Think strawberries are the ideal summer fruit? Think again! Queensland’s mild winter sun makes it the perfect climate to grow strawberries that burst with flavour. Piñata Farms grow strawberries every winter in Wamuran, Queensland.
Piñata strawberries can be found in leading supermarkets and green grocers nationally from May – October every year.
1. Crop Preparation
Preparation for growing strawberries is a long process that begins months before planting. In October, the Piñata strawberry crop season finishes and any plants are destroyed to make way for the next season’s crop. Strawberry plants are prolific and will keep growing uncontrollably if they remain in the soil.
Once the ground is clear, the soil is cultivated and planted with a cover crop (usually sorghum). This increases the organic matter in the soil to ensure it is suitable to grow top quality produce.
2. Planting
In April the following year, planting begins on our Wamuran property. Strawberries come from strawberry plants called ‘runners’. These are strawberry stalks with potential roots that are looking for soil.
Runners are planted on raised beds, which are 1.3m wide. These beds can stretch up to 300 metres long. A walkway separates each bed to allow access to the plants. Black plastic sheets with holes are laid under the runners to trap moisture and reduce evaporation from the soil.
3. Fruit Appears
Six to eight weeks after planting, we will harvest the first strawberries. Firstly, the plant flowers, then a green berry forms, which eventually becomes a red strawberry that is ready to be eaten and enjoyed. At any time, each plant can have flowers, as well as green and red berries. These red berries are picked every three to four days. The strawberry pickers use large trolleys and search the crops each day for red berries. The time from flowering to picking is four weeks.
4. Picking and Packing
At Piñata, we harvest the ripest berries we can find, as these are the most flavoursome and sweet. Of course, picking such delicate fruit requires special processes, so all Piñata employees treat each berry with the utmost care.
After they are harvested, the strawberries are taken to cool rooms to keep them fresh. There are trained packers who place the fruit in punnets ready for consumption. Piñata strawberries are packed into four different sizes (small, medium, large and extra large berries) in 250gram punnets. Piñata also packs a 500g punnet called a ‘Smoothie Pack’. Each punnet is plastic and has a lid, with holes to allow for breathing. There is a special way to pack a punnet of strawberries to ensure minimal bruising.
5. Quality is a priority
Quality control is paramount at Piñata. In fact, there are three quality control measures in place to monitor every strawberry:
In addition to these processes, Piñata’s ‘enjoyometer’ keeps a close eye on how enjoyable each strawberry is. We continually monitor sugar and acid levels in the fruit, as well as their texture, shape and flavour. Our goal is to make every Piñata strawberry a 10/10 on our ‘enjoyometer’!!