Sunny South West business fruitful for Donnybrook's Sue and Steve Collis
Sue and Steve Collis love spending time in their apple orchard collecting fruit for their Solarfruit range of products. Picture supplied. For more than 30 years, Sue and Steve Collis have been using a secret. . .
Sue and Steve Collis love spending time in their apple orchard collecting fruit for their Solarfruit range of products. Picture supplied. For more than 30 years, Sue and Steve Collis have been using a secret family recipe to produce sun-dried fruit products on their Donnybrook property in the heart of the South West food bowl. Subscribe now for unlimited accessto all our agricultural newsacross the nationor signup to continue readingAll articles from our website& appThe digital version ofThis Week'sPaperOur entirenetworkThe pairmoved to Donnybrookfrom Perth in 1994 because they wanted to raise their family in a rural location and run their own business. Ms Collis was previously working in a high pressure job as a medical technologist and Mr Collis was a jack-of-all-trades, from working on oil rigs to being a warehouse supervisor. Their skills came in handy for developing new techniques in fruit handling and adapting unique equipment for processing. The couple stumbled on the idea of making fruit leather when attending an agricultural field day in the early 1990s. They were shown how to make it and when they took samples to family and friends, they received very positive feedback. "We decided to start a business out of making sun-dried fruit leather," Ms Collis said. "We investigated the best locations in the south of WA where we could source premium fruit grown in pristine conditions, and finally decided Donnybrook was the ideal spot for us. "Late in 1994, we moved to Donnybrook to start production of the purest value-added fruit products available on a commercial basis and develop the Solarfruit brand. "The challenge was to finesse their fruit leather recipe on a commercial scale. This meant inventing new equipment for pit removal and setting up specially-designed drying tables that would protect the fruit while it was drying outside. Sue and Steve Collis have finessed their fruit leather recipe over 30 years. Picture supplied. The fruit for Solarfruit is dried naturally by the sun for up to 10 days in a single hygienic process, without the constant washing, resulphuring and oven drying that is used by many other producers in some more traditional fruit dehydration systems. The huge benefit is that Solarfruit products are virtually preservative free. The residual sulphur dioxide has been tested for, and Solarfruit has only 90 parts per million, compared to dried fruits from some other manufacturers that have between 3000 and 5000ppm. Ms Collis said traditionally many fruit growers had made their own fruit leather from excess produce for a healthy sweet snack. She said this became more popular with the invention of plug-in fruit air dehydrators in the 1960s. But this was not a new concept. The story of food dehydration started more than 14,000 years ago, when our ancestors first discovered that the sun and wind could preserve food. Ancient Egyptians dried fish and dates, laying them on flat rooftops to soak up the arid sun. Indigenous peoples of the Americas made jerky by hanging meat over wooden frames in breezy, sunny spots. And in Asia, rice and herbs were dried on woven mats laid across stone courtyards. It wasn't science - it was survival. Dehydration allowed people to preserve calories for lean seasons and for travel. These natural methods were accessible, requiring only sunlight, airflow, and patience. By the Middle Ages, wetter European climates demanded new solutions. Next came the 'still house' - a food-drying cabin equipped with low fires and ventilation. This was the origin of indoor dehydrators. The Renaissance period also saw experimentation with preserving flavour, as well as food. In Italy and France, herbalists and cooks began perfecting the drying of lavender, basil and rosemary. It was not just about survival anymore - it was now about enhancing the flavour of cuisine. Ms Collis said using their fruit trays, it took 10-12 days to produce slabs of fruit with a three to five millimetre thickness. She said the Solarfruit sun drying process produced a better product with more flavour than a plug-in air hydrator that made paper-thin fruit strips. A range of sundried leather products is sold across Western Australia. Picture supplied. The Collis family has spent much time and energy over 30 years marketing its Solarfruit products in Western Australia and internationally with online sales. They make their unique fruit products with all the summer fruits, including nectarines, plums, peaches, apricots, cherries and pears. Peak processing season is in November and the last batches are done in mid-March. An extended shelf life means enough Solarfruit products can be produced to ensure year-round consistency in sales. Over the years, they have loved going out on the road with their products and have attended many agricultural shows and machinery field days. All Solarfruit products are made from fruit sourced direct from growers around the Donnybrook area. Mostly they take fruit that is 5-10 per cent too ripe to send to the domestic market - fruit that has been hit with summer hail or fruit that is misshapen or dented. "This is a win-win for for us and the growers because we are buying fruit that wouldn't be able to go to market," Ms Collis said. "It still has great flavour, especially when we get fruit that has spent longer time on the tree and is full of flavour. "The fruit is typically allowed to ripen it for another few days before it is blended to a rough mince and any hard pieces and pips are removed so it is very smooth. It then goes on to drying trays in the full sun for 10-12 days, covered in plastic to increase heat and avoid contamination from dust or other particles in the air. Ms Collis said in the first five days on the drying trays, the fruit shrinks and gets a skin on the top. She said it was flipped over to dry the other side for another five to six days and then packaged into a range of sizes and products. "We have fruit bars ideal for school lunches, a snack bag, a bigger family pack, fruit pieces cut into bite-size squares and a giant roll, which is a full sheet the equivalent of four kilograms of fruit," Ms Collis said. "We have raised our family while growing our business and, being a naturally health conscious couple, we are constantly looking at ways to improve an already amazing product, to make it as pure as possible. "To this end, we now also produce dried fruit that is coated with coconut, chocolate or sugar and we make jams and fruit sauces with the fruit. "All of our products are gluten-free. "Ms Collis said their market started out being local around Donnybrook, but they very quickly started supplying outlets across the wider South West region and in Perth. "IGA supermarkets have been very supportive of us, along with the Bunbury Farmers Market, tourism operators and farmers markets around the region and major machinery field days," she said. "And, of course, online sales have been growing and this has meant Solarfruit has gone global. "Ms Collis said they processed about 40-50 tonnes of fruit annually and buying this fruit had put more than a million dollars into local growers hands in the past 30 years. The Solarfruit business is now up for sale. Whether it sells or not, the Collis family will be exiting the business at the end of this year due to health constraints. They would like to thank their fruit suppliers, customers and retailers for their support in developing the Solarfruit business. "It's been a real pleasure knowing you all and hopefully we get to catch up at the upcoming field days and agricultural shows," Ms Collis said. 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