Quality Artisan Preserves with a Difference

Welcome to our Winter Newsletter

Autumn has passed and the cold and wet is here - finally.

Here at Naturally Berry we like it this way, more than the hot and harsh Summer. We now know that our berries and fruit trees get a well-earned rest from the abundance they produced last summer. It also gives us a well-earned rest after harvesting, watering and processing hundreds of kilograms of fruit.

Even so, that our main crop is in the freezer ready for cooking, we’re still harvesting raspberries but they are also slowing down now and need to be pruned back, as are all fruit trees. Everything needs a good cleanup.

Unique Recipes!

Over last months we developed a few new recipes for our Winter release.

No - it’s not as abundant as in Summer but nevertheless delicious.

There is no doubt what products our customers prefer:

Everything that has a “spirit/ual” name on the label flies of the shelf.

Our latest addition Plum Cognac is one of these examples. Released as our Autumn flavour after an abundance of plums to harvest, we lost count how many batches we cooked so far.

Plum for whatever reason is a hard sell and we tried Plum Cinnamon, straight Plum, Prune and many more. But we believe that plums are a beautiful fruit that just needs a little help. Plum Cognac seems to be the taste everyone can relate to.

New Winter Releases

So we aren't done yet with our plums and release - “drumroll please”: 

Prune Armagnac Mousse

Our aim is to find out what our customers like, so we release every three months new flavour combinations, but not all stay on the shelf.

If it is slow to take off we cull it. Of course, there are also seasonal restrictions that we face but this means we can bring it back when the fruit is available.

Some new products take up to one year to develop. A new fruit variety, a new combination, seasonal changes, water content and endless cooking of batches until we are happy to bring it to you our customer.

Some might think it’s overkill but if we’re not happy with the end products we will not release it. Quality is the most important aspect of our business.

New products also need new packaging, new labelling, endless research until it is ready for sale, as we are already working on our Spring release now.

There is also a reason that we change occasionally our range and you might not find your favourite jam or marmalade on our shelves. Sometimes it is cost prohibitive, as we had to discontinue Orange Cointreau Marmalade. It was a good seller but the price of Cointreau got out of control, so we had to say goodbye. This is not always a sad thing for us because we like to challenge your tastebuds with our new fruit/spice/spirit combinations.

Our New Winter Releases as of today

Markets

Why we have disappeared from some markets:

Over the last year, we reduced our market appearances.

We tried the "big smoke" and couldn’t find common ground with the city dwellers. We went to the outer suburbs and still not much interest.

Some market sites are very challenging, not only in Summer with the heat but also the cold, wet and mud in Winter that challenges not only the stallholders.

Very early mornings, long drives and physical work with heavy lifting and setup and breakups after long-standing hours has to make it worthwhile to be there.

We pack the entire shop-front and set it up so it looks appealing to our customers. We pay a high fee on some locations, pay petrol and simply have to make money to break even. If this doesn’t happen after 6 months we will simply and quietly disappear. That is good and bad but we can also spend some quality time together, my husband and I.

So we are down to 4 markets every month and that gives us some balance back into our lives. Next to lesser markets we are promoting our online store, so no one misses out.

Retailers

Most of our retailers are getting topped-up monthly and our products can be found as far as Sydney. So there is not really an interruption of supply even if we’re not at a market near you. 

Recycling

Over the last months, we heard some really awful things about our garbage collection and recycling.

Well, to put it bluntly, it does happen here in Australia. 

Still, our recycling bin contents are buried in the landfill. 

We are trying to do the right thing but our Government bodies ignore the urgency to act. We are now living in a climate crisis due to our complacency.

Here at Naturally Berry we have an incentive and recycling scheme in place since the launch of our business, which was more than 7 years ago.

We do not create waste, we recycle everything, we encourage our customers to also do so by bringing their cleaned jars and bottles (labels removed) back for a 20 cent refund with their next purchase.

We are all responsible for the environment and encourage everybody to do the right thing. Please read on our website how we care about the environment and how you can do also.

...and that wraps it up for the Winter newsletter, as we will juggle and work on our Spring Releases.

That’s why we say “It’s never dull at Naturally Berry”

Keep warm and stay safe!

Our next newsletter will be sent out in Spring.

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