Page 27 - Port Douglas Magazine 28

Rubyberry Farm, Daintree

ne of the many joys of living in Tropical North Queensland is despite it being an arduous task. “Having worked in healthcare advertising, I
revelling in the abundance of weird and wonderful produce here, completely understand the pressures healthcare professionals are put under
with many fruit and vegetable varieties like nothing else found to read about something new,” says Karen. “Ideally, we’d love to get everyone
Othroughout the rest of the country. One such example is the in healthcare to try the fruit to really experience what it can do.”
aptly named Miracle Fruit – a small, red, cranberry-sized fruit whose ability
One of the other challenges the fruit faces is that, once picked, the miraculin
is to trick the brain into believing sour foods are actually sweet. Researchers
only remains active for around 48 hours unrefrigerated, and up to four
have identified the ‘miracle’ being the glycoprotein miraculin, which binds to
weeks if frozen. With only two short windows during summer each year
the sweet receptors of tastebuds on the tongue. When acidic, sour or bitter
for harvesting, it’s imperative to have tree quantity to make any dent in the
foods are eaten, the result is amazingly sweet.
supply chain. “There’s only five miracle fruit farms in
Former Sydney media and advertising executive the world, and none of them are in Australia. We are
Chris Beckwith and his partner Karen Pereira the first,” says Karen.
moved to the Daintree in 2013 with the idea of “IT ’S ABOUT ...
In order to meet market demand, Rubyberry is
retiring amongst the mangosteens when they EASING THE importing the freeze-dried melting tablets from the
discovered the miracle fruit ‘trick’. “A friend of
United States, with the hope of freeze-drying their
ours gifted us a tree, after giving us a taste of the BURDEN AND own fruit once they have a plentiful supply. Karen is
fruit and showing what it did,” says Chris. “We
currently sharpening her horticultural skillset to get
showed our friends and family what these little ALLEVIATING a more consistent supply – freeze drying the berries
berries could do, when someone told us of its
extends the shelf life to approximately two years.
ability to alleviate taste sensory issues. THE PAIN OF “It’s not about making money,” says Karen. “It’s
“A good friend of ours at the time was going about working towards a healthier society, easing the
through quite intense chemotherapy and ILLNESS”
burden and alleviating the pain of illness. We’ve all
radiation treatment for cancer, one of the
known someone or had someone in our families with
side effects being taste dysgeusia which is the
cancer, myself included. If we can help people with
distortion of taste resulting in a constant metallic taste in the mouth,” he
something that nature and circumstance have given us, then that’s a life well
says. lived.”
“He was eating ice straight from the freezer to get rid of the taste and had “We came up here to retire on a mangosteen farm,” says Chris. “But there’s
stopped eating out. There was no pleasure left in eating. So, we sent down
over 400,000 people in Australia with cancer, and 85% of them have smell
150 berries for him to try and see if it would have any effect. His wife filmed
and taste issues because of their associated treatments. That’s a lot of people
him as he sucked a lime. He was completely astounded that not only was the
who need help.”
metallic taste gone, but he could actually taste the fruit. From then on, he
rubyberry.net.au
was able to go out to restaurants and eat dinner with his family again, where
normally he’d prefer to attempt eating alone.”
From the one gifted tree, the couple now operate under the company name
Rubyberry, and have 2000 trees on their Daintree property with another
3000 needed for the farm to be commercial. The fruit’s discovery as a flavour
enhancer, although used traditionally for centuries, has naturally piqued the
attention of scientists. Rubyberry are now in the process of working with
universities and a number of hospitals on small studies to test the efficacy of
the fruit’s active glycoprotein on dysgeusia in cancer patients.
In the United States, preliminary studies using small patient samples have
already been conducted by the Mount Sinai Medical Centre with very
positive results. A freeze-dried version is currently available at all 11 hospitals
of the Miami Cancer Institute. With research like this behind the fruit,
Chris and Karen are positive that studies in Australia will also be conclusive,
PORT DOUGLAS MAGAZINE 27