Quandong-flavoured coffee might not be a typical menu item at your local cafe, but the bush fruit has become increasingly central to Heather Wright's life.
Based in Dumbleyung, about 260 kilometres south-east of Perth, Ms Wright has been harvesting the small fruit — one of a growing number of Australian natives touted as a "superfood" — since 2020.
But just over a year ago, her daughter Billie, one of her biggest cheerleaders, died in a car accident.
"Billie, she inspires me every day, and I could quite easily not do it [run the business], but I have to, for Billie and my girls," she said.
"She used to always say, 'Mum, keep going with your quandongs'. She was always very proud of me.
"The idea of doing a tea in memory of darling daughter, then made me really focus on ... I could do a coffee, and that's where that [idea] came from."
Quandongs are a native Australian fruit, and Ms Wright had to obtain a permit from the shire to harvest the ingredient for her products.
She sells her products at a local clothing store, where she also works.
Gathering quandongs
Ms Wright described a quandong as a slightly bigger cherry, usually more orange in colour.
The natural flavour is quite bitter, and it is illegal to pick the fruit without a licence.
"I got a three-year licence to be allowed to pick quandong in the Dumbleyung Shire, [and] there's rules with that," she said.
She can only pick a certain percentage of fruit from each tree.
"You've got to put witches hats out when you're picking, and your hazard lights on, then everybody stops to see if you're broken down or why you're up a tree," Ms Wright said.
The harvest period is usually from September to November.
"There's only a very short time of picking, and you have to pick a lot to get a kilo," she said.
"By the time you take the nut out, there's not much weight to a quandong, so as you can imagine, I have to pick quite a lot to get that amount.
Ms Wright said she had spent hours perfecting the coffee blend.
"And so now we have the beans, which are roasted in quandongs. And the ground beans have got the powder through the ground coffee, so it's a little bit stronger, and it's beautiful."
Chasing dreams
Ms Wright decided to pursue the business initially because it was a little bit quirky, and she likes to try different things.
"I started off not even knowing what a quandong tree was," Ms Wright said.
"I have these crazy thoughts during the night and when I wake up [I think], 'Oh my god, I can do that.
"And anybody can. If they want to do something, they can do it, which is what I always tell my girls."
