Fresh Lychees - 1kg

Our season opens around the second week of December and is usually finished before Australia Day. Lychees don't store like apples, so when it finishes, it finishes.

Within that window it's a rolling sequence rather than one big pick. Baitaying comes off first, then Kaimana and Sah Keng through Christmas, Salathiel into early January, Kwai May Pink and Chompogo through to the 18th, and Wai Chee last around 15 to 20 January. So a box in mid-December is a different variety, and a different eating experience, from a box in mid-January.

Join our mailing list and we'll tell you the week picking starts.

We sell 1 kg boxes of premium fresh lychees online. One kilogram is roughly 40 to 50 lychees depending on the size of the fruit that week, plenty for a family to share, or a generous platter for guests.

At the Farm Gate we also sell larger 5 kg boxes, but those aren't available online.

Yes. The shipping cost also decreases if you have more than one box per order.

Pre-ordering is the surest way to get fruit in a short season. It opens in November, when we know what fruit is going to be available. We pick to order.

Yes. Fresh lychees land right in the middle of the Christmas and summer entertaining season, and they're something most people never get to eat at their peak.

Enter your recipient's address at checkout and add a message and we'll include a gift card. Just make sure someone will be home or nearby on the delivery day. This is fresh fruit, not a candle.

Four reasons, and they're all in the fruit.

• It's fresh, premium fruit, direct from our farm to you. You won't get it anywhere else.
• We pick at optimum ripeness and Brix, not early for shelf life. Lychees do not ripen after picking, so the day we pick decides how sweet your fruit is.
• We don't sulphur treat. Most fruit that holds a bright red skin for weeks on a shelf has been fumigated with sulphur dioxide to keep the colour. We rely on careful picking, fast cooling and cold chain instead.
• Your box is picked, cooled and dispatched to you directly, rather than travelling through a wholesale market and sitting in a distribution centre first.

You're also paying for chilled courier freight on a perishable product, which is a genuine cost on a 1 kg box travelling interstate.

We pick to order. Your fruit is picked, graded, cooled and packed the same day it's harvested, then kept cool overnight and dispatched the following day with cool packs. From our property near Rockhampton, transit to anywhere on the east coast we deliver to is generally 1 to 3 business days.

That means your fruit typically reaches you within 3 to 4 days of leaving the tree, which is not something a supermarket supply chain can do.

Because our fruit is never sulphur treated and is cooled quickly after picking, it holds up to 14 days in the fridge. Keep them in a sealed bag or airtight container in the fridge. The enemy is dry air, not cold.

No. We use no sulphur dioxide and no post-harvest chemical treatments of any kind. Our shelf life comes from growing them well, picking at the right moment, cooling them fast and keeping the cold chain intact.

Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and the ACT.

We'd love to send fruit further, but interstate biosecurity rules restrict where fresh lychees can travel. See the next question.

From our depot in Rockhampton we're generally 1 to 3 business days to every east coast destination we deliver to. There are a few remote zones we're unable to service at this stage.

Our lychees are picked and packed on a Sunday or Monday and dispatched on the Monday or Tuesday, so they reach you before the weekend.

No. Our lychees are picked and packed on a Sunday or Monday and dispatched on the Monday or Tuesday, so no box is ever sitting in a freight depot over a weekend. If you order later in the week, your fruit is picked fresh and sent the following Monday.

It occasionally means waiting a couple of extra days. It always means better fruit.