Way back in March 2021, we met up with La Sirene’s Founder and head brewer Costa Nikias and headed up to Sunland Fresh Fruit farm in Cobram, a short 3-hour drive north of Melbourne, nestled on the banks of the Murray River along the Victoria / New South Wales border. Why spend far too long in the car with co-workers? Simple: beer!
Enter our ‘Supernaturally’ collaboration.
An Aussie Wild Ale with Plums, and an Aussie Wild Ale with Raspberry and Peach.
The fruit, which we lovingly hand-picked at the farm, isn’t just any fruit! They are ‘ugly’ fruit - fruit that the supermarkets will reject, be it too small, weirdly shaped, discoloured… whatever imperfection they find! The fruit is still perfectly acceptable, and even downright delicious (the plums were out of this world!) they just weren’t aesthetically pleasing enough to be sold through a grocery store.
Food waste
You may have heard of a small little food waste problem the world is having. According to the Australian Government:
“One third of the world’s food is wasted.”
“25% of water used in agriculture is used to grow food that is ultimately wasted - throwing away one burger wastes the same amount of water as a 90-minute shower.”
…In Australia
“Food waste costs the economy around $20 billion each year.”
“Each year we waste around 7.3 million tonnes of food - this wastage equals about 300kg per person or one in five bags of groceries.”
The minuscule part of this problem (which extends from farmers, to processing and packaging, to marketing and corporate greed, to government regulation, to you the consumer) that we’re going to focus on is food deemed too unattractive to sell in grocery stores. It is important to state that not all ‘ugly’ produce can go to market, if a piece of produce is quickly breaking down due to bruises or other natural decomposition, it has the potential to rot and spoil all other produce in its crate, meanwhile produce that have fallen to the ground have potential to cause food-poisoning. Farmers cannot risk shipping products like this and the potential damage to their livelihood.
It’s also important to state that not all ‘ugly’ produce is wasted. Farms will plough unfit produce back into the soil at the end of harvest, which gives the soil more nutrients and support. Sunland is a company that is working to implement progressive farming practices - and they even have a turtle rehabilitation wetland on their acreage! If safe to do so, their rejected produce will be turned into animal feed.
However, it’s impossible to deny that lots of produce is still simply discarded due to not being pretty enough, and the ‘ugly’ food problem is not just in the hands of the farmers. In fact, you might say it’s far from them! In a 2016 article in The Age by Carol Richards and Bree Devin:
“The strict ‘quality’ standards required by the Coles and Woolworths duopoly means that a large volume of food does not reach the supermarket shelves. This is produce that does not meet size, shape and appearance specifications – such as bananas that are too small, or apples that are too red. If producers do not agree to meet these standards, they will lose access to approximately 70-80 per cent of the fresh food market in Australia.
Second, the two major food retailers do not take ownership of produce until it passes inspection at the distribution centres. It is here where suppliers, such as farmers and growers, are “invited” - under the supermarket’s corporate social responsibility initiatives - to donate rejected food to rescue organisations at their own cost, or otherwise pay for further transportation or dump fees.
Thirdly, in an effort to reduce the high levels of food wasted at the farm gate, Australian supermarkets [market] “ugly” food - food that does not meet strict cosmetic standards but is still perfectly edible.”
So, we decided to do a little something about it, in our own beery way, and purchase that ‘ugly’ fruit at its source. We took these underappreciated plums, raspberries and peaches and made some wicked Aussie Wild Ales with them. We can’t wait to share their delicious imperfections with all of you!
