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General News

22 June, 2020

Strawberries on the menu

Joe and Alice Barletta are purchased Shaylee Strawberries off the original owner's Bob and Fay in October 2018.

By Phil Brandel

Strawberries on the menu - feature photo

With the cooler months well and truly here, popular summer fruit like mangoes makes way for another Australian favourite on supermarket shelves.

In 2018, 24,446 tonnes of strawberries were picked across Australia with Queensland the biggest supplier, sending  12,670 tonnes of Strawberries to the Australian Market in 2018.

Joe and Alice Barletta are Atherton locals who purchased Shaylee Strawberries off the original owner's Bob and Fay Scheehy in October 2018.

Alice admits that they had no strawberry growing experience prior to buying the farm.

“We are both Atherton locals and we were looking for our next adventure, we wanted to do something that we hadn’t done before,” Alice said

“The original owner's Bob and Fay helped us out a lot in the beginning, a lot of the systems that they put in place made our job a lot easier.”

Alice says that Shaylee Strawberries closed due to COVID on March 28, but the team are now looking forward to reopening this weekend.

“We are looking forward to having everyone come back and enjoying our fruit. From this weekend we are open 7 days a week from 9 am to 4 pm just in time for the school holidays.”

“We will be selling fresh strawberries, gelato and jam but we won’t be opening pick your own until September.”

Due to the popularity of Shaylee Strawberries, Alice said they’ve had to ramp up production to keep up with demand. “Last year we planted around 60,000 plants and this year we have hand planted over 100,000 plants.”

Shaylee Strawberries are at 255 Gillies Highway, Atherton.

 

 

 

 

 

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