Topsy-turvy fruit season for NQ growers

Leap Lychees growers Daniel and Rebecca Berger purchased their property at The Leap two and a half years ago, and after a fruitful Silly Season last year, they are experiencing a starkly different season this year.

"Last year we had close to 500kg of lychees...it was our first season and we were really pleased with it," Mrs Berger said.

"We're learning as we go. This year we were all excited and ready to go... but this year we've only got two trees and a couple of kilos, if that. They're tiny.

"There are 300 lychee trees, 40 Bowen mangoes, five R2E2 mangoes, 20 lime trees, passion fruit, and mandarins which are actually all on the tree at the moment, which is really bizarre.

"They are golf-ball sized which is strange but they're all fruiting."

However, due to little rain and watering system complications, the first generation growers are experiencing a late and light season this year.

While they will not be supplying their organic mangoes and lychees to the region's loyal customer base, they will be offering sorbet this week, made from their plentiful passion fruit, and small pickings of lychees and mangoes.

"It's just been hard...(because we haven't had) the chill factor and water," Mr Berger said.

There were positive signs earlier this year, but heavy winds in early September dashed the chance for a healthy picking.

"We came down and we had stacks of little buds, flowers coming on, and we thought we were going to have another great season but no, unfortunately," Mrs Berger said.

This year was a definite turn around for the couple, who were off to a running start for their first season in 2022.

"We were hoping to do markets and stuff but by the time people bought here we had none left last year, which is fine, everyone was just happy we were open. A lot of people," Mrs Berger said.

"We've even had people come back constantly. There's a lady from Seaforth, who every week she'd come and get a box of mangoes. They are return people for sorbet all the time.

"Dan is still working, he's an electrician, I was just in retail...and circumstances that we went through, we..were in a really bad car accident on holidays and you realise that if you don't do what you want to do, you miss out. So we decided to throw caution to the wind and take the leap, at The Leap."

The couple, who relocated from Beaconsfield in Mackay after driving past the property's open house one day, have taken to the grower lifestyle, learning the ropes from the previous owner of two decades, Dave Mathers.

"We're trying to stay as Dave had the property. We're trying to stay with the organic stuff. The fertiliser we use is organic...we don't use any pesticides," Mr Berger said.

"There is a different taste with the fruit. A lot of people when they come here, they ask if we doing the same as Dave and they're happy.

"The fruit that we did have, if it did survive, then we got hit with bugs and possums. We've got some lovely possums that, when I"m in the orchard...they follow me around a lot.

"We have nets to keep the bats and birds away."

While the couple will stick with sorbet this year, they're hoping to see conditions return back to normal in 2024, with a future goal to one day become fully sustainable.

"It'd be nice to have a decent winter...and then back to a regular weather pattern," Mr Berger said.

"As Dave said to us when we bought the place; 'when the cane farmers are whinging, we're happy, and vice versa'."

Bloomsbury mango farmer John Lee has also felt the strain of a tough fruit season.

"It's a terrible year. I had bugger all. Five per cent of the crop on there," he said.

"I heard at Bowen, some fellas had absolutely nothing...it's very disappointing but that's the joy of farming. You can work all year on the thing but can miss it by that much.

"It's just the wrong season for setting the fruit. It's very volatile, the market. They reckon it wasn't cold enough to set the fruit, but also you can get the misty rain that destroys the flowers...it's the whole combination."