she said.
"I bought some bags and just started telling the staff to pull off the calyces [the cup-like flower in bud], and said 'let's bag them and I'll worry about them later'. That's really how cooking berries began."
LuvaBerry's Our War on Waste was born, giving fruit regarded as seconds new purpose.
"There's nothing wrong with this fruit. We've taken the green calyces off to make it easier for people to put directly in their smoothies or cook for jam, whatever they want to do with it," she said.
"A lot of people actually use it in their dehydrators to make snacks for the kids as well
http://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2018-06-20/strawberry-waste-saved-fruit/9882020
Industry's waste problem
Our best stories in your inbox?
Subscribe to Rural RoundUp: stories from the farm.
Queensland supplies Australia with the bulk of its strawberries over winter. The cool, slow-growing conditions produce sweet red ripe fruit.
But strawberries are also soft skinned, and weather-damaged or odd-shaped fruit is regularly buried because it's too hard to sell.
Over the years the losses have cost farmers millions of dollars.
Last week alone, the LuvaBerry team froze 240, 1.5-kilogram bags of strawberries, saving more than 360 kilograms of fruit from going to waste.
Ms Schultz also helped out a friend, by freezing and selling a tonne of their raspberries last year.
Uplifting response
So-called ugly fruit that is irregularly sized but still tastes great is also being given cold treatment, then onsold to customers who answered the call to become waste warriors by rallying to the LuvaBerry Facebook page and meeting at designated drop-off points for 'car park parties'.
Ms Schultz said the Samford Commons, a group at Samford near Brisbane that embraces sustainability, got behind her allowed her to use their car park.
"So we went out, my friend Eleanor and I, we only had 50 or 60 bags but by the end of it we'd sold a good half a tonne, at least, of frozen bags," she said.
"People come out to say hello.
"People care about farmers. People want to make a difference, they are also fed up with the food supply chain.
"A lot of people buy foreign imports and here's a local farm that says 'Can you please help me? I've got cooking berries' and they come and buy them.
"They feel like they're making a difference and they do. They've made a huge difference to us."
Mandy Schultz was proud to win an award for innovation in waste management and value-added initiatives from the Queensland Strawberry Grower's Association. (ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols)
The Queensland Strawberry Growers' Association recognised Ms Schultz's efforts with a 2018 award for her commitment to finding innovative value-adding alternatives to edible 'waste'.
LuvaBerry is also working with Yandina's freeze-dry industries.
So far two tonnes of fruit has been freeze dried to produce a range of snacking strawberries and strawberry powder.
"As a naturopath I got very passionate about the health benefits of strawberries and I've been on the bandwagon a long time, because they're so good for you," Ms Schultz said.
"One tablespoon of powder equals a punnet of fresh fruit so I decided I'd try it and it's been really good."
Tasty Australian grown and freeze dried strawberries that would otherwise have gone to waste. (ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols)
She said the powder was an alternative if people wanted to avoid preservatives and artificial additives that go into cooking.
Expansion plans
Ms Schultz's husband Adrian is the vice-president of the Queensland Strawberry Growers' Association.
"Hopefully in the future it's going to make a great deal of difference, not only to our farm, but also to many other strawberry farms," he said.
"It's small steps and they've been successful steps and I think we're headed in the right direction
uvaberry was chosen for a 'Grow Coastal' program being run by the Food and Agribusiness Network in conjunction with the Innovation Centre at the University of the Sunshine Coast.
The 12-week accelerator course offers advice and mentoring from successful value-adding businesses.
"I would really like to see those little freeze-dried strawberry snacks in colourful foil packs with koalas on them sitting in some airport because they're so good for travellers.
"I'd love to see them in the international market, but I'm only a small farm.
"It's one small step at a time, and I've got to be a bit patient