Quincey Jones Jelly triumphs at food awards

The medal haul includes two golds for his green tomato and ploughman’s pickles, five silvers and two bronze at Melbourne and two golds (pink grapefruit and Murray River pink sea salt marmalade and roasted capsicum ketchup), four bronze and four silver at Sydney.

While the medals are fantastic, Mr Harley said the biggest reward is in the valuable feedback that comes back from the judges.

“To get our hands on the written feedback is gold itself because it helps us to continue to improve our products and we can also benchmark our products against other producers,” he said.

Mr Harley said the key to Quincey Jones Jelly success is their continued desire to only source quality and in season produce.

“We always used the highest quality ingredients which gives our products integrity and because the flavours are so good, we are able to use two thirds less sugar in our fruit products compared to supermarket brands, which even diabetics can enjoy.

“There are no nasties in our products just good old fashioned quality food,” he said.

Mr Harley has come along since 2013 with the line, expanding into jams of course, preserves, pickles, sauces, muesli and even crackers.

“Of course we have the staple products and raspberry jam and tomato relish are probably still our best sellers, but we are continually looking for new recipes and adding new things, depending what is available,” he said.

The green tomato pickles recipe belonged to Mr Harley’s grandmother and he has many fond memories as a child, travelling to the family farm at Mathoura.

“That’s the thing about food and particularly what we do, it evokes memories and customers love the feeling of nostalgia it creates.

Mr Harley said they also like to put a twist on the old favourites.

“We make a raspberry and liquorice jam, fig and cointreau, caramel and apple rum and even a blueberry and banana jam which taste amazing.

“I have learnt over the years what works and what doesn’t and with experience, you learn which rules can be broken — giving the staples a modern twist with innovative recipes keeps our customers interested.”

Mr Harley takes immense pride in the fact his product lines prevent food waste.

Often someone will come in with a box of lemons, figs, quinces, apples or whatever they have in excess and he is happy to buy the box or exchange it for some product.

“A lot of food goes into landfill and preserving is the time-honoured way to minimise food waste,” he said.

He has also got to the point where he even has small farmers growing specific fruit and veggies for him.

“A Kyabram farmer grows eggplants for us which is put into our silver medal winning eggplant kasundi,’’ he said.

‘’We purchased some melon jam seeds and someone grew them for us as well and the melon jam was so popular because customers remember eating that as a child.”

Quincy Jones Jelly might have started out as a small business in a garage but over the years it has grown into so much more.

Mr Harley recently bought a factory space in Moama and will move all production there.

“It will be great to finally have our own workspace and a retail shop front,’’ he said.

‘’The factory will give us security of tenure and the confidence to take our business to the next level.

“The last three years my terrific worker Gurwinder and I have worked with a skeleton staff and you do get stretched very thin and it can get exhausting.”

Quincy Jones Jelly products are regularly available for sale at both the Echuca Farmers Market (first and third Saturday of each month) and the Moama market (second and fourth Sunday of each month) or online at qjj.com.au