Messina picks Dural for strawberry success

A DURAL strawberry farm has caught the eye of Gelato Messina, with the farmers retiring, they have taken the lease and will now use the berries in its popular ice creams.

Tony and Anna Scotti with Nick Palumbo at the Dural strawberry farm, which provides fruit for Gelato Messina. Picture: Julian Andrews

RICH, juicy strawberries from Dural have found a new home in the cabinets of hugely popular Gelato Messina.

When Messina founder Nick Palumbo heard through friends that Tony and Anna Scotti were looking to retire after 50 years of farming strawberries, he offered to take over the lease.

Eve, 3, taste tests Messina’s Strawberries & Cream and strawberry flavours, made using strawberries from the Dural farm.

Mr Scotti has been farming strawberries in Dural for 50 years. Picture: Julian Andrews

Messina sends a team to Dural every four or five days to pick strawberries and look after the farm — with Tony still keeping a watchful eye.

“He’s probably working harder than he was before,” Palumbo laughed.

Messina also has its own hazelnut and dairy farms and makes everything — from the mint flavour in its choc mint gelato to the pie in its apple pie flavour — from scratch.

“I think it’s just a natural progression for a food brand that prides itself on doing really beautiful things,” Palumbo said.

Palumbo been searching for the best strawberries for some time; a hunt that took him all the way to Chile before he found them in Sydney.

“We love what we do and we love making gelato, but it’s actually quite exciting to now delve into some of the key products that we use a lot of,” Palumbo said.

The farm grows some very large strawberries. Picture: Julian Andrews

The Dural farm grows Albion strawberries, which Palumbo said “have the most beautiful fruit”, and has 14,000 plants with each plant producing about a kilogram of strawberries.

“The reason we did it was because when you’re dealing with fresh fruit there is pressure on people to pick because they get paid by the kilo, so what ends up happening is the fruit on the tree is kind of not ripe yet but they pick it anyway,” Palumbo said.

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Palumbo said because their team visits the farm every four to five days, they ensure they “only pick what you need” and leave the rest on the plant.

“We only pick it when it’s perfect,” Palumbo said.

Messina has 11 stores across Sydney, including on Church St, Parramatta, and Westfield Penrith.