When life gives you mulberries – you make delicious jam. That’s the way Aimee and Linton Fisher have pivoted their fresh fruit distribution business into an online farmgate, transforming the bounty from their family farm on the Murray into jams, preserves and pickled veg.
The Fisher family farm is at Narrung on the Murray River, 415 kilometres northwest of Melbourne. The land was first planted with citrus in the 1920s, and when the Fishers took it over in 1938, they began planting mulberries and figs. During the millennium drought they underwent massive changes, grafting new varieties and changing their distribution methods, using farmers’ markets to move their fresh fruit. That period ended in October 2023, and now Kingfisher Citrus uses the fresh farm produce from Narrung as the basis for the preserves made at Aimee and Linton’s Gippsland property, at Nambrok near Rosedale.
Aimee Fisher borrowed recipes from her mother-in-law’s extensive library of historic cookbooks and developed a range of preserves she now sells online direct to the public, delivered by Australia Post, or through the farmgate, just off the Princes Highway at Nambrok. The range includes garlic pickled in white wine vinegar, salt, herbs and spices, suitable as an appetiser as part of a pickle plate, while the brine makes a great base for salad dressings. The spiced oranges are a combination of oranges, sweetened vinegar, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves and suitable as an accompaniment to a cheeseboard or to glaze roast meats. The Fishers also make fig jam and mulberry jam from the heritage fruit trees on the old family farm.
Products: Pickled garlic, spiced oranges, fig jam and mulberry jam