Honouring Peninsula-grown produce, Balnarring Preserves has won awards and customers here and beyond. The brand’s colourful botanical cordials and freeze-dried and dehydrated fruit treats are a flavour-filled hit.

Balnarring Preserves grows its own organic produce to ensure control over the quality of its ingredients. It also supports trusted small-scale farmers on the Peninsula. Only the best seasonal produce goes into its preserves, and you can taste the difference.

More than just preservers, the Balnarring Preserves team are farmers with their hands in the soil; makers with a passion for innovation. Their craft blends time-honoured techniques with creative twists, breathing new life into cherished family recipes.

Balnarring Preserves is working with school canteens to provide healthy organic snacks for children's lunchboxes, and its dehydrated apple and rhubarb, apple and strawberry, and apple and mixed berry fruit straps tick all the boxes.

Co-owner Melissa was named the Jams, Preserves, Beverages Aggregate Prize Champion at the 2024 Red Hill Show. Balnarring Preserves also received gold medals at the 2024 Melbourne Royal Australian Food Awards for its apple and rhubarb fruit straps and rose petal cordials, which won the Best in Class medal for the Best Syrup or Cordial.  Silver medals were awarded for its apple and strawberry fruit straps and elderflower cordial.

Balnarring Preserves products can be found at Torello Farm Dromana, IGA Balnarring, Edigrocer Edithvale, Farm Raiser Bellfield and Wild Things Fitzroy.  Schools and retailers wishing to stock its products are invited to contact the business directly.

Opening hours: Saturdays and Sundays at roadside farm gate market stall; fresh blueberries mid-December to mid-February.

Balnarring Preserves

13 Turners Rd, Balnarring

P: 0417 941 879

www.balnarringpreserves.com.au

E: admin@balnarringpreserves.com.au

INSTA: balnarringpreserves

Fabulous friends help business avoid berry blues

When the demand for Balnarring Preserves’ products began outstripping its supply of  berries, the business needed to take action fast. In a surprising, fortuitous twist, the solution to the problem appeared in a collaborative arrangement demonstrating the power of collective community spirit.

Balnarring Preserves had stretched its 3.6ha farm to its limit for planting. It was clear it needed to expand, diversify and reduce its risks by growing produce across different locations. Known for their generous support of fellow Peninsula producers, co-owner Melissa and organic farming expert Mitch Miller, of Just-A-Veggie Patch, were introduced by Torello Farm’s Sophie O’Neil to Ron and Judith Slocombe, the owners of a Red Hill South property with more than 2000 blueberry shrubs. Having spent many Christmases harvesting and selling blueberries – the short growing season extends from December to January – Ron and Judith were looking to hand over the baton, wishing in future to spend this precious time with their family and grandchildren.

In a mutually beneficial alliance, the Slocombes agreed to lease their farm to Balnarring Preserve’s owners Melissa and Matthew throughout the year. The agreement sees the property owners look after and maintain the shrubs from March until August each year, at which point Balnarring Preserves steps in to weed, prune, harvest and pack the blueberries. In its first stages, the business formed a community group to help with the arduous task of hand-weeding the patch over a two-week period. 

During pruning and harvesting, Balnarring Preserves employs a team of contractors who pick and pack alongside its local support crew. The business invested in a blueberry grader purchased from a Tasmanian blueberry farm being sold due to hail damage. Mitch drove to Tasmania, dismantled it and brought it back in his van on the Spirit of Tasmania.  That's dedication for you.

Farming blueberries is a labour-intensive exercise requiring hand-harvesting within a very short summer harvest window. The hard work, however, has its rewards. On average, 2000 shrubs will produce five to six tonnes of blueberries.

Fresh Red Hill blueberries are amazing, whether picked straight off the shrub, packed and eaten fresh, dehydrated into fruit straps, made into cordials, or freeze-dried, retaining 95 per cent of their nutritional value. Who doesn’t like blueberries all year round?

The alliance ensures that Balnarring Preserves can provide customers with delicious, tangy and nutritious blueberries without the food miles.  They are available from December through to the start of February and can be found at Torello Farm in Dromana and at Balnarring Preserves’ roadside stall on Turners Rd, as well as from other retailers who support locally grown produce. Year-round, customers can enjoy the sweet taste of frozen blueberry punnets, 100 per cent Red Hill freeze-dried blueberries, mixed berry dehydrated fruit straps, and lemon and blueberry cordial.

With this opportunity, Balnarring Preserves is rapt to be able to expand the production of the popular fruit for its customers – with the help of some fabulous friends.

DANIELLE DAVEY