Joe Mirarchi is a lychee farmer from Mareeba Queensland, located an hour inland from Cairns in the Atherton Tablelands.
Lychees originated in the Fujian and Guangdong provinces of South China, but are also cultivated in the tropical and sub-tropical regions of America, India, Southeast Asia and Australia today. Lychees are commonly eaten fresh but can also be pitted and used to add sweetness to any dish such as fruit salads, curries, and sweet and sour cuisines. They also make a great accompaniment for duck and pork. Lychees have a limited growing season and are usually available fresh in Australia from November to February.
Lychees are part of the Fruit core food group, which is one of the 5 food groups recommended for everyday consumption in the Australian Dietary Guidelines. Fruits provide vitamins, minerals, dietary fibre and many hundreds of phytonutrients. We should be aiming for two serves of fruit every day! Lychees are rich in vitamin C and antioxidants.
As part of the QCWA Country Kitchens Meet a Farmer initiative, the team met with Joe Mirarchi, a lychee farmer out of Mareeba, Queensland. Joe’s memories of the QCWA extend back to his childhood, where he remembers the QCWA’s iconic street stalls.
“I remember the street stalls that they [QCWA] used to set up with the scones, jams and chutneys and we would always get something. Communities need QCWA and it would be great to see younger women getting involved.”
Joe has strong generational ties to farming, primarily working with mangoes prior to lychees.
“We stumbled across them [lychees] in the early 80‘s when we were looking to diversify as they did not need a lot of infrastructure or capital to grow or grade. We started dabbling with them and realised they were more viable for us than mangoes which is what we were doing at the time”
While Joe did not love the constant work of farm life as a kid, he has grown to love working on the land.
“Farming isn’t glamorous, it isn’t all flash four-wheel drives, there is a lot of work behind the scenes. But I love being my own boss and not being tied down to the same hours day in and day out.”
Lychees are a supply and demand product, meaning there is not usually an oversupply of product in Australia, and they are always able to be sold whether it is a boom or bust year. However, it is a long-term game with lychees, with most trees not bearing a good supply of fruit for between 5-8 years after being planted and manual picking required.
“Trees will take between five and eight years to get really good production. As the fruit ripens you cut the bunch off and then you individually pluck each piece of fruit off that bunch and sort and grade according to size. They are then packed in a five kilogram box and sent to market. Once you have picked the fruit off, you prune the tree and clean it. We have some trees still from the early 80s that are great producers, but you have to care from them and prune and clean them properly to get the most out of them.“
Joe would love to see our QCWA members passing on cooking skills to the younger generation through the Country Kitchens program, and like us, believes the QCWA is a great organisation to get communities eating more fruit and veggies!
“QCWA could play a part in supporting farmers and community by promoting local fruit and veg that are in season and by promoting cooking fruit and veggies from scratch. I think that educating people that not all fruit looks perfect on the outside is also important. Our fruit [in Australia] has such strict appearance standards, so much perfectly good fruit gets wasted because it may have a small mark on it”
Finally, the best way to eat a Lychee?
“Fresh off the tree! A lychee straight off the tree tastes much different than lychees out of a cold room.”
Since we are heading into lychee season, be sure to pick up some at your local market or fruit store. Try putting a twist on our sweet and sour chicken recipe by substituting pineapple for lychees! To learn more about the QCWA Country Kitchens program, or the Meet a Farmer initiative, head to our website or contact us at countrykitchens@qcwa.org.au.
The QCWA Country Kitchens program is proudly funded by Health and Wellbeing Queensland.
Industry: Horticulture
Location: Mareeba, Queensland
QCWA Division: Atherton Tablelands
QCWA Connection: Daphne Martin, Mareeba Branch, Atherton Tablelands
